“Am I supposed to care?”
“He also wants me to tell you that he’ll pay you well to forget what you think you saw.”
I lowered the gun until it was pointed at his crotch. “Say that shit again, and I’ll blow your dick off.”
Kellan’s green eyes twinkled with a grin. “I think I’m in love.”
“That’s what they all say.”
The door next to us opened before Kellan could respond. Five uniformed cops filed through, talking amongst themselves. Kellan yanked me into him until I was pressed against the full length of his body—so close I was sharing his heat. Our closeness also hid the very illegal gun I still had pressed to his crotch just as they gave us curious glances.
“Okay, love birds,” the last officer, who had a thick mustache, said with a wave of his hand. “This is a police precinct, not the backseat of a car. Move it along.”
I discreetly slipped my gun back inside my clutch and then slowly backed away from Kellan, braving the treacherous steps blindly this time because daring to take my eyes off him seemed twice as risky even with a boatload of cops around.
Reading my mind once again, Kellan smiled. “Be seeing you, Hunter.”
Rolling my eyes, I darted off and dove inside the safety of Deborah, but I couldn’t bring myself to drive away. My emotions overcame me the moment I was alone, and I ended up sobbingwith my forehead pressed to the steering wheel as I imagined all of the horrors Coby would likely face.
Getting her back was never going to be easy, but Kellan boldly showing up to stop me from filing a report mere feet away from the precinct told me I wasn’t dealing with the average street thug. No, there was something much larger at play here.
Whoever took her was clearly watching me, so I would have to find another way to get my best friend back, and I would. There were so many things I never got to say—so many things I was sorry for. But I couldn’t turn back time, so I would do everything in my power to make sure Coby had a future. I would defy the devil himself to reclaim what was mine.
Even if it killed me.
HUNTER
Two weeks missing…
For two weeks, I’ve been plagued by the same dream of the night Coby disappeared without a trace. A nightmare, really. And no matter how it goes, it always ends the same—with the taillights of a black Denali speeding away with my best friend trapped inside. And when I wake up, I’m haunted by the shadowed outline of the man who’d taken her.
The only cure was to hold off sleep for as long as I could, so I’ve spent every waking moment since she was taken combing the streets for my other half. And whenever I eventually collapsed from exhaustion, I made sure I was too intoxicated to dream.
Like now.
Tipping back my head, I poured the last of the vodka down my throat while a river of fresh tears soaked my face. All around me were pictures of Coby and me scattered all over the floor. They were all hers since she was more sentimental than I, and now I was the one drawing comfort from them, wondering if I’d ever see her smile again.
I’ve been putting feelers out to find out who the hell had taken Coby. I’d only gotten a glimpse of the dark-eyed stranger, but his description and the circumstances were enough to spook anyone who knew anything from talking.
And now there was this anxious twisting in my gut telling me that I’d never see Coby again. None of it made any sense. Allthe evidence pointed to a targeted attack, but there was only one problem.
Coby didn’t have an enemy in the world.
Coby didn’t, but that didn’t mean the people in her were without them.
My gaze fell over the pile of glossy four-by-sixes until it zeroed in on one of Coby posing with her brother in front of his club before it opened. The picture was taken the day Roshaun got the keys to the building, and Coby insisted on being there to celebrate with him, dragging me along.
“Bitch ass,” I growled at that grinning piece of shit before crumbling the photo in my fist and tossing it away. Picking up my gun that had been resting by my side and stumbling to my bare feet, I spent the next half hour trying to sober up fast. Once I was steady on my feet, I left the apartment I shared with Coby.
“Aye, what’s up with you, Hunter?” Gary greeted me with a smile as I passed him on the stairs. He lived a couple of floors above me and had been trying to fuck for years.
“Not now,” I snapped as I stormed past him.
“Damn, my bad,” he grumbled.
Ignoring him, I jogged across the parking lot toward Deborah, who was parked by the pond overlooking our apartment building. It was the wee hours, so the streets were empty, charging me only ten minutes before I reached the hospital. I’d come the night Coby was taken to question Roshaun about what the hell happened, but the bitch had suffered a pneumothorax and had been surrounded by doctors and nurses in the ICU.
I prayed all night that his ass would die, but he just kept right on living.
