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She thought about his arms around her, the way his voice dropped when he promised to protect her. The man who would walk through fire for her.

Please, Denver.

Find me.

* * * * *

The baby’s cries hit Denver first. That indignant squawk she made when she didn’t like something—usually being taken away from her favorite toy or when Rhae wasn’t in sight. But this time, her arms were outstretched toward him.

Honor stood in the office doorway holding Navy, her brow furrowed in a way that told him something wasn’t right.

“Was Rhae going anywhere today?” she asked without preamble.

Denver’s heart stuttered. He jolted to his feet, launching the desk chair against the wall. “No. Why?”

Honor bounced Navy gently, as if trying to soothe the baby and herself. “I just saw her in the passenger seat of a dark SUV. The new guy—you know, Justin—he was driving.”

“What?” he practically roared.

Navy’s small mouth crumpled, and she let out a howl. His daddy heart couldn’t stand it and he strode over, taking her from Honor’s arms. He cradled her over his shoulder and patted her back. All of these gestures were so weirdly instinctive to him.

As instinctive as the knowledge that Rhae was in danger.

Honor’s voice came out shaky. “I thought she looked weird.”

“Weird how?” Fresh panic struck his chest like a bomb. She couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t have lost her.

Honor scraped her fingers through her loose waves. “Kind of…limp.”

“Christ!”

“A-At first, I thought she was just going somewhere with him. But then I realized she would never leave without telling someone, and she wouldn’t leave Navy. I had Navy with me or else I would have run up to the vehicle. I’m sorry, Denver!”

The room began to blur in front of him. “Go find my brothers,” he snarled.

Honor spun in a swirl of hair, jewelry and floral patterns and ran for it. Her voice rang out across the house as she called out all of his brothers’ names.

Carson hit the doorway first, eyes burning with knowledge that scared the fuck out of Denver.

“We have to check the security cameras. Rhae’s gone. Justin took her.”

As if Navy understood that her mother, her whole world, was missing, she let out a wail. He bounced her, but she only cried harder.

Willow skidded into the room. “Honor told me Rhae’s missing.” Her gaze landed on the baby. “Give her to me.”

Carson rushed to the computer monitor to pull up the security camera footage just as the room filled with more of his brothers.

“Who would fuck with the Malones?” Theo asked the question that flitted around the edges of Denver’s mind.

“Pull up the cams on the front parking lot.” He shoved through the group to reach the desk, leaning in to stare at the screen.

Carson’s fingers flew over the keys.

“Keep rolling back. Honor?”

“Right here.” Her voice wavered as she lifted her head from Gray’s chest.

“How long ago did you see her in the SUV?”

“I came to find you right away. Maybe three minutes?”

Carson ducked his head in understanding and rewound the footage to the timestamp.

The screen flickered, and there she was—Rhae. Being led out the door by Justin. She looked off. Slack in a way that made Denver’s gut knot into something cold and mean.

Honor had edged up to the desk. “There,” she whispered, pointing.

Justin opened the passenger side and helped Rhae in like it was nothing—like he wasn’t abducting the love of his life and mother of Denver’s child.

“Motherfucker!” Denver growled. “He drugged her. Look at her face. She’s not even aware.”

Willow squashed in to see. She gasped. “Oh, god… I—I saw him earlier this morning. I gave him coffee. I asked him how his day was. He—he seemed totally normal.”

Denver saw the guilt sliding into his sister’s eyes. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know what he intended to do.”

“The bastard duped all of us,” Oaks added from the other computer, not looking up from the screen as he worked some other angle. Denver didn’t know what it was, but he trusted his family like he trusted his SEAL team.

“We’re going to get her back.” His voice was cold and firm with deadly calm. The sound of it carried around the room, silencing every person in it.

He swept a glance around the room. “Where’s the rest of the team?”

“Colt was in the next town, installing a security system. Aspen’s with him. They’re on their way back now,” Willow filled them in. In her arms, Navy had settled, but her big gray eyes were homed in on Denver.

His gut squeezed like a hard fist.

I’ll get your mother back—or die trying.

The office was starting to feel too cramped. “Meet me in the ops room. Now,” he barked to everyone.

The conference room that was rarely used by the team had been upgraded to Denver’s specs over the past few days by Carson as an enticement to get Denver to stay. Now it felt like the nerve center of a black ops compound. Whiteboards, monitors and computer systems filled the space.

He pointed to the big screen, but Oaks was already on it, and the footage of Justin stuffing Rhae into the back of the SUV appeared.

Denver took a deep breath and let the leadership settle into his bones. This was the moment to organize, to pull the team together. They needed direction.

They needed to save the woman he loved.

“Colt’s still fifteen minutes out,” Theo informed him.

“Tell him to get to the edge of Willowbrook and be on the lookout for a black SUV.”

Theo looked up from his phone. “How do you know where they’re headed?”

“Anybody with a brain is going to get out of town fast. The mountains block easy access to the west. That means they’re probably headed east.”

With a nod, Theo thumbed the command to their brother.

Denver firmed his jaw. “She’s been taken. Drugged, forced into a vehicle by a man calling himself Justin. Oaks? The therapy program is your brainchild. I want everything you’ve got on the man. My bet is that he isn’t a veteran. He’s a plant.”

“On it.”

“We have to assume this was premeditated. Willow?”

“Here.”

“Find out who the last person who had therapy with Rhae was. Question them to see if they saw Justin heading to her office.”

She passed the baby to Honor and whirled toward the door without a word.

“We’ve already pulled video. We’ll get plates. We’ll run them. But I want digital trails too. Oaks, you’re on tech. Start analyzing his intake file and run his facial ID through the program. Find out who he really is.”

“Copy that.”

“Gray, Theo, you’re with me. When we make our move, it’s going to be fast.”

“Copy,” they each echoed.

At that moment, Layne and Shiloh rushed into the room, clinging to each other’s hands as if they might disappear too.

“What can we do to help?” Shiloh asked.

Honor looked up from the fussy baby she was cradling in her arms. “I could use a bottle for Navy.”

“I’ll go.” Layne was already turning for the kitchen before the words were out of her mouth.

With his daughter well cared for, Denver pulled out his phone and dialed a secure line. It rang twice before someone answered.

“Dante here.”

Denver’s gut knotted at the familiar sound of Dante’s voice. His brother-in-arms. He missed the son of a bitch so much. Missed them all. But that was for another time.

“It’s me.”

There was a beat of silence.

“I need help.” Denver’s voice cracked.

“With what?” Dante asked without hesitation.

“I need intel. I need to find my woman. My baby momma.”

“Tell me what you need.”

“I need you to trace someone who calls himself Justin. A man posing as a veteran on the Black Heart Ranch in the therapy program. He took her, Dante. And he’s got a head start.”

“Send me everything you’ve got. And Denver?”

“Yeah?”

“Say that again.”

“What?”

“Baby momma?”

His throat tightened. “Yeah. She’s the mother of my child. The woman I love. My woman.”

“On it.”

“I know you are. I taught you everything you know.”

“Do I need to remind you that your paperwork hasn’t cleared yet? You can’t take this to the authorities. You’re still dead to the world, Denver.”

“For what I intend to do, it’s better if I’m a ghost.”

A loaded silence hovered in the room.

At that minute, Willow and Layne rushed back in, Willow’s face a mask of worry and Layne carrying a warm bottle for Navy.

He hung up and turned to Willow. “Print everything we have on Justin. Stick it in a manila envelope. I’ll hand it off to the cops on behalf of the Black Heart team.”

Willow blinked, already grabbing files from the computer system and hitting print. “Got it.”

The team was running like a well-oiled machine. Knowing that he was responsible for oiling those gears didn’t make Denver feel any better. His gaze lit on Navy, cuddled in Honor’s arms, eyes dipping farther shut with each swallow she took.

He would get her mother back for her. For their precious family.

A few minutes later, Willow passed him the envelope—fat with paperwork and reports, screenshots and security footage.

In big red letters, she’d written URGENT.

He gave her a look. “Nice touch.”

She gave a weak smile. “Figured the cops would open it faster.”

Denver took the envelope and slid it under his arm. They’d get the intel into the hands of the police, but they all knew too well how local authorities played by the rules.

They didn’t have time for rules. Under it all, his heart beat a brutal rhythm.

He should have vetted every fucking man who ever walked into her office.

Part of him—the one that had once led ops in the dead of night and walked away from explosions like they were raindrops—was screaming now.

She’d been taken.

He would get her back. For his daughter and the storm threatening to tear apart her innocence.

And this time? He wasn’t risking a special ops team.

He was risking everything.