Cold, harsh, calculated control.
Holding onto it when my mind’s stuck in a loop, chantingsevendaysonrepeat is damn near impossible. All this time, I was convinced Vaughn pulled a Houdini trick and hid Hailey out of my reach, off the radar.
Hiding her at Lakeside had questionable results, but people learn from their mistakes. I was certain Vaughn learned to hide his daughter better.
Our only concrete lead was the Lakeside security footage. I’ve watched the video of Hailey leaving the building with her suitcase and getting into Matthews’ car a thousand times.
I was right there, less than three hundred feet away, behind the tree line, pacing a path while on the phone to Dante and Broadway. I was rightthere, oblivious that she was slipping right through my fingers.
Ryder and Jackson have barely slept since I came back, scouring Vaughn’s entire digital footprint, but they found nothing. Not even when they hacked his precinct.
I was on the road, berating my men over the phone while checking all the holes but every lead I followed turned up empty.
No wonder.
I’ve been chasing shadows the whole time, assuming Hailey was with her father.
I put the biggest magnifying glass to Vaughn, tracing his every step, hoping he’d go see her and betray her location. We sent bugs to his phone, but he’s too smart for that. He either changed the device or started using burners.
At least that’s what I thought. Whenever we hit a dead end, I conjured an explanation, a reason why I still haven’t found my girl after seven days.
My knuckles whiten more the harder I grip the table.
Instead of fixating on Vaughn, I should’ve cast my net wider, considered Rhett’s enemies. God knows how many there are who could benefit from the evidence that Hailey’s the key to.
“Matthewswas with her that night,” I grit out, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, barely holding myself together. “Where was he taking her? What were your orders?”
Vaughn pales further, a man on the brink of collapse as he folds into himself, sinking into the chair opposite mine.
I’ve known him by reputation for years. Despite Rhett and Vaughn’s mutual hatred and the obvious mafia man/cop issue, there was always an undertone of respect in Rhett’s voice when he mentioned Charles.
The man is a war machine. Methodical, strategic, with a code of honor few possess. Rhett depicted him as the epitome of unbreakable control. A man who holds his own, even in situations where others would fall apart.
He’s been responsible for taking down the most vicious, vengeful men in the business. Nothing ever sways his judgment. No amount of money or promises canbuyCharles Vaughn.
But there’s nothing of that man in the person sitting across from me. Not even a fucking shadow. There’s no courage, no control, no plan. His eyes brim with tears, his gaze hollow with despair and deep, all-consuming fear for his daughter’s life.
It matches my own... probably knocks it right out of the park because he’s herfather. Hailey’s all he’s got left since he lost his wife. Everything he’s done until now was to protect her after hefailed to see how close she and Alex were. Both our problems stem from that sleazy motherfucker but it was Vaughn who sent him on his mission to destroy my father.
And now it’s destroying him.
Poetic fucking justice. Too bad it’s at Hailey’s expense.
He swallows a sharp breath, lifting his eyes to mine. “I swear, Willard, if you’re lying, if you’re—”
“I.Don’t. Have. Her,” I grit out through clenched teeth, holding his gaze so he’ll read the truth in my eyes.
I doubt it’s enough, but it has to be. I can’t prove it.
“Then where is she?! Why were you at Lakeside?”
“Why do you think?” I lean forward, the cold table a doubtful barrier between us if he decides to smash my face against the handcuff rail. “She knows where Alex’s evidence is and Rhett wants it.”
I deliberately omit that—according to Hailey’s most recent flashback—sheis the evidence. There may be some paperwork hidden in the bank, or God knows where, but her testimony will be crucial. She’s an eyewitness. An anomaly in the world where Rhett Willard reigns. No one ever testified against my father because no witnesses ever lived to tell the tale.
Except Hailey.
And Rhett doesn’t know she caught him red-handed.
