Page 28 of DFF: Delicate Freakin’ Flower (Family Ties #5)

Chapter Twenty

Gabby

B y the time I made it out of Branford and started the drive toward Orlando, the sky had shifted from deep charcoal to a pale, hesitant blue, like the day was dragging its feet to begin.

The world was waking up around me with early commuters and joggers and people with normal lives who’d never had to hide a gun in the glove box or drive through the night to turn themselves in.

I almost turned around twice. Once, I passed a faded green sign for Tallahassee—nowhere near where I was headed, but it still made me glance that way like some part of me was tempted to turn.

Another time, when I stopped for gas on the outskirts of Orlando, I just ended up sitting there in the SUV with my hand gripping the steering wheel like I could force myself to let go.

My mind kept drifting back to Webb. To the sound of his breathing beside me in the dark and his hand resting on my waist like it belonged there. All I could hear in my mind was the soft rasp of his voice when he’d said, “I’ll keep you safe.”

But I couldn’t let that promise ruin him. I couldn’t be the reason his family became collateral damage, so I took the next exit and drove straight into the city.

Before I hit the hotel, I made a stop at a 24-hour surplus electronics store tucked behind a row of auto shops, which I knew was run by a man who didn't ask questions if you paid in cash.

I picked up what I needed quickly: a micro-recorder with long battery life, two button-sized wireless cameras, and a prepaid burner phone.

On the way back to the SUV, I sat in the front seat and stared at the two phones resting on my thigh. The burner was clean and cold and ready, and my original phone, which I’d shut off the night I ran. The one I’d kept hidden, wrapped in tin foil, and stored deep in my pack like it was radioactive.

I powered it on, and I could almost feel the digital scent trail going out like a flare. This time, I wanted the asshole to find it. I needed him to.

Maddox and anyone working with him would be watching for a signal. My digital shadow had been silent too long, now I was giving it just enough to pull them in.

I typed the text message on that phone.

Me: Meet me in one hour. Room 1712, Halcyon Hotel. Alone.

Then I turned the phone face up, with thescreen still active, and set it on the passenger seat like bait. If they were watching—and I knew they were—they’d see it, and they’d come.

I parked in the hotel's garage, locked the SUV, and walked around to the entrance. My bag was light, but it might as well have been filled with bricks, seeing as how every step felt like I was sinking.

The hotel was polished and elegant, with all brushed-gold fixtures and soft-spoken staff.

Under normal circumstances, it'd be a nice place to stay, but I wasn't anywhere near 'normal circumstances.

' My life was a wreck, and it was going to get worse in a pretty hotel.

Still, I wasn't a quitter, so I checked in under a name no one would think to search for using one of the fake IDs I'd set up long before things went to hell.

Once I got inside the room, I did a full sweep.

I checked behind the curtains, pulled back the shower curtain in the bathroom, and glanced up at the vents.

Every shadow, every corner—I needed to know exactly what I had available.

Then I set up the two pinhole cameras—one tucked into the fake bookends on the TV stand and another behind the armchair angled toward the bed.

They fed wirelessly to the burner, which I placed on the nightstand, with the screen dark and recording live.

Then, I slid the mini recorder into place and took a seat on the edge of the bed.

I wasn't taking any chances of missing this recording for people to use afterward.

I didn’t know what was going to happen when Colin Maddox walked through that door, but I knew I wouldn’t run.

Not anymore.

Webb

The bed was cold. It was the first thing I noticed when I rolled over—my bare chest meeting the cool stretch of sheets where Gabby should’ve been.

I blinked blearily at the sliver of dawn light slipping through the blinds. The ranch was still and silent—no rumble of distant truck engines, no early birds calling out the day. Just that strange, off-kilter quiet that crawled under your skin and whispered that something wasn’t right.

I sat up.

“Gabby?” I called softly, rubbing the back of my neck.

No answer.

Maybe she was up early. Perhaps she couldn’t sleep. Maybe?—

The thought cut off before it could finish, sharp and unwelcome.

I checked the bathroom. It was empty. The small kitchen was the same—no sign of movement. There was no coffee brewing, no dishes out of place. That cold, uneasy feeling settled deeper into my gut.

I pulled on a pair of jeans, tugged on my boots, and shrugged into a flannel shirt before stepping outside. The early morning air bit at my skin, sharp and unforgiving. A few ranch hands were already out by the barn, but when I asked, none of them had seen her.

Then I saw it—the SUV we’d taken from the men was gone. I didn’t even have to guess what she'd done.

“Shit,” I growled, turning on my heel and heading for the main house.

Eddie was in the back, already sipping a mug of something dark and nuclear strength. He raised an eyebrow when he saw me storm in.

“Gabby’s gone,” I clipped, looking around for my brother.

He set the mug down. “You sure?”

I nodded, jaw tight. “She took the SUV. Didn’t even wake me.”

We moved fast, cutting through the surveillance feed on the ranch’s private system. One of the exterior cams caught her around 4:17 a.m., slipping out of the cottage in her boots, jacket slung over one shoulder, moving like she already knew she wouldn’t be stopped.

The footage hit me like a punch to the chest.

“I know where she’s going.” I was already pulling out my phone. “She’s going to him.”

“You think she’s turning herself in?”

“She’s not stupid,” I growled. “She’s doing something where she’s the bait and setting a fucking trap. She just didn’t trust us enough to bring us in on it.”

Eddie didn’t argue, he just nodded and started grabbing gear while I called Matty, ignoring his grumbling, and had him trace Gabby’s phone. I didn’t expect much. She’d been careful with her signal up to this point.

But when he called back ten minutes later, his voice was sharp and confident.

“Her phone’s active again,” he said, not sounding surprised. “It's lit up at a hotel in downtown Orlando, the Halcyon. She also sent a message out from it maybe thirty minutes ago.”

“Who to?” I asked warily, even though I already knew what the answer was going to be.

“I knew you were going to ask that, so I looked the number up beforehand—it belongs to Colin Maddox.”

I ended the call and spun back toward the others. Marcus had joined us by this point and was already throwing a bag into the back of the truck. Two of the ranch hands, Jake and River, stood nearby, tense and ready.

“She’s in the city,” I told them. “Let’s move.”

We loaded up in less than ten minutes. I climbed into the passenger seat as Marcus took the wheel, with Eddie following close behind in the second truck, the others trailing behind us. Gravel spat from the tires as we tore down the ranch road and headed to Orlando.

On the way out, I called my cousins Ren and Cole, guessing they'd be together at this time.

When we'd first warned them about the situation, we hadn’t shared many details—just that we were moving dangerous men and needed their help keeping watch over the ranch and surrounding area.

But I knew Marcus had filled them in on everything new last night.

“You’re heading to Orlando?” Ren asked, voice tight with tension.

“Yeah, Gabby’s there alone. She’s trying to draw Maddox out.”

There was a pause, then Cole cut in. “We had some arrests come through during the night. Two locals, but get this, our guys caught two more that didn’t look or act local.”

Ren snorted. "Stop trying to pretend you're professional. You know damn well they're out-of-towners, so just say so."

I interrupted them before a war broke out between the brothers. “Were they following anyone?”

“Nah, they were watching from the outskirts. They camped out near the western edge of the ranch, and it looked like they were waiting for a signal.”

The back of my neck prickled. “Have you handed them over?”

Ren chuckled, and I felt something sinister in me wake up. “Not yet. Thought we’d hold them a little longer, see if they'll have a talk with us.”

I shared a look with Marcus, and when he rolled his eyes, I knew that, as much as I wanted to do the opposite, we needed to do this properly. “Hand them over,” I sighed, rubbing my eyes. “Let the feds deal with it. We need to keep it clean, I don’t want our names in any reports.”

There was silence, then Cole spoke again, this time slower. “We could drive out to help you.”

I shut my eyes for a second. I wanted to say yes and have the extra backup. I wanted more people I trusted around Gabby. But I also couldn’t drag them deeper into this mess. This was my choice and mess, and if it blew up, I wasn’t taking anyone else down with us.

“No, let me handle it. I’ll get my brothers to step in if I need more hands. You two keep eyes on your families and watch your backs in case more come. If the guys talk before they're taken, let me know what they say.”

They didn’t like it, I could hear it in the long silence that followed.

But eventually, Ren sighed. “All right. You call the second things get ugly, though.”

“I will.”

Ahead of us, the Orlando skyline rose out of the haze, sunlight glinting off glass and steel. It was the kind of city where monsters wore suits and smiled for the cameras. And somewhere in the middle of it, Gabby was walking straight into the lion’s den.

I clenched my jaw and focused on the road, my grip tightening with every mile.

The hotel came into view ahead, looming like a beacon or maybe a trap.