There was no way he would admit Chaz and Lottie were the ones who stabbed and shoved Donato off the rooftop patio of his lakefront home. His friends had been forced to act out of self-defense. The fucker had kidnapped Lottie because he’d wanted abag of jewels connected to her useless ex. The Motley Crew had raced to her rescue and made it in the nick of time.
Instead of answering Sabrina’s question, Jayson shut down. One, he couldn’t trust her. For all he knew, she might be the enemy. And two, the father in him was barely holding it together. He needed to rely on the warrior within to get him through whatever lay ahead.
The moment they reached Emma and Brett’s apartment building, Jayson jumped out, rounded the front of the car and pulled the driver’s door open wider as Sabrina climbed out. He gave her a hard look.
“You’re not going to try to bolt, are you?”
Her brow pinched. “No. I want to help you.”
For whatever reason, he believed her.Maybe because I’m an idiot.An idiot who’d hoped his new neighbor had liked him. Not some FBI agent who was merely using him to further her own agenda.
With a sharp nod, he guided her inside where Brett was waiting. He looked visibly upset and kept running his hands through his brown hair. Jayson needed details—clear, concise answers to the questions he was about to ask. That meant he needed to think like a Ranger preparing for a rescue mission, not a desperate and worried father. Pushing all of his emotions into a mental box and shutting it tightly, he quickly introduced hisnew neighborto Brett and then started his interrogation.
“I’m going to need you to calm down and tell me exactly what happened,” Jayson began as he and Sabrina sat down on the couch. The living room had a cozy vibe, and Jayson saw his daughter’s touch everywhere—from the floral-scented candles to the framed Jack Vettriano posters hanging on the walls.
Brett stopped pacing and dropped down in a chair. “Yeah, okay.”
“Where were you when it happened?”
“At the grocery store. Emma wanted to make lasagna for dinner, so we went to pick up the ingredients. Everything was fine until we returned to our car. I started loading the groceries into the back and Emma wheeled the cart back to the cart corral. That’s when I heard her shout, and I looked over and saw a couple of guys throw her into a truck.”
“What kind of truck? What did the men look like? Did you get the license plate number?” Jayson fisted his hands, forcing himself to keep it together.
“A big, black car. A Suburban maybe? It all happened so fast. I didn’t get a good look at the men because the lower half of their faces were covered.”
“Covered with what?”
“Neck gaiters.”
Jayson’s mind raced. Probably not some kind of revenge related to their dealings with the cartels then, he surmised. As part of their last op in Mexico, Xander Hawke told them the Villarreal thugs wore skeleton balaclavas, unlike these assholes. No, he had a feeling they might be dealing with Rocco Ferrante.
Sabrina’s words came rushing back:If Rocco discovered it was you, he’d want revenge.
Not exactly how he’d wanted to start the new year.But here I fucking am.
After unsuccessfully trying to pull out a few more details from Brett, Jayson sent a 911 text to his buddies. The Motley Crew might be getting up there in years, but they still had it where it counted most—brains, muscles and hearts.
In seconds, they all replied. Jayson promised Brett they’d find Emma and bring her home, then glanced at Sabrina. “C’mon.” He stood up.
“Where are we going?” Sabrina asked, popping up, too.
“Old Glory.”
Old Glory was Brandon Ward’s bar at the edge of town. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but as Sabrina and Jayson stepped inside, a crackling fire welcomed them. Endless bottles of liquor covered shelves over a mirrored back wall, along with a large American flag. It proved to be more than just the hole-in-the-wall she’d expected. It had character and warmth. A group of men and women sat at a big corner table, but she only recognized Lex.
“What’s going on, Jay?” a man with steel blue-gray eyes asked.
“Someone grabbed Emma in the grocery store parking lot,” he said gravely. The men hissed out a slew of swear words and the women gasped. “I just talked to Brett and he said they were wearing gaiters, so no real help on descriptions. They tossed her in a black car, possibly a Suburban, and he wasn’t close enough to see the plates.”
“We’ll get her back,” a big man stated gruffly. He had military-short brown hair and a determined look in his green eyes.
The woman beside him grabbed his hand and squeezed. She shook her head, blonde curls bouncing, and laid her other hand on her large, very pregnant belly. “Oh, no. This is awful.”
“Who’s she?” the first man asked, nodding to Sabrina.
Everyone’s attention shifted to Sabrina, and she felt like a specimen under a microscope. She did her best not to squirm, sticking close to Jayson.
“That’s his new neighbor,” Lex answered, giving her a flirty smirk. “Hi, Sabrina.”
