When you love someone you don’t leave them. Not for anything.
Not for anything.
Not even if your job freaks the other person out.
You stay. You stay and fight.
Luke had not left me, not even when I was pushing him away. He stayed. He fought until he broke through every defense I’d built.
Now it was my turn to fight for us. I was not going to let him go.
Four hours later I pulled into my driveway with a plan.
I needed a shower then I was going to call Luke. Or more accurately I was going to return one of his fifteen phone calls. I hadn’t read any of the text messages he’d sent. I didn’t need to, to know he was worried.
But not yet. I needed to wash away the stench of my parents first.
I pushed open my door and pain exploded at my temple. My hand went to my hip to reach for my sidearm but it was too late.
I shouldn’t have waited to call Luke. I should’ve gone directly to him.
Those were my last thoughts as my world went dark.
29
My phone rang in my hand and my jaw clenched when I saw Drake’s name.
I was on the verge of losing my goddamn mind. Fifteen calls to Shiloh and she hadn’t picked up or returned a text.
Ten hours I’d been looking for her.
She was nowhere. And no one had heard from her.
“Yeah?” I answered.
“Fuck, Luke, fuck.”
Hearing Drake’s greeting I was instantly on alert.
“What’s—”
“Nine-one-one call came in. Shots fired at Sunny’s house.”
No.
Jesus no.
“Team’s been called, everyone’s en route,” Drake continued. I tagged my keys and was out the door with my phone still to my ear when I beeped the locks and slid in. “Not sure if we’ll make it past the yellow tape, but we’re sure as fuck gonna try. Ethan’s been updated and on his way.”
Oh, I was making it behind the police tape.
“Go in from the side,” I told him as I backed out of my drive. “End of the block, corner house. They won’t tape that far. Take the team and hop the fence. Shiloh’s house is the fifth over. Her patio furniture is black and she’s got a rock garden with a fountain. There’s a faux rock, it says peace. The key to her side door is in it.”
“Where do you want Matt?” Drake asked.
Matt, my sniper.
I rolled past the stop sign, pulled into traffic, and gunned it. I was ten minutes out.
Ten fucking minutes.
Ten goddamn hours.
And if I didn’t cool my ass down, in ten seconds I was going to lose it.
“Next street over there’s a brick house. I can see it plain from Shiloh’s front yard. If he can get on the roof he’d have a shot.”
“He’ll get on that roof.”
Yeah, he would. Matt was damn good getting in and out of tight spots.
“Gotta go, see you soon.”
I disconnected and took a breath, then I took another, and when I realized there were not enough breaths I could take to sort my shit I gave up and made the call I didn’t want to make but I knew I needed to.
The phone rang twice and Echo picked up.
“She’s still not answering,” he grunted.
I’d called Echo and Phoenix a few hours ago when I was out of places to look. It seemed he was just as worried as I’d been.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Why?”
“Where the hell are you?”
“Home.”
“No easy way to tell you this, brother—”
“Say it.”
“Shots fired at Shiloh’s—”
I got no further. Echo’s very loud, colorful tirade sounded in my ear, then it was gone because he’d hung up on me.
She was fine. She had to be.
Matt’s just a precaution I told myself.
Drake taking the team around the back of her house was a provision.
Shiloh Kent was a badass.
I stepped on the gas.
My fingers curled around the steering wheel and I drove.
I wanted to believe Matt was a precaution but I knew—I could feel it in my gut he wasn’t. Shiloh was brave and strong and tough but she wasn’t bulletproof.
My grip tightened and by the time I turned down her street and the flashing blue and red lights came into view my fingers were numb.
Visions of Shiloh filled my head and when they came they hit hard. So damn hard I had to suck in a breath. Shiloh next to me in bed—pressed close, her leg thrown over mine. At first, it had been me who positioned her like this, but now it was her. Every night she was in bed next to me, she got close.
Her sweet voice when she told me she loved me. The way her face got soft when I returned the emotion.
The fierceness of her loyalty.
Fuck.
Then further back to when she told me everyone left. When she’d refused to let people close. How far she’d come. How hard she worked to open herself up to the people who cared about her.
And finally to last night. Closed off and cold.
I should’ve pushed her to talk.
I hopped out of my truck, not caring it was in the middle of the street—uncaring my keys were in the cupholder. If someone wanted it moved, they could fucking move it.
I had no idea where Shiloh had been for the last ten hours but I knew who was in her house. I knew with a certainty that burned a hole through my gut.
No one had been able to find Clive Hutchinson. His last letter to Shiloh was clearly a threat. Not that he actually told her he was going to kill her but he’d said she’d know his pain. I’d discussed this with Echo and Phoenix. I’d also shared my concerns that Hutchinson would go after one of them. Clive’s pain was the loss of his child. The person he loved most. If he wanted Shiloh to feel that pain, he’d kill one of her brothers, not her.
“You need to move your truck!”
My gaze locked onto the uniformed police officer who had called out the order. Then I pulled my phone out of my back pocket.
One ring and Ethan was in my ear.
“Luke, brother—”
“I’m here. Tell ‘em to let me through.”
“Brother, fuck—”
“You got two seconds, Ethan. Tell them to let me the fuck through or I’m coming through and we’ll sort out the mess I make later.”
“Fuck.”
I didn’t know if Ethan meant to say more, and if he did I didn’t hear it. I disconnected and found Drake’s number. It, too, only rang twice.
“We’re coming in through the side,” Drake said.
“Matt?” I asked and glanced around but I was too far away from Shiloh’s front yard to see the brick house I’d suggested.
“He’s in position. Where are you?”
Too goddamn far away from my woman, that’s where.
“Waiting for Ethan to get me through the barricade.”
“Did he give you an update?”
My jaw clenched at his tone and I clipped, “No.”
“Right, then you need to keep your head but you need to be warned. Hutchinson’s got her.”
My eyes closed and my head bowed.
Extreme anger ricocheted in my chest and pierced my heart.