Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“What?” Harper says, disbelief thick in her tone. “It couldn’t be. She’s in the hospital. She hasn’t been discharged. I—”
“It was your fucking mother, doll. I got her on camera. She took the girls from the bedroom window. She lured them out and took off.”
“No, she . . . she wouldn’t do that,” Harper says, her tone breaking a million times over. “I know she’s a terrible person, but not even she’s this stupid. She would never involve the girls in this bullshit. Jonah will never speak to her again.”
“Well, she did.”
“FUCK!”
“I’m going to be there in ten minutes, doll. I need you to hold on. I need you to calm down. Do you understand me? We’re going to go and get these girls, but we’re doing it the right way with my team at our back.”
“It’s one thing for them to come after me, but the girls? They’re innocent.”
“I know,” I say. “Now, tell me you understand. Tell me you won’t do anything stupid.”
“Knight, I . . .” Harper sighs, her voice shaking. “I can’t take a back seat on this. They’re my nieces, and I gave my word that they’d be safe with me. I can’t just . . . I can’t just sit back and do nothing. Every second they could be harmed. I . . . I—”
“I don’t expect you to take a back seat, doll. I know the likelihood of that happening. I just need you to wait for me,” I tell her, unease beginning to burn through my veins, fearing that she’s going to take off, her emotions ruling her. “Now, let me talk to Hunter.”
I hear Harper’s shaky breathing as she hands her phone to Hunter, and not a moment later, his voice comes through my Bluetooth. “Boss,” he says, fucking distraught. “I don’t know what happened. They were right here. We could hear them laughing in the guest room, and then they just . . . They fucking vanished.”
“I don’t have time to deal with your guilt, Hunter. You can grovel later; right now, I need your head in the fucking game. Can you do that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Perimeter search. What did it bring up?”
“Not much. Guest bedroom window was left ajar as though someone had tried to close it too quickly,” he tells me. “No tracks to follow in this weather.”
“Okay. I’ll be there in six minutes. Be ready to go,” I tell him. “The code to my safe is three, nine, two, zero. There are four guns, and another in my bedside drawer. Grab all the ammo and the bulletproof vest for Harper. But keep an eye on her. I can’t have her doing something stupid.”
“Got it,” he says. “I . . . wait. Harper. DON’T! HARPER! FUCK!”
There’s a scuffle, sounding as though he’s racing through my home when he roars in frustration. “FUCK! She took off with Izzy.”
“DAMN IT!”
I drag my hand down my face, slamming on the accelerator until my truck physically can’t be pushed any further, and I listen as Hunter races back through my house, the familiar beep of my safe being opened sounding through the phone.
“Be ready,” I warn him.
“She’s already gone, man. Don’t waste time coming here,” he says, both of us already knowing exactly where Harper is heading. “I’ll meet you there.”
Hunter ends the call, and before my Bluetooth even has a second to catch up, I’m already pressing call on Diesel’s number. “What’s wrong?” he asks, knowing I wouldn’t need to call so soon after just seeing him.
“Bring the whole fucking cavalry,” I tell him. “Double child abduction. Four-year-old twin girls. I want the whole fucking team on this.”
“The fuck?” he asks, but I already hear him moving, putting a game plan into action.
“Mae Slater, Harper’s mother. She kidnapped the twins from our home precisely six minutes ago,” I tell him, glancing at the time on my screen. “Harper’s already taken off after them with Izzy, and if my gut is right, Mae is leading her right into Elias’s waiting arms.”
“Fuck.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“We’ll be there,” he vows, ending the call just as swiftly as Hunter had.
My hand white-knuckles the steering wheel, and as I barrel through the streets, fury ripples through my chest, but not just because of the situation that my team is about to face, but because of Harper.
She promised me, as we stood out in the fucking road on this very highway after her release from jail, that she would never do anything reckless like that again. Never go barging headfirst into a deadly situation. Never be so fucking careless with her life that I risk losing her.
She fucking promised, and while I know these girls are her flesh and blood, what good is it going to be when she rushes in all hotheaded and gets herself killed because she didn’t have protection at her back, she didn’t have her fucking team, she didn’t have a single goddamn weapon to defend herself.