Chapter 30
T hree of the strangers began talking all at once.
“Whoa, hey.”
“Maybe don’t do that.”
“We’re not gonna hurt you.”
But all their words kind of melded together as I scrambled off the couch and tripped over my shoes and bag, only to be caught and deftly shifted behind Adam as he and the other four Shadow members advanced on the strangers like the well-trained unit they were, guns drawn.
“Really?” one of the strangers asked, his tone a dark rasp that had chills racing down my spine.
“What are you doing?” Cameron seethed from where the Shadow crew had stopped at some invisible boundary, never lowering his gun.
“Thought you asked for help,” the same man said. “If I was wrong...”
“So, you just show up unannounced?” Cameron demanded. “How’d you get in here?”
“Look,” one of the other strangers began, “either we’re all talking with guns, and this is gonna get fun fast, or we’re just talking.”
Tension pressed down around us as seconds passed before Adam and the rest of the team straightened. Once Adam’s gun was in the holster at his hip, he reached back for me. Gripping me tightly in obvious relief before he shifted me around to his side.
Searching my face, he asked, “You good?”
I didn’t even try smiling. It wouldn’t have mattered. I knew he could feel the tremors racking my body. “I don’t know,” I told him honestly as Cameron continued speaking with the strangers. “Who are they?”
He drew in a deep breath like he was preparing to answer, only to slant his head and give me a look like he wasn’t sure he knew how . “A group from North Carolina we use every now and then.”
“‘Group,’” I echoed suspiciously as my gaze slid back to the men.
Two of them were identical. One was giving Cameron a run for his money on the whole Gorgeous-Viking-Giant title. And the last...he was just absolutely terrifying, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. He was strikingly handsome, but there was something about him that screamed danger in a way that was real and unsettling.
“They, uh...” Adam dipped closer to whisper, “Their company’s called ARCK . They’re private security but specialize in helping women in bad situations they can’t escape from, which is what we’ve used them for. However, we’ve...” His stare darted toward them, studying them for a moment, before shifting back to me. “Because of the way they are and the way they do things, we’ve wondered about them. Briggs thinks they might be like the Wreckers.”
Ice splintered through my veins when I realized what he was implying. “And you work with them ?” I hissed.
“They do a lot of good,” Adam said with a shrug. “They can also do things we can’t. Mostly because they care about the legal system even less than we do.”
“I can hear you,” one of them said, making my head snap that way to find the terrifying one watching us. When he continued, I realized he was the person Cameron and Adam had been talking to on the drive to the airport—the guy who made Asher sound like a kid on Christmas morning. “If any of you were that worried about us, you wouldn’t keep calling.” Without waiting for anyone to respond, he focused on Cameron and continued with whatever they’d been talking about. “We’ll head out now. Maverick will stay here.”
Cameron drew in a breath that showed every one of his reservations, but he just released it with a, “Yeah, all right.”
All four of them walked toward the front with Cameron trailing after them, but one of the twins came back soon after and slid a backpack off his shoulders. “Where can I set up?”
No one answered right away, but Gray eventually asked, “So, when he said your wife was taking care of things from North Carolina...” Bringing up a part of the conversation Adam and I had missed.
“We thought you were handling everything from there,” Adam added. “That was the implication.”
The twin—I’m assuming Maverick—just gave a subtle nod. “Hard for my wife to find people on a time crunch when this family you’re dealing with has skilled hackers to cover their tracks.”
“Which is where the trackers come in,” Beau said doubtfully, causing Maverick to shoot him an arrogant and amused look.
“Think what you want. My brother’s a bloodhound,” he said in complete sincerity. “If this girl isn’t on a plane yet, they’ll find her. Now,” he added as he slipped a laptop out of the backpack, “where can I set up?”
Cameron walked back into the room in time to gesture for Maverick to follow him, only to stop before he made it out of the living room. Twisting to look at the twin, he asked, “How did y’all get in here?”
Maverick lifted a shoulder. “Figured you’d know it isn’t all that hard to get into places.”
One of Cameron’s eyebrows ticked up. “I had the alarm set.”
“And my wife has probably already restored power to the system,” Maverick said like he wasn’t sure why this was a conversation they were having. “She’s watching the cameras here too, so we’ll know if anyone shows up.”
“That answers what I was asking,” Gray murmured.
“Maybe let us know whenever any of y’all show up,” Cameron said, ignoring Gray, then pointedly added, “ Before suddenly appearing in the house. Y’all are lucky most of us had already met half of you and had just been talking about your role in this. We wouldn’t be having this conversation otherwise.”
I was amazed and wholly disturbed that Maverick just stared at Cameron, completely unaffected by what he was saying. Then again, the ARCK people had casually stood there as five people—four of whom were Special Forces—advanced on them with guns drawn. I couldn’t imagine anyone being so indifferent in that situation.
Then again, mafia members might . . . maybe Asher was right about them.
The twin seemed to wait for Cameron to continue. When he didn’t, Maverick said, “With the issues you’re having, and what your boss is asking us to do, I’d maybe just be glad we decided to actually come out here.” He gestured for Cameron to lead the way and repeated in a low, dark voice, “Where can I set up?”
Cameron released a heavy sigh and looked past us. With a silent command directed at the Deadly Duo, they left the room with Maverick and Beau close behind them.
Once they were gone, Cameron looked at Adam and me, and asked, “You okay, Chloe?”
My head bobbed long before I said, “Yeah.”
Adam’s fingers grazed mine and gently curled around them at the lie. “Is this changing things?” he asked Cameron.
“Yeah,” Cameron responded after a delay. “We’re not heading out anymore. Not yet, at least.” He hesitated a moment longer as his stare drifted to me before he added, “They’re gonna handle Vance.”
The news sent a jolt through Adam, and he rocked forward a step before stopping himself. “Rush,” he began in disapproval, but Cameron cut in before he could continue.
“This is what they do.”
“And it isn’t what we did for years?” Adam countered.
“That was different,” Cameron argued. “You know it was different. This...” He gestured toward the hidden entryway. “Thatch, this is what they do. I’m sure of it.”
“You’re sure,” Adam challenged with a disbelieving laugh. “Because I thought it was always just assumptions.”
“Briggs asked if they had a way to prevent more retaliation from Wreckers,” Cameron said, and I knew from his tone and the way Adam’s head slanted just slightly that this was new information for them both. He gestured toward the front of the house. “They said they’d handle all our issues with the Wreckers like it’d be the easiest part of their day.”
A mumbled curse left Adam. “So, we just do business with mafia now?”
Cameron’s hands lifted before heavily falling. “Apparently, we have been.”
“Well,” a masculine voice began before Maverick rounded the corner, bringing him back into the room with us, “if you want a family on your side, I assure you, it’s ours.” He folded his arms across his chest, then lifted one of his shoulders. “We’re still in out of necessity only, and there isn’t one family in this country who doesn’t know us and know what we’re capable of. So, if your problem thinks you’re aligned with us, you’ll be good, unless they decide they want to take us on too. Considering they’ve avoided Kieran like the plague for years, I doubt that’ll happen.”
I didn’t have to ask which one was Kieran. It was easy enough to assume.
The terrifying one.
“We have a problem,” he continued as if he hadn’t just confirmed they were, in fact, in the mafia, then unfolded his arms and held up his phone. “My wife’s messaging me. She pulled doorbell footage from the surrounding apartments where this girl was taken, since hers was scrubbed. Two of them caught her leaving. One has a perfect view of who she left with .” He tapped on his screen, then held out his phone to Cameron.
Cameron released a clipped sigh and scrubbed a hand over his head before giving Adam a look. “It’s Evans’ dad.”
“Did you know Beau Evans’ dad was connected to the Wreckers?” Maverick asked, his voice softer than before.
“Our Evans is solid,” Adam said, quick to defend him.
My eyes widened as I wondered if this day could get any more shocking. There was absolutely no way this was real life?—
That was it.
I’d read Lainey’s text about living my real-life novel, and that must have conjured the most elaborate dream, making my life into an actual novel of my favorite genres into one. Romance. Suspense.
Right?
When Maverick quirked a brow, Adam’s fingers twitched against mine, strong and sure and real, letting me know this wasn’t a dream. And I wondered if I would just start laughing soon because, honestly, what else was there to do with everything I’d learned today?
“We knew,” Cameron mumbled, finally answering Maverick’s question.
“And our Evans is solid,” Adam repeated firmly. “I watch him. He’s been struggling ever since he found out. But he’s too by-the-book; he’d never dip into that world. He’s probably gonna have a massive issue when he finds out what you are, since we’ve been working with you.”
Maverick nodded contemplatively as he accepted his phone back from Cameron. “I’ll let you decide whether or not he knows about this then. But now we know how this girl was taken,” he said as he tapped his phone agitatedly against his palm. “There’s no record of an officer going to her apartment, and she was never booked at the department. But she was in handcuffs and clearly thought she was being arrested.”
Oh . . . my . . . gosh.
No. No, no, no.
I wasn’t sure when I moved or when my repeated thoughts started falling from my lips on a hushed, aching plea, but the next thing I knew, I was on my knees. Gripping the tattooed arms holding me upright as my body mercilessly shook and tears blurred the rug beneath me, all while flashes of that night ripped through my mind.
I absently noticed my hair being drawn away from my face. I vaguely registered the note of worry in the muffled voices around me. But it took far too long for everything to clear when all I could truly see and hear was the man at my door.
“...sick earlier,” Adam was saying when everything came into focus. “But she should be fine now that we’re back here.” His voice lowered, at once worried and commanding. “Talk to me, Chloe.”
No, no, no.
I can’t—I have to be wrong. That couldn’t have been what nearly happened.
And yet, the more I tried denying it, the harder it became.
Even though that man had been at my door weeks ago, I felt overwhelmingly more terrified right then, than on the night it’d happened. But there was an unnerving feeling that came with the knowledge you’d narrowly escaped being kidnapped for trafficking. There was a nauseating sensation that accompanied it when you realized you’d been dismissing the entire event as something else. There was a strange hollowness that left you unbearably cold when you acknowledged a man you’d once loved had been behind it all.
My lips shakily moved around the words that had long since lost their sound until a panicked whimper wrenched from me.
“Chloe,” Adam softly begged.
“He—it wasn’t—I was wrong,” I choked out as the tears began slipping down my cheeks and onto the rug. “I’m not supposed to be here. I’m not. He came—I was wrong. I called. It was him,” I rambled around the sob caught in my throat and felt my entire body tremble when it finally broke free.
Bracing one shaky hand against the floor, I pressed my other hand to my mouth and tried pushing myself up as my head wildly shook, all while images of that night played out like a nightmare.
I’d been so, so wrong.
The officer hadn’t been there to scare me away from filing a restraining order, and he hadn’t been there to scare me back into Owen’s arms. He’d been there to take me, on Owen’s orders, for something so much worse.
“You’re okay. You’re okay. I’ve got you,” Adam whispered as he pulled me to my knees and twisted me so I was leaning into him. “Need you to talk to me,” he begged when I sank against him like dead weight. “What were you wrong about?”
“Chloe?” someone called out, sounding alarmed. But it wasn’t until Lainey rushed around us and dropped to her knees as Asher demanded, “What’s going on?” that I realized I knew the voice.
She reached for me, only to draw her hand back when Adam lifted one of his in silent protest. Her stare bounced between us a few times before settling on me, looking wholly alarmed when another muffled sob tried breaking free from behind my hand.
But this time, I didn’t know how to keep my emotions to myself. And now they were out there for everyone to see: real and stricken.
“What happened?” she asked Adam, accusation lacing her words, before her stare was back on me.
“Talk to me, Bubbles,” Adam murmured, ignoring her. “What were you wrong about?”
My head moved in quick, tight jerks before I finally dropped my hand as it all came tumbling free. “I thought he was trying to scare me,” I confessed, the words anemic and shaky. “I thought he was trying to stop me from filing a restraining order, or trying to scare me into going back to him. Something. But I didn’t know . I didn’t have proof that?—”
Another choked cry left me, this one softer than the others, and I furiously wiped at the tears still falling before telling them everything about that night.
From going to bed early after Owen had shown up—which they already knew about from my confessions to Gray—to the fake officer waking me up a few hours later, and everything that took place after.
By the time I finished talking, Adam was crouched in front of where I was now sitting against the couch with my knees hugged to my chest. Lainey and the entire Shadow team were in the living room, along with Maverick.
Maverick passed his phone off to Adam, but Adam just released a weighted breath before briefly glancing at Beau.
Locking those copper eyes on me, he curled his free hand around one of my calves, offering strength and support when he softly asked, “Would you remember the guy if you saw him?”
I knew in an instant what my answer was, just as I knew I didn’t want to give it.
I’d given a detailed report to the deputies who’d shown, and I’d thought about that man every day since. But I knew then why it looked like Adam was holding the weight of the world on his shoulders—why he’d looked at Beau.
“It’s okay,” he whispered encouragingly.
When I finally managed an unsteady nod, he turned the phone around to me, and all hope that the man at my door wouldn’t be the man on the screen fled as soon as I saw the grainy image.
Heavy tears built and fell within seconds as I met Adam’s worried stare before looking at Beau.
Beau’s brow furrowed when he realized Maverick was also watching him. With a quick look at everyone, he irritably asked, “What?”
“Evans,” Cameron began, his voice pure hesitation.
“What?” Beau snapped.
“Let’s talk in the other room,” Cameron suggested as Maverick decisively but sympathetically said, “It was your dad.”
The following silence was thick and deafening.
No one moved. It felt like no one breathed as the bomb settled in the room, leaving shock and denial fighting for dominance on Beau’s face. Just as anger surged up and started winning the battle, Asher suddenly appeared beside him. Grabbing Beau’s shoulder and pulling him away from the rest of us, toward the front door.
Beau tried shoving Asher off him, but Asher just gripped tighter and steered him to the safety of solitude.
“I’m sorry.” The words bled free as my attention shifted back to Adam, but his head was shaking.
“I’m proud of you.”
“But if I’d told y’all?—”
“Don’t,” he said over me. “Evans’ dad...Chloe, he’s a real cop. A corporal with the Dallas police department. We know what he can do and get away with, especially with the Wreckers lining his wallet. I have no doubt, when we look into it, all evidence of your nine-one-one call will have been erased. You telling us earlier wouldn’t have helped us know anything other than a supposedly fake cop had been sent to scare you.” He bent closer, searching my eyes. “What you thought he was there for was a logical assumption, given everything else Vance was saying to you.”
My head moved, but I wasn’t sure if I was shaking it or nodding. Before I could figure out how to respond, the sweetest little girl unsteadily tottered over to me, bunny outstretched in her hand, before she fell to her diapered butt just beside me.
“Hi,” I said through the knot of emotion in my throat and held my hand out when she pushed to her feet again, bunny still extended. “Is this for me?”
Kaia made a tired sounding grunt as she ignored my hand and started crawling onto my lap, pushing the bunny into my neck as she did.
I shifted my feet so there was room between my knees and chest, then helped her up, snuggling her pajama-covered body close. “Well, hi,” I whispered when she mumbled more exhausted nonsense.
“Thatch,” Cameron called from behind me.
Adam hesitated before reaching out to brush his fingers across my cheek and into my hair to cradle my head. “You gonna be okay?” When I started responding, he softly added, “Just you and me.”
I gave him a look because we weren’t the only two people left in the room, but I knew he was telling me he needed the truth after such a massive breakdown from me. “I don’t know,” I told him honestly. “But I’ll be okay if you go do your job.”
With a decisive nod, he carefully leaned forward to press his forehead to mine, and then he was gone.
Seconds later, Lainey settled onto the floor beside me. With a disheartened sigh, she rested the side of her head against mine and whispered, “There’s a lot we need to discuss, starting with the fact that you went through all that alone. But first... Thatch ?”
My eyes rolled as a blush stole across my cheeks, a smile tugging at my mouth that I couldn’t contain.
“I knew it,” she murmured as she gently trailed the tips of her fingers over Kaia’s head. “Real-life novel.”