Vaughn gnashes his teeth between his lips, glaring from where he leans against the wall, fingers tightening around the phone he pulled out of the inside pocket of his jacket.
The air in the room grows thick with tension, the silent battle of wills between us almost tangible. He’s been standing there for five minutes, chewing his teeth, lost in his desperate need to save Hailey but restrained by his principles.
“You’re wasting time,” I grit out, cracking my knuckles to keep my hands occupied with something other than battering him to death. That sure would mean time behind bars.
“You think this is easy?” He straightens his spine against the wall. “You think I want to rely on you?”
I resist the urge to sneer. “This isn’t about what you want, Vaughn. It’s about getting Hailey back. What other choice do you have? What’s your plan? You had seven days and you’re nowhere.”
“You had just as long,” he grumbles, rubbing his temples. “And yet here you are, empty-handed, needing my help.”
“Your help?” I scoff, losing my goddamn patience with this clown. “I haven’t found her only because I was convinced you had her. You don’t, so I don’t need you. It’s you who needs help. I still have my one phone call and I’ll walk once my lawyer gets here. We both know you forged that warrant.”
Vaughn scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “I tried getting a real one but, as you pointed out, the system is flawed.”
“Welcome to the dark side of the line. I’ll know where Hailey is by morning.” That’s a bluff. I have no fucking idea where she is, but I have a few suspects. Suspects in my world which means my sources of information are infinitely more useful. “I’ll have her back in forty-eight hours max. You really think you’ll find her first?”
He shifts his weight from one leg to another, clutching his phone like a lifeline. Like it’s a manifestation of his principles. Either he stands his ground, holding onto the illusion of being the bigger man, or he waves the white flag. I want him to relent. I want him to hand the fucking phone over, inadvertently admitting he needs me.
“If she’s been off the radar this long, she’s with someone who won’t offer you the same decency Rhett did,” I continue, swaying his judgment. “You’ll be dead the moment you get there, and that’s only if your deputy allows the raid. You need me more than I need you.”
I don’t need him at all, but while he’s been standing there, sulking, I realized that while Hailey’s all he has left, he’s also her only remaining family.
She’ll want him in her life and there’s no way he’ll accept me unless I give him no choice.
“What lengths will you go to, to protect your daughter?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” he snaps.
“Then give me the phone.”
“You’re part of the world I’m protecting her from.”
“I am, but don’t throw me in the same bag as the scum you’ve been chasing your whole life. Unlike them, unlike anyoneelse in this fucked-up world, I’ll happily die toprotect her. Open your eyes and smell the fucking music.”
The corner of his lip twitches. “My wife used to butcher that saying the same way.”
“I bet I’d get along with her better than you.”
“Yeah, I bet you would.” He inhales a sharp breath, his pain still evident in that sound. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows, wiping the sweat glistening around his temples.
“You’re wasting time, Vaughn. You want Hailey to end up like Matthews’ daughter?”
“Of course not. She’s all I have left. I can’t lose her.”
“You won’t. We won’t. I’ll bring her back. I have more than enough means and no need to abide by the law. What do you have?”
He exhales heavily, his gaze clashing with mine, reluctant acceptance in his eyes. “I have you.” He tosses the phone across the room.
“Good choice,” I say, plucking it from the air. “Now fetch Jeremy.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you’re right.” I set his phone down on the table, tapping the screen twice. “This might be tapped.”
“Then why did you ask for it?!”
I cock an eyebrow, staring him down. He really is an intelligent man. It takes him less than ten seconds to figure it out.
“You wanted me to cave and admit I need your help.”
“Now I know where Hailey gets her analytical mind.” I jut my chin at the door. “We need Jeremy. No time to lose.”
With visible hesitation, he does as instructed. I bet it costs him all his pride to take orders from me, but for Hailey’s sake, he exits the interrogation room.
I press the side button on his phone. My stomach twists into elaborate knots when Hailey stares up from the screen, all smiles and blue eyes.
We’ve been together for weeks, but other than the headshot Rhett gave me, I don’t have a single picture of her. Hundreds of her diary, but not one of her pretty, radiant face. The headshot doesn’t capture that innocence I love so much and the fire burning within.
Vaughn’s phone wallpaper does a better job, though I’d rather have a picture taken seconds after I make her come. The satisfaction sparkling in her eyes, the bliss painting her face, the multitude of emotions visible in her exhausted smile.
When she’s back and mine again, I’ll spend my days photographing her when she least expects it.
The door swings open and Jeremy walks in, shoulders squared back and a look of superiority crossing his features when his eyes catch mine.
“Looks like I underestimated you, Beckett,” he denotes, purposefully glancing at Vaughn. “Had I known you were so persuasive, I would’ve paid you more attention.”
“Lesson learned. I need your phone. And get Foley in here. He should make a show of dismissing the charges before I walk out, don’t you think?”
Jeremy nods, pulling two phones out of his pockets. He pushes the one he uses strictly for Dante my way. The other stays in his hand to call Foley.
From memory, I tap in a number, press the cell to my ear and lower the call volume so Vaughn can’t eavesdrop. It takes half a dial tone before Ryder picks up.
“Hello?”
“It’s me,” I say. “Hailey’s not with Vaughn.”
“That’s what we suspected after you were escorted out of Delta.”
“I trust you’ve not been sitting on your ass the past hour?”
“Who do you take me for?” he scoffs. “Of course not. Given this is Jeremy’s number, I assume you’ll be back soon?”
“Depends how quickly Foley arrives for his performance.” I run a heavy hand down my face. “Any leads?”
“Nothing concrete yet, but given where the bodies were found, we’re betting on Noretto. Some fisherman found Matthews floating in Tappan Lake. That’s Ohio, but just an hour outside Pittsburgh.”
Fuck. That’s Noretto’s turf. He has good reason to be particularly interested in Alex’s evidence against Rhett. When Vaughn told me he didn’t have Hailey, I suspected Noretto, but I didn’t want to let that thought sink.
Not only because the man is a fucking nutcase but also because of his chosen line of work—selling girls from Eastern Europe to American brothels. The thought of Hailey in his house, surrounded by men with zero respect for women, is enough to send my temper skyrocketing.
“Blaze has the most to gain, and his place isn’t that far from the lake,” Jackson adds somewhere in the background. “We’re looking into how Matthews’ daughter was taken.”
“Good. I doubt they threw up too many smoke screens. If you can pinpoint where she was kidnapped and whodid it, we’ll have confirmation.”
I purposely don’t say Blaze’s name out loud. Vaughn caved but I don’t trust him not to make a move on Noretto’s place.
That would not go down well. He’s a cop. He has to follow protocol, and protocol would get him killed if he got anywhere near Blaze’s mansion.
Fucking perfect… caring about Hailey means I need to keep her father—a cop—alive. His death would leave her devastated… that’s not something I can handle.
With this new information, it’s almost too fucking obvious Blaze Noretto has my girl, but I need proof. Dante won’t let me go in with all guns blazing based on a suspicion. We don’t need another war, though I’d start one to get Hailey back.
I hope she won’t tell them what she sees in her flashbacks. She should know better. She gave in to me without much of a fight, but I think—well, I hope—her feelings were to blame. Though, given her history with Alex and me, she’s not the best judge of character.
The only consolation is that she’s much more valuable alive than dead. On top of the evidence, she’s a witness. I doubt Blaze wants the evidence to send Rhett down for life, but an eyewitness makes a great bargaining chip. I fucking hope she hasn’t told him she saw Rhett perform an execution.
“I’m trying to hack his security system but it’s a tight ship,” Ryder says and the faint sound of fingers tapping a keyboard confirms he’s working.
“I’ll be home soon. Tell Broadway to wait at my loft.”
“Got it. He and Koby are out in the city asking the right questions now we think we know where she is.”
“Good. Keep me posted.”
I cut the call, tossing the phone back to Jeremy.
Fifteen tense minutes later, my lawyer arrives, which means Dante briefed him about the situation and Foley spent the past hour waiting for the call.
A knock shakes the doorframe and a lower-ranking officer, one of those who arrived in Delta with Vaughn, flings it open after a resounding come in fromJeremy.
Without a word, he steps aside, letting Michael Foley dressed in a suit worth more than his Merc into the room, his all-business-and-zero-bullshit attitude overpowering the atmosphere.
Working as the lead lawyer for Dante pays well, and the guy is a fucking magician, so he often gets a bonus. His eyes lock with mine as he crosses the threshold.
Vaughn dismisses the other cop and stands his ground despite Foley’s skeptical look.
“He stays,” I say.
A nod is all I get in return while Michael pulls out a wad of papers. He came prepared. Getting Dante’s men out of interrogation rooms isn’t a common occurrence, considering we rarely get caught, but it does happen, so Michael knows the drill.
“Give him a burner.” I motion to Vaughn.
Still saying nothing, Michael opens a separate compartment in his briefcase and assembles a burner phone before passing it over.
If this weird turn of events fazes him, he doesn’t let it show.
“Keep it on you at all times,” I tell Vaughn. “I’ll call you when I have Hailey.”
“Just like that? No demands?”
“Demands?” I scoff. “You think I’ll use her to blackmail you into doing whatever I want? Think again.”
He swallows hard, watching me with a dubious look. “You really love her…”
I don’t know where he’s going with this. It’s not a question, more like he’s stating it for his own benefit, so I don’t answer.
“You wouldn’t want her to lose the only parent she has left, would you?” he asks, after taking the moment I gave him to wrap his head around this.
“I won’t kill you, if that’s what you’re wondering, but you’re not guaranteed a spot in Hailey’s life. Not unless you learn to live with the fact your daughter is mine.”
“You want my fucking blessing?” he snaps, growing defensive. “Fine, but I want something in return. I want to be the first person you call when you find the evidence, Beckett.”
The fucking audacity.
The fucking nerve ofhim. How can he blindly focus on the evidence while his daughter’s life is on the line?
“You’re in no position to issue demands. You put a gun to your own head when you forged that warrant. I won’t use Hailey against you but don’t mistake that for a weakness. I have more than enough ammunition. Keep the phone on you.”
I nod at Michael, who passes the paperwork to Vaughn. He doesn’t even look at it, which—I guess—is why Michael doesn’t bother reciting any of the legal jargon he always has primed. Instead, he opens the door, perfectly confident that we can walk out as if I weren’t accused of murdering a police officer.
I pass Vaughn, his face pale, eyes jumping side to side. He’s scared. Rightly so. His only daughter is held captive and it boils down to one bad decision he made: trusting Alex, the piece of shit who infiltrated my father, took my sister’s innocence, and hurt Hailey.
For one fleeting moment, I consider stopping, patting his back or squeezing his shoulder and spewing a few words of reassurance. I’ll find her, get her back, and keep her safe.
But I don’t do or say any of that. I have too many reasons to hate this guy with everything in me.
Fuck him.
Shouldering past him, my entire focus goes into mental preparation. Once Ryder confirms Hailey’s with Blaze, it’s full steam ahead. Noretto’s no rookie. He’s a vengeful fucker with an army of equally vengeful men ready to die for the cause.
