Chapter 5
Chapter Five
GREYSON
The plane touched down, and I brushed Riley’s hair from her face. She was curled over me, her legs on my lap, her head on my chest. It didn’t look close to comfortable, but I hadn’t wanted to move her.
“Time to wake up,” I told her as she blinked her eyes at me. They sparkled in the light streaming in from the windows.
“Are we here?” she asked with a yawn.
“Yes, now give me my phone.” I held my hand out. She’d taken it from me and turned it off, breaking my rule that calls come first. But she’d straddled me and weakened my defenses as she’d unhooked my pants. When her hands had guided me into her, the phone was the last thing on my mind.
Thinking of it caused a reaction she noticed, and she gave me a knowing smile.
“Give me the phone, baby girl, or I’ll edge you on the rest of the day until you’re begging to come.”
Her eyes narrowed and those lush pink lips pouted just enough for me to reach down and grab one between my teeth. Dragging them across it, I said, “Now, Riley,” as my hand slipped between her legs.
“You’re cruel,” she said.
“I know I am.”
My fingers slid further, and she huffed, grabbing the phone from her side and slapping it into my other hand.
“Boss, it’s all clear.”
I gave Den a nod and drew my hand from between her legs. “I’ll finish that when we get to the room.”
“You’d better.” She continued talking, but the influx of messages and missed calls held my attention.
“Grey?” she asked as my worry grew.
Mason’s urgent texts had me dialing him immediately.
“Bout time,” he grumbled when he answered.
“What’s wrong?”
“We’ve got trouble. There was a break in at your hangar. We found the bartender from the wedding bound and gagged, a nasty bruise on his temple. He snuck in with Ava.” My eyes flew to Den as Mason continued, “They took her.”
“Who?” I growled, digging my hands into the leather.
“The Omens. They thought she was Riley.”
The leather ripped and Den came over to me. He knew me well enough to measure the changes in my moods, and this one was dangerous.
“Why do you say that?” I said, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Because they knocked the guy out and waited for him to come to. When he did, they told him if he wanted to see his wife again, the Omens were waiting to talk.”
I scraped my hand over my face, glancing at Riley, thankful it wasn’t her but worried for Ava.
“What the fuck does that mean, Tides?”
“It means my brother needs something.” It was the only reason he would have left a message like that.
Emerson was vicious. If he’d wanted to kidnap Riley, he would have just taken her and not left a message.
Would have enjoyed watching me squirm as I tried to find out who had her.
“Have them fuel the plane up,” I told Den. “We’re going home.”
Riley let out a complaint until I silenced it with a finger. “How long can you and Raines stay?” I hated having to involve them, but my instinct told me if Emerson was desperate enough to attempt kidnapping Riley again and leave the man his men thought was me alive, then this was big.
“We can stay a few more days.”
“Good.” I disconnected, my mind piecing things together.
A botched kidnapping was not like my brother.
The Omens were strict, calculating, and cold.
When they struck, they struck hard, annihilating families and hitting them where they were most vulnerable.
But this had been sloppy. As had the instances involving Mason’s girl and Tyson’s wife.
Sloppy was not something my brother did.
“What’s wrong, boss?” Den asked, and my gut twisted at what I was about to tell him.
Riley shifted next to me. I was about to destroy Den with the news of Ava’s kidnapping and obliterate Riley’s happy ending to a wedding that had been fraught with wrong turns.
First, moving it forward and not giving her the Christmas wedding she’d wanted, then further moves when Tyson was shot, leaving the party early without goodbyes, and now this.
It made me want to turn the clock back and start over, to undo the mistakes, but as I’d learned with past mistakes, there was no going back. No matter how much regret they caused.