9. Chapter 9
Gavin
Hannah goes still.
“Where is he?”
“Wildwood.”
Her brows pull together.
“He’s here?”
“Looks like it.”
I turn the phone so she can see the message.
A motel on the edge of town.
Cheap. Forgettable.
Hannah stares at the screen.
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if he tracked your phone before you lost signal.”
“He knew I came here?”
“Maybe not the exact location. Wildwood would be enough.”
I call my contact.
He answers on the second ring.
“What do you have?”
“More than I expected.”
My hand tightens around the phone.
“Talk.”
“Declan Smitt isn’t new to this.”
I go still.
Hannah watches my face.
“How many?”
“Still digging. At least four women connected to him over the last few years. Same pattern.”
“What pattern?”
“He gets close. Gets access to their information. Debt appears in their names.”
Cold settles through me.
“And the men with him?”
“Part of it. Looks like the debt is leverage. They scare the women, isolate them, then use what they owe to control them.”
“For what?”
A pause.
“Trafficking.”
My jaw locks.
“Declan recruits them.”
“Looks that way.”
I look at Hannah.
She has gone pale.
She heard enough.
“He’s at the motel?”
“Checked in late last night. Not alone.”
“How many?”
“Three men with him.”
The three who came after Hannah.
“Police?”
“Already being looped in. Don’t do anything stupid before they get there.”
I hang up.
Hannah doesn’t speak immediately.
“What did he mean?”
I set the phone down.
“Declan’s done this before.”
Her face empties.
“What?”
“He gets close to women. Gets access to their information. Loans show up in their names.”
She stares at me.
“And those men?”
“They’re part of it.”
“Part of what?”
I hate having to say it.
“They use the debt to scare the women and control them.”
Her eyes widen.
“Oh my God.”
“Looks like Declan helps pick them.”
She pushes away from the island.
“No.”
I move toward her.
“Hannah.”
“No. He didn’t just use my name.”
“No.”
“He chose me.”
The words come out quieter.
That’s worse.
I touch her arm.
“He thought you were alone.”
Her eyes snap to mine.
“He was wrong.”
Something changes in them.
Fear is still there.
So is anger.
“I’m going with you.”
“No.”
“Gavin.”
“No.”
“I need to see him.”
“You need to stay as far away from him as possible.”
“He did this to other women.”
“I heard.”
“And he did it to me because he thought nobody would come looking.”
“That doesn’t mean you walk into a motel with four men waiting for you.”
Her jaw tightens.
“I’m not asking you to let me do something stupid.”
“Good. Because I won’t.”
Her phone buzzes on the counter.
Both of us look at it.
She charged it after Kaden called.
One bar flickers across the screen.
Then a message appears.
Hannah’s breath catches.
I take the phone.
HANNAH, PLEASE. I CAN FIX THIS. COME TO THE WILDWOOD MOTOR LODGE. ROOM 12. COME ALONE. DECLAN
Another message follows.
THEY’RE GOING TO KILL ME.
My grip tightens around the phone.
Hannah reads over my arm.
Then looks at me.
“He expects me.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does.”
“No.”
“We can use this.”
I stare at her.
“Absolutely not.”
“You were already going there.”
“I was going there without putting you in front of him.”
“And if you show up instead of me, he knows immediately something is wrong.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“Hannah.”
“I’m done running from him.”
That stops me.
Her voice stays steady.
“I ran from my apartment. I drove through a storm. I hid here because I thought I had no other choice.”
“You did what you had to do.”
“I know.”
She takes her phone back from me.
“But now I do have a choice.”
I already know what she wants.
I hate it before she says it.
“Let me go.”
“No.”
“Not alone.”
“No.”
“You’ll be there. Kaden has people. Your contacts already called the police.”
“No.”
Her eyes narrow.
“That stopped sounding like an argument three noes ago.”
“Good.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
She steps closer.
“He picked me because he thought I was alone. Let him keep thinking that for another five minutes.”
Every muscle in my body goes tight.
“Hannah.”
“I’m not trying to fight four men. I walk up. I get Declan talking. You stay close.”
She holds my gaze.
“And when they show themselves, it’s over.”
Every part of me wants to shut it down.
Then training takes over.
We know the location, the men, and what Declan expects. Backup is already moving, and law enforcement is on the way.
I still fucking hate it.
“I call the shots.”
Her mouth opens.
“All of them.”
She closes it.
Then nods.
“Fine.”
“You don’t go inside.”
“Okay.”
“You stay where I can see you.”
“Okay.”
“If anything changes, we leave.”
“Fine.”
“If I tell you to move, you move.”
“Yes.”
I study her face.
She isn’t reckless.
She’s scared and doing it anyway.
That doesn’t make me like it.
I call Kaden.
He answers immediately.
“We found him.”
“Where?”
I give him the motel and room number.
“He contacted Hannah.”
A beat.
“Trap?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got two people near Wildwood.”
“Send them.”
“Already moving.”
I glance at Hannah.
“She wants to go in as bait.”
Silence.
Then Kaden says, “And you said no.”
“Several times.”
A short breath comes through the phone.
“She still standing there?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’m guessing that went well.”
“She didn’t win.”
Hannah raises one eyebrow.
Kaden laughs once.
Bastard.
“Keep her covered.”
“I will.”
We disconnect.
I step in front of Hannah.
“If he grabs you?”
Her expression turns serious.
“Turn into the grip.”
“Then?”
“Go for the thumb. Drop my weight. Move.”
“Don’t fight.”
“I know.”
“Get free and get to me.”
“I know.”
I hold her gaze.
“If I tell you to run, you run.”
“Yes.”
“Get dressed.”
Twenty-five minutes later, we pull into Wildwood.
The motel sits off the main road, twelve rooms wrapped around a cracked parking lot.
Three vehicles.
One belongs to Declan.
I park where I can see room twelve.
Before we get out, I hand Hannah the small comm and wait while she clips it beneath the collar of her shirt.
“You hear me?”
“Yeah.”
“Keep it on.”
She nods.
Then stares through the windshield.
“You okay?”
“No.”
Good.
I take her hand.
“You can still change your mind.”
She looks at me.
“So can you.”
“I already tried.”
That earns the smallest smile.
My phone vibrates.
One of Kaden’s contacts.
IN POSITION.
I send back one word.
WAIT.
Then I look at Hannah.
“Ready?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
We get out.
She stays beside me until we reach the far end of the lot.
I stop.
“This is as far as I go.”
She looks toward room twelve, then back at me.
“You’ll see me?”
“Every second.”
Her fingers curl around mine once before she lets go.
“Okay.”
I touch the back of her neck.
“Get him talking. Nothing else.”
She nods.
Then walks toward room twelve.
Every muscle in my body locks.
The door opens before she reaches it.
Declan steps outside.
I know it’s him by the way Hannah stops.
He smiles.
I want to break his face.
“Hannah.”
He moves toward her.
She doesn’t.
“Declan.”
“Thank God.”
He looks rough enough to sell the story, unshaven with a wrinkled shirt and eyes wide enough to pass for fear if I didn’t already know exactly what he is.
An act.
A good one.
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
Hannah folds her arms.
“You could start with the truth.”
“They made me do it.”
My jaw tightens.
Coward.
“I never wanted them coming after you.”
“You used my name.”
“I needed money.”
“You took sixty-eight thousand dollars.”
“I was going to pay it back.”
Bullshit.
“You gave them my address.”
He looks away.
Another practiced move. Make himself look ashamed and wait for her to soften.
Hannah doesn’t.
She studies him instead.
“How many times have you done this?”
Declan’s head snaps toward her.
“What?”
“You were too good at it.”
He goes still.
“I never suspected anything. Not the questions. Not you getting into my accounts. None of it.”
Her voice hardens.
“That takes practice.”
There she is.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Hannah, listen—”
“No.”
His expression changes.
The scared boyfriend slips for half a second.
“You don’t understand what I was dealing with.”
“I understand you picked me because you thought nobody would come looking.”
That lands.
His silence gives him away.
My hands curl at my sides.
“How many women?”
Declan takes a step toward her.
“Hannah.”
“How many?”
A door opens behind him.
One of the three men steps out.
Another appears farther down.
The third comes around the side of the building.
Enough.
I start moving.
Declan sees me.
His face goes white.
This time the fear is real.
“What the fuck?”
Everything breaks at once.
One of the men reaches inside his jacket.
Kaden’s people move from the other side of the lot.
Another cuts toward Hannah.
Declan grabs her arm.
Wrong move.
I’m already running.
Hannah reacts first.
She turns into the grip, drops her weight, and twists toward his thumb.
Declan curses.
She tears free and drives her elbow into his ribs.
He folds.
“Move!”
She runs straight toward me.
I catch her and put her behind me.
One of Kaden’s guys takes the first man coming from the motel while the other intercepts the second before he gets anywhere near Hannah.
The third comes at me.
I meet him halfway and put him on the pavement hard enough that he doesn’t get back up.
Declan is still trying to breathe when I reach him.
He looks up.
Bad choice.
“You put your hands on her.”
“I didn’t—”
I grab his shirt and slam him against the wall.
“You did.”
His face drains.
“Gavin.”
Hannah.
Just my name.
Enough.
I let him go.
He drops.
Sirens sound in the distance.
Good.
Kaden’s people kept them contained.
Law enforcement can finish it.
Hannah comes to stand beside me.
Declan looks up at her.
“Hannah, please.”
She stares down at him.
The woman who came through my door two nights ago was terrified.
This one isn’t.
“How many women did you hand over?”
Declan says nothing.
His face answers for him.
Hannah swallows.
“I didn’t hurt anybody. Hannah, I loved you.”
She laughs once, without humor.
“No.”
He looks up at her.
“You studied me.”
That shuts him up.
Police cars pull into the lot.
Commands follow.
Declan and all three men are cuffed.
Hannah watches until they put him in the back of a cruiser.
Whatever remains of their operation belongs to law enforcement now.
Good.
Hannah lets out a long breath.
I pull her against me.
She comes immediately, pressing her face into my chest.
“You broke the grip.”
A shaky laugh leaves her.
“Is that seriously what you’re thinking about?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought I was going to throw up.”
“You still did it.”
Her arms tighten around me.
I kiss the top of her head.
We give our statements and hand over the messages before heading back up the mountain.
The men who came after Hannah are in custody.
The rest is in law enforcement’s hands now.
Hannah is safe.
That’s enough.
The drive back is quiet.
Tired, not bad.
When we reach the cabin, Hannah steps inside.
Then stops.
“I guess I can go home now.”
Everything in me goes still.
“What?”
“The threat’s over.”
I stare at her.
“I don’t have to hide anymore. The police said they have enough to prove the loan was fraud. I won’t be stuck paying for what he did.”
Hide.
That word lands wrong.
She thinks that’s what this was.
A place to hide.
My jaw tightens.
“Hannah.”
Her expression changes.
“What?”
I move.
Her back meets the wall beside the door before she gets another word out.
The same wall I pinned her against the night she broke into my cabin.
Only this time she isn’t afraid of me.
Her breath catches for a completely different reason.
I brace one hand beside her head and look down at her.
“You want to know what I felt the second I realized it was you against this wall?”