“I tried calling her,” she says so softly, I barely hear her. “For weeks.Months. I tried calling her.”
“Tried calling who, Delaney?” Mom asks, her sweet but authoritative voice impossible to ignore. When Delaney shifts again, Mom looks around at the dozen plus people in my living room. “Could we have the room, please?”
Within moments, the room is cleared of everyone but my parents, my grandfather, Ryker, Finn, and me.
“This is clear?” Delaney asks, and Finn steps forward like he’s going to attack her, but I put my hand on his chest and stop him.
“Stop stalling,” he yells, and she shrinks.
“It’s as clear as it’s getting,” I warn her. “So how about you keep talking.”
She looks up at me, barely taller than Ashton, freckles dotting the bridge of her nose. “If I pull my phone from my pocket, are you going to shoot me?” she asks the Secret Service agent I hadn’t realized was still here.
“Slowly, ma’am,” he tells her, and she shifts again.
“You’ll shoot me slowly?”
“Jesus Christ,” I groan, and move between her and the agent, blocking his shot. “Get your damn phone.”
Delaney pulls it from her pocket, unlocks the screen, and hands it to me. “I’ve tried to call Ashton for weeks. I tried to warn her they were up to something. They’re not good people.”
“Who?” I snap, Finn and Ryker holding me back. “Who was up to something? Who has Ashton?”
She looks around the room at everyone and everything that isn’t me, only she doesn’t look petrified. She looks resolved. “Our dad,” she murmurs, andfuck, it clicks into place. “Our dad has Ashton, and he’s working with her mom to get money from you. I heard him when I went outside. He’s going to meet you for the drop, and then he’s going to kill you and her and take the money.”
“And where did you hear this, Delaney?” Dad asks as he steps in front of me, not trusting me right now, which I get because I don’t trust myself either.
“He was acting sketchy this morning. Worse than normal. And he kept going in and out of the old garage at the back of the property. The one where he used to work on cars before... He doesn’t go in there anymore. Not until today. So... I followed him and looked through the window.”
“When?” I yell, my mind racing as Grandfather turns to his agent and directs him to get the security team.
“Right before I came here. I heard him, and I saw her. She’s tied to a chair. Not tied. Duct taped, I think. I’m not sure. I didn’t stay long enough to figure it out. Just long enough to hear what he said and to hear your name. You’re Jamie Murphy, right? The grandson of the former president? The Kings player?”
I shake my head, anything I might say dying on my tongue as the room erupts around me.
“I came as soon as I put it together. I found your address and came right here,” she tells us and starts to cry. “I’m so sorry. I knew he was obsessed with her, but I didn’t think he was going to do anything. He never follows through. I tried to warn her. But she never answered, and I didn’t know anything about her. Not where she lived or who she was. I just had her name and an old number I found tacked to his board. But today, he kept talking about you too. So I took a chance.” She looks down again, and I realize for the first time since she walked into my house, this girl is broken. She has a yellow bruise healing high on her cheek and what looks like a fresh one on her wrist. “You’ve got to go get her. Don’t let him hurt her.”
“There is not a chance in hell I’m letting them go in there without me,” I tell my parents, my grandfather, and whoever-the-fuck else is within a three-mile radius of my house and can hear my roar. “She said they’re amateurs. What if he tries to shoot Ashton when he realizes what’s happening? What if it’s more than the two guys Delaney saw inside? What if?—?”
“What if everything Delaney told us is a setup? What if you being there is exactly what they want? What if they’re waiting for you to charge in?” Dad pushes, and my grandfather moves in front of him.
“You are not trained. You cannot go in there with the team. You’ll get yourself and Ashton killed. You’re a civilian, Jameson. Standing on the sidelines is the hardest thing in the world to do, but you have no choice. You wait and go in when my team has the threat neutralized, and you bring her out. No one else will touch her, son. But you have to follow command. For her safety and yours. Understand?”
I want to tell him to go fuck himself. But I know he’s right.
I look at the head of the team. “No one touches her.Nothingtouches her.”
He nods and turns to Grandfather. “We’re leaving in five.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Mom promises me, even though she shouldn’t. “Now get in the car and go get your family.”
“Walk me through this again,” I tell Mitch, my grandfather’s head of security, as he sits with me. We’re down the street from Delaney Rousseau’s house, just outside of Kroydon Hills in an older section of Sugar Hill. Most of the family stayed at the house with Kyrie. The fewer people here the better. Only Finn and I sit in the backseat of Grandfather’s bulletproof Escalade, waiting.
“We’ll be notified the minute the targets are neutralized and will get you immediately to Miss Carmichael.” He presses his hand to his earpiece and holds up his finger. “They’ve surrounded the building.”
The longest sixty seconds of my life passes as I wait for something.
Anything to tell me what the hell is happening.
