Page 11 of Beautiful Scars: Unshakeable (The Beautiful Scars Duet #2)

Chapter Ten

Zane

I lean over the desk, staring at the maps until the lines blur together, my fingers drumming against the worn wood. Empty coffee cups litter the surface like a carefully constructed monument to our month long failure. The air in the office is thick with cigarette smoke and stagnant air.

The harsh ring of my phone cuts through the silence. Unknown number. No one has this number besides the people in this room with me.

"Who the fuck is this?" My voice comes out rough, scratchy from disuse and exhaustion.

A tiny, scared whisper so faint I almost miss it, "Zane..."

The world stops.

Everything—my heartbeat, my breathing, time itself freezes. That voice. Her voice. The one I've been praying to hear. The one I thought I might never hear again.

The phone nearly slips from my fingers as I collapse into the chair behind me.

Colt's head snaps up from his paperwork, concern etching deep lines around his eyes. Across the room, Levi looks up from the makeshift table stacked with papers he's sitting at.

I can't breathe. Can't move. Can't do anything but listen to the soft sounds filtering through the connection. Rustling fabric. Heavy footsteps.

"Princess." Garrett's voice slithers through the phone. "I’ve been looking forward to this all day. Did you miss me?"

There's a soft, creaking sound. Bed springs. My fingers shake as I hit the speaker button, setting the phone in the center of the desk. I press my finger to my lips as Colt and Levi move closer.

"Answer me." The command carries a warning.

A sharp crack splits the air. The sound of flesh meeting flesh. My teeth grind together so hard my jaw aches.

"Y—yes Sir."

Christ, her voice is so small. So quiet.

More rustling, shifting. The bed creaks again. My hands curl into fists, the nails biting into my palms.

"Please..." Her pleading whisper cuts straight through me. "I—I'll be good. I promise."

Levi exhales a sound from the center of his chest—like he's being gutted. Colt's face has gone pale, ashen gray. The room tilts around me, gravity shifts and my world reorganizes itself around this single, monumental truth—she's alive.

For thirty days now, I've carried the weight of not knowing, of uncertainty I couldn't shake regardless of the reassurance I've offered to Levi and the men.

I've woken up every day with part of me expecting to get news of her being found dead.

Countless times I've imagined her cold and still lying in a ditch somewhere.

The relief in this moment should be overwhelming.

But it's not. It's agony.

Because she's alive, and she's there . With him. Hearing what's happening makes it seem more real. More desperate.

Garrett's voice becomes a low whisper, almost too quiet for the phone to pick up. I can't make out the words, but the tone—the tone says everything.

There is no barking of orders. No extreme sounds of brutal violence. What we're hearing is so much worse than those things.

His voice has dropped to something tender, sickeningly intimate. Like he's coaxing her, gentling her, getting her ready for…

My blood turns to ice in my veins.

I've heard that same tone carry through interrogation room walls when lines start getting crossed that shouldn't be.

When breaking someone stops being enough and the goal becomes their destruction instead.

It's the tone of a predator satisfied their prey is theirs and they have all the time in the world to savor it.

The edges of my vision go fuzzy and I feel sick.

I understand now with crystal clarity what it is we're listening to. What it is we're going to hear.

My throat closes and I can't swallow.

The rational part of my brain—the part that's kept me alive through war and worse—starts calculating. She's survived this long. Whatever's about to happen, she's likely endured it before. And she's still breathing, still fighting, still here .

But the other part of me, the part that remembers her laugh over morning coffee, the part that would check in on her every night as she slept peaceful and safe in my bed, in my room—that part is screaming. That part wants to reach through the phone and tear Garrett apart.

I grip the edge of the desk until my knuckles crack.

Focus.

Breathe.

Think.

This call is a gift. Our first real lead in a month. Our only chance.

I take in a deep breath as another sound filters through—soft, pained, and unmistakably hers.

Focus, Z. For her. Just focus.

I grab a notepad, scrawling: "FIND HIM" and shove it at Colt. He's already moving, laptop in his arms, fingers flying across the keyboard as he disappears into the hallway to find Wolf.

Levi hasn't moved, hasn't blinked. His face is a tortured mask of pure anguish as we listen to Sunny's breathing turn ragged, to Garrett's low murmurs that fill me with disgust. Every protective instinct in my body screams to speak, to let her know we're here, we're coming for her.

But one word, one sound from us and we may never find her.

The sound of another sharp slap crackles through the speaker, followed immediately by a loud cry. The sound of her pain—so raw, so helpless—cuts through to the center of both of us.

I watch something die in Levi's eyes, only to have something else ignite.

He lunges for the phone with a strangled sound that's barely human, but I'm faster. I catch him around the waist, force him across the room and slam him back against the wall hard enough to rattle the windows. His eyes are wild, feral. He's completely checked out.

"Not yet," I growl against his ear, praying the phone won't pick it up. "We lose this connection, we lose her. Think."

He fights me for a moment—pure animal desperation—before the logic of what I've said sinks in. The fight drains from him slowly, his body going slack against the wall. What replaces it is deeper than rage, deeper than sadness. It's soul-breaking grief.

I've known Levi for almost seven years. I've seen him take a bullet like it was nothing, watched him take hits that would take other men out, seen him stare down death more times than I can count without blinking. But, I've never seen him cry.

Until now.

Tears track silently down his face as Garrett's voice continues through the speaker, each word carving fresh wounds into both of us.

Colt slips back into the room and nods once. Wolf is working on the trace. We need time. We need Sunny to keep the line open. We need the strength to endure hearing what we all know is coming.

I let Levi go, but he doesn't move. Won't move. Can't move. Each of us is frozen, suspended in this nightmare, barely breathing. It feels as if the slightest sound, the smallest movement, might shatter this fragile connection—cut our only lifeline to her.

Through the speaker, Garrett laughs. It's a low, satisfied, revolting sound that raises every hair on my body. "Such a good girl now, aren't you? You're so pretty when you cry for me."

The bed springs groan in a steady, thumping rhythm that makes me sick.

Sunny whimpers, a jagged sound that cuts straight through me. "Please, no more... it hurts... I can't..."

"No one's coming for you, Sunny." Garrett's breathing grows heavier. "Where are they? Your precious protectors?"

His voice turns mocking. "If they loved you—really loved you—they'd have found you by now."

A shuddering breath. A series of loud grunts and wet sounds that make my skin crawl.

"You think they'd even want you now? After all of this?" The cruelty in his voice is surgical, precise. "You're ruined, Princess. Used up. But I still love you. Only me. I'm all you have left."

Colt's fingers race across his keyboard, the blue glow of the screen reflecting off his pale face. His jaw twitches and I swear I can hear his teeth grinding. He catches my eye and holds up one finger—sixty seconds. That's all we need.

"That's right, Princess." Garrett's voice comes in short bursts between heavy stuttering breaths. "Show me how much you love me."

Sunny's cry is muffled this time, like she's biting down, trying to stay quiet.

I've taken lives before. Many times, many men. Felt their last breath leave their bodies. Watched the light fade from their eyes. But I've never wanted to kill someone as much as I want to kill Garrett.

"Say it." Garrett's voice turns ugly. "Say you're mine."

"I—I'm..." Her breath comes in hitching sobs. "I'm yours."

The resignation in her voice when she says those two words fractures something inside of me.

Levi slides down the wall, head in his hands, chest heaving. The heavy gravity of what we're hearing settles over each of our shoulders, pulling us down.

We're failing her. Again. All we can do is bear witness to this… this thing we can't stop.

The rhythm of the bed springs picks up. Sunny's sobs become desperate pleas for mercy.

My fist clenches until my fingers scream.

"No one else will ever want you." Garrett pants the words out.

A pause. Heavy breathing. "But I love you. Only me."

Colt's screen flashes. Coordinates appear and vanish in green text. He scribbles frantically, maintaining his silence.

We're so close now. When we find him he's going to pay in ways he never dreamed possible.

"Look at me." The sound of another hard smack. "Show me those pretty eyes."

I meet Levi's gaze across the room. His rage mirrors my own.

It's pure. Murderous.

There will be no end to the damage we inflict on him.

Sunny's next cry is cut short. Snipped. She gasps like she's struggling for breath. The rhythm grows violent. Garrett's breathing turns erratic.

Sweat drips into my eyes. Every second stretches into eternity. The need to kill burns through me.

"Mine," Garrett growls. "Say it again."

"Yours." Her voice is barely a whisper. "Only yours."

The room freezes as the line goes suddenly silent. Seconds tick by.

"What the fuck?" Garrett's voice is angry, breathless.

My heart stops.

There's the sound of sheets rustling and a heavy thud.

"You little bitch." Garrett's voice drops to a venomous hiss. "What did you do? What the fuck did you do?"

Sunny screams.

The line goes dead.