Chapter 74
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
HUNTER
Song- Burning Down, Alex Warren
We’re not even five minutes out from the pinned address when I see him.
A speck on the road.
The highway is empty out here. No houses. No cars. Just scrubland and fence posts. The damn heat shimmering off the tarmac in waves. And in the middle of it, running down the center line, is a child.
My kid. My Wyatt. On his own.
My heart stops. “Ace. Stop the truck.”
“What—”
“Stop the fucking truck!” I scream.
Ace slams the brakes. The truck fishtails and comes to a halt fifty yards from the figure on the road.
I’m out before the vehicle stops moving. My boots hit the floor, and I’m flat out sprinting to my boy. The heat is hitting me like a wall, and the road is blinding in the afternoon sun, but I can see him now.
He’s running in his favorite dinosaur sneakers. His T-shirt is torn at the shoulder. His face is red and streaked with tears and dirt. And he’s screaming. “Help!”
He doesn’t even recognize it’s me yet; he’s in such a state. “Wyatt! It’s me. Daddy!”
His head snaps up. His legs buckle mid-stride, and he almost goes down but catches himself.
And then he sees me. “DADDY!”
The scream that tears out of him cracks something inside me that I know will never fully heal. He runs. I run.
We collide in the middle of the road, and I scoop him off the ground and press him against my chest so hard I can feel his heartbeat against mine. His little arms lock around my neck. His legs wrap around my waist. His face buries into my throat, and he’s sobbing so hard it shakes us both.
“Daddy. Daddy. Daddy.” He says it over and over.
I sink to my knees on the asphalt. Hold him. Press my face into his hair. “I’ve got you,” I whisper. My voice is destroyed. “I’ve got you, son. You’re safe. Daddy’s here.”
“They took us, Daddy.” He’s gasping between sobs. “Uncle Beau, he took us to a house, and Lola—they tied Lola up—”
Every word is a bullet.
“She told me to run. S-she pushed me out the window and told me your phone number, and she said run and don’t look back—”
He pulls back. “But she didn’t come with me, Daddy.” His bottom lip is trembling so hard he can barely get the words out. “She stayed. She stayed so they wouldn’t chase me.”
The road tilts and my heart pounds so hard I might pass out. Lola pushed my son through a window. Gave him my number. Told him to run. And then she stayed behind.
She stayed so they’d come for her instead of him.
My city girl. My firefly. My wife. The one I told was playing house this morning.
She chose my son over herself.
I close my eyes. And try to breathe. Force the rage and the grief and the terror into a box and slam the lid because I cannot fall apart. Not here. Not now. My son needs me upright.
Falling apart can happen later.
“You were so brave, Wyatt.” I cup his face with both hands and wipe his tears with my thumbs. “You are the bravest kid I have ever known. And I am so proud of you.”
“We have to save Mommy,” he says. “Daddy, please. We have to go get her. She’s still in there. Please.”
My body goes still. Wyatt just called Lola his mom. I cuddle him tighter as a tear slips free against him.
“We’re going to get her. I promise you.”
“Right now?”
“Right now.”
I stand with Wyatt in my arms and carry him to the truck. Ace is standing outside the driver’s door with his hand over his mouth and tears cutting silent tracks through the dust on his face.
He doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t need to.
I climb into the passenger seat with Wyatt on my lap. He won’t let go of me. His fists are knotted in my shirt, and his face is pressed against my chest, and every few seconds another sob racks through his small body.
“Drive,” I tell Ace.
He drives. In complete silence. Five minutes later, the property comes into view. A house set back from the road behind a low fence and a row of dead trees. The kind of place that looks like a vacation rental from the outside and a prison from the inside.
And we’re not alone.
Jett’s truck is already there, pulled up at an angle across the end of the driveway, blocking any exit. His crew are climbing out. Four men. Armed.
Behind them, Colten’s truck rolls in. Romeo is in the passenger seat. And behind Colten, in a black Aston Martin that looks like it was built for exactly this kind of moment, Drago unfolds himself from the driver’s seat. He’s dressed in black and ready to burn down this whole house.
A whole army. Cowboys and a Russian mobster, parked outside a dead-end house in the middle of nowhere, because someone made the mistake of touching my family.
But that someone has the same blood running through their veins as me. And I’m going to drain him of every ounce that made him a Sterling.
I step out of the truck with Wyatt still clinging to me. Colten crosses the gravel in three strides. “Hunter.” His eyes drop to Wyatt. Something passes across his face that I’ve never seen on him before, this raw, undiluted fury tempered by the presence of a child.
“He’s okay,” I say. “Shaken up. But okay.”
I crouch down and ease Wyatt’s grip from my shirt. It takes everything I have. “Wyatt. Listen to me.”
He shakes his head. “No. I wanna stay with you.”
“I know, bud. But Daddy needs to go get Lola now. And I need you to be safe while I do that.”
Beau will know we’re here. He probably thinks he can talk his way out of this one.
He can’t.
“I want to come.”
“You can’t. Not this time.” I press my forehead against his. “Colten is going to take you somewhere safe. It’s like a secret hideout. You’re going to wait there, and I’m going to bring Lola home. Okay?”
His chin wobbles. But he nods. “Promise you’re coming back?”
“I promise.”
“With Mommy?”
My throat closes. “With Mommy.”
I hand him to Colten. Wyatt transfers his grip from my shirt to Colten’s neck. Colten holds him like he’s the most precious thing in the world.
He is, to us.
“Take him to safe house three,” I say. “Stay with him. Lock it down. Nobody in or out until I call.”
Colten nods and carries Wyatt to his truck.
At the door, Wyatt looks back at me over Colten’s shoulder. “Be brave, Daddy.”
My son’s words. Said to me the same way I’ve said them to him a hundred times.
I nod.
Colten’s truck disappears down the road, and I turn to face the house.
Jett drops from the hood. “We checked out the area. Two cars. Beau and Reese. I don’t think anyone else is in there. How do you wanna do this?”
Drago checks his weapon. Ace is already moving toward the fence line.
“You let me and Ace go in first. It’s our brother. I gotta get Lola out safely. If you hear a shot go off, you come in and help me.”
I clap his shoulder, and he nods. “You got it, boss.”
And I start walking.