“Yeah, giddy up, motherfucker.” Cade clapped Taggart on the back. “And don’t look so surprised. You took one of the most beloved people in Briar Rose and thought nobody was going to come looking for her? You’re a fucking idiot.”
Vaughn just grinned, and my gaze fell to the brass knuckles he’d slipped onto his fingers.
Theo pushed past Vaughn, grumbling, “I doubt you’ll get your turn while the body’s still warm;don’t forgetwe haven’t even discussed your disciplinary action yet.” Vaughn’s jaw flexed as guilt flickered through his eyes, and I didn’t pity him a damn bit. Itwashis fault. He’d dropped his guard, and it was his neck I was coming for next.
The sound of footsteps was heavy behind me as the team followed us down into the basement. Taggart led us into a dusty storage room and hesitated in front of a closet door, seeming to know he was already damned.
I yanked the door open, half expecting to find Sara tied up inside, but I blinked as row after row of bright lights clicked on, illuminating a long white hallway.
“What the hell?” I murmured, realizing it was clearly an addition. The shiny floors, the massive vault door at the opposite end—it all felt incredibly out of place in the historic estate.
“Why the fuck do you look so nervous?” Liam demanded. “If you laid afingeron her.”
“Of course not.” Taggart swallowed hard, and for the first time, fear flashed through his eyes, and I got the sickening feeling he was lying through his teeth.
Liam wasted no time jamming Tag’s fingers onto the vault door scanner.
I’d rescued dozens of hostages on covert missions over the last several years, but this wasn’t anything like that. This was my whole world, this was my future, this wasthe love of my life.
The heavy metal door groaned open, and a terror like I’d neverknown hit me at the same moment a gust of musty, dank air did. The light from the hallway poured onto a set of ancient stairs that led down into a pit of darkness.
I stared at the crumbling stone masonry for a beat too long as pure shock washed over me. Several variations ofwhat the actual fuckwere murmured behind me.
My gaze slowly slid to Theo and then Liam, finding equal shock and worry in their eyes.
Suddenly, I didn’t care about retribution anymore. My body was shaking with fear as I plunged into the darkness. If I was too late… I’d never forgive myself.
CHAPTER 56
For Fucks Sake
CARTER
“Please. Please. Please.” I murmured, hurrying into what was effectively a medieval dungeon. Just when I thought my heart might beat right out of my chest, the sound of Sara’s voice trickled up to me.
“Is that—am I hearing that right?” Cade asked over the comms from farther up in the dark stairwell. “Is she singing—Popular? From Wicked?” He chuckled grimly. “Of course she is.”
I ripped the comm out of my good ear, straining to hear.
“At least we know she’s alive.” Theo muttered, and I couldn’t have been more grateful for that realization.
The singing got louder, and when I finally rounded the last corner, several bullets went whizzing past me as gunshots rang out—I was shocked to find it wasSarawith the gun.
“Don’t shoot.” I begged, hands up, as I quickly strode down the dimly lit corridor. “I’m here, baby.” I dropped to my knees in front of her, frantically looking her over. “Are you hurt?”
Her lips parted, and she stared at me as if she were looking at a ghost.
My breath stalled in my lungs as I shakily took her face in my hands, illuminated by the headlamps behind me. “Oh my God, look at your face.” The sound of my voice was strangled as rageand relief simultaneously pumped through me—noting every mark, every bruise, every tear.I was gonna kill him. Slowly.
“You came.” She breathed. “You’re alive.”
“Of course I came.” I knelt before her, eyes shining. “I told you, there’s nowhere on this earth you could go that I wouldn’t find you.”
My eyes shuttered as she tentatively reached for my face, gaze roaming my chest in disbelief, and then her eyes slid past me, and out of nowhere she started laughing uncontrollably—I suddenly realized she wasin shock.
“Youallcame for me.” She threw her head back, giggling deliriously, and that’s when I finally processed what she waswearing—a hideous wedding dress, so puffy she was practically drowning in it.
In fact, I realized she was basically lounging in a metal folding chair with her bare feet kicked up, as if she didn’t have a care in the world—and then I realized why at the same moment Theo did.
