Holy fuck.
My legs threaten to crumble. Only steely determination keeps them—and me—upright.
“Do…do we know who?” I manage to gasp out, my thoughts churning a mile a minute. Do my guys know about this yet? If they do, then they’re probably losing their minds, especially with Landon hurt.
“Your…Beckett is looking into it,” Raymond tells me, his lips twisting slightly, as if he was about to say something else but decided against it. “He’s hoping to track the IP address back to the computer that made the purchase, but it’s proving more difficult than he expected. Everything is so goddamn encrypted, it’s like wading through a minefield. He’s afraid of setting off an alarm and alerting others to our location.”
Another wave of insidious anger rushes over me, prickling my skin. “Couldn’t you just ask your contacts in the FBI for help?”
Raymond heaves out a breath at my accusatory tone. “Now, Ellie…”
“You lied to me,” I say, trembling.
“I never lied,” he counters immediately, like a goddamn toddler. “I just…omitted some things when I talked to you.”
“How can you expect me to trust you with anything if you keep shit from me?” I demand, and then I force myself to calm down. Now isn’t the time to get into an argument or demand answers. Later. I’ll do that later. “Take me to Landon.”
“I told you. He’s fine. He’s at a secure facility?—”
I’m moving before my brain can catch up with my body, before a single thought can solidify in my head.
I lunge for the gun in the holster at Raymond’s waist, the way my personal trainer taught me to do, then twist around my uncle. With steady hands, I flick the safety off and aim the gun at his head.
I feel…nothing. No guilt. No pain. No regret. Perhaps those emotions will come later—much later—but for now, they’re securely locked away. I’m the eye of the storm, with wind battering around me and lightning sparking in the sky, but the rain doesn’t touch me. It can’t. Not here.
Shock registers on Raymond’s face, followed quickly by disbelief. “Ellie.” He stares at me like he’s never seen me before, like I’ve been body snatched by aliens in the five minutes we’ve been talking.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Raymond,” I tell him darkly, not even recognizing my voice. “But I will if you don’t bring me to my guys.”
Sadness flashes in his eyes, and his lips firm. “What happened to you?”
The answer comes to me quickly. Easily.
“POP,” I say. “POP happened to me. Now, don’t make me ask again.”
2
DOMINIC
THREE WEEKS LATER
We were able to trace the location of Ellie’s buyer to a computer in the office of Judge Murphy Monroe.
Ellie’s buyer.
Fuck.
Even thinking those two words has molten rage rushing through my veins, liquefying them. Red specks explode across my vision until they’re all I can see.
I’m not like the others. I don’t surrender to my anger as easily as my friends do. Usually, I’m calm and levelheaded, the voice of reason when even Landon is losing his shit.
But not today.
There’s no Landon to calm us down, to reel us in when we feel like we’re drowning.
A pang ignites in my sternum, radiating through my body, and I swallow around the emotion threatening to clog my throat.
Landon…
