The outburst made everyone jump, and they all stared at King. The only time Ryden had seen King lose his shit was when Leo was shot. The man was grumpy as all hell, but he was a mountain, always in control. But Jay was family, and someone had messed with King’s family.
“We’re going to get him back,” Ace said, his frown deep.
King rounded on Ace. “How did we fuck this up so badly?”
Ace grabbed King by the neck of his tactical vest and pulled him close, meeting his gaze. “Stop. We are going to get him back.”
King clenched his jaw so hard that Ryden was afraid the guy was going to break something. Instead, he took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out through his mouth. “Okay.” He nodded. “Let’s get to work.”
Ryden turned his attention back to Jack. “There’s gotta be a way you can track Jay. He’s somewhere in this port. I can feel it.”
Lucky nodded. “Plus, there’s no way these assholes are going to leave their product behind. They have to be planning something.”
“I’ve still got access to the port security system,” Jack said, tapping away at his tablet screen. “Let me see what I can find. This might take a minute.”
They might not have a minute. Ryden did everything in his power not to think of those bastards and what they might want with Jay. Walton and his men had come this far. They weren’t going to walk away.
Joker removed his phone from his pocket. “We need to find Jay before the police swarm this place. No way someone didn’t hear that explosion.”
Port security was probably on their way, which meant they had to move fast. Good thing the port was so damned big. Theirpriority was getting Jay back. Their second goal would be to get out of here without being seen, which would be interesting considering the van was out of commission.
“What do they want with Jay?” Saint asked. “If they took him alive, it’s for a reason.”
Ryden ran a hand through his hair. “His connection to me, his security clearance at work, or maybe they’re just sadistic assholes. Take your pick.”
“Jay’s cellphone is offline,” Jack grumbled. “No surprise there.”
“Wait.” Ryden turned to Jack. “His smartwatch. I used to tease him ’bout how ridiculous he was for usin’ that thing to do everything, even pay for his coffee. He’s gotta have his location on.”
“Let’s hope they haven’t figured it out yet,” Jack muttered, tapping away at his tablet again. “I’ve got something.” Jack zoomed in on a large structure. “There’s a warehouse that belongs to a remodeling company. It’s where they store their building supplies. I can’t get a heat signature unless I’m outside the building, but this is where Jay’s watch is pinging.”
Finch pressed his lips together in a thin line. “I don’t like this. You think they wouldn’t have checked him over and found the watch? It would have been the first thing I did. Take his phone and his smartwatch.”
“Doesn’t matter,” King said, scanning the area around them and motioning to several parked vehicles. “We need to borrow some SUVs. Jack?”
“I’m on it.”
They took off toward the parking lot while Jack got to doing what he did best. When they reached the parked cars, he pointed to two black SUVs. “Those. I can hack into their computer systems.”
“Split up,” King ordered.
King climbed into the driver’s side of one SUV with Ace, Lucky, and Jack joining him, while Finch drove the second SUV carrying Ryden, Saint, and Joker. They headed out of the lot, making sure not to speed and attract any unwanted attention. The only good thing about the van exploding was that any security or police that showed up would be occupied with that, giving them time to get to Jay. They didn’t have long, but then something told Ryden that the bastards weren’t hanging around for the fun of it.
“Hey.” Saint squeezed Ryden’s knee, getting his attention. “We’re going to get him back.”
Ryden nodded, his frown deep as he pulled his fuzzy green friend from his pocket. He stared down at Pascal, unable to believe Jay had brought the silly little thing with him. It squeezed at his heart in a way nothing ever had, probably because Jay made him feel a lightness he hadn’t thought he’d ever feel again.
Relationships of any kind had always been challenging for Ryden, and in the beginning, things with Jay had been complicated as hell, or at least it had felt that way. But now? Being with Jay was easy. It was comfortable and fun. They were only in the beginning stages, and he was sure they’d still drive each other up the wall, but what they had was something special.
As brave as Jay was, he had to be terrified. No amount of self-defense or reading incident reports could come close to the danger he was in. Jay might have kicked his almost-kidnapper’s ass, but he was on his own against five armed ex-Marines. When Ryden lifted his head, he caught Finch’s gaze in the rearview mirror.
“You love him, don’t you?”
Ryden swallowed hard. “Yeah, I do.”
At one point in his life, he’d believed he didn’t deserve a guy like Jay. Hell, he’d thought he didn’t deserve to be loved byanyone, but now, he was at peace with himself and in a place where he could love Jay the way he deserved to be loved and accept Jay’s love in return. That night in his living room, when he lay on the couch with his head in Jay’s lap as Jay stroked his hair, it was the closest to being absolutely at peace as he’d ever come, like his soul was settled. If he could have purred like a cat, he would have.
“We’ve got your back, bro,” Joker said, making a lump form in Ryden’s throat, because for the first time in his life, he hadeverythingto lose. His hands threatened to shake, so he took a deep breath and then released it, sending calm through him. Jay needed him to be calm and focused.
