Chapter 31
Pulling up to the curb in front of Malone’s Hardware, Brian put his truck in Park but didn’t kill the engine.
The idle sent a low, steady vibration through the cab—something solid to anchor himself to when everything else felt like it was coming apart.
Like most of the shops lining Main Street, the store was already closed for the night, the interior dim except for the low blue glow of the security lights.
Outside, the street was still very much awake.
Cars rolled past at an easy pace, with their windows down, and music drifted faintly through open doors farther along the block.
People strolled up and down the sidewalk.
Restaurants filled, voices and laughter carrying on the warm, salt-heavy air.
It was that in-between hour where the day hadn’t given up yet, but the night advanced behind it.
Rafe shifted in the front passenger seat, his fingers flying over his phone’s screen as he texted back and forth with the SBI’s SRT—Special Response Team.
Calling in backup was a risk they couldn’t avoid, but it would stay off the radio.
No chatter. No broadcast. No contacting the local police.
The fewer people who knew what was happening, the better the odds that Diego and his crew wouldn’t realize law enforcement was already breathing down their throats.
A honk, honk sounded just as Sean drove past them, heading toward Kingsby to scope out the location. They would need to get as much info as possible before staging a rescue, and time wasn’t a luxury.
Above the hardware store, Uncle Dan’s apartment windows reflected the pale sky. Andy would be safe there, but Brian had a feeling the kid would fight him over it.
From the back seat came restless movement—knees bouncing, the upholstery creaking, anger crowding the air like heat.
“I’m not staying here. I’m going with you.” The words came sharp and loud in the confined space. Andy leaned forward between the seats, face flushed, eyes blazing, hands gripping the headrests like he might tear them loose.
They’d already had this argument back on the beach house’s porch. Brian closed his eyes for half a second, long enough to keep his temper leashed. And just long enough to remind himself this wasn’t defiance—it was fear looking for somewhere to land.
“Yes, you are.”
Andy scoffed. “You can’t just dump me here and go charging off like I don’t matter. This is my fault. Diego texted me. Tess is there because of—”
“Stop.” The word cracked through the cab, final and absolute.
Andy froze, shock flashing across his face, his mouth still open.
Rafe turned slightly in his seat, eyes flicking back, assessing, ready to step in if needed.
Brian twisted in his seat enough to face Andy directly, one arm braced on the console.
His expression conveyed no softness. No room to negotiate.
“We’ve been over this! You don’t get to rewrite this into some heroic bullshit where you tag along and get yourself killed. ”
“I’m not a kid—”
“You’re sixteen,” he snapped, the words coming out harder than he meant them to—but he didn’t take them back.
“And unarmed. And untrained. You’ll only be a distraction and in the way.
And if anything happens to you, I won’t be able to live with myself.
” His voice cracked on those last few words, and he slammed his hand on the steering wheel, hard enough to hurt, but the pain didn’t register.
The raw words hung between them. Somewhere along the line, Andy had become more than Tess’s kid brother. The thought of losing him hit Brian the same way it would have if they were blood-related.
Andy swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing as his jaw worked, like he was grinding down words he didn’t trust himself to say. The fight drained out of his posture a notch, his shoulders dropping just enough to give him away.
A bone-deep weight of responsibility settled into Brian’s chest. The kind Uncle Dan had carried when three teenage boys had needed him to be unbreakable, no matter the cost.
He forced his voice down, steady and calm. “That’s not happening. I promise, I’ll do everything I can to get Tess back safely. I don’t want to lose her anymore than you, got it?”
Silence filled the cab, thick and uncomfortable. The engine hummed softly. Outside the vehicle, everyone else’s lives moved on while theirs narrowed to this moment.
From the back seat, Andy muttered, “So I just sit here with my thumb up my ass while your uncle babysits me.”
“No. You work.”
The kid’s head snapped up. “What?”
“You’re our only connection to Diego,” Brian said.
“When he texts, you answer. If he calls, you answer. You don’t provoke him.
You don’t threaten him. And you don’t try to be clever.
” He paused, making sure Andy was locked in.
“You keep him talking. Tell him you’re working on moving the crypto but hit a firewall or something—anything techie and boring enough that he believes it.
If he understood how this shit worked, he wouldn’t need you. ”
Andy frowned, thinking it through. “What if he doesn’t buy it?”
“Then you adjust. You don’t argue or over-explain. You give him just enough to keep him engaged.”
“And if he thinks something’s off?” Andy’s agitation rose a few notches again. But this time, it was more likely panic than annoyance. “What if he gets upset and threatens to hurt Tess?”
He held up a reassuring hand. “Then you slow him down. Ask a question. Buy time. Let him think he’s still in control. Okay? You got this?”
The teen took a deep breath and nodded, nervousness still evident in his eyes but now tempered by determination.
Brian held his gaze a moment longer. “I trust you, Andy. And you’ve got to trust me to do everything I can to bring Tess back. That includes leaving you here. It’s safe, and Dan knows how to help you if things start to spiral.”
As if on cue, the door leading into the stairwell opened. Dan stepped out onto the sidewalk, holding his cell phone and scanning the street, probably out of habit more than concern. He looked exactly like he always did—calm, steady, and fully present.
Andy looked from Dan to Brian, his chin quivering. “You swear you’ll bring her back unharmed.”
Brian got out of the truck and opened the rear door himself. The night air was heavy with humidity. He reached in and gripped Andy’s shoulder—firm, grounding, and unyielding.
“I don’t swear things I can’t deliver.” He wished his answer could have been different, but his many years in law enforcement had taught him not to make promises he couldn’t keep.
He leaned closer, lowering his voice so only Andy could hear.
“But I will find her, and if it comes down to one of us walking out alive, I’ll do everything in my power to make damn sure it’s her. ”
Andy nodded once, then climbed out of the vehicle. The weight of what was happening was still heavy on his shoulders. “Okay.”
When the kid approached Dan, he pulled Andy toward the stairwell, already talking low, already anchoring him. The door shut behind them.
Brian stood there a beat longer than he should have, staring at the closed door, his jaw tight and his chest heavy.
He sent up a quick, silent prayer that neither he nor Andy would lose another person they loved, then got back into the driver’s seat and slammed the door harder than necessary.
The sound echoed in the cab, sharp and final, like a line being crossed.
His thoughts flicked back to his prayer, and he froze as one word rose above the rest. His breath caught.
Love.
Somewhere along the line, he’d fallen in love with Tess.
The one thing he’d sworn he didn’t have room for. The one vulnerability he’d avoided because loving someone meant risking everything if you lost them.
But it was too late. Tess had claimed his heart, whether he’d been ready to admit it or not.
His mind conjured up her face. The steady eyes that always seemed to see too much. The stubborn set of her mouth when she dug in. The way she’d looked at him like he was something solid when her world started to fracture.
He’d told himself it was temporary. Proximity. Stress. Adrenaline.
That lie was gone now.
Tess wasn’t a moment or a mistake. She was the woman he wanted a life with—one he was done pretending he hadn’t already chosen. And he’d be damned if he lost her tonight. If it came down to it, he’d take the bullet—because the alternative, a life without her, wasn’t one he was willing to face.
As he shifted the vehicle into Drive, Rafe ended his call and tossed his phone onto the console between them.
“SRT is on their way,” he said. “Eight guys. No lights, no sirens. Total radio silence.”
Brian glanced at him. “You cleared it with the AD?”
His partner nodded. “Johanssen signed off personally. Communication is through cell phones until we get to the scene, then low-range encrypted radios. It won’t go anywhere near dispatch.”
“Good.”
Brian pulled away from the curb, the tires biting hard as he accelerated.
The engine climbed, and so did the stakes—Tess, Rafe, SRT, himself—every possible outcome colliding in his head.
His mind went back to the shootout in the warehouse—the echo of gunfire, the smell of dust and gunpowder, and the split second when he thought death had looked him in the eye.
And if that bullet had been an inch to the left, his life would’ve been snuffed out before he ever realized he’d found the woman he wanted to spend it with.
“They’ll meet us at a DOT lot about a mile from the target site,” Rafe continued, cutting off Brian’s rampant thoughts while plugging the address into the truck’s dashboard GPS.
Brian didn’t respond. His hands were tight on the wheel, grip locked, knuckles whitening as the speedometer climbed. The road ahead blurred into a narrow tunnel of asphalt and shadows as he followed the directions spat out in a far-too-cheerful female voice.