Page 42 of Dirty Ex-Mas

The line disconnects before anything more is said.

“Thanks,” Mack grunts before moving off to the side of the room to take a call on one of his other phones, returning after a moment. “We gotta get him back.” He nods to Reed, some sort of non-verbal communication happening between them. Then he comes over to me.

He puts his hands on my shoulders and squeezes them lightly. “I gotta go. You okay driving you and Quinn back?”

I nod.

“Thank you for tonight.” His words are casual, his expression is anything but, gripping my heart in my chest and squeezing tightly. He pulls me in for a quick hug, before he and Reed are out the door, half dragging-half carrying David between them.

I hear the SUV start and peel out of the drive, then turn to Quinn. She looks at me, eyes big, mouth agape. “What just happened?”

“They’ll use him as bait to get the other guy.”

“Will that work?”

I shrug in response. “I don’t know.”

“What do we do now?”

I want to say, “Good question.” But instead, I take her hand and lead her outside to the other SUV so we can leave. “Now? We wait and hope their plan works.”

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