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Ian and Jade have a silent conversation with just their eyes. “It is more secure,” Ian notes.
“Think about it,” I offer. “We don’t need an answer now. But you’re right. We can’t put it on the market, so someone moves in or it sits empty.” I shrug, because it’s not really any skin off our backs if it sits empty, but it does seem like a waste to not utilize all the resources we’ve built into that house.
Scar yawns and I know it’s time to take her up to bed. We’ll stay the night here before getting back to work tomorrow. We have three more locations to check out based on the information Kade and Luca were able to pry from Andre before his death.
Exhaustion sweeps over me at the thought. Another flight across the country to continue this wild goose chase. Each avenue that ends without answers takes a lot out of each of us. The travel on top of it has become almost unbearable.
“Bedtime, baby girl,” I whisper as I stand up, holding her in my arms. She must be even more tired than I realized, because she doesn’t fight me. Jade and Ian stand as well. “Do you guys know where your room is?” I ask.
“We’ve got it,” Jade assures me and I carry my wife off to bed. I can’t help the smile that plays on my lips at the thought. Our wife. She really is truly ours.
I head straight up to the master suite and start to regret not putting those elevators in like we discussed. Scar would have ribbed us mercilessly about it, but right now, it sure would be nice. She hums under her breath as I carry her up the steps, a dazed and happy expression on her face. She’s definitely feeling those shots she took with Britt.
My phone ringing wakes me up. I curse as I dig through the sheets to find where it’s been discarded. Charles. Why the fuck is he calling at four in the morning? I shake my head trying to clear it as I answer. “Hold on,” I whisper. Everyone is still knocked out around me.
Scar looks more peaceful in her sleep with Ryder curled around her than I’ve seen her look in a long time. Lately all her demons have been chasing her in her dreams, making it hard for her to sleep at all, let alone through the night. Most of the time, she wakes up more exhausted than when she had fallen asleep. I can’t risk waking her.
Luca and Kade are both behind me on the massive bed and I curse again as I try to figure out the best way to disentangle myself without waking anyone. Moving very carefully, I get out from under the blankets and move to the foot of the bed and rush out of the room, closing the door softly behind me.
“Sorry, didn’t want to wake anyone,” I explain as I lift the phone back to my ear. Heavy breathing, almost like panting fills the line.
“Noah,” Charles gasps, pain etched into his voice. “It’s bad,” he whispers. “I saw her and it’s even worse than what I thought,” his voice breaks and I can hear the tears in his words.
Panic surges through me. “What do you mean?” I snap, changing direction from the kitchen to the office.
“The pictures,” he answers. “I found my father’s stash.” A deep, shuddering breath, makes me hold my own. “I know who hurt her.”
Ice. My entire bloodstream turns to ice at his words. Goosebumps rise on my flesh as the meaning of his words sink in. No more searching, no more coming up empty.
Bits and pieces of the last year flash through my mind. The unanswered texts that led me to Luca’s house in search of Scar. The news reports that I only realized led back to her after I showed up there. Finding out how steeped in blood my girl was. Meeting Declan. Seeing Scar broken. Being kidnapped. Declaring war. Torturing William. Hearing Roe call me Daddy for the first time. Ry and Scar coming home covered in blood after their murder party. Scar screaming in her sleep, lost to the pain of her past. Jade in a hospital bed. Scar in a cage. Scar with a bloody handprint around her throat and Kade’s smug grin. Scar’s last dance at Steel Roses. Bloody messages written on walls. Losing our own. Losing Alec. Rachel’s screams. A jacket with a red rose. Burning buildings. So much training. Never ending files of information to sort through on the real monsters of this world. Romano dying. Those fucking polaroids.
Etched into my mind and branded on my soul. A sick feeling churns in my gut. All the good and all the bad over the last year. There’s so much. Too much to even fully grasp as all the memories wash over me in no particular order.
Our path has been a wild and destructive one. Filled with pain and love and heartbreakingly beautiful moments. Laughter that carried us through the worst of the devastation left in our wake. All of it leading to this single phone call. To more fucking photos. At least these will finally hold answers.
It’s time to prepare and finally begin the hunt.
“We can’t let her see them,” Charles cries, a sob wracking through his chest as he pushes the words out.
Respect and awe fill me for this man who only yesterday filled me with apprehension and jealousy. Regret tastes bitter as I realize how deep and true his love for Scar really is. He aches for her pain. Even if he weren’t gay, even if he was romantically interested in Scar, the depth of his loyalty and devotion to her would have won me over in this instant.
“We won’t,” I promise. “We’re going to protect her, Charles. All of us.”
Each one of his cries is another lash against my heart. We never should have pushed him out. None of us are prepared to face how horrific that night was. The night where the girl we all have fallen head over heels in love with was born from the ashes of her past. A past so haunting, it has brought a grown man to sobs. A man who wasn’t fazed by his own kidnapping, nor a gun to his head. A man who wasn’t afraid to play with fire by taunting a room full of psychos. Who risked his life and destroyed his own heart to save our girl before we ever had the chance to help her.
“What happened?” I push hesitantly. “You were here just a few hours ago. Where did you go? How did you find the photos?”
He takes a few deep breaths as he tells me how he has had a man on his father’s security team for the last few years. Genius, and it explains a lot of the information he’s been able to pass on to us. Though, it also begs the question if he’s been sent into a trap.
“Are you sure you can rely on this guy?” I can’t help but ask. We’re too close to the end to be derailed by trusting the wrong person.
“I’m positive,” he answers shakily. “He’s been keeping an eye on my father for me for years. My father went to all of the locations you guys got from Andre, plus a few more before coming to this house I’m at now.”
A house? I sit behind a computer in the office and pull up all of the documents I’ve been working on the last few months to narrow down who we were looking for.
“Where are you?”
“A house in Mayview,” he answers. I pull it up on my computer. How the fuck did he get to the East Coast without any of us noticing?
