CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
DECLAN
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“Mr. Voss, my name is Josh Hawke, director of Black Hawke Security. We’d like to come in and speak with you.”
Grayson stands behind us, Josh and I.
“How did you get up here?” Victor growls.
“Guard is asleep.” Josh thumbs over his shoulder.
The guard wasn’t asleep, but he is now. Technically, he’s unconscious. Minor detail, really. He’ll wake up with a small lump and a headache.
He’ll be fine.
Two guards step up behind Voss, guns visible.
Victor looks flustered. Something has rattled him, and immediately I wonder if Stella is okay. The reality is this man is involved in all sorts of dodgy shit, including selling his daughter in a human trafficking type trade.
So, yeah, he should be rattled.
“We are here to speak to you about your daughter and her marriage to Tony Marino.” Josh plants his hands on his hips, close to his gun.
“I have nothing to say on this matter. Please leave.” Voss turns away. “Someone go sort out the security out there and fire the prick.”
He starts to walk away.
“We have reason to believe she isn’t giving her consent freely,” I call after him.
Voss catches himself and glances over his shoulder at me. Then slowly he returns to the door.
“You” —he points his finger in my face— “were fired by my daughter. If she owes you money, then ring my office and they’ll take care of it. Showing up at my home—”
“I said... I want to speak to you about your daughter being coerced into marriage,” I reply, unconcerned with his proximity.
I could kill the guy in fifteen seconds with my bicep. Oh, how I’d love to.
As he turns red, I continue. “I’d think you’d be more concerned, Mr. Voss.”
Anger simmers dangerously just beneath my skin as he glances between Josh and me with a cursory one at Grayson.
“This has nothing to do with you. Leave.”
“Stella is due here shortly. When she arrives, I’ll show her a copy of some emails that landed on my desk.” Josh pulls out his phone and swipes. “Dear Mr. Marino, once my debt is paid, when you are married to my daughter, I request that you send a zero-balance statement to my office...”
“The fuck? How did you get...” He drifts off, realizing he’s incriminating himself.
Shame we didn’t think to record this.
“You traded your daughter for your fucking debt, you piece of shit—” I must move because Grayson grabs my shirt in his fist, and Josh holds out his arm.
Voss’s guards push him behind them.
“She’s gone. You’re too late,” Voss snaps. “Now leave before I call my lawyer.”
Josh and I look at one another and think the same thing.
Fuck.
They have her.
“Go where?” I demand, my body goes into fight mode. “Where is she?”
“You do not know what you’re dealing with. Who you are dealing with. Leave.”
Did he just fucking smile?
The fucking asshole.
I reach for my gun and immediately decide I’ll shoot him in his cock if the opportunity arises. He deserves nothing less.
“She’s with her husband. If they’re not married already, they will be soon. There is nothing you can do.” He smirks. “Business is done in different ways. You have nothing to pin on me. She’s an adult.”
Fucker is right.
Josh steps forward, doing what I can’t, and growls.
“We have copies of your correspondence with Marino, a known criminal. The authorities are going to be sent every single fucking email. Mark my words, if she is married or a single hair on her head is hurt, I’ll make sure you are charged with human trafficking. ”
He’s not messing around.
Josh has powerful strings he can pull.
“She was doing this to save your life.” I shake my head, disgusted with him. “What sort of monster does that to his daughter?”
She might be an adult, but that doesn’t mean she felt like she had a choice. I can only guess at the threats made along the way that led to where we are now.
Stella is gone.
“You know nothing of my world. If you were in my shoes—”
“I would protect her!”
I wish Grayson would let go of my fucking shirt.
“You should have gone to the authorities. Sought help. But let me guess, you were dealing with illegal transactions, so couldn’t. Her life for your freedom.”
“I would’ve been dead before the authorities picked up the phone. Don’t be na?ve.”
“I’m a SEAL. There’s nothing na?ve about who I am. I have honor. You have nothing. And if I have anything to do with it, you will lose your daughter too.”
He has the decency to pale, but it doesn’t last.
“Get off my property or I’ll call the police for trespassing.”
I throw him one last disgusted look, then put my phone to my ear, calling Ryder, as we stride down the hall to the elevator and the ‘sleeping’ guard.
There’s no time. We need to get Stella. The cops can deal with her abhorrent father.
“What do you need?” Ryder answers.
“You and the boys at the Marino Estate. Now. They have Stella.”
Josh punches the elevator button about twenty times as Ryder curses, then rogers that and hangs up.
“Don’t panic.” Josh grunts. “If we’re too late, she can have it annulled.”
“I’m not worried about that.” My weight switches from foot to foot, unable to stand still. “It’s what he might do to her afterward. Or before. Fuck. We need to get there now.”
It’s a twenty-minute drive from Manhattan, and every minute counts.
Swiping, I find Stella’s number and press dial. She doesn’t answer.
Fury and fear fight for dominance as adrenaline pumps through my veins. I’m like a caged tiger, ready to leap.
“What are the rules about shooting kidnappers? Just so I know,” Grayson asks, placing his hand on my shoulder to show support.
“Gray area.” Josh nods.
I let out a dark and dry, humorless laugh despite the situation. Grayson knows the law, just as we do.
Stella has been taken against her will; dragged from her father’s home and is being forced to marry Marino right now.
The woman I love.