Page 291 of Vicious Temptation

I don’t know what will happen if we get him out. I don’t know whether I’ll forgive him, hate him, or walk away the moment I know he’s safe. I just need him to be alive when I get there.

I try to hold on to every reason I shouldn’t care this much. He lied to me, betrayed me and my family, and nothing he’s done since has erased any of it.

But it doesn’t stop me from loving him.

The first siren barely registers over the growl of my engine, but another quickly joins it, then another, until the wail surrounds us. Red and blue lights flash against the buildings ahead and streak across my windshield.

I’ve never been more relieved to see cops in my life until I realize they’re standing between me and Thiago.

As I round the final corner, police cruisers stretch across the street in both directions. Two tactical vehicles block the approach to the building, and officers in black body armor have formed a perimeter behind portable barricades. Some have rifles trained on the entrances, while others move between the command vehicles and the teams positioned along the neighboring buildings.

Whatever they think is happening inside, they’re preparing for a siege.

My attention shifts to the barricades, the armored vehicles, and the line of officers between me and the building. I didn’t come here expecting them, and there’s no way I’m getting through without them trying to stop me.

“We need to fall back and figure out another way in,” Uncle Derek says over the call. “There are too many of them.”

I bring my car to a hard stop several yards from the barricade and throw the door open. My name comes through the speakers behind me, but I shut the door and head straight for the perimeter. A SWAT officer intercepts me before I take more than a few steps, with two others moving into position behind him.

“Ma’am, stop right there.”

“What’s going on?” I try to look past him toward the building. “Who’s inside?”

“This is an active tactical operation. You need to move back.”

“Remi?”

I recognize Ryan’s voice before I see him.

He jogs toward us from the command post and quietly says something to the officer blocking me. The man reluctantly steps aside but stays close.

Ryan looks like he hasn’t slept. “You can’t be here.” His eyes flick toward my family as their vehicles pull in behind mine. “Thiago is...”

I grab his forearm. “What? He’s what?”

Ryan glances at the officers around us, then lowers his voice. “We’ve been told he’s holding Commander Elena hostage.”

For a second, I can only blink. “No. That’s not true.”

“Remi, listen.”

“That’s not what’s happening.” I reach for the phone, then remember I left it with Mamá. “They have him. I saw him chained to a fucking chair.”

Ryan’s eyebrows draw together. “What?”

“They sent us a photograph and an address. He was covered in blood.”

His attention shifts to the building. “Who sent it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then you don’t know what you’re walking into.”

“I know Thiago is in there.”

“We have to work with the intelligence we’ve been given.”

“Your intelligence is wrong.” I grab his arm again as he starts to turn away. “He called before they took him. He said he was being chased. He was trying to warn us they were coming for my family, and then someone ran him off the road.”