His big green eyes took me in, and he nodded.
“Lazarus, my name is Evan. My wife is named Rosalie. Your daddy was friends with my wife.” I showed Lazarus a picture of Rosalie on my phone. “Have you seen my wife?”
He nodded.
I breathed out.
“He hasn’t—” Enzo started, but I held up my hand to silence him.
“Where did you see her, Lazarus?”
He pointed to the busted TV behind me.
“You saw her on TV?”
He nodded.
“Never in this house in person?”
He shook his head no.
I sighed. Fuck.
“Are you going to hurt my daddy?” Lazarus called out in a shaky, raspy voice that sounded just as damaged as mine did.
God, what hell had this little dude already gone through in his short life?
The guys came back into the room. Anson shook his head.
“No. Not today,” I said, getting to my feet.
Enzo hugged Lazarus tightly against him, whispering to him that everything was OK now and not to cry.
“Enzo, we’re looking for Rosalie. If you know where she is, now is the time to come clean,” Anson said, coming to stand next to me.
“I don’t fucking have her,” Enzo said, glaring up at us. “I don’t. I’d never take her. I’d never do that shit to her. I let her go years ago. I have no fucking desire to bring her back to hell.”
“OK. Well, if you hear anything, you have my number. Let’s hope you do because the next time we visit, we won’t stop Evan and his bat.” Anson backed away, and I stared down at Enzo.
“Tell Ethan his son is beautiful,” I said before backing away. Enzo tensed as Lazarus continued to cling to him.
We left and walked in silence back to the elevator. The door closed on us.
“That was fun,” Klaus said.
“It was,” I murmured. “I’ll be paying him a visit again very fucking soon if I don’t get Rosalie back.”
“You sure are your father’s son, slugger,” Klaus muttered. “Going to get us all killed barreling in like that.”
“No one lives forever,” I said softly.
“I’d at least like to live long enough to bring our girl home,” Anson said.
I glanced at Ryder to see him staring back at me.
“Words of wisdom?” I asked.
“I wish I’d have had a bat, too,” was all he said before focusing on the door.
