AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Anything?”
“Not yet, but the second they have news, E will call. The plane is just down the road. We can be on it and in the air in minutes.”
I swipe my hand over my face. “I can’t lose her again, Hawk. Not when I just got her back.”
“We won’t lose her. Avery is too fucking strong to give up now. Have faith in our woman, jackass, or I’ll hold you down so she can kick your ass when we get her back.”
I blow out a breath and nod. I need to get my shit together. Worrying isn’t going to help anyone right now.
I hear a commotion coming from Salem’s room, but the door stays closed. Looking down the empty corridor, I try to figure out how it came to this. “I don’t get it, Hawk. How did we miss this again? Cooper was one thing, but James?”
“I don’t know, Creed. I don’t get it either. I want to be wrong here. I want Ev to call and say it’s all just a fucked-up mess, but I don’t see how it can be. Nothing else fits.”
The door between us opens, revealing Oz, and in his hands is a wrapped-up baby bawling its eyes out.
“Meet my son,” Oz says reverently.
“Wow. Congrats, Oz.”
Zig walks up behind him, peering over Oz’s shoulder and down at the baby.
“Congrats, Zig. I’m happy for you all.”
“Thanks. Now, fill me in on what’s going on.”
“It can wait—” Hawk starts, but Zig shakes his head, and Oz steps back into the room, taking the baby back to his mother.
“My son is safe. Now I need to make sure the rest of my family is too. Fill me in on what you know.”
Hawk gives him the rundown as I peer into the room and watch Oz hand the baby over to Salem, who looks exhausted but happy. He kisses her head before kissing his boy, making me swallow. Will we ever get to do that? Or did I say my last goodbye this morning without even realizing it? Did I tell her I loved her today? Did she forgive me?
Movement snaps me out of my thoughts when I see Astrid pull away from the wall she was leaning against and walk toward me. Her pale skin looks almost translucent, her eyes haunted. I reach for her and pull her into my arms, knocking Zig out of the way. She breaks down and starts sobbing just as Hawk and Zig close in, forming a protective circle around her as she cries.
“Shhh, it’s okay, Astrid.”
“I don’t understand. James wouldn’t do this. I know he wouldn’t. He loves us. All of us.”
I look at Hawk, whose jaw is tight, but he shakes his head, not knowing what to say.
“We don’t know anything for sure yet, Astrid. Let’s not borrow trouble, okay?” She nods against my chest before getting her breathing under control. “Good girl.”
I rub my hands up and down her arms in a soothing gesture. It proves pointless when heavy footsteps sound as they run toward us. I spin around, shoving Astrid behind me, only relaxing when I see Jagger and Ev. I step aside so Jagger can yank Astrid into his arms.
“Tell me what’s going on,” Zig orders.
Ev sits on the floor, ignoring everyone as he types away on his laptop, leaving Jagger to fill us in. “We couldn’t get into the safe room. We were fucking lucky we took Ev with us because he built in a failsafe that overrode the locking mechanism. We would’ve lost Greg otherwise. Slade went with him in the ambulance, and we followed them here. Slade is giving them Greg’s information, and then he’ll be up. Greg was unconscious when we found him. All we know right now is that he’s been shot in the stomach and lost a lot of blood. But he was alive and breathing on his own the last time I saw him.”
Astrid starts crying again, burying her face in Jagger’s chest. He looks at me and shakes his head. “Avery’s gone, and so is James.”
“Fuck!” I spin around and punch the wall, feeling my knuckles split as Hawk roars out his anguish. Zig grabs him before he can tear the hospital apart.
“I know where she is.” Ev’s voice has us all freezing. He looks up at me, all emotion wiped from his face. “I checked all the trackers in case he took one of our cars. Then I checked the cars. They’re all accounted for except for his.”
“He doesn’t have a tracker on his car?” Jagger asks.
“No, they were fitted before he joined us. But one of the trackers is not where it’s supposed to be. The car is in the garage—I can see it when I pull up the camera feed—but the tracker is in Austin.”
“What does that mean?” Astrid pulls away from Jagger and wipes her eyes.
