Chapter 28
Alessa
After everything was cleared between Ryder and Rocco, I made a few phone calls. Now, I have to explain to the guys that I’ve just devised our riskiest plan, and it’s safe to say that they aren’t going to like it.
I sent Micah with Mateo, Ghost, and Caden to Club Catch; then, they’ll swing by Whispers in Russian. Even if they aren’t let in, it will still piss off Viktor that they’re there. Evander is supposed to come over later to talk to Leo, so I didn’t send him on anything.
I hate that Micah hurt him, but I’m trying to put myself in their shoes and remember what my guys went through when there were feelings involved.
Now I have to wonder about Zane after I saw that picture of him with Holden.
I wouldn’t blame him if he does develop feelings for Holden; it’s as easy as breathing getting lost in those brown eyes.
Walking into the living room, I sit between Gage and Leo on the couch, ready to face the argument that’s about to ensue.
I look around the room, and they all look so relaxed I almost chicken out, but I know it needs to be done in the end.
“I want to go to Hoover Enterprises,” I announce, watching every eye on me.
“You want to what?” Ryder asks.
“I want to talk to Gregory myself.”
“You think he’ll tell you something?” Leo asks, squeezing my thigh in support. He won’t be supportive for long.
I shrug. “I don’t know.” Alexey and Dmitri went in under the guise of potential buyers. Then, when they were alone, they peppered him with questions about Jay. Before Gregory called security, they placed the bug and got out of there. I don’t know who tipped Jay off, Viktor or his dad.
“We can do that,” Dex agrees, and I take a breath.
“I want to go alone.”
“Like hell,” Zane growls, sitting up on the loveseat as fast as Ryder.
“No fucking way, Il mio sole.”
“I need to talk to him alone. You guys can take me and wait in the car,” I reason.
“Jay’s a twisted motherfucker, Pretty girl. You don’t think it came from somewhere?”
“I’ll be strapped. Alexey and Dmitri said they took theirs in. I’ll be fine.”
“We can just grab him,” Dex says calmly. “You can talk to him in the basement.”
I’m already shaking my head. “That’s not going to work. People will say anything in that situation. I need him to tell me the truth.”
“You aren’t going alone,” Ryder commands, and I swallow back my angry retort.
“Ryder,” I say evenly.
“No,” Ryder says hotly, standing up. “The last time we let you out of our sight, you disappeared, and he almost died,” he says, stabbing a finger at Gage.
“I’m aware. This is different.”
“How?!” Ryder says, throwing his hands in the air. “He could grab you from that building. You will not fucking go in alone.”
“One of us goes in, or you don’t go in at all,” Zane adds, agreeing with Ryder.
One by one, they agree with Ryder, so I think about it from their point of view. They have every right to fear what could happen, but I can’t do this forever. I’m hiding behind them, giving Jay exactly what he wants. He wants me to be scared; he thrives on it.
Before I can talk, Zane’s phone starts ringing, and he looks at it with a frown. “It’s Hartley. Hello?” Zane answers, setting it on speakerphone.
“I need to talk to you and Ms. Poletti.”
“You going to arrest me again, Hartley?”
“No,” Hartley sighs. “Look. Meet me somewhere.”
I shake my head. I don’t trust him. “He can come here,” I mouth to Zane. I can control what happens here, not in public. Plus, if he refuses, it will give us the first clue he’s trying to set us up. He’s already the first on my list of accomplices with Jay.
“You can come here because, frankly, I don’t fucking trust you,” Zane says, reading my mind.
“When?”
Zane looks at me, and I shrug. “Now,” I mouth. We won’t be leaving until the end of the argument, anyway.
“Now,” Zane relays. “But let me tell you something, Hartley, if you’re up to something, you better rethink that fucking decision before you step foot on this property.”
“I’m not,” Hartley replies, and the line goes dead.
“What the hell is that about?” Gage asks.
I have no idea, but we’re going to find out.
Shawna leads Hartley into the living room fifteen minutes later, and he’s looking slightly nervous. I wave for him to sit in the chair beside Dex.
“What do you want?” I ask. I’m not even going to try with pleasantries after how he acted at the police station.
“I owe you both an apology,” he answers. Zane and I exchange surprised looks before looking back at Hartley. He looks at me. “I read through that file.” He swallows. “I had no fucking idea.”
“I told you what happened,” Zane says.
“You have to admit it didn’t look good, Zane.
We knew your history with the Poletti’s, and then you go missing with her?
” Hartley scrubs a hand down his face. “In short, I fucked up. I’m here to fix it now.
” He pulls a paper from his back pocket and lays it on the coffee table.
“That’s my resignation letter to the department. ”
“How exactly does that help us?” I ask with a tilt of my head.
“I know who your mole in the department is. I can’t tell you that as the chief of police.”
“Why would you tell us knowing what we’re going to do?” Ryder asks, sitting up.
“Because of those pictures,” Hartley answers. We didn’t even show him the worst of them, just the ones that painted the scene. “Ms. Poletti. No one should ever have to go through that. I failed you as a police officer and as a person.”
“Who’s the mole?” I ask, ignoring his statement. He’s treated me like shit for years; one apology won’t fix that.
“Steve.”
“I should have fucking known,” Zane laughs, but it’s humorless. “How did you find out?”
“After I looked at those pictures, I had our techie dump those emails showing who they came from.”
“How did they get ballistics from Zane’s service weapon if you had it?” Gage asks.
Hartley cuts his eyes to Gage. “How did you know that?” Gage snorts as an answer. Hartley has to know we have our own techie in the form of my adorable, curly-haired hacker. “Whoever killed the person we assumed was Jay stole Zane’s gun to do it.”
“Impeccable work,” Leo says dryly. “Couldn’t be prouder of our local police force.”
I have to hide a smile from Leo’s sarcastic comment. “Where’s the weapon now?” I ask.
“Evidence lock up.”
“And the body?” Dex asks.
“Still with the medical examiner.”
“Is that it?” I ask. I need him gone so we can figure out how to get ahold of this asshole helping Jay set Zane up. Is he one of the ones who got away that day?
Hartley nods, standing up. “I truly am sorry.” He strides from the room before I can comment. He actually looked…sincere. He’s still a giant douchebag, though.
“We’re going to break into evidence lock up, aren’t we?” Ryder asks with a sigh.
“Not yet. We need Steve first,” I reply with a grin. It wouldn’t be the first time we stole evidence.
“Does this put your plan on hold?” Zane asks with a raised brow.
“For now.”
If we can get information from Steve, we won’t need Gregory.
“They’re on their way back,” I tell Gage later that night after I get the text from Zane that they have him.
After Doc returned to implant Ryder’s tracker, Zane, Dex, and Ryder left as soon as it got dark to grab Steve.
Seeing Zane in our outfits with the mask was something I thought I would never see.
Holden’s laptop is on the coffee table, all of their red dots blinking in the same place.
It’s a relief that we can watch them in real-time while they’re out.
“Good,” Gage replies, kissing my head. Leo, Gage, and I are cuddled on the chaise, watching TV, trying to pass the time until they return. Holden is lying at the other end, his head propped on Leo’s thigh.
Holden standing up to Rocco was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. I can barely do it, and Holden strutted right out there and told Rocco where he could shove his thoughts.
Thirty minutes later, I hear the garage door open, so we make our way to meet the guys in the basement. I slide on my boots and go through the first locked door. It still makes me nervous to walk through this hallway with old memories creeping up on me.
Leo wraps his arm around my shoulders. “We got you, Baby.”
When my thumb hits the last lock for the basement, I catch Holden in my peripheral vision. He’s never been down here before. I look at him in question, and he just smiles.
Taking a breath, I pull open the door to walk into the basement. Zane and Ryder are hooking Steve to the chains while Dex is uncovering my knives. My heels clicking on the floor catch their attention, and they all turn to look at me.
“How we doing this?” Ryder asks, jerking the chains, so Steve’s arms are over his head. “It will look suspicious as hell if he dies right after he arrested Zane.”
I’ve already thought about that, so I’m going to leave the decision in Zane’s hands. “This is your call. What do you know about him?”
Zane shrugs. “Not much. He’s not married. No kids. The only person I’ve ever heard him mention is an aunt.”
I look closer at Steve, trying to put him with one of the guys with a mask on. He’s the right build for one, but that’s all I have. “Do you think he’s one of them?”
“I don’t know,” Zane answers honestly. “One way to find out. If he dies, he dies. I don’t fucking care anymore.”
“This will come back on you,” Dex says to Zane.
“They won’t be able to prove it,” Zane grins, and it’s almost feral. “My woman will take care of that. Won’t she, Beautiful?”
My heart does a little flip-flop at him calling me his woman. “You know I will.” I roll my shoulders back. “Let’s do this.”
Walking over, I grab an ammonia capsule before walking back to Steve. I snap it open. “Wakey, wakey,” I sing-song, and Gage laughs. It always cracks me up that he finds that funny every single time.
Steve jerks awake, blinking until I can tell my face finally comes into view. “What the fuck?”
“Hello, Steven,” I greet with a smile. “Glad you could join us.”
“What the hell is this?” He starts looking around, and I know when he spots Zane. He darts a nervous glance at me, then back to Zane. “Is this person who you are now?” Steve asks him.
“This is the person I’ve always been,” Zane answers, casually walking to stand by my side. “It just took some time to find my way back.” Zane comes to a stop in front of Steve, leveling him with a glare. “We have some questions.”
“And you need to do this?” Steve asks, jerking the chains on his arms.
“Funny you should ask.” I hold my hand out, and Holden walks over to hand me the file he grabbed.
Once Hartley told us who the mole was, Holden did his own digging.
“We had a visitor today, and we got some interesting news.” I pull one of the emails out, holding it so he can see his email address.
He thought he buried his trail enough. He was wrong.
“We found out you are the one working with Jay to set Zane up.”
“Which opened another question,” Zane continues, “if you were also involved in what Jay did to her?” Whenever Zane brings up our time there, he never mentions what Jay did to him. It’s always what he did to me. It’s like Zane blocked out the part where they tortured him.
“He’s setting me up too!” Steve argues. “I wouldn’t work for that freak.” Every time he talks, something flashes through me like I’ve heard that voice before he arrested Zane.
I pull out another email. “This is a full conversation between you and an unknown party detailing how you could set him up. These don’t lie.” I shake the folder.
“Where’s Jay?” Zane asks, stepping closer.
“I don’t know!”
“Where’s Jay?” Zane growls, getting in his face. Steve shakes his head. Zane punches him so hard in the ribs that the chains swing wildly. “Where is he?!”
“I don’t know,” Steve growls, and I feel like I’ve been punched in the chest. All the air is sucked from my lungs.
“Shut up,” the guy growls behind his mask, jerking me to my feet by my hair.
He unhooks the chain from the metal cuffs on my wrists and feet.
I figured he would shove me to the bed, but he pushes me to the door.
I lose my footing on my weak legs and slam face-first onto the ground.
He jerks me to my feet again by my chained arms, dragging me behind him.
“…essa!”
I force my eyes to focus on Zane’s concerned face. He’s on his knees in front of me, all my guys around me in a protective circle. I don’t even know how I got to the floor.
“What is it, Beautiful?” Zane asks softly, rubbing the tears from my cheeks.
“He was there,” I gasp.
“Are you sure?” Zane asks, searching my face.
I nod. “I’m sure.”
Zane kisses my forehead, closing his eyes. I can feel his hands shaking against my cheeks, remembering exactly what I am.
“Are you okay, Il mio sole?” Ryder asks, crouching beside me, rubbing his hand over my back.
I shake my head miserably, tears splashing over Zane’s hands on my cheeks. I can feel my lungs starting to seize, black dots dancing in my vision.
“Listen to my voice, Beautiful.” I try to tune into Zane’s smooth voice.
“You aren’t there. We have you.” I blink rapidly, trying to pull his face back into focus.
My eyes lock with his. “There’s our girl.
Just breathe.” I follow his commands, slowly dragging in breaths until I can pull in a full one.
Zane’s sandalwood scent fills my nose, and my shoulders start to relax.
Zane puts his forehead on mine again. “You don’t have to do this,” he whispers.
I look over at Steve, who is eerily quiet, and notice his head is hanging down. I look at Zane, and he shrugs with a chuckle. “He laughed when you collapsed. Holden knocked him out.”
A shocked laugh escapes when I look at Holden’s smiling face. He looks damn proud of himself. Something about that gives me the courage I need to see this through. “Help me up.”
Zane helps me to my feet, his hands still in mine. “We doing this?” Zane asks, wiping the remaining tears from my face.
I nod once. “Let’s do it.”
My guys peck my lips one by one, lending me their strength. When Gage steps up, he slides a capsule into my hand. “You got this, Pretty girl,” he says with a smile, pecking my lips and walking to the rest of the guys.
Zane and I turn as one, ready to end this.