And not when I woke up in Reyes’s house tied to a fucking chair.
Never.
Because the thing I fear the most in my life is losing the woman who’s come to mean so much to me.The woman I love.
Daniela Agudelo.
I download the footage and send it to Vinnie.Then I throw on my jeans, shirt, and boots, lurch out of the house, grab my keys, climb into my truck, hands on the wheel so tight they ache.
“I will not lose her,” I say out loud.“I willnot.”
* * *
When I arriveat Vinnie’s, Raven is in tears and Vinnie’s camped out in his office, typing on his keyboard like a maniac.
“Anything?”I ask.
He shakes his head slowly, his eyelids twitching.“She came home last night after she left your place.She must have had her gate clicker in her purse because I didn’t get a security call.A rideshare dropped her off, and she came in through her private entrance out back.Then she took her Mustang.”
“Don’t you have a tracker on her car?”I ask.
He looks at me, dumbfounded.“No.She deserves her privacy, Hawk.”Then he drags his hands through his hair.“Though now… Damn it.I wish I’d done it.I thought about it.Especially after…” He shakes his head.
“Fuck you!”I yell.“You should have done it.You should have?—”
“Stop it, Hawk,” Raven says through her tears.“Just stop it.Vinnie and I… We’ve been trying to live a normal life.We were trying to give Daniela and Belinda a normal life.We…” She breaks down into sobs.
Vinnie rises from his desk, walks to her, and takes her into his arms, kissing the top of her head where her hair is now growing in nicely.“Easy, baby.We’ll find her.We’ll find them both.”
I inhale.“I’m sorry, Ray.I’m sorry.”
Vinnie meets my gaze over Raven’s head.“It’s okay.We’re all on edge.But we have to keep our heads if we’re going to get through this.”
I simply nod.
Vinnie kisses Raven again.“You okay?”
She sniffles.“I won’t be okay until Dani and Belinda are safely back at home.”
“I know, baby.”Vinnie releases her and returns to his system.“I’m going to do my damnedest to get them both home where they belong.”
“There must have been something in that pink envelope,” Raven says through sniffles.“She wouldn’t let me see the note.Said it was disgusting.I should have pushed harder.I should have grabbed it out of her hand.”
“Don’t,” Vinnie says.“This isn’t on any one of us.It’s on Gordon Brown andonlyGordon Brown.”
Raven sniffles again, blows her nose harshly into a tissue, and then touches my arm.“Let’s sit,” she says.
We take two chairs in front of Vinnie’s desk.
Vinnie’s breath catches.“I’ve got her phone signal.She moved her phone to airplane mode but I got a last-known location about three hours ago.It’s several hours out of town.I’m pulling it up right now.”
“Wherever it is, I’m going.”I grab the arms of my chair.“I’m going after her.”
“No,” Vinnie says.“You listen to me.You do exactly what I tell you.”
Rage surges through me “I don’t take orders from?—”
“You do here.”The finality in Vinnie’s voice is absolute.“Because I’ve done the things you haven’t had to do.I’ve killed, Hawk.I’ve paid debts with blood.I know how men like this operate.Sometimes they keep their word because it’s in their interest to.Sometimes they don’t.If we go in hot and wrong, we might lose both.Dani went alone to protect Belinda.That’s the best-case scenario we can imagine.If we rush in guns blazing, if we show force, we might push this man to do something horrible.We might get both of them killed.”He breathes out.“So you stay.You wait.You letmemove.”
