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“What’s wrong?” she frowned, eyes bouncing between mine with worry as I pulled away.

“Everyone’s gone. No one is answering their phone. Everyone is gone.”

“Shh, shh,” she hushed me, pulling me into Rome’s office and plunking me down on the chair. “Tell me what happened.”

I told Livie everything.

Everything between me and Ashe, me and Theo, me and Toni. I told her what I knew, what I had found out, and what I thought had happened.

Her eyes went from concerned, to wide, to glassy and unfocused as I continued to speak. Eventually, she left me, half-mindlessly drifting towards her computer and beginning to type.

Honestly, I didn’t know why I hadn’t come to her sooner. I supposed that everyone else was always so busy, so consumed with dealing with important things, things that were dangerous but necessary, that my little hunch didn’t seem worth the time.

Even now, Livie’s undereyes were dark from a lack of sleep after sitting at Rome’s desk all night and working. Even she hadn’t heard from Sam.

“Dean White,” she said after a few moments of reading. “His father is a mining magnate. Probably one of the richest men in Australia. Joshua Stragg, son of the dude that owns all the Royale Casinos. William Peck,” her eyebrows pinched together, eyes scanning the text on her screen quickly. “Real estate development.”

And then she was typing again. Typing and then reading. Then clicking a button and the printer began to whir.

“This is a list of all current projects by Peck Developments nearby. We should start with these,” she said, half to me, half to herself, rolling the chair towards the high bookshelf and standing on it to retrieve a book. She opened it, and pulled a gun out of the disguised case, tucking it into the back of her jeans.

I scanned the list.

“This one,” I pointed to the third address on the list. “A new shopping centre. That will be Theo’s dad’s. They’ll be there.”

Livie nodded once. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, just us?”

“There’s no one else, Zar.”

I chewed down on my bottom lip, and Livie quirked a brow.

“Actually, there might be.”

25

ZARINA

“I’ll just wait here,”Livie sighed, slinking back into the passenger seat of Toni’s car.

I rolled my eyes, but could understand her hesitation. She and Sammy had dealt with the Redliners a lot in the past, and close calls had made everyone wary.

But King was dead, and these weren’t the same people who had nearly killed my brothers.

They wore the same patch, they carried the same titles, but they were nothing like the men in the stories. Those people were long dead or long gone—and it seemed that they were better off for it.

“I promise you, Liv,” I squeezed her hand. “You’ll be safe. I know these people.”

Livie searched my face for a moment, before her eyes flickered towards the outside walls of the clubhouse. And then she nodded.

She lingered behind me as I approached the door, not bothering to knock before I headed inside. I had my bag full of goodies with me, and it was fucking heavy.

Heads swivelled our way as the door creaked open, but Freddie was the first one to notice me.

“Zarina,” his voice was rough, like it had been the first time he’d spoken all day. “What’s wrong?”

Prince and Freddie were the only ones inside that I recognised, otherwise, there were only a few of the younger, fresher faces hanging about. Prince rounded the table where he was talking to one of the guys, heavy eyebrows drawing together as he closed the space between us.