Page 34 of Unbound

My head snaps to face him. So, he found the marriage certificate, then probably Sterling’s house. I try to hold back the tears, but they slip out onto my cheeks.

“You want to be in the baby’s life?”

He slams his hand down between us on the console. “Of course I do. I never said I didn’t! You’re the one who took off, thinking you could take my son and hide from me. You’re never going to have another second of peace, you understand me? You don’t get to decide when this ends. And that new husband of yours is going to feel my wrath if he tries to say anything about it.”

My phone buzzes in my pocket. I know it’s probably Sterling, calling to find out where I am. My chest feels like it’s being squeezed so tight that it might burst.

I wish I’d told him I loved him, just once.

11

STERLING

I’m not at liberty to say what I do in the Marine Raiders, but what a lot of people assume is that I carry a big gun and shoot a few bad guys, maybe throw a grenade every once in a while.

The truth is, I’m much scarier than that. Sure, I can hit a quarter-sized target from a mile away with a sniper rifle, but my real talent is finding the motherfuckers who don’t wanna be found.

I’m a tracker. The best one in the US military. If I have a computer, I can find anyone on this planet. I can find out what he ate for breakfast and where he went to preschool.

When I walk through my front door with Duke, the hair on the back of my neck immediately stands up.

“Something isn’t right,” I tell him.

“What?” He can hear it in my voice that I’m being serious, and his usual lighthearted nature shifts.

“Eden,” I call into the house, even though I know it’s empty. “Her shoes are gone.”

He sets the bag of fried chicken on the kitchen counter, flexing his jaw. “Call her.”

I’m already pulling my phone out and dialing her number. It rings and rings, but she doesn’t pick up. My bloodstream freezes. I grab my work laptop out of the backpack and pull up the feed from my security cameras on the front porch.

I shift into the tactical mode I’m known for at work, forcing myself to remove the emotions roaring in my ears. I hear Duke checking the house, but of course, he comes up empty. When the camera feed pulls up, I see Eden exiting the house about twenty minutes ago. She has her tote bag slung over her shoulder. Everything looks normal as she turns in the direction of the library.

She doesn’t return.

I turn, running toward the door, Duke quickly on my heels. I sprint toward the library, coming up on her bag less than a block from the house.

“Fuck!” I snatch it up, peering inside to find only the books.

I look around the neighborhood. A few houses down, an older woman is watering her garden. Across the street from her, a delivery driver is taking a pizza box up to the door.

I quickly take note of all the address numbers in the general area and sprint back to the house.

It takes me all of five precious minutes to pull up each one and hack into them, find the ones with security cameras on the front door like mine, and scroll through until I see Eden walking by calmly with the bag. My brow furrows when nothing happens until she’s out of the frame.

Then a royal-blue Ford truck idles by, going too slow. I freeze the frame over the plates, cataloging the numbers. I scroll through more of the feed until I see Eden sprinting back at full speed and dropping the bag where I found it. My heart gallops in my chest as I watch the truck slam on their brakes and the man getting out.

I inhale, trying to control my emotions as he jerks her arm before shoving her into the truck.

In another minute, I have his name pulled up.

Michael Higgins.

Her baby daddy found her and literally took her right off my fucking street.

Red-hot boiling rage courses through my body at a rate I’m having trouble controlling. I feel my shoulders start to shake when I think about the bruises she had when we first met, the fear in her eyes when she told me about him.

I feel my body moving, my mind foggy. I finally realize that Duke is screaming in my ear and trying to get my attention by jerking my body toward him by my shoulders.