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After I hung up, I turned to Killian. “Any luck reaching the others?”
He shook his head. “No, I’ll keep trying.”
I rubbed the back of my neck and looked Alden dead in the eye. “You have every right to tell me I deserve this and that karma’s a bitch.”
Alden crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you love her?”
“I do.” My voice sounded stilted even to my ears.
Son of a bitch.
Hazel should’ve been the first person I said that to. I was such a fucking idiot to think pushing her away would protect her from my world or me. If I hadn’t let my obsession get in the way, I’d have been in that green room with her, and Terri wouldn’t have had a chance to take her.
“She’s the only person who sees the wicked man below this façade and still finds a reason to care for me. I’ve never met someone with more sunshine in their lives than her. She wraps everyone around her little finger because she is so good. She’s the best of us. And I failed her.”
Alden stopped. “Don’t be a dick. Hazel is more important than any grudge I have against you. It doesn’t mean I forgive you or that we’re friends, but Jess and many people in there would be devastated if she didn’t make it back.”
And this is why Alden was a bigger man than me. Until Hazel, I’d have turned him away if our roles were reversed.
My phone pinged with a message from Amelia and a link.
AMELIA
They are still on the move. The link will allow you to track her in real-time.
I bellowed out their current location to Elias, who quickly threw the car into gear and took off. He knew these streets better than anyone.
I yanked a glass tumbler from the sideboard and poured myself a shot of whiskey.
“We need to know what we might be walking into. Why would your godfather kidnap her and what’s to be done with him when we find him?” Killian asked.
I knocked back my drink in one gulp. “He’s mine,” I spat out. “I want to be the one to put a fucking bullet in his head. I think he’s the person who killed my father or had a hand in it.”
“What the fuck, man. That’s twisted.”
I’d been grateful my godfather had stuck around when I had no one. Now, the fingers of betrayal reached into my chest, ripped out my heart, and shoved it into the jaws of a feeding frenzied shark. The serrated edges of treachery would forever leave a scar.
I missed the signs. Every fucking one. Fire crept up my throat. I deserved the pain causing my vocal cords to seize.
I turned to Alden. “I want to trust Amelia, but I can’t. Can you ask Gage to dig into Dex and Tony’s phone records and her?”
He took out his phone. “And I’ll send him Hazel’s number to be sure we’re tracking the right cell.”
I nodded my appreciation.
My phone rang.
Hazel’s number flashed across the screen.
That same itchy sensation beneath my skin returned and I fought the desire to rip away each layer down to the bone.
For the first time in my life, I fervently murmured a prayer. I needed her to be alive.
I didn’t hesitate before accepting the call and putting it on speaker. “Hazel?” I forced my voice to sound calm.
“Jareth!” Hazel sobbed through the phone. “I thought… oh, God, is everything okay? Tony said there was an emergency, and they had to get me out of there. I wasn’t safe.”
“Where are you?” I tried to keep my tone impassive, but knowing she was scared didn’t help.
