Jax moved directly toward me, his tablet in one hand, and his face set like granite. My chest tightened immediately at the grim look in his eyes.
“We found her car. It was left abandoned at that convenience store near the edge of town, a few miles from here. She was probably heading to the compound.”
I nodded, my jaw clenching as a fresh surge of rage pulsed in my veins.
Jax hesitated for a second, his gaze darting toward Tripp, and something dark flared behind his eyes. “Purchase was pretty fucking telling. Makeup wipes, tissues, mascara, lip balm. Shit women buy when they’ve been crying but still want to look put together. Right?”
Tripp visibly flinched at the implied accusation, his guilt written plain as day across his face. “She called me before she headed out. Told me about you two. I said some shit I shouldn’t have. That you were probably using her, and she was blind if she couldn’t see it. We argued, and she hung up on me.”
My fists clenched as the urge to drive my knuckles straight into Tripp’s fucking face almost overwhelmed me. Only the knowledge that every second wasted was another Aubrey spent alone, frightened and hurting, kept me rooted in place.
I had to shove the fury down deep, burying it beneath the ache of knowing that right now, Aubrey probably thought I’d betrayed her. I’d been too damn much of a coward to tell her the truth. To admit how much she meant to me. That I fucking loved her.
But I wasn’t losing her. Not today. Not ever.
I’d put Ronnie Hanks six feet under, get Aubrey safely back into my arms, and spend the rest of my fucking life proving she owned every part of me.
The air was thick with tension as we strapped on vests, loaded magazines, and checked our tactical gear, but I stayed quiet, my eyes locked forward. When we were done, I forced myself to finally face Tripp directly. “I’ll let you know when we find her.”
I started to walk away, but he grabbed my arm, his grip tight enough to stop me in my tracks. “I’m coming with you.”
I ripped my arm free and spun, slamming Tripp back against the wall, the dull thud of his shoulders hitting concrete echoing in the sudden silence. My voice vibrated with barely contained violence. “No the fuck you’re not.”
His jaw tightened, his eyes blazing defiantly as he shoved back against my grip. “She’s my sister.”
“I know exactly who she is,” I ground out, leaning into him until we were nose to nose, my voice edged in brutal honesty. “And I know exactly who you are, motherfucker. Your federal ass stays here because there’s no version of how this ends without blood on my hands, and I don’t fucking trust you.”
Brothers shifting minutely, their eyes narrowed as they waited to see who’d break first. Tripp didn’t flinch or deny a thing. He stared straight into my eyes, his voice full of grim certainty. “If you don’t take me with you, I’ll go after him myself.”
Kane shifted like he was ready to step in, but Tripp kept going, his eyes burning with an intensity I’d never seen in him before.
“The system failed. It always fucking fails. Monsters slip through loopholes and innocent people pay the price. Maybeyour kind of justice is exactly what the world fucking needs right now.”
My fists relaxed just a little, but I didn’t back away as I studied the fierce conviction etched deeply into every feature of Tripp’s face. Aubrey’s voice echoed in my head, telling me about how he’d sacrificed everything for her, how his own agency punished him for choosing right over easy, morals over procedures. He wasn’t the enemy anymore, no matter how much I wanted to hate him.
“Besides,” Tripp added darkly, his eyes flickering toward Kane, “if I’m part of this…we’ve got mutual destruction and all that shit.”
Kane’s mouth twitched into a faint smirk, amusement flickering briefly in his eyes before his gaze settled on me, waiting. He lifted his chin slightly, giving me a silent order. I cursed under my breath, grunted in frustration, but ultimately nodded in agreement. Not just because my prez had given me an order, but because Aubrey would never forgive me if something happened to Tripp because I let him go rogue. I wasn’t about to let that guilt live between us.
“Fine,” I growled, stepping back reluctantly. “You stay on my fucking heels, and you do exactly what I say.”
Tripp nodded, the relief and determination clear in his eyes. We might not fully trust each other, but right now our goal is the same. Bring Aubrey home safe and make Ronnie Hanks wish he’d never breathed free air again.
The armory emptied back into Kane’s office, and the waiting started. Which I fucking hated.
It shredded my nerves down to the fucking bone. Give me a target, a weapon, and a direction to move, and I could function. But standing around while Aubrey was out there somewhere, trapped with a violent psychopath who had every intention of hurting her, felt like being skinned alive one layer at a time.
I braced my shoulder against the bookshelf lining Kane’s office wall, trying to anchor myself with the solid weight of something familiar. I didn’t trust myself to speak, afraid that if I opened my mouth, the edges of my fear and fury would bleed out uncontrollably.
I scanned the faces around the room, each brother locked into their own tense silence. Kane sat calmly behind his massive desk, a stark contrast to the tension radiating off every man around him. Edge lounged deceptively loose-limbed beside Jax, but the calculated stillness of his gaze told a different story. Tripp hunched forward in one of Kane’s leather captain’s chairs, his elbows braced on his knees, hands clasped tight enough to crush bones.
I could feel the waves of guilt and worry rolling off him, mingling with the distrust and anger that simmered in my gut. However, for the first time since I’d met him, I understood him a little better. Because I knew exactly what it felt like to have somebody you loved out there in the dark while you couldn’t do a damn thing except wait.
When Jax suddenly stopped typing and lifted his head, every eye in the room zeroed in on him. “I have something.”
I was moving before he finished speaking, crossing the room as he turned the laptop, allowing us all a view of the map glowing on the screen. Red markers dotted across the digital landscape, but Jax zoomed in quickly, narrowing it down with precise motions.
“Walk me through it,” Kane ordered.
