My thoughts scatter, colliding faster than I can grab hold of them. My girl is gone—again—and the same three words Brax spoke echo until it drowns out everything else. I can’t breathe past the helplessness clawing at me.
The world blurs. My body lags, heavy, uncooperative, and two seconds away from giving out, but I don’t have time to fall apart. Not again. I have to move. I have to save her. She needs me. The past doesn’t get to own me right now.
I whip my head in Brax’s direction, desperation surrounding my voice. One word rips free, loaded with a hundred unspoken questions I don’t have time to ask. “Why?”
Brax meets my stare. He reads everything I’m giving off—the betrayal, panic, the rage clawing at me from every angle.
“I don’t know,” he says quietly.
“Not good enough anymore,” I fire back.
Before either of us can say another word, his phone rings. He turns away to answer it.
“Detective Langford.” His tone is clipped. “How long?” He listens. “Follow him. Do not lose him. Do you understand me?”
A thousand needles prick my skin.
What is he talking about? Was that call from his sergeant about The Octopus? Is Brodie with him? The ground drops out from beneath me at the image of Brodie taking Erin to meet him. My thoughts ricochet wildly, colliding until I can barely form a coherent one as I stare at Brax.
How did we get here? How the hell did this investigation turn into a fucking kidnapping?
“Send the cars,” Brax continues. “No sirens. No one fires a shot without my say so. No one enters but me. Am I clear?”
Rudy moves like he’s been electrocuted.
A sudden parched feeling hits me, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
Would Brodie actually hurt her?
The question lodges itself deep, ugly and persistent. I’ve trusted him—believed in him—so the idea that he could hurt anyone shouldn’t even exist. And yet, it does.
Trust isn’t supposed to fracture this easily…but right now, everything I thought I knew echoes a lie, and that single thought is almost as terrifying as what Erin must be facing right now.
Brax hangs up and faces us. “We have a location. Stay here.”
“Like hell,” Bella says.
“Fuck that,” Rudy agrees.
Bella steps up to Brax and narrows her gaze on him. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the hole in your shoulder. Isn’t there some rule about an officer not going back into the field after being hurt—even if theysaythey’re fine? Are you really the right person to help my sister right now?”
Brax pinches the bridge of his nose. “My shoulder’s manageable. Erin’s been kidnapped. Her life comes first. I don’tneed medical clearance to go after her when a civilian’s life is in danger.”
He glances at each of us with a determined look. “All my focus needs to be on her. I can’t be worried about anyone else. Because if anything happens to any of you, Erin will break. Do you get that?”
“You can’t ask us to stay,” Rudy fires back.
“I understand where you’re coming from, but Iamasking.” He pauses for a moment while the seriousness of the situation sinks in. “I don’t know what we’re walking into. I don’t know why he took her. I’m going in blind.”
Bella wipes a tear from her cheek.
“She’s our family,” Rudy says quietly. “We won’t get in your way. We just want to bring her back.”
Without another word, Rudy walks past Brax, not waiting for permission. Bella follows. And so do I.
Nothing will keep me from Erin.
As I fall into step beside them, I glance back at Brax, and for the first time since I’ve known him, a look of terror plagues his face.
