Page 103 of Finding Denver

“The only way you’re leaving this house alive, Colt, is if you’ve brought my wife back with you,” I say. “And even then, I might still kill you.”

Colt shakes his head. “Denver is safe and sound and exactly where she wants to be. Exactly where Nico would want her to be.”

I try to steady my breathing. “You think she’s safe with you?”

“I know she is,” he says. “I was happy for this encounter to never happen. I didn’t need to come face to face with you because, as Finn rightly pointed out, this isn’t my fight. So, I’ll be honest from the get-go. I’m not here to kill you. I’m not even going to hurt you.”

I hear Cal enter behind me.

“Then why are you here?” I ask.

“A dog, would you believe?” he asks, laughing. “Wesson is on his way to the airport. Friendly guy.”

I lunge forward, but Taf stands and raises his gun.

If Wesson is gone, I have nothing left to bring her back. She might not come back. She won’t … I’m choking on panic, on rage, on an acidic burning in my stomach, heart, and throat.

“I meant what I said to Finn,” I say, but my voice quakes with anger. “If she is not back in this house by Christmas, I will fucking end all of you.”

“She isn’t coming back,” Colt says. “Unless she tells me it’s what she wants.”

“She doesn’t know what she wants!” I boom. “She’sneverknown. She walked through my doors, and I made her who she is. She was lost, and I found her, Colt, not you.You’re protecting a woman Imade. And she is mine. No one gets to take her from me.”

“Then maybe you should have thought about that before you took her fucking son,” he bites back.

The words cause no reaction to the other men in the room. They all know. A cold wraps around me, fighting the heat I need to hold onto to kill him.

“What do you mean, took her son?” Cal asks. Colt’s gaze darts to him. “What happened to Theo?”

“It’s not your fucking concern,” I snap. What I do for Denver, with Denver, is my problem. It’s?—

Colt stares at me, expressionless, cold. Not taking pleasure in what he knows, or what he’s about to say. “Ask him.” He drags his eyes from me before nodding to Charlie and Taf, and they head for the door. Colt pauses by me, meeting my eye. “Let her go, Ranger.”

My jaw is tight, my words hot in my throat. “So you can have her?”

He looks at me with something close to pity, but it doesn’t reignite the fire. Why am I not angry? Why can’t I fight? “Because she deserves to be happy.”

Footsteps echo across the marble foyer as Colt Harland and his men leave.

I don’t try to stop them. I don’t take out my weapon. I don’t even leave my office. I pick up the decanter of whiskey and a glass, sitting behind my desk before pouring myself a drink.

“What did you do?” Cal asks quietly.

I finish the drink in two mouthfuls. “What I had to.”

The click of the gun is familiar, and I lift my head, staring down a barrel and hoping it’s the last thing I see.

“Tell me.”

I sniff and pour another drink. “I put Theo up for adoption.”

I can feel his shock. His panic. His disgust. I’ve replayed this moment a thousand times. The day she’d find out. The day everyone would. I steeled myself against it because I knew they’d blame me. But they don’t understand.

“He’s alive?”

“Yes.”

“W-why …”