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It’s fucking useless. She’s talking about the safe house Maddoc grabbed Chloe from a few weeks ago, and while there’s no way in hell I’ll ever regret that he did that—both for Chloe’s sake and because of how much getting her sister back meant to Riley—one pain-in-the-ass side effect is that it’s got McKenna playing smarter this time around.
He hasn’t just holed up somewhere off the grid with Riley. Most of his people have gone to ground too. He knows we’re watching, and everything that’s not completely above board with West Point’s operations has gone almost totally dark since he grabbed Riley.
Despite pouring every resource we’ve got into the hunt, we’ve got no leads at all and nothing to track. Hell, we don’t even know if Riley is alive or dead at this point, but… shehasto be alive. Not just because there’s no way in hell McKenna wouldn’t rub it in Maddoc’s face if he’d offed her, but because anything else is unacceptable.
I manage to thank Claudia for the information before ending the call, but then have to take a minute to collect myself before I actually go inside the house. None of us like knowing Riley is in that motherfucker’s hands, and my brothers are showing the strain just as much as I am.
It’s not gonna help any of us do what we need to if I walk in without a clear head. Rage and retribution will have to wait. Giving in to my frustration isn’t going to get us Riley back.
The house is quiet when I go inside, but when I walk into the kitchen, Chloe is sitting at the counter, listlessly picking at some day-old take-out.
She looks up as soon as I walk in, hope lighting her face in a way that makes my chest feel tight… or maybe that’s from the way her face crumples for a second when I shake my head, before she catches herself and nods stoically.
Life is a cruel bitch who gets off on causing us pain, that’s a fact I learned young and have never found an exception to. I’ve also never bothered wasting my time pitying all the people she fucks over, and the ones who stand up and flip her off after she knocks them down—the ones like Riley—are the only kind who ever have a chance of earning my respect.
But damn, Chloe reminds me so much of her sister that it does something to me.
I like that she’s staying here at the house, filling it with some kind of Riley-like energy. I like that she’s not as wary of us as she was in the beginning. I even like how surprisingly comfortable it feels to have her underfoot all the time. And for better or worse, I’m pretty sure Chloe’s presence pushes all of us that much harder, and sustains us along the way.
“Did you and Logan dig up anything new for us to look into?” I ask, popping a coffee pod into the machine even though the lining of my stomach has probably been seared right off with the amount I’ve been drinking lately.
“Maybe,” Chloe answers, pushing her take-out aside and propping her elbows on the counter. “Logan tapped into one of those doorbell camera companies, and he’s been combing through footage from some of the residential areas to the west of Cliffton. I’m going through info he gave me on West Point’s assets, trying to see if anything matches up.”
“You think you’re narrowing down possible locations they might be keeping her?”
“We have a couple that look promising,” she says, the expression on her face not really matching her words.
Maddoc and I have been working with our networks out on the streets while Logan holes up here to do all that electronic computerized magic of his, and I’m honestly a little shocked he’s let Chloe be such a big part of it. He must feel it too, though. Riley’s changed all of us, and Chloe is…
Fuck, she’s family now.
She also probably needs something to do so she doesn’t go fucking stir crazy, just like the rest of us, so whether he’s just humoring her or not, I’m glad Logan’s decided to let her help him out like this.
“Do you think—” Chloe starts to ask, cutting herself off mid-sentence when Maddoc and Logan walk in. She whirls to face them, that same irrepressible hope lighting her face. “Did you find her?”
Maddoc’s jaw clenches. “Not yet.”
Chloe nods, pressing her lips together tightly, but I’ve gotta admire the way she keeps from melting down.
“How about you, Dante?” Maddoc asks. “Has the 17th Street Gang gotten wind of anything?”
“The only thing they’ve seen is how fucking careful McKenna’s got his people being over the last couple of weeks.”
“That makes sense,” Logan says grimly. “If he wants to get his hands on Riley’s inheritance legally, he doesn’t need to just keep her hidden from us. He needs to make sure no one in his organization steps out of line and puts his operation at risk until he’s secured the money.”
A vague thought of causing some sort of problem at one of West Point’s businesses starts to form in the back of my mind. I’m not sure how exactly we could use that kind of trouble to flush out his new safe house, but I’ve got no doubt at all that Logan could come up with something. But before the idea can truly take hold, Maddoc’s phone rings.
“Your coffee’s ready,” Chloe says to me with a tiny smile, tilting her head toward the new Keurig Logan ordered after Riley shot up our old one.
I turn and grab my cup as Maddoc pulls his phone out, but before I get it to my mouth, he goes still.
I peer over his shoulder. “Is that fuckingMcKenna?”
It’s not one of the few phone numbers I know on sight, but whoever’s calling is someone Maddoc’s got as a saved contact under the name Dead Man Walking. I’m pretty sure he updated that shit after Sienna betrayed him, but now that the fucker took Riley, it’s not a fucking euphemism. It’s a guarantee.
Maddoc gives me a grim nod and swipes to accept the call, immediately putting it on speaker so we can all hear.
Logan and Chloe lean in, all three of us going quiet as Maddoc starts out with a clipped, “Yeah?”
