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Chapter Twenty

COLETTE

It doesn’t matter where I’m headed, as long as I am with Merrick. Because when I’m by his side, that means I am not only safe, but free.

So free .

Closing my eyes, I let out a heavy sigh and allow the movement of the van to lull me to sleep. It doesn’t matter where we’re going or where we end up as long as I have this man beside me—holding me.

I feel my body floating, almost as if I’m flying what feels like seconds later. Lifting my arms, I wrap them around Merrick’s shoulders as my eyes slowly open. He must sense my gaze on him because he tells me to go back to sleep.

Then there is nothingness. Darkness takes over, and for the first time since my father took me from him, I sleep in peace. I don’t feel my body climbing in the elevator car or hear the voices of the other men as he walks me through the hotel suite seating area, and I don’t feel him lay me down on the bed or when the backs of his knuckles slide across my cheek.

I really don’t hear his whispered words before he leaves the bedroom, either. “W elcome back, baby .”

MERRICK

Closing the bedroom door behind me, I walk back into the living area, where my brothers all sit and wait. They’re staring at me, watching and waiting for me to speak. I’m just not sure what exactly I’m supposed to be saying.

I open my mouth but snap my lips closed when nothing comes to mind. I could thank them, but I’ve already done that shit, and they don’t want to hear it anymore. I could apologize for fucking Colette in the church while they were all waiting for us to come outside—but that’s just not my style, and they would have all done the same thing.

Thankfully, Boden puts me out of my misery and asks me the question that is clearly on their minds.

“Are you good?” he asks.

I almost laugh because the seriousness in the way he asks is funny as shit. “I’m good,” I say. “I’ll be better than good when I have her at home, safe.”

Theron clears his throat. “We all noticed her neck.”

“I don’t know what happened,” I state, almost interrupting him.

I have nothing to answer about that because I have no clue how it happened, at least not yet. But I will. I will get every single detail of whatever the fuck her father did to her.

“I’ll find out, though,” I say.

Grayson takes a step forward from his place against the wall. “We didn’t stay long enough to see the groom. Does she know who it was?” he asks.

I flick my gaze to Theron and then to Vaughn, then bring my attention back to meet his. “I don’t know who it was, but she said she does. She doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“But you’re going to find out,” Vaughn announces.

Nodding once, I clear my throat. “As soon as she’s comfortable telling me, I am.”

“You’re happy?” Theron asks.

My lips twitch into a smirk. Jerking my chin, I focus my attention on Theron. “I am, so far.”

He chuckles. “No so far. We could have just started a fucking war with the Bellucci Mafia, so you need to be goddamn ecstatic.”

I snort. “I’m goddamn ecstatic,” I state.

The men erupt in shouts, and a few moments later, we’re all holding a glass of whiskey in our hands. “To Merrick and Colette,” Vaughn says as he holds up his glass.

We clink glasses together and take a drink from our whiskey, but I can’t stop the niggling at the back of my head that something else is happening here. There is something that I can’t quite put my finger on.

A cloud that is still hovering.

I thought that it would lift the moment she was here with me, safe in my room, but it hasn’t. Maybe I need to have her in North Carolina. Nodding to myself, I decide that must be it. She needs to be safe in my home.

“I have cameras on the church, but I wasn’t able to place as many as I wanted,” Boden announces.

Turning to him, I blink. “You did?”

He shrugs a shoulder, his lips twitching into a smirk. I wonder silently if he put cameras in that dressing room.

“Yeah, I did. I didn’t see you fuck her in that dressing room, but only because I wasn’t able to get in there sight unseen.”

I burst out laughing, and the other guys join in. They all knew we fucked in that room. Maybe I should be ashamed or embarrassed. It was a church, after all, but that church did my wife zero favors. Maybe the next one will be better, but that is not the one for her.

“And you didn’t see the groom?” I ask.

Boden shakes his head. “I still need to sit down and really look at everything, but I couldn’t find him. I don’t know when or where he entered. I had cameras everywhere. I can’t imagine that I would have missed him.”

Grayson speaks next. “I have time to take a look.”

Vaughn stands, stretching his arms in the air. “I do, too.”

Honestly, we all have fucking time. We aren’t leaving here until morning, and I doubt any of us could sleep even if we wanted to right now, a glass of whiskey or not. We are all filled with unused adrenaline. The extraction was beyond easy, which makes me wonder if we’re about to get completely fucked.

Then Theron opens his mouth and speaks for us all, and not a single person minds in the slightest.

“I believe we all have our iPads and devices, so send us the footage, and let’s do this.”

Boden jumps up and hurries over to his computer as if his ass is actually on goddamn fire. I can’t help but laugh. I don’t know when I last saw him so excited. His fingers move across the keyboard, and within a few seconds, all our emails ping with incoming messages.

We all move through the suite, grabbing our devices before we find spots throughout the room to sit, then we get logged in. It feels like old times. Back when we first started our security firm, we would all sit around our shared apartment as we attempted not only to run our business but to build it as well—from the ground up, with nothing.

“I feel like we need to order a pizza,” Grayson calls out.

Theron chuckles because that was the way we started. Ordering a couple five-dollar Hot-N-Readys because we couldn’t afford anything else. And it was a good day when they had a deal, free breadsticks with your order.

A few moments later, we’re all focused on our devices and our drinks. We don’t talk to each other. We are researching, and nothing else matters. Not a single fucking thing. This is what we’re best at.

Sure, we all enjoy certain aspects of the field, and we’re great at the positions we have, but this is our core.

This is how we started.

“I got something,” Hale calls out after a while of the room being bathed in complete silence other than the clicking of our keyboards.

Keeping with that silence, we all simultaneously jump to our feet and rush over to his iPad. Hovering around him, we watch as a limo pulls up to the back parking lot of the church. I’m unable to take my eyes off the limo and watch as a man unfolds from the back seat.

His back is to the camera. He stands but doesn’t even attempt to straighten his clothes or brush his hands over any wrinkles that he could have received while riding in the back of the car. Instead, he takes a step forward, completely unbothered, with overwhelming confidence.

“That’s him,” I state.

It’s not Adriano because he already pulled up. I got the footage on my surveillance of that and watched the cocky fucker make his way into the church, acting like he was God’s gift to all humans and that everyone should be falling at his feet—I fucking hate him.

Everything about him, but mostly what he has done to Colette. The things I know and don’t know he’s done. Plus, her mother. The piece of shit has really fucked up a lot of people’s lives, and I can’t stand someone who does that shit for no good reason.

“He’s not turning around. What other angles do you have?” Theron barks.

“None,” Boden mutters. “I didn’t have time to set any of this shit up properly.”

I know he’s probably a little irritated at himself for that, but he’s far more pissed off with me because of it. He just doesn’t say that, but I can tell he is, mainly because I made him go back to North Carolina when he could have stayed here and prepared.

I wasn’t anticipating this shit, though. Nobody was. I thought for sure that I would have been able to follow Colette to whatever location they took her to and keep an eye on her there.

But I got fucked right over with that shit.

We continue watching in silence, waiting for this person to show just a glimpse of his fucking face, but the mystery man doesn’t turn around. In fact, he keeps his back to the camera, almost as if he knows it’s there. He doesn’t just walk inside of the building. He strolls into that church.

“Let’s watch this exact view and wait for the fucker to come out,” I growl.

We do that, but he doesn’t come out the back. We watch as all the guests leave, but the limo stays in place until everyone else in the parking lot scatters. I can see the smirks and gossiping as the guests leave. When the parking lot is empty, the limo pulls out and moves away.

“Where the fuck is that limo going?” I growl, mostly just thinking out loud because none of the men around me have the slightest fucking clue, either.

“Who has the front of the church?” I call out.

“It’s me,” Theron states before he spins around and runs over to his iPad. We’re all moving as fast as fucking possible. The excitement of this whole thing is beyond anything else we’ve had in a while, well, since Theron and Lucille.

“What is the time stamp?”

A few minutes later, Theron calls out for us to come over, and I swear to fuck, if we were being recorded, this would make goddamn bloopers or some shit. We’re like cartoon characters running from station to station.

“Fuck, how the hell?” I ask.

The mystery man has his head tipped, his focus on the sidewalk, which is a far cry from the way we walked into that church. I am under no illusion that his feelings are hurt in any way.

Maybe his pride, but he’s not sad—he’s pissed.

Theron’s got nothing. Not a single distinguishing mark on him can be seen. Not even any kind of facial hair that we could find anywhere else. In fact, he keeps his chin down.

“He knows the cameras are there,” Boden mutters.

I agree with him. But before I can say anything, I hear a throat clear. We all lift our heads, turning them to the side, and that’s when we see her.

Standing in the hallway is my woman.

Wearing an ugly-as-fuck wedding dress and too much makeup, but she somehow still looks fucking amazing. Maybe it’s just because she’s finally here with me after weeks of not knowing if she was safe or not— dead or alive .

Colette smiles, her eyes moving around the room and taking in all the men who have now shifted their attention to her. I’m sure she recognizes most of them, but I doubt she knows them by name. She’s only met them once, at Theron’s wedding.

She lifts her hand and gives us a wave. “Hey,” she whispers.

Straightening, I make my way toward her. Wrapping my arms around her, I dip my chin before I touch my lips to hers.

“Hey, baby,” I murmur against her mouth.