“They’re not answering.”
I look at the bodies, the blown-out cameras, the way this has all been executed, and it all starts to settle like puzzle pieces in my head.
“Call again.” The last of my control starts to slip away.
Ronan dials again, but his answering curse is all I need to know.
“They’re dead.”
Ronan flinches, as if I just slapped him around the face. “No.”
“Yes. Whoever did this, did it right. The lack of a struggle and the angle of the shots… This kind of operation screams Sean to me.”
Ronan rubs the back of his neck, his jaw ticking as he stares back up at the house.
“We had men on him. Someone would have alerted us if he moved.”
“Clearly, not.”
“How the fuck did this happen? How did they get in here and kill all of my men without so much as asound?”
“Silencers. At least, that’s what I would have used.”
Ronan swears. “Unbelievable.”
“What’s unbelievable is how you haven’t taken care of Sean. None of this would have happened if you had just done what you said you were going to do.”
Ronan stares at me, stunned. But then his expression turns cold.
“You think I wanted this to happen? You think I haven’t been trying to stop him? I’ve got people on him twenty-four-seven.”
“And yet, they’re all dead.”
Ronan’s eyes flash with rage. “Don’t put this on me, Kieran. Now’s not the time to point fingers.”
His voice is tight with something I can’t place, maybe guilt.
Perhaps he’s thinking the same thing I am, about the holes in our defenses and the men we chose to trust. And now Riley is the one paying the price.
My stomach coils so tight it feels like I might be sick.
The thought of Riley out there alone, terrified, and in the hands of that psychopath is more than I can bear. Every worst-case scenario claws at the edges of my mind. And for the first time in a long time, I feel completely powerless.
There’s no trail to follow, no ridiculous ransom demand or even a warning. There’s just silence. And in my world that is never a good sign.
I look around at the mess Sean left behind, at the lawn now stained red with the blood of good men, and it’s all I can do not to put a bullet through my own skull for letting this happen.
These men died protecting my family while I was passed out drunk on a couch like some goddamn coward who thought he had time to fix things later.
Now there is nolater.
All I have is a field of bodies, a cold bed where my wife, the woman I love, the mother of my child, should be, and a letter in my pocket. Every word she wrote feels heavier now, like it was meant to be a goodbye, and I was too drunk to see it.
I didn’t get to tell her I forgive her. I didn’t get to tell her I’m sorry. I didn’t get to tell her I love her.
I need to tell her. I need her to know she is my world, my life, my everything. That I can’t wait to share this pregnancy with her, to stand by her side while our baby grows. To grow old with her.
But Riley is gone, and unless I get to her in time, she might not ever come back. Might not ever know.
