More tears leaked out of her eyes as he laid her on a bed or a car seat, something not as hard as a floor anyway. In the distance, a foggy sound-clouded distance, she could hear London still wailing. And then the first shot rang out and Fiona’s eyes snapped open. She struggled for focus, to figure out what was going on. It took a minute to realize her arms were free and she was holding London. She shifted, trying to move her feet. They were still tied, but she had her baby and that was enough.
The information was shoddy. And came at a cost. Sonoma and a group of his men had traveled with Grier, Sage and Kye to Atlanta, found the run-down plantation house and the twenty or so men Sedotal had left behind. If only they’d gotten the information sooner, but Hamilton hadn’t been able to break the guy Carl had shot with his bow. But Sonoma’s guys came through. By the time the gunfight in Boston was over, Sonoma’s guy had a property address, a satellite image and enough firepower to blow up half the east coast. And still, the Omens managed to get away with Fiona. How a giant black Escalade had managed to get past them, Grier couldn’t guess, but all they’d left behind were some trigger-happy shooters with more ammo than aim. Sonoma and his guys ended the fight quickly and dead men littered the ground. Sonoma’s men left a lot of blood in their wake.
Kye kicked one of the Omen bodies and the body groaned up at him. A bright red bloodstain continued to spread across his stomach, and Kye knelt to hold his hand over the wound. “Where’d they take her?”
“Who cares? She’s not gonna live to see the sunrise.”
Grier’s chest clenched, and he wanted to pummel the guy. Instead, he knelt beside Kye and jerked the guy’s head toward him. “Tell me where she is!” He pushed Kye away and stuck his thumb into the hole in the bastard’s gut.
“Probably on her way back to Pine Hill.” For being on his way out of this world, the fucking guy had a lot of balls. And there really wasn’t any reason why he shouldn’t have been so gutsy. Not like Grier posed much of a threat. He couldn’t even protect his own wife and his kid. This guy had nothing to be afraid of. Except Grier. Who didn’t have anything left to lose.
Still, what the son of a bitch said didn’t make sense. Why would Sedotal drag her up and down the east coast if he was just going to bring her home? It had to mean something. “What does he want?”
“Fuck you, man.” The guy’s breath hitched and a gurgle in his throat said he didn’t have much time left. But goddamned if he was going into the light before Grier found out what he needed to know.
Grier twisted his thumb and fought a wave of nausea as the guy screamed and writhed against the pain. “Tell me.” He needed to know, and he’d do whatever it took. “What does he want?”
The guy’s eyes rolled back, and he gasped softly. “Your club. Your woman. Your life.” Another gurgle and he grabbed Grier’s arm. “Help me. Please.”
Grier looked up at Kye and nodded then waited until Kye put a bullet in the guy’s head before he turned and yelled at the horizon. “Fuck!” He let out a string of curses and for the first time considered giving it all up. Not fighting Sedotal but letting him have whatever he wanted as long as he returned Fiona and the baby unharmed. No heroics, just a man getting his wife and child back.
He almost laughed at the absurdity of it. Two years ago, he’d been happily sunning on a beach in Belize, living his life, never thinking of a wife or a child. Then Fiona had shown up, her fiery hair blazing in the sun, her eyes flashing with so much hatred and anger he’d thought she planned to shoot right outside Kye and Eli’s house. Somehow, they’d ended up married and it still boggled his mind. Luckiest thing that ever happened to him, even though Max and Fiona had forced his hand. And now they had London, as beautiful as her mother.
Kye glanced at him then away while the other men checked bodies, collected weapons and money from the men on the ground. “We’re going to find her.”
“What if it’s too late?” He hadn’t said the words out loud, hadn’t dared to let himself fall apart, but only his skin was holding him together and he could feel it splintering. He wanted to sink into himself and let go.
Kye squeezed his shoulder. “It won’t be. You have to believe that.”
Grier wanted to believe everything would be okay, but the sun came up every morning and went down every night and still, Fiona was out there going through God knew what. Every muscle and cell he had screamed in agony brought on by his mind, by the pain in his gut and the ache in his heart. Thinking of her out there, with… them, with Tyler Sedotal. His breath came in short bursts and he doubled over. Oh, God. He couldn’t do this. Not without her. Not without them.
Kye held him up. “Stop it. Don’t do this here. You keep your shit together until there aren’t twenty guys around watching you fall apart.” He shook Grier by the shoulders, but the words didn’t matter anymore. Nothing mattered; he’d failed her. Even if they found her now, she’d been through too much, would blame him, maybe as much as he blamed himself. Probably not. Either way, he deserved whatever she said or did to him. And they’d never be able to go back to the way they were as long as they both knew he’d failed her.
Kye gave him another shake. “Take a breath and rein it in. We’re going to get them back, and that’s all you need to think about right now, you hear me?” Grier didn’t answer and Kye shook him again. “We’re going to find her. Say it, Grier. Say it!”
“We’re going to find her.” But he didn’t believe it anymore.
Fiona could smell Pine Hill. The air here was charged with something the coast didn’t have. He’d brought her back home. Dangerous and stupid for him. And she’d had enough. The baby cooed in her chair as the Escalade slowed and stopped. They’d forced her into the back, hadn’t let her up in the four or so hours since they’d stopped for a bathroom break. Her legs were cramped and her stomach sick, but her anger pushed her on. Anger and the desire to get back to Grier.
The back hatch opened, and Sedotal came around to help her out. She stood and it took her a minute to find her strength, for her muscles to cooperate and her knees to hold her up. He had her hands tied in front of her and she eyed the gun in his waistband. Soon. She would get it and blow him into the thousand little pieces of shit he was. And then she’d find a really good plastic surgeon and get this shit cut off her body. But first, she had work to do.
He bent to loosen the ties at her feet so she could walk. When she was free, he straightened and put his hands on her shoulders. “Sorry about all this, babe. As soon as you hold your end of the bargain and Grier’s dead, we won’t need all this anymore.”
She smiled. Her face still ached, and she was pretty sure her jaw was broken, and she still had a concussion, but no way would she surrender to the pain. She held onto her anger like a life raft. More than anything she wanted to know what happened to old Sewer Breath after he’d inflicted this pain. She turned her head as another black SUV pulled in. Two guys climbed out and yanked a third from the back seat. He couldn’t stand on his own, couldn’t even hold his head up.
Good. Not like she could’ve inflicted the pain she wanted to, the pain he deserved. Sedotal smiled. “I brought him back here for you.” He chuckled and wrapped both arms around her. “I thought you might like to do the honors yourself.” He kissed her forehead and winked when he pulled back. He picked up the baby seat. “Come to papa.”