She’s crying silently now, but her gaze is fierce.
We’re all thinking the same thing. We don’t have time to waste.
“Send it,” I tell Clay. “Now.”
Clay rattles off the location. I type it with hands that want to break something. I send it to Gray along with the photos from the scene.
“You’re going to find her,” Clay says, voice hoarse. “You have to. Kyle— he’s not thinking straight.”
“If she’s hurt,” Mr. Coleman growls into the phone, “I will burn your entire legacy to the ground.”
Clay makes a sound like he believes him. “I understand.”
Mr. Coleman hangs up.
The kitchen is thick with fear and fury.
Mrs. Coleman wipes her face with the heel of her palm. “Bring my baby home,” she whispers.
I step in front of both of them, letting them see the part of me that is not joking, not soft, not pretending. “I will,” I say. “I swear it.”
Outside, engines roll up the drive like thunder.
I move to the window.
Two trucks. Dark. Purposeful. Lone Star.
Gray steps out first, all sharp lines and calm control. His daughter Josie isn’t with him—thank God—but his eyes are brutal as they meet mine through the glass.
Behind him: men.
The kind of men who don’t ask twice.
Lone Star Security. Jack steps up, shaking my hand. “We’ll find her, brother.”
Aaron, Maverick, and Cade step up behind him. “We’ve got this.”
I feel better knowing my team’s got my back. These men are more than a team. More than Lone Star Security. These men are my brothers. Not blood. But just as important.
A found family.
My chest tightens with relief and rage in equal measure.
I step out onto the porch.
Gray meets me at the steps, voice low. “Address received. We roll in sixty seconds.”
I nod once. “He took her because they wouldn’t sell.”
Gray’s jaw flexes. “Then we make him regret ever learning her name.”
The men gather behind him, checking radios, loading equipment, faces set.
I look at them and feel something in my blood shift into certainty.
Kyle Stroud thinks he just took leverage.
He has no idea what he just started.
