Page 45 of Antonio Miles

“How bad?” I barked.

“Everyone is alive, but they took Tessa.”

I didn’t even hear what Finch said next. White static filled my head, drowning out everything. My knees buckled, and I punched the inside panel where I sat so hard my fist went numb and a line of blood welled up between my knuckles. Didn’t feel it. Didn’t care. All I could see was Tessa’s face, eyes shining, hand on her belly. My baby. My woman.

And someone had fucking taken her!

The pain hit so hard I almost puked. Instead, I dragged the agony inside and let it burn. Rage, ugly and bright, lit up my veins. Every failure I’d ever made blared in my ears. Jen’s eyes, Darby’s silent judgment, all the girls I couldn’t save. Every Goddamn one of them.

I would rip this mountain apart stone by stone. I’d stalk the bastards who took her to the ends of the earth and carve the Goddamn directions in their skin. I would not stop. Not this time. I’d kill every motherfucker who touched her.

“Location?”

He gave it. I left the chopper idling and hopped back in my car. My driver, Kellen, must have seen or heard unusual commotion because he slammed the gas down and skidded to a halt next to the aircraft before I’d climbed down to the tarmac. I gave him directions and he nailed the accelerator.

The world outside blurred past. I let Knuckles and my own men talk me into this, had understood their reasoning even, and now Denton had Tessa. I was supposed to be her protector. Instead, I was at a fucking air strip, twenty minutes up the road.

The wreck came into view. Kellen rolled over the glass at fifty and jammed the brakes, sliding sideways into the shoulder. I was out before the vehicle came to a stop.

The lead vehicle’s nose was caved in, front end scored deep and bleeding fluid all over the asphalt. The wrecked van had no markings or tags of any kind. My crew was still on their feet, though, given how violent the crash looked, their survival was no small miracle. That no one had been seriously hurt seemed impossible.

Finch had the perimeter. He worked the blacked-out lens of a small drone, scanning tree lines and ditches. Kass knelt by the open passenger side of the lead SUV. He held a rag to his upper arm, scarlet already soaking through. A gash dripped blood down his forehead and he pressed another cloth to it for a couple seconds before dropping it as he stood. His chin was set like he was still looking for a fight.

Carrie stood off to the side, hair in a messy rope, hands red to the wrist with blood and blood spatter. Her clothing was dark but the stains still showed. Her jaw flexed and her eyes held steady. She stared at the ground where the second man lay, his mask off, mouth open and full of blood bubbles, patches of red on his neck where he’d been stabbed to shit, likely by my niece.

Kass spoke first. “There was a team of assholes waiting. They caused the crash to stack us up. Finch took one in the chest, but the flak jacket stopped it. Carrie handled a couple of them, but she’s one woman, no matter how well trained. The rest of us were pinned down, which was how they planned it.”

I knelt beside the dead man, glad he was dead but wishing I could have made him suffer.

Carrie stepped closer. “He tried to take Tessa.” Her voice was gravel. “I took his knife and let the fucker have it. There’s another one farther down the road there, closer to where they had their van waiting. Kass shot another one through the teeth. There were more, but that’s three of the five man team they sent for her. Everyone else was the diversion, but I think they’re all dead.”

I looked. The first body lay by the open driver’s door. Entry wound was a star under his chin.

“Tessa fought,” Finch said. “Went for the eyes. Kicked one in the nuts. She didn’t make it easy.”

Carrie stalked up beside me, hands curled into claws. “They were calm. Like they knew exactly where we’d be and how many. I try to stay as far away from that life as I can, Tonio, but this wasn’t a normal crew. I’d bet my pinky toe these guys do snatch and grabs for a living.”

“Plates?” I asked.

“Nope. Even the VIN number on the one that hit us had been removed. It was a surgical hit. They were in and gone in under a minute.” She took a breath. “But…”

I narrowed my gaze. “But what?”

“The van that took her is dark, but it’s got that guy’s blood,” she hiked her thumb over her shoulder to indicate one of the men she’d stabbed, “all over the side. As much as I could get in one pass. If Knight knows what to look for…”

“He can track it with city traffic cams.”

Finch held his phone to his ear. “Knight’s already inside the traffic grid. He said to tell you this was where that new toy you bought him would save your girl’s life.”

I don’t think I realized until just that moment how thoroughly I trusted Knuckles and his men. If Knight said he could find Tessa, I believed him. The band around my chest eased slightly.

Hawk and Griffin came in on foot from farther down the road. Hawk’s pants were soaked at the hem, like he’d been running the ditch.

Sully rolled up shortly after in a battered pickup, fresh from the compound. He stepped out, blocking the scene with his frame before he approached. “We set?” he asked.

A black luxury car rolled in, tires crunching sharp on gravel. Seth Miles got out of the back seat. The man was in his late sixties, but you’d never know it. He might leave most of the heavy lifting to me now, but my father was still a formidable, physical presence.

He said nothing as he walked up to the scene, eyes colder than I’d ever seen. His gaze locked on me. He walked right past the bodies, stopped in front of me. For a half second, I thought he might swing. Instead, he put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll get Tessa back, Tonio.”