Beck nodded. “That’s our next stop, but you need to sleep first.”
I shook my head roughly. “No! No time for sleep. I need all the information so I can decide how to proceed from here. Taking down Catherine is going to take a serious sort of plan. I already have a few ideas, but I need to speak with some people. There’s no time to screw around.”
Beck’s chest rumbled as he shook his head. “Baby, come on. You can’t do this on no sleep. A few more hours is not going to change anything. Take care of yourself first, or you’ll be in no position to take anyone down.”
I wanted to growl back at him, but unfortunately that wasn’t something I’d mastered. Instead I sighed, because... he was right. Bastard. Spinning the Bugatti around, I put her on the road back to our apartment.
“Can you send someone to watch over Selene?” I asked as we neared town. “Somehow Catherine is going to find out we talked to Dante. She’s a slimy bitch who always has her finger on the pulse. If we’re not going there right away, someone should watch over her. Maybe even warn her.”
And I didn’t trust the phone.
Beck didn’t look worried. “I sent the guys there the moment we walked out of the police station. Selene might have vital information. She’s to be protected until we figure out what to do next.”
I nodded, relieved that he was taking this seriously. In my chest I felt a new urgency. We’d just entered the final phase of whatever bullshit Catherine had been planning for twenty years. This was her long game, and I was going to do my best to ensure it never came to fruition.
Debitch was going down.
5
Beck
Controlling my temper was something I’d been working on most of my life. I was born to violent and volatile parents. It was my mother’s milk, my nutrition, my lifeforce for so many years that it was second nature for me to hurt first and ask questions later.
My father had taught me to hide my violence, because the CEO of the top Fortune 500 company could not lose his shit and start throwing chairs across the boardroom. It was alsofrowned uponto shoot assholes in the head. I’d learned that my temper would stop other companies doing business with us and that would hurt our bottom line.
Everything in Delta’s best interests, of course.
It took a long time, but eventually, I got very good at hiding the darkness in my soul. The predator inside. But, in this moment, as I stared down at Riley’s face, still stained with the tears she’d cried on me, a black wave of fury settled into my soul. The sort of fury that had me wanting to start a goddamn war for her, to wipe out any fucker who’d ever dared hurt her.
Dante was lucky that all I’d done was rough him up a little. I could have killed him. I thought about it, and it was only that I’d be leaving Riley out here unprotected with whatever bullshit was going on that stayed my hand. Even Delta’s power would take some time to clean up murder at a police station.
“You better pray that we win against Catherine,” I’d murmured to Dante just before I left the room. “Because if Riley is hurt again, I’m coming after you.”
Just before I had stepped out the door, Dante called out my name. I could barely stand to look at his fucking face for another second, but I turned. “Catherine needs the vote to go her way,” he said. “Check your board members. She thinks she has the votes to get Huntley in, and if that happens, they’re going to kill you all.”
I didn’t acknowledge his words, just shook my head and left the room, my hands itching to go back and hit him again. The weak fucker hadn’t even tried to defend himself. He’d screwed up, and he knew it. I would not pave his way back to Riley either. If she forgave him, I would let him live, but I’d never trust him around her again.
Now, as I sat beside her, watching Riley sleep, all I had were the dark emotions churning in my soul. An anger that would not abate.
My phone buzzed in my hand, and seeing the familiar name pop up, I got to my feet and stepped out of the bedroom. “You get there?” I asked Jasper.
“Yep. We just got to her house. She’s home, and so is her cop husband. Everything is quiet, so Evan and I will just keep an eye out until you get here. Dylan is waiting to drive with you both tomorrow.”
“Right,” I agreed. “Laying low is a good plan. It’ll go smoother if Riley breaks it to her. We don’t want her to run without giving us the information we need.”
Jasper made a sound of agreement. “Let us know when you guys leave,” he said and hung up.
I was about to slide my phone back in my pocket when it rang again.Beckett Snrflashed on the screen, and I stared at it for a long moment before ignoring the call. I didn’t have time for his bullshit today, and if anything was designed to snap the sliver of control I’d gotten back over my emotions, it was talking to my father.
My mother was the same. Popping prescription pills like they were the air she needed to breathe, thinking no one knew she was shacked up with her masseuse. Riley had said that Catherine was a rich woman cliché. Well so was Magdalena Beckett.
She sure as fuck was never a mother.
“Beck,” Riley called out, and the urgency in her voice had me moving my ass to get back into the room. I burst through the door, gun in hand, eyes taking in the scene in one quick sweep.
I’d learned to catalog a scene in five seconds.
But there was no one in the room other than Riley, and she wasn’t even awake.
