36. Riley
I see red.Blood rushes in my ears as rage floods my body like a molten force, and if Logan doesn’t get the fuck off me and let me give Austin McKenna what he deserves for the disgusting things he said about my sister—for what he’s already done to her and the plans he has for her future—I’m going to castrate him.
Dante steps forward, a dozen weapons swinging toward him as he deliberately re-holsters his own and spreads his hands. “Not the time or place,” he says, every muscle in his body still vibrating with readiness even as he lays on the charm and starts to de-escalate the tension.
Maddoc steps back, coordinating his movements with Logan’s as they both block me from being able to see any of those West Point fuckers.
“Logan,” Maddoc says with a pointed look that carries the weight of a full conversation.
Logan nods and loosens his grip on me, and Maddoc takes over. Pulling me back as he murmurs in my ear. “He’s never going to touch her. You know I won’t let it happen. Come on now, you need to stay calm so we can get to her.”
I’m breathing so hard my chest is heaving, but Maddoc keeps up a low, steady murmur that lowers my heart rate and pulls the world back into focus for me. I don’t want to stand down, but he’s right. I’ve got the shakes, worry and anger and rage all warring for space inside me, but none of that shit is going to help my sister.
Logan said she was here. I’m not sure what he saw, but I trust him to get that right.
Chloe was here. Now she’s gone. Now isn’t the time for retribution on West Point, it’s time to wrap this up so we can follow whatever clues Logan found in there. Because he had to have found some. If I don’t believe that, I’ll go fucking crazy.
“None of us can afford to spill blood in the Breakers’ territory,” Dante is saying, his voice reasonable and calm in the midst of a sea of potential violence. It’s working, though. No one but Dante has put their weapon away, but most of them are lowered now.
Then Austin McKenna catches my eye, and smirks.
“Speaking of things no one can afford,” he drawls, tugging his girlfriend around in front of him and groping her obscenely. “Looks like you went low rent on your replacement, Maddoc. Sutton offered me a twofer, but a washed up stripper?”
He spits on the ground again, and Maddoc makes a brutal sound, thrusting me behind him as he cocks his gun again. Dante and Logan draw theirs too, and although no one moves, it feels like shooting might break out at any moment.
And there’s nothing between my Reapers and West Point’s guns.
The hot rage that blinded me to good sense when Austin insulted my sister drains out of me, replaced by a flood of cold fear. I don’t know what it is exactly that’s happening between me and these men, but I can’t lose them.
My hand is shaking as I raise it slowly, resting my fingers lightly on Maddoc’s back. His tense muscles shudder under the light touch, and then, with a strained breath, he straightens and lowers his gun.
“Stand down,” he grits out.
The tension remains so high it feels like the air is quivering, but the other Reapers instantly obey him—both Maddoc’s seconds and the men who trailed West Point here.
Austin smirks again, then directs his men toward the abandoned building. “Search it.”
Maddoc and Dante both stiffen, but Logan leans in to murmur quietly to Maddoc. “I stripped it.”
They let the West Point men pass.
“They won’t find anything?” I ask, worried about those assholes getting any closer to my sister than they already have.
Logan looks at me with his pale eyes. “I took care of it.”
I relax, at least as much as I can. But I trust him. If Chloe left any clues, Logan found them and made sure West Point wouldn’t.
After a while, they storm back out, glaring at us and muttering threats as they stomp back toward the two SUVs they arrived in. All except for Austin and Sienna.
Austin isn’t smirking anymore. “You might wanna watch your back from here on out.”
He pins Maddoc with a dangerous look, then turns his back on the Reapers and stalks toward one of the vehicles.
Sienna lags behind for a moment. “Or not.”
The cold smile she directs at Maddoc turns into a hot glare as her eyes slide toward me. Then she sneers.
I don’t give a shit. She has no right to be jealous after cheating on Maddoc.
She betrayed him, and I fucking hate her for that alone. The fact that she chose to be on the side of the sadistic asshole who’s targeting my sister just puts the nails in the coffin. But finally, they leave.
Maddoc instantly turns to Logan. “Report.”
“I found signs that Chloe had been there, and West Point must have got that from Sutton. She wasn’t here last night, though, so she probably cleared out after that call she placed.”
“Why?”
“It looks like she wasn’t the only squatter. My guess is she felt unsafe, and did the smart thing and got the fuck out.”
My stomach sinks. “How far could she have gone?”
None of them have an answer.
“Let’s search the area to see if we can figure out where she headed.”
Maddoc tells the Reapers who came to back them up to keep an eye out in case West Point comes back with the same idea, or whoever the other gang whose territory we’re actually in shows up, and I spread out with the three of them to search around the building.
We don’t find anything, and that numb despair that I was drowning in after Frank wraps icy fingers around my heart again as Maddoc gives his troops more commands, telling them to spread out and cast a wider net.
“Play nice with the Breakers if you run into them,” he says.
“And if they don’t let us, boss?” the bulky man they’d called Shae asks, cracking his knuckles.
“Do what you have to,” Maddoc says grimly, “but remember, we need allies.”
The men nod and disperse, and Dante wraps a hand around the back of my neck, offering support.
“Come on, princess,” he says, urging me toward the Escalade. “Let’s get back to the house and regroup.”
I nod, but what do we have to go on, really? Chloe’s been on her own too damn long. I’m scared for her.
“Riley.”
I look up, startled out of my despair by the intensity of Maddoc’s voice.
“We’ll keep looking.”
I nod listlessly, ready to get home already.
He grabs my arm before I can turn away, forcing me to turn back around as those Siberian Husky eyes of his burn into mine with a promise I can’t ignore. “We’ll keep looking until we find her. This doesn’t end until we get her back. Until Chloe is safe. Don’t give up.”
I never will… but I needed to hear that. I’ll never give up on my sister, but keeping up hope is hard.
It’s a little less hard when I don’t have to do it alone, though.
“Okay,” I say, offering him a small smile.
He doesn’t smile back, but his eyes soften. Then he finally nods and lets me go, the three of them forming a protective barrier between me and the world as they escort me back to the Escalade and take me back to the house.
Take me… home.
Logan collecteda few things my sister left behind at the abandoned building, confirming it was really her, but when a few days go by without any further sign of her, I feel like I’m going to snap.
“How about Jameson Mathers?” Dante asks me as I pace back and forth in the Reapers’ front room.
“Who?” I snap, even though he doesn’t deserve it.
I’m antsy, nervous, and on edge, my heart feeling brittle as the days Chloe’s missing add up.
Dante calmly repeats himself. The Reapers have been looking into everyone Chloe’s ever had contact with on the off chance she reached out to someone besides Frank, and I don’t even want to know what they hacked into—her cloud storage account? Her social media?—to come up with the list of contacts he’s going over with me.
I remember Jameson now, though. Some boy from her school who used to sniff around, hoping to get a piece of her.
I shake my head.
“Okay,” Dante says, tapping out a quick message to someone after quickly conferring with Logan. They’re probably telling whoever they’ve got watching Jameson Mathers that he’s not worth keeping eyes on, especially when there’s so much other ground to cover.
I can’t even imagine what this effort is costing them, especially since they’re not doing it for the money anymore. Or at least, not to gain access to her inheritance for themselves.
Maddoc’s made it clear that letting West Point get their hands on it isn’t an option, but I know that’s not the only reason they’re devoting so many resources to finding my sister. They’re doing it because of what’s brewing between us.
I’ve never had anyone on my side like this before, and I appreciate it more than I can ever put into words. I’m doing everything I can to help track down every glimmer of a lead, but every minute she’s out there on her own is another minute closer to Austin McKenna finding her first and it’s getting to me.
I can’t let myself think about what that sadistic bastard will do if he finds her. I can’t.
“Let me run facial recognition,” Logan mutters under his breath as he and Dante put their heads together.
Dante smirks. “Got live facial recognition right here,” he says, nodding toward me as he flips his phone around to show me the screen. “How about these girls, princess?” Three girls. Chloe, laughing in the middle. Her hair dyed the way it was last summer and a worn brick wall behind them that looks like the high school we both went to. “No names or caption,” Dante adds. “Do you recognize them?”
I blink. Maybe? I can’t think. “This is fucking useless.”
Logan doesn’t flinch as he methodically works through whatever the fuck he has on his screen, but Dante gives me a patient look that makes me want to scream.
Then Maddoc’s gritty voice sounds from behind me. “Take her down to CMA.”
I whirl around, and he’s leaning against the doorjamb, giving Dante one of those looks that speaks volumes I’m not privy to.
Dante tucks his phone away and gets to his feet. “Good idea, Madd.”
“CMA?” I jump in. “What’s that? Did you get another lead on Chloe?”
Maddoc’s lips tilt up at the corners, but the pale eyes he’s got me pinned with stay serious. “Not yet. CMA is a shooting range. You need to learn to handle a weapon.”
I shake my head, turning my back to him and stalking over to the front window. I push the curtains aside and stare out into the empty street. “I don’t like guns.”
Behind me, Dante snorts and the rapid-fire sound of Logan’s fingers on his keyboard go still.
“It doesn’t matter if you like them as long as you can shoot them,” Maddoc says calmly.
I whirl back around to face him, lashing out with all the frustration and fear that has nowhere else to go. “I can shoot. You know that. I just don’t want to.”
Maddoc just stares me down. “It’s not about want. Sometimes we need to do shit we don’t like. And there’s a difference between pulling the trigger and knowing how to handle a weapon.” He reaches up and touches his shoulder, the one that carries the scar from the bullet I put into him. “If you could actually shoot, you wouldn’t have missed.”
I grimace at the reminder of the night I shot him. And I see his point. We were standing so close together in the kitchen that it should’ve been easy for me to put a bullet in his heart.
But honestly, I’m not so sure that the reason I missed is because of my lack of weapons training. The truth is that even then, despite how angry and hurt I was, some part of me didn’t want to kill Maddoc.
His eyes soften as if he can read my thoughts, and he adds quietly, “Go to the range with Dante, butterfly. It’s a dangerous fucking world, and you’re right in the middle of it now.”
It’s a dangerous world that all three of these men have protected me from in their own ways. Put themselves between me and the line of fire, again and again. But he’s right, they might not always be there to do that… and the fact that he’s concerned about it, about me, means something.
“Okay,” I say, all the fight going out of me. Besides, I’m not doing any good here right now, and releasing some of this pressure on a shooting range instead of by biting off the heads of the only three people besides my sister who seem to give a damn about me is probably a win.
Dante slings an arm around me, a grin stretching across his gorgeous face. “You, me, and some hot metal? Trust me, we’re gonna have fun, princess.”
“I’ll go too,” Logan says, methodically closing up the laptop he was working on and getting to his feet.
“You will?” I ask, a part of me startled that he wants to voluntarily spend time with me, even after the way things have shifted between us. But it also warms something inside my chest.
Dante, on the other hand, looks a little put out, his arm reflexively tightening around me. “You don’t have to do that.”
Logan returns Dante’s gaze without any expression. “I want to.”
I almost grin despite all the worry and frustration coursing through me. I’ve never once seen any one of these three have a problem with the way I’m growing close to each of them, but I’d put money on the fact that Dante was hoping for a little one-on-one time with me just now… and I don’t hate the idea.
But I also don’t hate the idea of being looked out for by both of them.
Dante holds Logan’s eyes for another second before relaxing with one of his easy grins. “Yeah, all right. Then let’s get out of here.”
Maddoc’s phone buzzes. “Take the Escalade,” he says before he turns away to take it, leaving the room.
“Guess that means I’m driving,” Dante says. “Go put on some different shoes, princess. Nothing with open toes. And no exposed skin here.” He runs fingers over my exposed collarbones, then down my cleavage, exposed in the tank top I threw on this morning. “That’s not gonna feel good if hot brass hits it. Put on something with long sleeves.”
“You want your hair pulled back too,” Logan adds, assessing me with his cool gaze. “Do you have a hat?”
I almost point out that I didn’t have any of that shit when I shot Maddoc. I was naked, sweaty, and covered with his cum. My hair being down didn’t get in the way of pulling the trigger that time. But instead, I just head upstairs to do as I’ve been told, leaving Logan quietly grumbling something about his Audi that makes Dante laugh.
When I come back down dressed in more protective clothing, we head out.
Once we get to the range, they run me through some basic safety instructions and make me put on protective gear for my eyes and ears, then finally hand me a gun.
“Keep it pointed toward the target, princess,” Dante says before he releases it to my grip. “You gotta always assume any weapon you touch is loaded, and treat it accordingly.”
“Okay,” I say, my senses abnormally sharp as the cool metal gives me a focus for all the adrenaline in my system. “This one is smaller than Maddoc’s, though.”
I want to bite my tongue as soon as the words leave my mouth, not sure if I’ll ruin things by bringing that up, even though Maddoc alluded to it himself earlier. But Dante just laughs, resting one hand on the small of my back, and Logan—flanking me on the other side—gives me a small smile too.
“It’s a Ruger LC9s,” Logan says. “Better suited to your stature, and it’s a reliable, accurate weapon.”
“Not gonna knock you on your ass with the recoil, either,” Dante adds. He hesitates for a second, then adds, “It was Payton’s.”
The slim, compact gun is already warming in my hands. I’m not sure how I feel about knowing where it came from, so I don’t dwell on it, just taking the knowledge the way I suspect it’s meant. As acceptance.
“So what do I do with it?” I ask, spreading my legs and squinting one eye as I point it toward the paper target set up for me.
“This is an original model,” Dante says, indicating the gun as he moves behind me. He wraps one arm around, pressing up against my back, and covers my right hand with his, his thumb nudging mine over a small lever. “It’s got a safety you’re gonna have to take off before you do anything.”
The little lever under my thumb clicks.
“Now I shoot?” I ask, a surge of something that feels almost sexual moving through me as I grip the stock. My finger curls around the trigger, and I do it without waiting for him to say so.
The gun jerks in my hand, the metal hot and the recoil Dante promised wouldn’t knock me on my ass still enough to get my attention.
I fucking love it… but the target looks pristine.
“Did I hit it?”
Dante laughs. “After taking off the safety, you might wanna aim first.”
“I did,” I lie, that hot rush of pleasure still simmering in my blood. I needed this, and I didn’t even know it.
And I want to do it again.
I squint my left eye, steadying the gun with both hands as Dante releases me and steps off to the side, giving me room.
“Keep both eyes open,” Logan says before I shoot again.
“What?” I ask, turning toward him. “Why?”
His hand darts out and blocks my wrist, guiding the barrel of the gun back toward the target.
“Sorry,” I say, although even the embarrassment of forgetting that bit of gun safety can’t dim the pleasure still coursing through me. This release is exactly what I needed, and Maddoc is probably right. It’s a skill I should master.
Logan’s expression lightens in a way that’s not quite a smile, but still warms me. “Squinting your non-dominant eye can help you direct your focus, but it narrows your field of vision. Train yourself to keep them both open so you can have maximum awareness of your surroundings.”
Logan moves behind me, taking the spot Dante was in before, pressing his strong, lean body against my back and sending a shiver of an entirely different kind of pleasure through me.
“Okay, so I just…” I raise the gun again and try to line up the little bump at the end, the sight, with the target.
“Yes,” Logan says, reaching around me to subtly adjust my aim. “Keep the barrel level with the horizon.”
“Trust your instincts, princess,” Dante adds, a smile in his voice. “Don’t worry too much about making it an exact science. You’re not gonna have time to line everything up if you’ve got to defend yourself out on the streets. You just need to start developing some muscle memory.”
When Logan shifts behind me, I react to a different kind of muscle memory, my pulse picking up speed.
His hands slide down my sides and settle on my hips. “Balance your weight.”
“When it feels right, fire,” Dante says.
I pull the trigger, better prepared for the recoil this time. A dark hole appears next to one of the outer rings of the target.
“I hit it!”
Logan’s grip shifts, turning my body a little. “Your aim was high, the trajectory off by thirty-seven degrees.”
Dante laughs. “Good enough to wing the fucker.”
The targets are shaped like concentric circles instead of the outline of a body, but I think he’s right.
“You’ve got seven in the clip, princess. Lay ’em down. The only way to learn the gun is to use it.”
Logan clicks his tongue against his teeth, shaking his head as he moves away from me. “The muscle memory you need will develop by repeating precise techniques, with careful deliberation. Once you pull the hammer back to ninety percent—”
I lower the gun. “To what?”
Logan takes it from me and shows me what he means. “Once it’s here, pause. Breathe out. Sight down the barrel...”
He fires, hitting the center of the target, then hands it back to me.
Dante grins. “Nah, just trust yourself, princess. We’ve got plenty of rounds. Go for it.”
“Practice precision and control,” Logan counters from my other side, crossing his arms over his chest. “Lay a good foundation.”
They start to bicker, and I tune it out, lining up the gun and imagining Austin McKenna’s smirking face in the center of the target. I pull the trigger again.
“Not bad,” Dante says, his breath ghosting over the back of my neck. “Logan’s right about balancing your stance if you can, though.” He presses up against me, nestling my ass against his groin as he holds me steady. “Now let’s try it again, like this.”
He stays there while I shoot through the entire clip, the rush of release each time I fire something I think I could get addicted to. But when Logan takes Dante’s place behind me for the next few rounds, it’s another kind of release I start to crave.
My nipples ache, pebbled against the lacy bra that contains them, and when Logan moves my body into a subtly different position, taking charge of it in a way that echoes the way he took me apart in the bedroom, my pussy floods with heat.
“Slow your breath. Slow your pulse,” Logan murmurs, the heat of him seeping into me from behind as I imagine what it would be like if I lowered the gun so Dante could come around to my front. Take my mouth. Pin me between the two of them while we all chased a different kind of release.
I’m a heartbeat away from suggesting it when Logan’s front pocket lets out a shrill ring, the vibration shuddering through me as his phone goes off with a ringtone I already know means it’s Maddoc calling.
Logan immediately drops his hands and steps away, pulling out his phone to take it. He doesn’t bother with a greeting, and I can just make out the faint rumble of Maddoc’s voice as Logan’s eyes lock onto mine.
“Give me the gun, princess,” Dante says grimly, taking it from me and quickly emptying it of bullets.
“We’re on our way,” Logan says into the phone after a moment, ending the call and pocketing his phone. “Chloe’s been spotted.”
“What?” I gasp, my heart jackrabbiting as my hands start to shake.
Dante quickly finishes dealing with the gun as I rip off my safety gear and toss it at a man Logan signaled to come take care of it for us.
“One of our street informants saw someone who matches her description,” Logan tells us as Dante takes my hand and we all hurry out to the Escalade. “Maddoc is headed to the spot she was seen now. I’ll drive. Keys?”
He holds out a hand and Dante snorts, his grip tightening on my hand. “I got it, brother.”
Logan shakes his head, and something passes between them that I don’t have it in me to wonder about.
After only a brief hesitation, Dante tosses him the keys after all. He ushers me into the front seat and gets busy tapping away on his phone in the back as Logan peels out of the parking lot, the big vehicle taking the turn onto the main road faster than I would have thought possible for something that size.
I still want to go faster, and I have to sit on my hands to stop the shakes. I’m terrified that this will just turn out to be another false lead, or that we’ll be too late… but I’m something else too.
With these men by my side and the Reapers pouring everything they have into helping me find my sister, with my frustration burned off on the gun range and the solid wall of their support thrumming in the air between us, for the first time in longer than I can remember, I’m hopeful. Chloe’s out there, and we’re going to find her.
I’m going to get my sister back.