Page 18 of Judge’s Redemption

Heat moves through me despite everything and I drag the shirt over my head.

Judge's phone buzzes.

The change in him is instant. He reads the message, and all the heat leaves his face.

“What?”

He hesitates before he turns the phone toward me.

A photograph fills the screen. Evie and me outside the preschool that morning, her hand in mine, my face turned toward her as she laughs at something I can't remember.

The picture was taken from across the street and beneath it is a single message.

Everybody has leverage.

Judge goes completely still, not with shock this time, but with murder in his eyes.

CHAPTER 4

JUDGE

The photograph on my phone turns the whole room red. Not because I lose control. Because I don’t, I’m better than that.

I study every inch of the image while Shay pulls her shirt into place. The angle. The light. The reflection caught in the preschool window. Whoever took it was parked across the street, close enough to watch my daughter laugh and then learn her routine.

I send the photograph to Kane and call Cash.

“Mercer’s watching Shay and Evie.”

His voice changes instantly. “Where’s Evie?”

“At Dottie’s.”

“I’ll send Tank. Nobody will move her until you get there.”

Kane calls before I can put the phone away.

“Bring them both to the compound.”

“I need to talk to Shay first.”

“Then talk to her.”

I lower the phone and Shay watches me. “Who's Mercer?”

“A man King did business with, debt collection.” Her expression says she expected nothing better.

“King took an advance to collect from a criminal associate. The man disappeared, so Mercer decided we should grab his sister and hold her until he came back.”

“And Kane refused, because she’s innocent in all this?”

“Yes, exactly.” Some of the tension in Shay's face shifts. Not gone. Recalibrated.

“And now Mercer is coming after us because of you. “The words are blunt and true.

“Because I returned the money and put one of his men on the floor when they tried to stop me leaving.”

“So, what happens now?”