Chapter 67 A cat?
A CAT?
KOEN
Who the fuck is she talking about?
I stare down at Briar in my arms. I caught her before she fell, passed out cold. Her mouth is still tight and pressed down into a frown as though, even now, she still fights the sedative I gave her.
I swing her up into my arms, carrying her out of the apartment, down several flights of stairs and toward the back exit.
Aidan is waiting at the back door of the apartment building and holds it open for me as I pass, making my way to the SUV concealed in the dark alley next door.
The trunk opens, and I lay Briar down inside, not bothering to tie her up. The drugs I gave her will keep her unconscious for a few hours yet. Long enough to get where we’re going.
I brush the hair out of her face with a frown. Don’t leave her alone.
Don’t leave who alone?
Lily already left—Mac and Alex are out tracking her down. After my meeting with Ronan, I was forced to call back my crew from New York. They made good time, too, arriving just in time to help clean up the mess down at the docks.
But a nagging feeling settles over me, and I glance back up at Briar’s window, quickly running over what I remember about her apartment. She doesn’t have a dog, but maybe a cat? Though I’m pretty sure I would’ve seen it sitting in the window or on the sofa at some point...
I shut the trunk, halfway to the passenger seat before I shake my head, cursing under my breath before turning around, and heading back into the decrepit brick building. Something about what she said—and the desperate look on her face when she said it. I just—
“Rí.”
I stop. My head snaps up in Liam’s direction. He’s behind the wheel, twisted around in his seat, watching me through the open window with narrowed eyes. “What are you doing? Let’s go.” He scans the street as he talks, seeing as how we’re in the middle of a kidnapping.
I turn back to look up at the apartment again, making my decision. “I’ll be right back.”
“What the fuck? Where is he going?” I hear Aidan ask Liam as I stalk back into Briar’s building, before taking the stairs two at a time until I reach her door again. Cursing for the hundredth time their lack of an elevator.
The apartment is as I left it—empty. And eerily quiet without Briar.
I spot her phone on the counter and pick it up, tucking it into my back pocket. I move through the space, keeping my eye out for a laptop or other electronic device I can have Liam scan. Who knows what other information she’s passed on to the Italians, or whatever else she may have sold us out on?
Moving slowly down the hall, there’s no sign of movement, and no sign of a fucking cat, in either the kitchen or the living room.
My eyes scan Briar’s room from the hall.
There’s not much inside. Her pathetic excuse for a mattress is on the floor, no closet, and it looks like she’s already torn through her bureau.
The drawers sit half askew, clothes everywhere, with one drawer pulled out entirely, sitting overturned on the floor.
I take a quick inventory of Lily’s room next door.
Also empty.
Lily’s room is a direct contrast to Briar’s. The color pink dominates the space. Soft and feminine. Nothing jumps out at me, and seeing as I have no beef with Lily, I leave her room alone, prowling back out into the hall.
That leaves only the bathroom, and the closet across the hall from Briar’s room.
Something doesn’t feel right about this situation and I take out my gun, clearing the bathroom before moving in on the closet.
Silently, I twist the nob, nudging the door open with my foot, before peering inside.
I enter slowly, surprised to find it’s not a closet at all… but actually a third bedroom.
The floor is a landmine of toys, so I stay in the doorway, my eyes scanning the small space.
Colorful drawings and paintings are taped rather haphazardly to the walls. A pink tutu and a hockey stick lie abandoned on the floor in front of a small wooden bed.
A small wooden bed containing a tiny sleeping child.
The kid is buried so deep under the covers, I might have missed her if I hadn’t been so taken aback by the room.
Don’t leave her alone. Briar’s terror-filled plea.
I quickly holster my gun at my waist.
“Fuck.”
Not taking my eyes off of the sleeping child, I pick up my phone, dialing Liam before pressing the device to my ear.
“I need your help,” I mutter as soon as the call connects, keeping my voice as low as possible.
“Fucking hell.” I hear him slam his palm down on the wheel in frustration. “I’m coming.”
I eye the child warily while I wait for my brother. Dodging toys, I risk a closer look.
It’s a girl.
She looks to be around three, maybe four? With a mess of blonde curls strewn across her face, clutching a pink, stuffed unicorn in her hands. Sleeping peacefully.
Relief courses through me when, upon closer inspection, she looks nothing like Briar. But with that blonde hair… she does look an awful lot like Lily.
Not sure what else to do, I retreat back into the hallway, lightly pacing the space outside, standing guard over the room while watching the little rise and fall of the blankets, until I hear the front door open.
Liam moves swiftly through the apartment, mask on, gun in hand, seeing as I gave him no context as to the help I required.
He gives me a look of mild irritation when he finds me, just standing in the hallway waiting for him, and puts his weapon away.
“Aidan is with Briar?”
“Yeah, but what—”
He’s loud. Too loud. I press a finger to my lips, pointing silently into the bedroom.
Liam arches a brow, but humors me, coming closer and taking a peek around the corner.
“Oh, fuck,” he breathes out, glancing back at me, his eyes wide.
“Yeah,” I clip out, still working out what to do about this situation in my head.
“Is she—?”
“Lily’s,” I answer. “I think.” Or maybe we can add nannying to the seemingly never-ending list of Briar’s part-time jobs.
“We have to go.” The urgent look in Liam’s eyes reminds me we’ve long since overstayed our time here.
“I know.”
“We can’t leave the kid here.” His eyes dart from the child to me.
He isn’t wrong. We’re not the only ones after Briar. It’s only luck we beat Gio and his crew here, and I have no idea where Lily is.
I sigh. “We have to take her with us.” I pull out my phone and send out a few quick messages.
“Mac and Alex are already out looking for Lily. I’ll have someone monitor the apartment in case she turns up here.
You get the kid.” I shoulder past him, headed toward Briar’s room. “I need to find Briar’s laptop.”
Liam nods, rolling back his shoulders and cracking his neck before stepping into the child’s room. I should go look for the computer, but I wait in the doorway for my brother to reemerge. The child looks even smaller in his arms; he scooped her up, covers and all.
He gives me a silent nod before heading down the hall.
As he does, she stirs, letting out a soft sigh, eyelids fluttering for a second.
We both freeze and lock eyes, holding our breath.
I can only imagine the sight if the kid wakes up right now…
two strange men in masks, both of us still drenched in blood from our earlier altercation.
But thankfully, her eyes remain shut, a deep sigh escaping as she burrows deeper into Liam’s arms. The pink stuffed unicorn slips out of her grasp and falls to the floor.
Not noticing the stuffed toy, Liam moves as swiftly and smoothly for the door as possible, disappearing with the child down the hall.
Once they’re gone, I stare at the little pink unicorn on the floor for a few seconds before heading back into Briar’s room, finding nothing, and then following Liam back outside.
“So we’re kidnappers now?” Aidan asks when I slide wordlessly into the passenger seat. He’s now in the driver’s seat; Liam is in the back, the girl still asleep in his arms.
“You’re one to talk,” I shoot back, so not in the mood for anyone’s shit right now. I rip off my mask.
“Is it Briar’s?” Liam asks, and I feel his eyes on the back of my head, but I’m too busy scanning the street outside.
“It?” Aidan scolds, turning around in his seat to give our brother a disappointed look.
“The kid’s got to be Lily’s,” I say, with only half a mind on the conversation, too preoccupied thinking about the little dark-haired liar I have in the trunk.
“Are you sure?” Liam presses, looking down at the girl asleep in his lap.
“Briar doesn’t have a kid.”
“But what if…”
“Briar doesn’t have a kid,” I snap, and Liam wisely shuts his mouth.
A minute goes by and nobody speaks, and the car doesn’t move either.
“Drive,” I growl out, and Aidan makes a show of putting the SUV into gear.
“Where?” he asks me.
“The warehouses.” I turn back to Briar’s building, throwing one last glance up at her window. The same one I’ve watched her through too many times now to count. It’s dark inside. “It’s time to get some fucking answers.”