Chapter 24
DAMIAN
The day after the failure at the gambling recovery center, there’s a loud knocking on my door. On my front door. I grab my gun and stalk through my house, leaving my laptop open on the kitchen table. I’ve been doing everything I can to get confirmation of my suspicions, but so far, nothing.
It’s Julian, big bags under his eyes as though he hasn’t been sleeping, looking almost boyish in his panic. He strides into the house, and I close the door behind him.
“Tell me she’s here,” he growls.
I was about to chew his ass out for using the front door. But the moment he says this, I forget all about that.
“Is she missing?”
He slumps against the wall. “Tell me she’s here, man. Tell me you’re covering for her. If she wants to stay here, fine, dammit. I can live with that. But I can’t live with… the alternative.” He shudders.
I clap him on the arm. “Focus, for fuck’s sake.” My tone has turned to fire. “You need to explain what’s going on. Now.”
Julian straightens up, stiffening his lips when he hears the urgency in my voice. “She left work two hours early, according to her boss. Said she was going to meet me at the movies. Obviously, that was a goddamn lie. This is the only place I could think she’d be. Is she really not here?”
I swallow as tension twists through me. This can’t be happening. “She’s not. I haven’t seen her since she came by for her stuff.”
I haven’t seen her since we both lost control and she made my world glow.
“Think,” I snarl. “Carefully. Where would she be? Where would she go? We haven’t got time for panic.”
He paces the hallway, wringing his hands. “I’ve called her friends–nothing. She’s dedicated to her work and spends most of her time there.”
It hurts me to say this. But her safety comes first. I would tear apart any man who dared to touch her. “Any exes she might go running to if she was confused?”
When he shakes his head, relief floods through me. “No. She’s never been much of a dater…” He looks at me with confusion in his eyes. “Until you, obviously.”
Dating doesn’t describe what happened between us, not really. We had the start of something. She triggered something under my scarred exterior I didn’t even know was there. Not anything as melodramatic as love, not yet. More like belonging.
“Fuck,” he grunts. “I just don’t—”
“Shit,” I snap, when it hits me.
“What?” He stops pacing.
“She might be at the recovery place. I mentioned it to her, and she tried to convince me to let her help. She seemed pretty stubborn about it.”
“Yeah, she gets like that,” Julian says. “You might have noticed.”
I smile, can’t help it. Just for a moment. “Why do you think there are snowflakes on the stairs, and my living room looks like Santa threw up in there? She gets so…”
Beautiful when she’s stubborn. I stop myself before I cross that line.
“I think the Don has hired the scumbags of the Family to operate a human trafficking ring out of the rehab place,” I tell Julian, smile disappearing.
His eyebrows shoot up. “The fuck? Why?”
I tell him about my attempted raid, about the underwear.
“Before the attack…” We both avert our gazes, not wanting to acknowledge what he did.
It still makes my blood boil. “I noticed the way some of these men were talking—little seedy jokes, secret looks. It didn’t make sense at the time.
But that underwear… it fits with their fucked-up sense of humor. ”
“It’s a leap,” Julian mutters.
“It’s instinct,” I growl. “Which is what has kept me alive for so many years. I think she went there, got in too deep, and then they…” I swallow.
“Don’t say it,” he warns.
I don’t. I can’t even think it.
“We have to believe they’ve taken her hostage,” I say. “If I’m wrong, if it’s the other thing, then they’re all dead anyway. The whole fucking Family will burn.”
He nods, matter of fact. We both know it’s the truth. “What the hell are we going to do?”
“Let me think.”
Now it’s my turn to pace, my mind spinning over. It takes me several minutes to come up with something approximating a plan.
“You need to go there,” I say. “Claim that Rico told you what was going on before he disappeared on some bender. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s gone AWOL.
Say you want to get in on the action – want to buy one of the girls, even.
I’ll be close by. When you get visual confirmation that Celine is there, give me a signal. ”
“What will you do?” Julian asks.
“What I do best.”
Unleash the fucking Beast.
Julian strokes his chin. “A lot could go wrong.”
“The alternative is to leave her there. Let some sick scumbag buy her and…”
Just the idea of it makes me want to roar.
I spin and put a hole in the wall with my fist, a layer of sweat pricking my body.
“I can’t let that happen,” I snarl, pulling my fist from the wall. I don’t feel a damn thing except the need to keep her safe.
Julian steeples his fingers, a pose I know well, the one he uses when he’s contemplating something. He tilts his head at me as though wondering if that was an act. If his best friend could truly care this much about his sister.
The answer?
Hell fucking yes.
“What if you’re wrong?” he says after a pause. “What if the underwear being there is a coincidence? I could roll up, tell the fellas I know about the trafficking, claim I want to get involved… and they’ll look at me like I’ve got an ass on my face. The shooting won’t take too long after that.”
“I’m not wrong,” I snarl.
“Because… instinct?”
“Think, think hard. When has my instinct ever been wrong? When?”
I struggle to keep my voice level. All I can think of is Celine in a place she doesn’t belong. People doing shit to her they’ve got no business doing.
He sighs. “You’ve got me there. Even the attack came out of nowhere. No amount of instinct could’ve saved you then.”
He’s not wrong.
“It’s up to you,” I tell him. “We can either do this subtly. You can check… if she’s not there, then we’ll search somewhere else.
I can stay hidden. I can make my resurrection have some meaning.
Or I’ll gear up right now and go in guns blazing.
But if I get dropped, and she’s not there, you need to find her. You need to save her.”
He stares bleakly at me. “You’ll die for the chance you can save her life?”
I turn away. He doesn’t even need to ask me that.
“I’ll do it,” he says after a pause. “You’re right. We’ve wasted enough time already.”