I drag my hand down my face, slamming on the accelerator until my truck physically can’t be pushed any further, and I listen as Hunter races back through my house, the familiar beep of my safe being opened sounding through the phone.
“Be ready,” I warn him.
“She’s already gone, man. Don’t waste time coming here,” he says, both of us already knowing exactly where Harper is heading. “I’ll meet you there.”
Hunter ends the call, and before my Bluetooth even has a second to catch up, I’m already pressing call on Diesel’s number. “What’s wrong?” he asks, knowing I wouldn’t need to call so soon after just seeing him.
“Bring the whole fucking cavalry,” I tell him. “Double child abduction. Four-year-old twin girls. I want the whole fucking team on this.”
“The fuck?” he asks, but I already hear him moving, putting a game plan into action.
“Mae Slater, Harper’s mother. She kidnapped the twins from our home precisely six minutes ago,” I tell him, glancing at the time on my screen. “Harper’s already taken off after them with Izzy, and if my gut is right, Mae is leading her right into Elias’s waiting arms.”
“Fuck.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“We’ll be there,” he vows, ending the call just as swiftly as Hunter had.
My hand white-knuckles the steering wheel, and as I barrel through the streets, fury ripples through my chest, but not just because of the situation that my team is about to face, but because of Harper.
She promised me, as we stood out in the fucking road on this very highway after her release from jail, that she would never do anything reckless like that again. Never go barging headfirst into a deadly situation. Never be so fucking careless with her life that I risk losing her.
She fucking promised, and while I know these girls are her flesh and blood, what good is it going to be when she rushes in all hotheaded and gets herself killed because she didn’t have protection at her back, she didn’t have her fucking team, she didn’t have a single goddamn weapon to defend herself.
A pain twists deep in my gut.
This is different. She’s not going there and seeking trouble unexpectedly. No, she’s walking right into a fucking trap, and unlike last time, I can guarantee that Elias will be ready.
39
HARPER-RAYN
Overwhelming rage and fear pound through my veins as I race toward my mom’s place, right on the edge of losing my sanity. How the fuck could she have done this? I get her wanting to hurt me. It’s what she’s always done. It’s the only way she knows how to behave, but to bring the twins into this? I won’t stand for it, and she sure as fuck won’t get away with it. I’m ending this shit once and for all. She doesn’t get to hurt those girls and walk away, and she sure doesn’t get to use me to do it.
Izzy’s phone rings from the center console of my car, and I speed through the streets, desperate to get to Mom’s house, and hoping like hell that’s where she has taken the girls.
Knight’s name flashes on the screen. It’s not the first time he’s tried calling, and it’s gutting me not to answer, but I know exactly what he’s going to say. He’s going to tell me to stop. To pull over. To wait for him. But I can’t do it. Every second I wasteis another second Haylee and Taliah could end up in Elias’s hands, and I know he understands that.
It kills me that I’m breaking my promise. I stood on the side of the road after being released from jail, promising him that I would never recklessly throw myself into a dangerous situation, that I would be levelheaded and allow Knight to share my burden, but sometimes promises have to be broken. Sometimes putting your own life at risk far outweighs the alternative, and damn it, I would willingly hand myself over to Elias if it meant setting those girls free.
Tears well in my eyes as my gaze drops to Izzy’s phone, my heart breaking, knowing the fear Knight must be feeling. “Fuck,” I say a moment later, grabbing the phone and taking the call.
I hit the speaker button as I fly through the streets. “I’m sorry,” I murmur, struggling to hold myself together. “I have to.”
“Doll, please. I can’t have you go in there alone.”
“They’re my nieces, Knight,” I tell him, willing him to understand, to know why I had to leave. “I can’t just leave them. I have to do this. Every second counts, and if I have to put myself at risk to save them, then I will.”
He lets out a breath, and in the one tiny sound, I hear his whole world crumbling. “Baby, please. I’m only ten minutes behind you. Just wait for my team to get there. We’ll get them out. I promise.”
“Ten minutes?” I tell him as the tears roll down my cheeks, my voice breaking with heartbreak. “I’ve seen little girls on my autopsy table who’ve died in less than thirty seconds at the hands of men like Elias. I love you, Knight. You’re everything to me, but I need you to understand that I can’t hold back on this one. I have to get them out of there. I know you understand that.”
Knight sighs, pure agony in his tone, fearing the worst just as I am, but knowing that nothing, not even his breaking heart, isgoing to keep me from storming into that mansion and getting those girls.
“I love you, Harper,” he says, a hardness creeping into his tone. I can imagine the way he’s probably gripping the steering wheel, the terror rising in his chest as helplessness consumes him. It’s exactly how I feel now. “I swear, if you die . . . If you leave me . . .”
“I won’t,” I vow, knowing that’s not something I could possibly guarantee. “Would you . . . Would you be able to call Jonah and let him know what’s going on? We tried, but there was no answer.”
