Chapter Twelve
Chapter
Twelve
“Hey, Uncle Li, I just wanted to…” Lucas began.
Nate stepped back, wanting to watch how this scene played
out.
“You wanted to what, Lucas? Do you think I don’t have ears?
What is your mother going to say when I tell her you wanted to defile my
precious angel?”
It felt so good to have Li O’Donnell’s outrage directed at
someone else.
Lucas sighed. “She’ll probably direct you to group therapy.
My mom is very sarcastic. She’ll give you a lecture on how defiling is my
favorite activity.”
When they’d shown up ten minutes before, his gut had
tightened as he’d watch Li punch in the security code and let himself in
through the front door. He’d watched as the man had avoided the kids’ area.
He’d known exactly where he was going. The security office, where Nate had
settled in for the night. Only the addition of his father had made Nate think
Li wasn’t on an assassination run.
Liam had made his way to the office and then given Nate a
rundown on what had happened in El Salvador.
It might take a few days, but Liam was absolutely certain
someone from a rival cartel would handle the problem. He’d explained the work
hadn’t been rough. A little misinformation here and there and voila, Li
O’Donnell had two rival cartels taking each other out. He was a perfectly
ruthless bastard, and Nate approved.
Just a few more days and Daisy should be safe enough to be
out and about in public, and what was Nate planning on doing about that?
His father had sighed and said something about Nate being
young and he and Daisy just starting to date and Nate had been honest.
“Marry her as soon as she says yes,” he’d explained.
Then real trouble had shown up. Before Li had been able to
reply to his declaration of intent, those three lotharios had been invading and
trying to take his honey. He’d known the minute those three had shown up Aidan
had talked to the Doms and likely been an asshole who told them she was now on
the market for a Dom.
Of course he’d heard the twins had been told what was
happening and they’d unleashed a wrathful Lou on Aidan’s ass. Aidan was being
bombarded with emails about male enhancement drugs. It was a minor revenge, but
then Aidan had been following his father’s wishes.
This felt like malicious compliance at its finest.
The good news? He’d heard his girl explaining all the
reasons she had no interest in any of these pretty, rich boys.
Gabriel Lodge was heir to a billionaire. Lucas’s parents ran
a restaurant empire. Hunter’s folks were part owners of McKay-Taggart.
He was nothing but a soldier with a busted-up truck and
barely a room of his own, but his Daisy didn’t care.
He was so fucking in love with her.
“I think they understand now, Liam.” Nate was perfectly calm
since he knew where his Daisy’s affections went. He also thought once he had a
collar around her throat all the horny arseholes would back off. Well, the Doms
would. He got the feeling he would have to explain to more than one besotted
idiot that Daisy belonged to him.
And he belonged to her, and he’d figured out his place in
the world. By her side.
“You truly marrying my girl?” Liam asked.
“As soon as she says yes,” Nate replied.
His father put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m happy for you,
son.”
Liam breathed out a deep sigh and looked toward the heavens
before making the sign of the cross. “Thank the lord. No take backs, Nathan. No
matter how much trouble she causes.”
Nate felt a grin slide across his face. “I can handle some
trouble.”
“Did you hear that, Brody?” Liam was all smiles now.
“I told you it would work out,” his father said with a smile
of his own. “And the best news is I’ve been talking to your mother and she
wants to make Dallas our home base for a while. Elodie’s safely in Sydney. So
we’d like to be around friends again.”
Liam’s expression turned serious as he held a hand out to
Nate’s father. “We’ll be more than happy to have you. I would bet Avery already
has Steph looking for a place close to us. You want to be close to us and not
the run-down place where Daisy’s going to make Nate live. You’re going to need
to learn a lot about home improvement, son.”
Was he about to get everything he wanted? His girl. His
family. Knowing his sister was happy and fulfilling her dreams.
Daisy ran into the room, her cell in her hands. She looked
at the boys who were still joking around and not getting ready for bed in any
way. Daisy took a steadying breath.
Something was wrong.
“What is it?”
He and Liam asked the question at the same time, both moving
in front of her.
Liam took a step back, giving Nate the chance to talk to her
first.
Because she was his responsibility now. He reached for her
hand. “What’s happening?”
“The alarm is off, and I can’t find Devi,” she whispered.
His father cursed under his breath. “I’m on it. We’ve been
away from the bloody security cams. I’ll run them back. She couldn’t have
gotten out the front. We would have seen her.”
“She went out back,” Daisy replied, still surreally calm.
“She was upset about something, and she sits on the back steps when she’s
upset. Lucas, I need you to get the boys into the nursery. Bri’s there.”
Lucas was suddenly all kinds of serious. “You need me to
call my dad?”
She shook her head. “My father’s already on it.”
“Yeah, go get Ian,” Liam was saying into his cell. “Tell him
I want a sniper on the roof of the club, and they’re looking for Devi on the
east side of the Ferguson building. Keep this quiet. We don’t know what’s
happening yet.”
Lucas turned to the kids. “All right, guys. Let’s get a move
on.”
Hunter was already in motion, gathering up the youngest.
“Let’s brush some teeth. Don’t want them to fall out, do we?”
They weren’t military but they were calm under pressure.
“We’ll stay with Bri and the kids,” Gabe assured them. “Let
me know when the coast is clear. Until then, we’ll keep everyone in lock-down.”
The young men moved efficiently, getting the boys to cover
without panicking them.
“I think they’re calling my cell.” Daisy’s hand shook
slightly as she passed it to him. “I didn’t answer or look at the texts they
sent.”
“Smart girl.” Her father still had his cell in hand. “Better
to play dumb. The minute you answer you’re on a timer.”
Daisy nodded. “I also didn’t get close to the windows. When
I realized the alarm wasn’t on, I made sure no one could see me. I would have
loved to have seen her, but that would put me on a timer, too.”
She hadn’t panicked. She hadn’t rushed out trying to save
her friend herself. He was proud of her. His cell rang, and he slid his finger
across the screen, putting it on speaker. “Dad? What have you got?”
Daisy leaned in.
“She went out the back and did exactly what Daisy said she
would. She was drinking coffee, sitting on the back steps crying,” his father
explained. “And then two men with military-grade weapons dressed in all black
took her. I think they’re in a van on the other side of the Ferguson building.
Liam, I told you I thought someone was following us.”
Liam cursed under his breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see it so
I brushed it off.” He looked to his daughter. “I was too eager to get home and
tell you and your mother you’re going to be safe. I just wanted to see my
daughter and tell her how much I love her.”
Daisy nodded. “I love you, too, Da. But we have to get Devi.
I can’t let them take her. We have to exchange me for her, and then you’ll
rescue me. It’ll be fine. I’ll be a perfectly good hostage.”
There was only one problem with the scenario. “They don’t
want you as a hostage, love. They want you dead so you can’t testify against
their boss. So no, we’re not exchanging you.”
“I can be very charming,” she replied, her shoulders
straightening like she was actually getting ready to walk right into danger and
expect to come out on the other side. Because she was charming.
Keeping her alive was going to be a full-time job.
“You are, my darlin. You are the most charming woman alive
besides your sainted mother, but I think in this case, we should try to take
the fuckers out before they lay hands on you.” Her father was suddenly the
voice of reason.
“Da, we can’t let them take Devi.” Daisy’s voice wavered.
“Her mother is already on her way, and Boomer happened to be
in the club tonight so he’s got a high-powered rifle, and I assure you he only
needs one shot,” Liam explained. “However, we’re going to have to start the
timer or I worry they might kill her and try again later. I can’t imagine
Devi’s being charming right now. She’s probably proving she’s Erin Taggart’s
daughter and giving them hell.”
“She fought hard,” Brody said over the line. “They roughed
her up but good. However, she was alive when they put her in the van. Oh, wow,
we’ve got incoming. Erin’s moving around the back. She’s clinging to the
shadows. I don’t think they can see her. She’s in.”
Erin Taggart strode into the room wearing an overcoat that
absolutely did not fit her. She’d been playing at Sanctum so there was probably
some fet wear under the men’s jacket. She’d tugged on a pair of sneakers, too.
“Li, where’s my girl?”
“Brody’s got eyes on a van across the street. They took her
in there,” Liam explained.
Erin simply nodded. “We need to get her out of the van. It’s
too close quarters to start a fight there. Have they contacted you?”
“They’re trying to call right now,” Daisy said, holding up
her phone.
“Damn it.” Erin’s jaw tightened. “We need a couple of
minutes to put people in place. Theo’s having to move around the long way so
they don’t see him. Ian’s with him. Brody, contact Big Tag and let him know
they need to be behind the van.”
“On it,” his father said over the cell.
Nate could see the battlefield in his mind. One of the first
things he’d done when he and Daisy had moved in was study the area around them.
When her uncles came to visit, he would take a jog. Those long sessions were