Chapter Twenty-Four
Matilda fucking Barclay
One Hour Prior
I haven’t walked the grounds of the Winters’ estate unless it was to leave flowers at Charlie’s monument, which I have permission to do so from my ex-husband.
The twat. I have not stepped foot inside of the Winters’ Manor in over a decade.
Nevertheless, I know the entire layout like the back of my hand.
Which is why when I find Parker in the library with an entire bratva and mafia army and a few familiar faces, I am not only livid, I am distraught.
“Tildy,” he drawls, and though I could swoon at his delicious accent that at times has made me a bit of a puddle, I don’t let it get to me.
Sexy, All-American distraction. I’ll write about it, then fuck Derek til my heart’s content later.
He’s the one who truly inspires all of the scenes anyway.
The mouth on that man. The rest is fodder.
“It has been days, Parker. You said quick and covert. Where is Tink? I need to speak to her. She’s not answering my messages nor my calls. I have not received an update. This is not right. I want to see my daughter.”
His jaw clenches tight, but those mismatched eyes of his are full of both tension and worry.
“What is it?”
“She isn’t here, Tildy.”
“Pardon my French, Savage, but excuse the fuck out of me?”
His fists open and close at his sides, and he looks as though he’s ashamed to tell me something.
“Open your fucking mouth, Hayes. That’s an order. Do not forget though you may fuck my daughter, you work for me.”
He flinches at the brass in my tone, a tone I have never used towards him, but this has gone on far too long. “Everybody out,” he booms sharply, and everyone, save those familiar faces, leaves on his command. “She’s with Burton. At the Ainsworth Estate.”
My heart stutters in my chest. “YOU LEFT HER ALONE WITH THOSE VULTURES?!” I screech. I put my hand over my heart and feel the ground beneath me move.
“Shit. Fuck. Tildy! Grab her!”
It’s Damon who catches me before I hit my head on the rugs of the library.
I’ve always hated this rug. Flashes of my former mother-in-law dance in my mind as I look up into silver eyes the color of rain clouds.
Beautiful. I grab onto his bulging bicep and give it a squeeze. “I’m fine. Help me stand. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine, Mrs. Barclay. Let me get you to the sofa, okay? Trust me, I’m a doctor.”
Well, when he puts it that way… I nod once curtly and let the gorgeous raven-haired man lift and carry me to the sofa.
He grabs my wrist and looks down at his watch, counting for a few seconds.
I catch Raven’s honey gaze and the small smirk on her face.
Well done, my girl. Very well done. She winks in my direction.
Brazen girl. I’ve always liked her. Damon asks a series of questions, and when he gives me the go-ahead, I turn to Parker.
“Explain everything to me. Leave nothing out.”
So he does.
I grow furious. But then he lifts me like I'm a child and moves me to the monitors and shows me not only the camera footage, showing Sabrina, but also all the text messages they’ve shared.
All of the data they’ve collected by moving silently.
They tell me their plans to go there as soon as the sun goes down and all is silent in the night.
I know he’s capable. I know he’s a good man.
I know my daughter is safe with him. The healing wound on his chest just below his heart proves it.
I stand from where I’m perched. “I hope you understand you’re fired upon getting my daughter back to me?”
“I have my resignation letter written,” he purrs with a dip of his chin.
I roll my eyes at him, then look back at the screen where my daughter is currently putting on earrings.
“This is not enough for me, Savage. I need to see she is well with my own eyes. I need to know her thoughts. I need to hear her side of these things. You aren’t communicating well enough.
I do not want her to get back to me in pieces, Parker. She’s all I have left.
“What are you thinking? And do not tell me I do not need to worry about this nor dare to keep anything away from me, Savage.”
“Well, they wouldn’t turn away a furious mother searching for her daughter, would they? It’s poor taste. They may be murderers, but at least they’re chivalrous murderers.”
Parker raises a scarred brow at me, and those mismatched eyes of his scrutinize me further. “You understand I’m coming with?”
“I’d be rather disappointed if you didn’t,” I retort.
The large oak doors to the library bang against the wall as they open, and the large, dirty blonde, brown-eyed, massive giant in tactical gear and a black muscle shirt barges through.
Tattoos race up from his wrists to his shoulders.
He makes eye contact with me and nods in my direction.
He’s quite handsome, and even though he’s young, he looks dangerous and not to be trifled with, and also sweet. It’s in his eyes.
Is my daughter destined to be surrounded by handsome men? Honestly, it feels like she’s living out one of my novels.
“Aleksi, I’d like you to formally meet Mrs. Matilda Barclay.”
The giant grins down at me when I shove my hand towards him and bends to hug me, but I realize he’s lifted me when my legs are dangling at least a foot off the ground. He smells heavenly and a bit sweaty, but he smells like a man. Goodness. “Matushka!”
“Aleksi…” Parker sighs, turning a shade of pink I’ve never seen on his face. “Drop my employer, please.”
“Oh shit, I’m sorry, Mrs. Barclay. I’m just happy to officially meet the woman who made our Pakhan's wife. I’m a huge fan of your work. I am sorry we did not get to speak much while you were in my home in New York. I hope my home was accommodating and you wanted for nothing.”
I giggle a little at Aleksi’s forwardness when he sets me down gently, and I smooth down my shirt. I crane my neck back to peer up at his chiseled face. “Yes, well, I can't exactly say it was my pleasure making her, but it’s been a pleasure raising her.”
Aleksi tilts his head in a puppy-like demeanor, then smiles broadly and boops me on the nose. “You’re a funny woman. I see where the duchess gets her wit.”
I can’t stop the grin that forms on my face.
I’m about to reply to him, but an all too familiar sound comes through on my cell phone, I and recognize it immediately as Tink’s ringtone.
“That’s Tink. Excuse me, darling.” I grab Aleksi’s rather large bicep, eyes tracing the veins on his muscular forearms, and swallow.
I rush to my purse I had haphazardly thrown on the nearest coffee table in my rush to get to Parker, whom I can feel currently looming over me to peer over my shoulder.
Tink: I need a distraction. Now. Not later.
I turn my torso as Parker steps back, then my feet follow. “Are you ready?”
“More than you know, Miss Tildy.”
“Savage,” Aleksi drawls.
“Yeah?”
“That’s what I came in to tell you—I finally cracked the code to their facility.”
“The cameras?”
Aleksi dips his chin and grins so wickedly it feels naughty just to look at him and pulls out a laptop that looks entirely too small in his ginormous hands.
Christ, I almost want to pray for whatever girl ends up marrying this man.
R.I.P. her vagina. “Better. The doors to the facility they’re holding Pakhan in. I can override them.”
Maverick, who’s been sitting at a desk, rises to his feet. “Can you do it from a closer location? We’re going to need all hands on deck.”
“Sure thing.”
The men all stare at each other as more men enter the athenaeum, filling the room.
The air grows so thick it feels menacing.
I withhold the shudder that wants to roll through my shoulder blades and down my spine.
It settles, instead, creating a tension within me that makes every single hair on my body stand on end as the room gets smaller with every body in their militant gear standing around us.
“Parker?”
But he’s no longer looking at me; he’s looking at the men who’ve known their Capo dei Capi longest. He squares his shoulders back and faces the one I know as Nikolai. “Tildy and I go in first.”
Niko blinks in our direction. “We’ll give you an hour to get Matilda and Boss Lady out. Then we’re going in.”
Parker flicks his gaze to me, and with one curt nod, we’re out the door; he helps me into my coat, and then we’re racing in the direction of the Ainsworth manor.
The rumble of the engine is loud against the silence of the snow.
“You get her out, Tildy. You make sure she’s safe and in your arms, you hear me? ”
“Parker—”
“Anything happens to me, you make sure my girl is safe. You make sure she eats a cupcake a day. You make sure she has five kids, and they love and respect their mother. You make sure Maks loves her more than he loves himself.”
My chest tightens at his words.
“Promise me, Tildy.”
“I would promise you such a macabre thing, Parker, but if I know my daughter like I think I do, then not only are you going to come out of this alive, but you're going to have to drag her out of whatever venomous cesspool Maksim is in after she’s clawed everyone’s eyes out.”
This makes the gorgeous American chuckle my way, and he smirks devilishly. “Damn right.”