Chapter 20
LUKE
“Scarlett,” I called, bursting through the door.
No answer.
“Scarlett!”
Silence.
I sprinted through the kitchen and living room, taking the stairs two at a time. “Scarlett!”
She wasn’t in the bedroom or bathroom. She wasn’t in the office.
I ran downstairs as Dash, Emmett and Leo jogged through the door, but I didn’t stop as I rounded the banister and ran to her room. “Scarlett!”
There was an edge to my voice. A crack.
Panic.
The world was spinning too fast and every step felt unsteady. Nothing in her room was out of place. Her bed was made. That citrus scent of hers laced the air even though she’d been sleeping in my room. Nothing was wrong, so where the fuck was she?
My heart raced as I scrambled for the dresser and ripped open the top drawer. It was full. So was the middle.
Where the fuck is she? I dragged my hands through my hair and ran for the living room, unsure where else to check—maybe the yard. But one look at Emmett holding a piece of paper and my worst nightmare came crashing down.
She was gone.
She’d left me.
I crossed the room and snatched the note from his hand. My pulse raced and my vision doubled so I closed my eyes and dragged in a breath. When I focused on the page again, the neat and tidy script was as clear as Scarlett’s dazzling eyes.
She’d left me.
Fuck, I was going to pass out. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. How? Why?
The adrenaline that had been coursing through my veins for the past hour was making it nearly impossible to focus and make sense of this. After Tucker Talbot had left us at the bar, I’d calmly walked to my truck and pulled out of the parking lot like I was headed for a lazy weekend drive.
But the minute the bar had been out of sight from my rearview mirror I’d turned on my lights and made the trip to Clifton Forge at 110 miles per hour. The guys had been behind me the entire way.
I’d known something was wrong. Tucker Talbot, that smug fucking bastard. I’d imagined the worst, coming home to find the house trashed or Scarlett dead. But this . . . this hadn’t crossed my mind.
She’d left me?
In a note?
Luke,
I can’t let you do this. Not for me. It’s asking too much.
You’re a good man. I didn’t believe in good men until you. I didn’t know what love felt like until you.
I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
Forgive me.
I love you.
Scarlett
I read it three times before my hand dropped to my side and the paper floated from my grip.
“I don’t . . .” My knees were shaking and I was seconds from joining Scarlett’s letter on the floor. Before I collapsed, I shuffled to the living room and sank onto the edge of the couch, letting my head fall into my hands.
“Where would she go?” Emmett asked, coming to sit beside me. Dash and Leo followed.
“The FBI,” I choked out. “Next door.”
“Any chance that note is forged?” Dash asked.
“No, that’s her handwriting.” I had a dozen sticky notes in the jockey box of my truck with grocery lists to prove it.
Dash paced in front of the fireplace. “It doesn’t make sense. Tucker, that son of a bitch, issued a challenge. He’s not letting this go.”
“Then maybe it’s a good thing she left,” Leo said.
I lurched to my feet and cocked my fist back but Emmett clapped me on the shoulder, shoving me back down. “Fuck you.”
“Sorry.” Leo held up his hands. “Just saying, if the Warriors knew she was here, maybe she’s safer with the feds.”
I shook my head, dragging in a deep breath. Leo wasn’t wrong. An asshole, but not wrong. There was only so much I could do to protect Scarlett, but I would have laid down my life to keep her safe.
And she’d left me without a goodbye.
That goddamn note didn’t count.
What did she mean she couldn’t let me do this? I’d agreed. Me. I’d made the decision to overlook the Warriors’ crimes. Yeah, it wouldn’t have been easy. But I could have lived with it.
I would have traded anything—my career and my badge—for a life with Scarlett.
“Fuck it.” I shook Emmett’s hand off my shoulder and stood, striding for the front door. The alarm panel had been disarmed, something I hadn’t noticed when I’d come inside. Scarlett must have guessed the code.
“Where are you going?” Dash asked, following me outside.
I didn’t respond. I just marched across my lawn to the house adjacent mine and pounded on the front door.
No answer.
“She’s not here, man,” Emmett said. “They would have gotten her out of here.”
Well, I was going to track her down. I pounded once more and when there wasn’t an answer, I turned the knob. The door opened and I shoved my way inside, braced for a fight.
Instead, I met a body in the barren living room.
“Shit.” I flew across the room and knelt beside Birdy. Pressing my fingers hard into her throat, I held my breath, hoping to feel a pulse. It was there. Barely. “Call an ambulance!”
“On it,” Leo said at my back.
There was a bullet wound in Birdy’s chest. Blood pooled around her body, the edges of the black puddle on the carpet already beginning to dry. Goddamn it. This was bad. This would take a miracle.
“Find me a towel or something,” I ordered and seconds later, Dash was holding one out for me to press against Birdy’s wound. I did my best to staunch the trickling blood flow, but there was a lot of blood. Too much blood.
“Ambulance is on the way,” Leo said, coming back inside to stand beside Emmett.
Dash crouched beside me. “I’ll take over.”
I let him replace my hands over the towel and stood, scanning the room as a jolt of terror raced down my spine. Where was Scarlett? The living room was empty except for a recliner and end table. A metallic scent clung to the air.
One foot in front of the other, I let habit and training take over as I checked the house. I searched every room, clearing them one by one, and when I didn’t find a hint of Scarlett, I returned to the living room just as Emmett and Leo jogged inside.
A backpack was in Emmett’s hand.
“Found this outside.”
My heart dropped. No. Oh, fuck no. “That’s hers.”
She’d probably come over here to meet with the FBI but the Warriors had been waiting.
“There’s a car across the street parked in the driveway. Engine’s cold. The driver’s side door is open and there’s a phone on the ground.”
“Which neighbor?” I pushed past them both and strode outside, not waiting for an answer.
The car with the open door was at the Clines’ house.
They were a nice couple in their late fifties who loved camping in the summer.
They’d borrowed my Yeti cooler once when they’d needed an extra for a two-week trip to Yosemite.
And they bragged constantly about their daughter and her academic achievements.
That was Cassie’s car.
She must have come here to study. I often saw her car in the driveway when they were gone and once, Dale had asked if I’d keep an eye out on the weekends she was here alone. Dale had asked all the neighbors to watch out for his daughter.
Damn it, this kept getting worse. Cassie wouldn’t leave her door open or her phone on the concrete.
Had Cassie seen the Warriors? Had they taken her with Scarlett? Or would I find another body in a house?
The wail of sirens filled the air and I walked toward the curb. Down the street, the ambulance took the sharp corner and raced our way. A cruiser was close behind.
“What do you want us to do?” Emmett asked, appearing at my side.
“We have to get to Ashton,” I told him. “They took her.”
“Yeah.”
“We need to check the house.” I pointed across the street. “They might have nabbed Cassie too.”
“I’ll go,” Emmett said and jogged away.
The ambulance parked in the driveway with a cruiser at its side. The EMTs poured out and Nathan shoved out of his cruiser, all eyes looking to me for direction.
“Inside.” I jerked my chin for the EMTs to get moving.
Then I turned my attention to my deputy.
“This whole area is a crime scene. Call Chuck. Get him here to run lead. Breaking and entering. Attempted murder. Abduction.” I pointed to Cassie’s car.
“Sweep the street. Go door to door and ask if anyone saw anything. Then call me with what you find.”
“Where are you going?” Nathan asked as I turned and strode toward my own house.
“To get my girl.” And I walked away—from the scene, from my job.
I marched through the front door and went to the sink to wash the blood from my hands. I dried them on my jeans just as Dash and Leo came inside.
Dash gave me a single nod and came to the sink to clean his hands too. Leo watched from the living room as I disappeared upstairs.
In my closet, I opened up my gun safe, taking out my spare pistol and tucking it into the hollow of my back.
When I came downstairs, Emmett had joined Leo. “Was Cassie there?”
He shook his head. “Place is empty.”
“Fuck. Then they took her too.”
Dash strode to the living room to stand beside his brothers, all three with legs planted wide and arms crossed.
A blockade to the door.
Were they going to stop me? I’d like to see them try. Because I’d take them all down if they got in my way.
I opened my mouth to order them to move.
Dash spoke first. “What’s the plan?”
They were coming with me. A surge of relief rolled down my shoulders. “Do you think they knew Scarlett was here?”
“Probably,” Emmett said. “That or they were here to take out the FBI agent, though they could have done that at any time. Scarlett might have interrupted them, but it’s more likely they planned to kill the agent first, then go next door and grab her.”
There was no guarantee Birdy would survive. I wasn’t sure how long she’d been bleeding out but it had been a while.
“Why would Tucker risk this?” I asked. “With the video.”
“Might have thought we were bluffing,” Dash said. “Might have thought his guys already had Scarlett by the time we left the bar. Or he could have called his guys here in Clifton Forge before the meeting started, before he knew about the video.”
The bastard had just been waiting. Our meeting had been the perfect opportunity to ensure I was out of the house and Scarlett was alone.
I swallowed hard, then voiced the question I feared the most. “Is she alive?”
Emmett and Dash shared a look. Leo’s gaze landed on his boots.
Tell me she’s alive. “Tell me.”
“I don’t know.” Dash shook his head. “But I’ll be real with you. He’ll kill her before he spends his life in prison.”
An icy cool seeped through my skin. A cold that tasted like revenge.
Tucker Talbot was dead.
I’d kill the man myself.
“I don’t like that look,” Emmett said.
I reached for my badge, unclipping it from my belt. The metal was heavy. The lights I’d left on this morning glinted off the silver and gold. I dragged my thumb across the smooth surface, then tossed it onto a couch.
That badge wasn’t going to help me today.
I’d worried this morning that I was like Marcus Wagner. A good cop turned bad. No. That wasn’t it at all. I just had something better to fight for. Love.
He’d lied and killed for his own selfish reasons. But it sure as hell hadn’t been for love.
“We’re getting her back,” I declared.
“Can’t just storm the Warrior clubhouse,” Dash said. “We’re outmanned and outgunned.”
Yes, we were. Didn’t change the fact that I was getting her back.
Scarlett had told me she loved me in a note. Nope. Not good enough. I was going to find her and hear those words myself.
And say them back.
Fuck, but I loved her. And if we both survived this, I’d tell her every day for the rest of her life.
She’d asked me on the river about my dreams. Well, they all required her.
My father had always told me that the Rosen men fell hard and fell once. He’d been right.
Be alive. Just be alive. I willed her to survive this. I willed her all the strength I had in my body.
I’m coming, beautiful. I’m coming for you. Hang on.
“How?” I asked. “Tell me how we do this.”
“Their compound will be reinforced.” Emmett rubbed a hand over his beard. “They’ll be expecting us.”
“We don’t have the element of surprise either, though given how fast we got back here, they can’t have much of a head start. Maybe an hour or two.”
We’d race to Ashton. It was a three-hour trip that we could make in two or less.
“What about another fire?” Leo asked Dash.
Another fire? “What fire?”
Dash sighed. “Years ago, when Dad was alive, we burned down the Warrior clubhouse. My brother, Nick, helped. But their clubhouse is different now. Newer and built mostly out of concrete and cinder blocks.”
And if Scarlett was inside, there was no way I’d put her in the middle of a damn fire.
Her backpack rested against Emmett’s calf. “Did you check it?”
He nodded.
“The phone?”
He shook his head.
“Fuck.” She’d had it on her. At least we had the backup. That alone might keep Tucker from killing her. “What do we do? There has to be a way inside.” Maybe if I pulled in every one of my officers. Maybe if I enlisted help from the Ashton police too.
“Chief Rosen, before you get yourself killed—”
My eyes whipped to the front door and the guys spun around just as Agent Maria Brown crossed the threshold.
“—maybe you’ll stop trying to shut me out.”
I blinked. How long had she been standing there?
Maria walked past Dash, arching her eyebrow. “Mr. Slater.”
“Should I know you?”
“No.” She went to the couch, bending to pick up my badge. She inspected it, her eyes narrowing. Then she tossed it to me. “You’re going to need this.”
I caught it and arched an eyebrow.
“Luke, I’m on your side.”
We’d see about that. “What do you want?”
“I’m your best shot at getting Scarlett back.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. The guys all did the same, turning to face her.
Maria went to the couch, sitting ramrod straight. Those black slacks and suit jacket were as crisp as ever, but there was a frazzled edge to her today. The harsh knot that she normally wore in her hair was beginning to come undone.
“I don’t want the Warriors to win,” she said. “I’ve been working their case for the past three years. They’re good. They know how to cover their tracks. There isn’t a soul on earth I hate as much as Tucker Talbot.”
Dash huffed a laugh. “Join the club.”
“Scarlett Marks might be the only chance I have at putting him away for good,” she said.
“All I need is to get inside that clubhouse. I need a reason. And if the chief of police suspects that the Arrowhead Warriors have kidnapped an innocent woman from his community, then I have a reason. Give me five minutes to explain.”
Easy choice. We were short on men and if the FBI wanted to bust into that clubhouse and rescue Scarlett, I sure as fuck wasn’t going to stand in the way.
“Okay, Maria.” I walked to the chair across from her. “I’m listening.”