Page 92 of Racing Dirty Trilogy Box Set

“He isn’t missing. He’s here and working with Switch,” I confess. Diablo release a deep sigh on the other end.

“Do you need protection out there?” he asks.

“No, we have protection covered out here,” I answer looking at Ace.

He nods his head and sends a quick text.

“Diablo protect my crew out there, please. I don’t care what your terms are.

The safety of my crew is number one. Redline is missing already and I don’t want anything to happen to Natalia, Quickshift, or Noah. They’re my priority.”

“On it,” Diablo says quickly. “Oh, and Krimson?”

“Yeah?”

“Stay safe. Keep that man of yours safe too. They want him dead. He’s good for you.

I can hear it in your voice and see it when we last talked face to face.

I’m sorry for the way things went down before and you have my support.

Just help me get out from under these guys and we’ll call ourselves even. ”

“Thanks, Diablo. I’ll do everything in my power to get you out from the Corridore Rosso’s.”

“I know you will. That’s why you’re good at what you do and you have my support.”

“Take care, Diablo. We’ll talk soon.” I hang up the phone and my mind is swirling with questions.

I don’t see Nolan approach me and I don’t feel his arms around me.

I’m numb. Numb to the emotions, numb to the touch, numb to any kind of feeling.

This is bad. Really, really bad. At least Diablo will protect my crew except for one and I have to figure out why they want Redline.

What is it about him that they need? He has no family ties out here.

His father was the leader of his crew years ago and I’ve known him his whole life. Nothing is making sense.

“Ash, did you hear me,” Nolan asks breaking through my thoughts.

“What?”

“What’s going on?” Nolan asks. His voice is my vessel, his body and mind are my harbor. I cling to him and don’t let go.

Mia enters the living room with a bunch of food, but I’m not hungry anymore.

She sets it down on the coffee table and sits next to Xavier, making him eat.

Christian sits in the overstuffed chair.

All eyes are on me as I relay the information I have.

I’m so lost and in way over my head. Nolan’s grip on my waist tightens with every word I speak.

Ashton looks torn between jumping on the first plane to L.A.

and staying here to protect Nolan. Nolan’s team needs him out here, focused, so I send a text to Natalia telling her to call Ashton and ease his mind.

Quit playing fucking games with him and get over herself.

She likes him and he likes her. His phone lights up and a smile graces his lips as he answers it and heads up the vast staircase to the outside balcony.

“What do we do now?” I ask.

Nolan is the first to answer. He releases my waist and clenches his fists at his sides, something changed, and his voice is deadly when he answers, “We go to The Graveyard and get Izzy back.”

“What’s The Graveyard?” Mia asks, quoting graveyard with her fingers.

“It’s a place where broken ships go to spend their last days,” Christian answer from the chair.

“Why would Izzy be there?” Mia asks.

“There’s a shipment coming in tonight and that’s where Switch and Wrath will be,” Christina responds.

“Ok, but how do you know they’ll have Izzy there? Seems to me, these guys are smart. Why would they take their captive with them to a drop when it’s better to leave her with someone she won’t run away from?” Mia questions.

“What do you mean won’t run away from?” I ask.

Mia rolls her eyes, “Come on, girl. You guys are thinking about this all wrong. Izzy knows who Redline is right?”

“Of course, she does.”

“Then why would they separate them? I’ll guarantee they have them together and have someone ruthless and has no remorse keeping an eye on them.

They won’t take her with them because she’s a liability.

You’ve got to stop thinking like yourself and think like them.

” Mia’s eyes settle on Nolan. “You’ve been on the inside.

You know how they work, their actions. Stop thinking like a pansy and think like a gangster.

You’re trying to play it safe. Stop it. All you do when you do that is waste time.

You saved Izzy last time the psycho took her, channel that guy, go in there, and do your fucking thing.

” She stands up and paces back and forth from the windows to the sofa and back, wringing her hands in front of her.

I’m shocked. I never thought of it this way.

“She’s right,” Nolan says. “We need to quit being worried about what will make me snap. We’ve been on the defense way too long, it’s time to go on the offense and fight fire with fire.

Harris, pull up every surveillance footage of the area Izzy and Xavier were in and search for Reiser.

Ace, get on the phone and call your guys, have them be on the lookout for this guy,” Nolan shows him a picture of Sean.

“And this is what Izzy looks like. Send these to your guys so they know.”

“Show them a picture of Redline, too,” I offer. I send Nolan a picture of Redline and he sends it to Ace.

“On it, I’ll have them report every hour. If they’re still here in the City, we’ll find them.” Ace answers.

“Oh, they’re still here, I doubt they left. They have nowhere to go.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. What’s left?” I ask.

Ashton comes back in with a small smile gracing his lips. Natalia and he must have worked through some issues. I raise an eyebrow and Ashton stops walking. He gives me a wink. “What did I miss?”

“Mia is one smart lady,” Harris says from his spot at the dining room table, still scanning the footage on the laptop. Mia blushes and sits on Christian's lap. He wraps his arms around her and holds her tight, kissing her shoulder.

“X, how long were you alone before we showed up?” Nolan asks him.

Xavier shrugs his shoulders with his head down.

He’s torn up about this. He suddenly jumps up from the couch and runs up the stairs as fast as his feet and sore body will take him, Nolan quickly follows.

I debate following too but decide against it.

They need this time together, best friend with best friend.

I turn to Harris when the phone on the table rings.

Ashton grabs it, “Yeah,” he barks into the phone.

“Send them up.” He hangs up the phone. “Marks and Ramirez are here.”

I pace this time, thinking. “Harris let’s get a timeline when we think they took Izzy instead of searching through hours of footage. What time did we get to your place, Ace?”

“I’d say around midnight. It took about a half hour to get here from The Circle. So, we left there around eleven thirty.” Ace answers.

“Good, but we had the issue with Nolan and that took about fifteen to twenty minutes. So, I’d say we left The Circle around eleven fifteen. How long does it take at a normal pace to walk from The Circle to the apartment we found Xavier in?”

“Around twenty minutes.”

“So, I’ll go back and watch the footage from eleven fifteen last night to one a.m. and run the program Ashton created for face recognition.

That’ll speed it up some.” Harris turns back to the laptop and begins typing codes in quickly.

His fingers fly over the keyboard, then he sits back.

His tattooed arms run through his crew-cut hair.

I creep up behind him and watch with him, over his shoulder.

“Jesus woman. You’ve got to stop being a creepy ninja. ” He yells. I can’t help but giggle.

“Sorry, two sets of eyes are better than one. And I wasn’t being quiet, you just weren’t paying attention.”

Harris swings a chair around for me to sit next to him. We watch the footage together, waiting for something to hit. Nolan and Xavier still aren’t back yet and I’m worried. “Hey, Nolan’s got this. It’s what he does.”

“I know, but I still feel helpless. I wish I can do something for him.”

“You are doing everything right, Ashley. Once we find Izzy and Redline, we’re going to make these fuckers pay.

Every last one of them. One thing you can’t do is hold Nolan back.

If he loses his head, let him. The demon he battles with will take over.

There’s no doubt about that. What we need to do is let it.

He won’t be able to control it if we hold him back.

I’ve been working with him for years and in my personal opinion, if we stop it from surfacing, he’ll never be fully in control.

Let him do his thing and trust that we have him. ”

“I can’t lose him,” I voice my concern.

“You won’t. It won’t be pretty, but we’ve been with him for years.

We’ve got this under control. He thinks his head is fucked up, but it’s not.

His instincts will take over and those fuckers will have hell to pay when he gets his hands on them.

There will be no stopping him and if you try, it’ll only hurt both of you.

He must channel his past and use that to his advantage.

Sometimes when the past and present collide, you have to sit back and hang on for the ride if you want the future to work out.

” I can feel Harris’s gaze on me and I turn my head to look at him.

His black eyes are full of sympathy, but his strong jaw is set hard.

I have to trust them to keep Nolan safe.

Something that’s hard for me to do. Trust someone I don’t know.

Nolan is confident in his team, so it’s time I put my fears aside and have faith in them too.