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H onor wrapped her legs around Gray’s strong hips. In the glow of the battery-operated twinkle lights she had strung over the bed in the back of her van, his eyes glittered.

It wasn’t an ordinary glimmer of lust. It was different.

Passion? Yes. Desire? Absolutely. Love?

Her heart fluttered at the thought that he could feel the same way she was feeling about him. Everything about their short time together had been magical. Even the hard parts—his trauma and her fear born of the possibility of Sully being in town—didn’t detract from that…because they had each other.

She gripped his strong shoulders and pulled him down on top of her. “Join us together, Gray. Fill me.” Her voice wavered with the emotions coursing through her body.

His stiff cock head brushed through her curls, over the sensitive bump of her clit, down her slick folds. In one swift thrust, he sank deep. They didn’t need to hold back out here—there was nobody to hear them or to care, and her low moan cut off on a cry as he began to claim her body in long, powerful strokes. The muscles rolling under her fingers sent her into a sensory overload she never wanted to end.

And the way he kissed her… She was drowning in this man and didn’t want to surface. Her body clamped around him with each thrust. The rough sounds in his chest drove her wild, and she dug her fingers into his spine, urging him on and on and on.

The light beading of sweat along his tanned muscle stole her mind, and she lost herself in Gray’s lips, tongue, hands…cock.

Her orgasm rushed up first, swallowing her in one gigantic wave of ecstasy. He followed, heat spurting inside her walls and his groan vibrating through his chest. As they thundered to the end, her mouth never left his.

When the kiss gentled, he finally lifted his head. The look in his eyes was the same as it was when they started. Passion? Yes. Desire? Maybe that was lessened by his release. But love?

She wanted to believe it. She wanted to believe it so bad.

He shifted off her onto the thin mattress that made up her built-in bed. Cushions crowded around them in all colors and patterns, but it only made Gray’s masculinity stand out more. She rolled onto her side, draping her thigh over his hip and resting her head on his chest. Under her ear, his heart thudded in a solid beat.

He let out a sigh. “I love van life.”

Caught off guard, she laughed. “Do you, now?”

He nodded and drew her closer to him, pressing tender kisses to her upturned face, between her eyes, to the tip of her nose…and finally her lips.

The tender caresses pulled the words right out of her.

“I’m falling in love with you, Gray.”

He stilled. Her heart gave a wild hitch, almost painful. She’d laid herself bare, made herself vulnerable. Now she had to wait for his response.

Which might never—

“I’ve been falling for you since the day we met.”

She searched his eyes with awe. The way he stated it, so cool and calm, as though he’d already spent time thinking about it, made her soar with joy.

She leaned in to kiss him again. There never was strain between them, but she felt a shift. A change in how easily they worked together.

When they cleaned up and dressed in the back of the van, she couldn’t resist reaching out and touching him just to make sure he was real and he wasn’t going to vanish in a puff of smoke.

He plucked her skirt off the mattress. Then they both saw it—her phone lighting up with notifications.

She snatched it up, and he hovered over her shoulder to read. “What in the world is going on?” she murmured to herself. Then a quiver slipped into her voice that had only moments before been tender with love. “It’s the security notifications!”

“Let me see.” Gray took the phone from her hand, and she leaned in to watch the first video notification he pulled up.

The street view of the camera pointed at Felicity’s house revealed it was dusk but not fully dark. The street appeared to be empty and quiet, all the neighborhood kids having gone inside for the evening.

Her sister’s small SUV buzzed into the driveway.

“We must have spotty cell service up here,” he muttered. “This was taken before dark.”

“Felicity is just coming home in that photo. Nothing to worry about,” she said weakly.

“Yeah…but there’s more.” He took control, flipping through all of the videos captured on the security system. When Honor saw the creases form around his lips, panic tore through her.

She could barely look at the screen, but there was no way she could tear her gaze away either.

The garage door slid upward. Felicity drove inside, and the door closed.

But not the whole way.

Her stomach gripped. “Oh god.”

Did her sister even notice? She didn’t seem to. In the next shot, she climbed out of her car and hurried to the door leading to the kitchen.

The next shot was of a person dressed all in black ducking under the partially open door.

A hot rasp escaped Honor. “No!” She clapped her hands over her mouth. Tremors claimed her.

“Jesus Christ!”

Gray already had his phone in hand, calling his brothers, but Honor couldn’t stop watching the horror scene playing out in front of her eyes as the man dragged Felicity out of the house into the garage.

She tripped, crumpling to the cement floor, but the attacker didn’t stop to pick her up. He just dragged her down the driveway.

And tossed her into a van.

A luxury van.

Sully.

Honor grabbed at Gray, her fingers digging into his forearm. He saw everything too—his stare was locked on the screen.

She’d watched it all happen but couldn’t help her sister in the least.

Now she knew how Gray felt when he watched his aircraft carrier sink.

Helpless.

Hopeless.

“Get in the front of the van,” he grated out. “We’re an hour away from Willowbrook. Dammit! I should have listened to Willow and taken the goddamn jet.”

* * * * *

The minute Honor mentioned notifications from the security app, his sixth sense kicked in.

Without looking, he already knew the camera wouldn’t send a dozen notifications in about a stray cat nosing around the trash can behind Felicity’s house.

His pulse hammered as the feed loaded, the scene flickering in a series of screen captures. The car entering the garage. The door remaining slightly open. The next, terrifying moments of Felicity being dragged out by the man dressed in all-black clothing. Into a Mercedes van.

Honor was shaking so much that her teeth chattered. Gray reached over to touch her arm. Shudders vibrated into his hand, but there was nothing he could do.

During his brief call to his brothers, he barked an order to Colt, who answered the phone, to get to the house and take backup.

But that wouldn’t matter—they were long gone.

“Honor.”

She didn’t respond.

“Honor, listen to me. Could that be your ex?”

She swung her head his way, eyes wide and round with shock. His heart squeezed hard at the sight of her so shaken.

He was going to fix this. He was going to find Felicity and get her back.

“Honor, check the video. Look hard at the man. Is that your ex?”

With trembling hands, she fumbled with her phone. It took her two tries to bring up the app and three more to find the right clip of the man dragging her sister by the arm down the driveway.

Then she pulled up a photo of her ex. She angled the screen toward Gray. It wasn’t a perfect match—the footage was too grainy. But the build, the posture, they fit.

“It’s him,” she whispered, voice raw.

Gray swore under his breath and grabbed his phone again. He got Black Heart Security on the phone again. Carson didn’t answer, but Oaks did.

“It’s confirmed. Sully took Felicity.”

“We saw the footage. We’re on it,” Oaks responded without a beat of hesitation.

Gray ended the call and turned back to Honor. Her attention was fixed on the screen as if willing the scene to change. To rewind or undo it. For it to be a mistake.

He fucking wished it was that easy.

He ached for her. He knew what she was feeling, that bone-shattering helplessness. The dread of watching something unfold in real time and being completely powerless to stop it.

“Honor, look at me.”

The force in his tone made her rip her stare from the screen and shift to him. The pain in her eyes, the hollow terror he read there, made his gut lurch.

“If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it already.” His voice was low but firm. “He has other plans. Call him.”

Her eyes flared in surprise. “Call my ex?”

“Yes. I’m right here. It’s going to be okay.”

She responded with a jerky nod and held up her phone again. Her hands shook badly as she located the contact and pressed the button to call Sully.

She hit speaker, and the line rang.

Once. Twice.

Then a click sounded, followed by a man’s voice that made Gray’s fist clench with fury.

“I didn’t want it to come to this, Honor,” her ex said in an eerily calm voice, as if they were discussing the weather.

She gripped the phone like it was the only thing tethering her to the earth. “Where is she? What are you doing with Felicity? Bring her back. Please. ”

The desperation in her voice shattered Gray’s heart.

A sigh echoed on the line. “I tried to avoid this. But you left me no choice.”

“What? How did I leave you no choice?” Panic cracked through her tone.

“You take your whole damn craft setup with you everywhere.”

Gray’s brows furrowed. What did that mean?

Honor was just as confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Sully issued a humorless chuckle. “I need my diamonds.”

Gray’s gut cramped.

“Sully, are you on drugs? What the hell are you talking about?”

Gray swung his gaze to the ring she had made him on the hand gripping the wheel. The smooth wirework. The stone in the center.

“Fuck,” he groaned out. “He hid diamonds in your bead collection.”

Honor’s breath stalled. “What?”

“Your new boyfriend’s already got everything figured out.”

Gray held up his hand for Honor to look at the ring.

She grabbed his hand and pulled off the ring to examine it.

“Your boyfriend sounds smart. Just keep being smart and you can get your sister back.”

Honor’s head snapped up and she stared out the windshield at the dark streamer of road they were on, but Gray knew she wasn’t really seeing her surroundings at all.

She was seeing her sister, scared or possibly hurt.

Her voice didn’t waver. “Tell me what to do.”