AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’ll be ready.”
Jude sounded sure, and I knew if I could choose to have anyone by my side, I’d choose him.
His arms around me grounded me. I didn’t think I’d ever have this again. And didn’t know for how long I would, but I couldn’t get myself to move. I could no longer deny that Jude had become everything to me. And now that all our secrets were out in the open, I didn’t have to hide anymore. Or watch what I said. It was as liberating as it was scary.
Things might change once I had Lenny back, but for now, I had to trust that Jude was doing everything he could to find my little brother.
He lifted my cast and kissed my fingertips. “The doctor said he left you pills to help you sleep.” He sat up, spotting them on the nightstand. I nodded when he pointed to them, and he handed me a glass of water and half a pill. I swallowed it, knowing I needed to rest.
We settled back into the bed, Jude’s strong body wrapped around me. “Get some sleep. I’ll wake you if I have news.”
I’d never felt safer, despite everything that remained unspoken between us. Because for now, I trusted that he’d watch over me.
I drifted off as his hand lightly caressed my arm.
22
JUDE
She feltgood in my arms, her body a perfect fit for mine. She was small but still had curves I couldn’t get enough of. Her red hair spread out behind her in a knotted mess. I’d heard her curse her hair enough times to know it would take her a while to put it back in its usual sleek and shiny state.
The relief I’d felt when I realized the gun she’d pointed at Dad hadn’t been loaded was like an antidote to a poison that seemed to have invaded my body.
My family was still wary, but Dad seemed to be willing to give her another chance. And the others would come around as well. She’d saved his life. And no one in my family would turn their back on a child, no matter how suspicious they were of Ariel.
I didn’t know what would happen after we found her brother. She was fiercely independent. But she seemed to trust me. And I would make sure she wouldn’t regret it.
We had to figure out how they knew where Lenny was. They’d snatched him when he was playing near the back wall. The security system went off straight away, but they’d been too fast for us to stop them.
I’d been thinking about it a lot. My men were sure they hadn’t had a tail when they got Lenny, so we either had a leak or they’d found another way to locate him.
A light knock at the door stopped my thoughts. Liam stepped inside, opening his mouth to say something but stopping when he noticed Ariel was asleep. Instead, he nodded to the hallway and left again.
I gently untangled myself from Ariel, reluctant to leave her side.
Silently closing the door behind me, I joined Liam, who was leaning against the opposite wall. “Did you find something?”
“Hayden picked up the car they used to get Lenny. It was empty, but they didn’t have time to wipe all their fingerprints. It’s going to take time to extract them and then run them in the database. Time we might not have.”
We both knew how a lot of kidnapping cases ended. But I hoped Carnifax wanted Ariel enough to draw her out before doing anything to Lenny. “Gunner hasn’t dug anything up either, I take it?”
If anyone could find him, it would be Gunner.
Liam grimaced. “He’s hit a lot of dead ends. Nobody is willing to talk, and their computer systems are protected by the best firewalls money can buy. Gunner has his hacker on it, but again, it might take longer than we have to get in.”
So that wasn’t an option either. “How about their properties? Did we get the list from the real estate agent?”
“We did, but I don’t think it’s a complete list. The guy is more scared of Gladius than he is of us.”
“What about Cian?”
The Irish bastard usually had his nose in everything. He was a pain to deal with, and after Liam shot his second-in-command, our relationship was shaky at best. But we had to explore all our options.
“He laughed at me when I asked him about Gladius, said, ‘No fucking chance,’ then walked away.”
We’d heard plenty of whispers over the years but hadn’t dug deeper. Our philosophy was not to get involved if it didn’t impede our business or family. Now I wish we hadn’t ignored it.
I shook my head. “If they’re as powerful as Ariel said, there’s no way he’ll talk.”
