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II
“Though lovers be lost, love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.”
—Dylan Thomas
Twenty-Four
Wilder
The adrenaline pumping through my veins hadn’t eased.Even with Sarah, my mom, and Porter in my house in Florida with Huck Kingston standing guard and Oakley hidden in this damn mountain with me, the drive to protect was still hammering in my head.My heart rate had slowed, but only slightly.
When the curtain dropped over the bathroom entrance, I leaned forward and grabbed my knees and took a deep breath.
She was alive.
She hadn’t answered her phone.During that flight to Georgia, I’d imagined her dead, and fear formed into an entirely different monster.I became someone I didn’t recognize.I wanted to kill.Murder.Hunt down the bastard who had taken her from me and torture them while I took their life.
That man I’d become began to morph me into a person I never had been before.
Then, I had burst into her house, and she was there.Staring at me like I had lost my mind.The rush of pure fucking relief that hit me was fierce.If I hadn’t still been riding the tails of danger, I would have fallen to my knees—they had gone so damn weak.She had been talking, demanding answers, mouthing off at me, and alive.She was alive.
Straightening, I composed myself before she walked back in here, wearing the baggiest shit I could find her.If we were going to be locked up in here together until that fucker was found, then I needed to do something to lessen the temptation.
Stepping over to the sliding barn door that shut off the computer system and satellite connection we kept locked way in here, along with the main cyber infiltration equipment, I slid it open and connected the secure phone line to the main house, which was where Thatcher and King were meeting with the others.My father being one of them.
I picked it up and waited.They would hear the beeping alarm in the office and answer me.It was set up for when I had to work out here while they did the dirty work.Rarely had we used the safe house for keeping someone alive.This was a first.At least for me.
“Car exploded,” Thatcher said when he answered.
“I want him dead,” I replied, gripping the phone as rage pounded in my veins.
“That’s a given.We all do.Finding the bastard is the priority.”
All their families had been threatened.Not just mine.Whoever this man was, he was begging us to find him and end his life.
“Is there a lead?”I asked, needing to know we were close to ending this.
“Maybe.We got Oak’s phone.There is something of interest.I’ll be down later to explain and have you run a number.”
“Her phone?”I asked, not sure I understood how Oakley’s phone had anything to do with this.
Had he been tracking her?My chest clenched tightly, and my stomach felt sick at the thought that I’d sent her home a few nights ago at almost midnight to drive alone.He could have gotten her then.I was going to be ill.
“I gotta go.Boss is calling in.I’ll be down soon.”
He hung up, and I slowly placed the phone back in its cradle.
“So, there’s a massive hidden computer thingy in there.I was hoping for a private bedroom,” Oakley said.
I turned around to see her standing there with a gray sweat suit that she had rolled up at the ankles and wrists.She was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.Didn’t matter what the hell I gave her to cover up her body.
What was on her damn phone?I wanted to ask her, but I refrained.She’d been through enough already today, and I had to tell her more shit that was going to be upsetting.
“Sit down,” I said, nodding my head to the sofa.
She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked one blonde eyebrow at me.“Uh, no.You don’t tell me what to do anymore.That part of this experience is over.”
Great, she was going to be sassy and difficult.
