Page 83 of Fighting for Family

Saint picked up the rattle and stared at it. “Did she say…”

“She knew it belonged to him. Apparently, they stopped a second wave, coming to end all of us. Rayven will meet us at midnight,” he said quietly.

“Do you trust her?” Saint asked.

“I haven’t seen her in years. She fulfilled her contract and left. Her sister got hurt, and she went home. I never saw or heard from her after she left,” Shadow said. “I’m surprised to find her here.”

“The plane will be here in ten minutes. You won’t be going alone. We’ll scout out the place, and I’m going in with you,” Saint said, running his hand through his hair.

They watched the plane land. Whiskey, Doc, and Rocker exited the plane. A minute later, Knight stopped at the top of the stairs, and Hollywood appeared, coming down the stairs with a crutch. Patch followed, telling him to slow down. Finally, Jake and Joe came down the steps, surprising them all.

Apollo saw his handler and took off like a bat out of hell. Hollywood bent and greeted him, giving him butt rubs while Patch held onto him.

“What are you all doing here?” Saint asked. “You’re supposed to stay with your wives until they have the babies.”

“You’re staring at two proud fathers. Gabby gave me another boy,” Knight announced.

“Claire gave birth to a beautiful princess,” Patch said, beaming.

“Then why aren’t you there with them?” Shadow asked.

“Because we don’t leave men behind. We didn’t feel right going home without him,” Patch said somberly as Victoria and Ivan’s plane landed.

Victoria and Ivan joined the group. “Do you have our prisoner?” Ivan asked.

Saint glanced at the team, who counted on him to give the next orders. They take the prisoner and return to the States. Or they stay and find their fallen brother.

“I’m afraid we got a break. We don’t know how good it is, but we’re following the lead,” he announced.

“What do you want us to do?” Victoria asked. “I’m ready to find a lovely, cold place for our guest.”

“They want us to hand her over,” Shadow admitted. “We won’t know the details until we meet tonight.”

Saint pulled out the rattle, which everyone recognized.

“Did she say if he’s alive?” Doc asked.

Shaking his head, Shadow answered, “No.”

“Catherine and her family can have peace in knowing he’s not out here,” Ragu reasoned.

“Then we wait until midnight,” Saint said. “Either way, we bring him home.”

CHAPTER 26

Shadow paced the shack while Saint stayed on alert.

“She’s late,” Shadow grumbled.

“If I didn’t have to get past the small army you brought with you, I might’ve gotten here on time,” she bit out, coming from the shadows.

“I see you haven’t lost any of your talent,” Shadow snarked. “What’s with all the cloak and dagger stuff?”

“I’m on vacation. I left something behind and needed to pick it up,” Rayven said, shrugging. “I told you. I’m on bedrest.”

“If you made me lose my opportunity to nail Ford’s ass to the wall, you’ll be on bed rest,” he growled. Pulling out the rattle, he asked, “Where did you get this?”

“Funny thing. I sent someone to tell you, and you started shooting at them. You can’t find good help these days. She dropped it, and it took me forever to find it,” Rayven said, bracing herself against the wall. “Do we have a deal?”