32. Tate
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
TATE
H aving agreed to let Andy do his job, leaving a few men to make sure no one tries to enter the club, Rick and I take my car and leave. Clint follows with two of my other men. I need to find Sian. I need to find her before Daniel does some lasting damage to her. Something I can’t fix. I promised to keep her safe, to protect her, and I intend to keep that promise.
That kiss we shared... it instilled in me the belief that I would watch the world burn if it meant Sian was safe. She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met. If asked, I wouldn’t be able to say what it is about her that has me so captivated, but it’s there. It burns deep inside me. I don’t believe in fate, but if it were real, then Sian and I were meant to be thrust into each other’s lives.
With that thought, I can’t believe it will end with Daniel. There must be more to this story than tragedy. It cannot end this way. I won’t allow it, I’ll do everything in my power, use all my resources if I must, but I will get Sian back.
We reach the estate, and we all go straight to my office. Everyone is on their phones, talking over each other. I pace up and down again, waiting for someone, anyone, to have an answer for me. I rack my brain for something that could help. I can’t help but feel like I’m missing something. It’s on the tip of my tongue, just eluding me. It’s like a memory of something I’ve done, but I can’t think of what it is. It’s frustrating because I feel like it’s something that could help us right now.
Rick hangs up his call, and I look at him. “How’s your wound?”
“It was just a flesh wound. I got lucky.” He sighs. “No one knows where Daniel is, or where his main base of operations is. He’s kept it a tight secret.” Rick looks despondent, but I can’t lose hope. Sian is counting on me. She trusts that I’m going to find her.
“Joey doesn’t know anything either,” Clint says, coming over. “He isn’t high up enough on the food chain yet to know anything of importance other than that Daniel is pissed off.”
I slam my fist onto the table, and as I do, the door to my office opens. We all turn to see my father standing there. “Why the chaos?”
I look at him, my heart clenching. He expects me to be a leader, yet right now, my emotions are ruling everything. He’s taught me better than that. He expects more from me. Especially after I let my emotions run away with Jodi and it almost got me killed. But I can’t help myself. My only thoughts are about Sian and what she may be enduring at the hands of that fucker. My father steps into the now silent room. “Tate, where’s Sian?”
“I don’t know,” I say quietly. “She’s been taken.”
“By Daniel?” My father looks horrified. I feel so guilty. I couldn’t keep her safe. I can’t stand the thought of Sian being taken or my father’s disappointment that I let it happen on my watch after he warned me about Daniel.
I nod slowly. “I’ll find her if I have to destroy everything in my way to do it.”
“I know you will,” he says. “You made a promise to keep her safe, and I know you always keep your word, but Tate...” He walks across the room. “You need to do it soon. Daniel won’t wait to rain pain down on her. He’s got a habit of wanting things he can’t have. It’s a weakness to him. He wanted to have the biggest empire and more money than he could spend. That’s why he captured and tortured you. Thankfully, you were free in time before he could... you know. It’s the same with Sian. She refused him. That will be fueling his rage. The fact his two greatest fears have aligned is enough to make him do crazy things. Sian is different. She’s a rare jewel in the world we live in, and he’ll want to make her his no matter what it takes.”
Jewel.
Jewelry.
I look at him and smile. “You genius.” I glance at my watch. It’s been over two hours since they left. “The bracelet. Mom’s bracelet.”
“What about it?” Rick asks.
My father smiles widely. “You gave it to her.”
“There’s a tracker installed inside it. We can trace it from my cellphone. Grab the men. We’re going hunting. Tell them to load up on guns and ammo.”
I take out my phone, open the app, and stare at the login screen, trying to remember the password. “Dammit. I haven’t used it in years. I don’t know what the password is.”
“Try one of your older ones,” Rick says as he holds his phone to his ear as he calls for more men.
I enter the details I think will work, and it bounces back that there’s an error. I can feel my heart racing. The only sliver of hope I have is slipping away from me. Every second that Sian is with Daniel is a second too long. I enter another password.
Rick looks over my shoulder. “Try the first password with your old email address,” he suggests.
I type it in and the app logs in. I breathe a sigh of relief. I click on the bracelet and a map pops up with a location.
“Got it.”
I go downstairs, out the back, and into the gun shed I keep behind the house. I flip on the light as my men arrive. We all go around the gun shed, taking our preferred guns and loading up on ammunition. I take out my phone and check the location again. It’s about forty-five minutes out. We’d need to take them by surprise, which should be easy enough considering they don’t know we’re on to them.
Rick comes in and starts loading his gun. I take my blade of the hook and slide it into a holster around my ankle. Then I put a gun in the holsters on either side of my hips and one behind me back on the waistband of my trousers. Rick takes down the pump action shotgun loads it before throwing some ammunition across his shoulder and fixes the holster of ammunition around himself.
I look at Rick. “I want her back, Rick. I want her alive.”
“We’ll get her.” Rick’s promise reassures me.
I watch as my men prepare. I want to get going, but we’re going into unknown territory against who knows how many of Daniel’s men. I need my men to be ready.
Clint takes a shotgun and some ammo off the wall and glances at me. “I never was one to be subtle.”
I smirk, feeling hope again. I just need Sian to hang on for a little while longer. She’s strong. I could see that when she walked away from me. She knew what she was getting into, and she fully expects me to save her, which is exactly what I’m going to do.
We leave the gun shed and go to the front of the house to the cars. We get into the Range Rover, and I let Rick drive, another following us. I feed the location into the GPS unit of the car.
I look out of the window, trying not to imagine what Sian is going through. She’s endured so much, and she will survive this. We will be together, and life will be complete. I can’t lose her now. Not after I’ve just found her. The one person who makes my heart beat with life again.
I may never be a hero, but I will save her if it takes my last breath to do it.