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Chapter twenty-two

Declan

T he sky is pitch black, not even a sliver of moonlight to soften the darkness. Zander steps up behind me, shoving his hands in his pockets. We stand in silence while my rage destroys me from the inside out. I welcome the pounding in my head. If she’s hurting, I want to hurt too. Fuck, I just hope she’s not.

“Isaiah is on his way,” Zander says.

Opening and closing my pocket knife, I turn to look at him.

“Is Leah with him?” I ask.

“No.”

The past several hours have been spent tracking people down. Inside, my house is full of people waiting to be set in motion. I know who took her, but I don’t know where.

It’s going to take manpower to check every property, so I’ve called in every fucking favor I have owed and made promises in exchange for more. I’d sign my soul to the devil right now if he’d just fucking appear.

“Fucking go get her, Zander.”

He’s been tracking Leah’s every move since he gave her the burner, claiming it’s for me, but I know better. He thinks I’ll kill her if he brings her here, and he might be right. But I will fucking kill him if he keeps me from the one person who might know where my wife is .

Knowing he can’t put it off any longer, he gets on his bike and peels out in a circle, leaving a black tire mark on my pavement.

I stand perfectly still and stare at the black sky waiting for the motion lights to shut off again. When I’m enveloped in darkness once more, I close my eyes to focus on the pain in my chest. Silently, I pray that her fear and her pain become mine.

I listen to the sound of a car coming down the drive without turning. Eventually the lights turn back on. I turn around to see Isaiah getting out of his Bentley.

“I’ve got my guys taking the building now. I’ll know more in a few minutes,” he states like a businessman.

I’ve never seen him sober or responsible. But here he is—making good on our deal. He reaches out to shake my hand. I take it and squeeze too hard.

“If I find out you played a part in this, I will gut you and burn your club to the ground.”

He chuckles but holds my hand firm and maintains eye contact. I can see his conscience is clear, so I let go.

Isaiah has a lot to gain by helping me. On the other hand, he has the resources to create a situation that would force me to do anything–one like I’m in right now.

Even I have to admit that he isn’t the type to beat around the bush. If he had her, he would’ve already tried making a deal. For now, I have to trust him.

“We’ll have her back by morning, Declan,” he says.

Jessica walks out.

“There’s only one out-of-state property that I can find, and it’s in Augusta, Georgia. I’ve looked in every state I have a contact for, but that’s all I can come up with. I’m sorry, Declan. Is there anything else I can do? ”

Instead of walking inside to get him, I call Chance on my cell. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows in my living room, I can see him pull out his phone. He puts it back into his pocket and walks outside. There’s too many fucking people in there for it to feel as empty as it does without her. It makes my skin crawl.

“What’s up?” He asks.

Nodding to Jessica, she asks, “Can you check private airports to see if any flights have left this evening for Augusta, Georgia?”

He walks away to start making calls, and I give her my back. I listen to her footsteps retreating and hear her get into her car to leave.

Noel would be livid if she knew Jessica was here. But she was already here offering help before I knew Zander had even called her. I have to admit, she got us farther than we would’ve gotten without her. She was able to give us a full list of properties owned by Grant Williams to search.

Chance paces and talks on the phone behind me. Needing space, I walk into the garage. I place my hands on the hood of the Challenger and lean over to breathe.

If I’m being honest with myself, he took her as far away from me as he could. He’d have to wait until bank hours tomorrow to drain her accounts, and he’d need the distance to prevent me from getting to her before he was finished with the paperwork. Fucking piece of shit.

Zander’s bike hums outside. I overhear Chance tell him where I am, and the door opens.

He walks in with Leah tucked safely behind him. Stepping around the car, I close the gap between us in three strides.

“Where is she?!” I roar into her face over Zander’s shoulder.

Chance rips the door open, slamming it against the wall .

“What the fuck?” He asks.

Leah meets my glare without cowering.

“I’ve been calling her, but her phone is off. The last time I saw her was two days ago. She wouldn’t agree to the paternity test, so there wasn’t much else I could do.”

When I lift my hands to shake her, Zander and Chance grab me, shoving me back. Leah doesn’t move even though Zander is screaming at her to leave. Chance keeps repeating something, but I’m hyper focused on ripping this bitch to shreds for not doing the one thing I was paying her to do.

“She’s in Miami, Dec. Noel is in Miami,” his words start to sink in.

I snap my eyes to him.

“Let’s go,” I clip.

I shrug them off by stepping backward.

“We don’t have an address. The only thing we know is that she was put into Grant Holdings’ company jet just after sunset, and the flight plan was to a small airport outside of Miami. We need more information,” he counters.

“We’re leaving right fucking now, Chance. Get Isaiah. We can deal with the details after we land,” I order, my voice deadly calm.

Chance whistles loud enough to alert everyone inside that it’s time to move. Motion explodes around me as I walk to the Bentley. People are pouring out of my house to get into vehicles parked all over the yard. Isaiah gets into the passenger seat of his own car and cocks an eyebrow at me as Zander, Leah, and Chance climb into the backseat.

“Only because I know you can drive and have had a shit night, fucker,” Isaiah says, giving me permission to drive .

I scoff at him and turn the car around too fast, flinging Leah into Chance. Isaiah gives me directions to his private hangar while I push the gas pedal to find out what his car can do.

The clock on the dash reads 10:29 PM. She’s been gone for over twelve hours. Pushing the pedal down on the backside of a curve, I try to close the gap of time that’s been wasted on fucking logistics.

Fuck the logistics, and fuck the irony. I don’t want to be efficient, I want to get to her right the fuck now.

“Damn, I didn’t know it ate like this!” Isaiah scoots down in his seat, spreading his legs to keep from sliding in the curves.

If there’s one mother fucker who is ever down for almost dying, it’s him.

“You’re gonna make my fuckin dick hard, man!” He shouts.

“Why you gotta be weird, bro?” Zander calls out from behind me.

Isaiah laughs. “Alright, slow down. It’s the next left.” Isaiah points to the dimly lit hangars to our left.

We pull into the hangar and watch the pilot climb the stairs before getting out of the car. Isaiah walks up first, and Leah follows.

Zander and Chance wait with me for the other cars to pull in. Once everyone shows up, we decide who is flying with us and who needs to stay back to hit the other properties.

Chance pulls our clean up crew off to the side to talk to them before sending them up—we’ve kept them busy today. Zander tells two guys to get in the plane and sends the rest to each of the properties on the list Jessica provided.

I take the stairs two at a time into the plane with Zander and Chance behind me. Isaiah tells the pilot and flight attendant to roll, and we’re moving in no time .

Leah sits between Isaiah and the window. She’s wearing a sparkly top that barely covers her tits with a tiny skirt and thigh-high boots. She has her hair in pigtails and wears the black framed glasses like she had on the day I met her.

“It’s Nate’s baby,” I tell her.

It’s the only reason Grant would do something like this.

She turns her head to meet my stare.

“She was with multiple men since she secretly had her IUD removed. Without a DNA test, I wouldn’t bet on that.”

“She’s mine to deal with,” Isaiah interjects, and Leah cowers to look back out the window.

No one speaks again for a while. The flight attendant offered drinks, and most of us took water or an energy drink. Some of the guys doze off.

“We’ll start out with a small load of cigars,” Isaiah explains his plans for our new business deal.

“When?” I ask.

We might as well talk about it. At least it gives me something else to think about while I sit here.

“Next week. I’m expecting the delivery on Wednesday in New Orleans. Sometimes they’re early, sometimes they’re late. I’ll need a truck on standby near the area for my guy to call,” he says.

I nod.

“No one fucks with me, Declan. It’s an easy money-maker for you,” he says.

“Didn’t think you gave a shit,” I snap at him.

He laughs. “If you get caught, I lose money. That wouldn’t help my end game.”

“And what’s that, Isaiah?”

He scoffs, obviously not willing to share .

“This has an expiration date,” I remind him.

“I know what we agreed. What are you going to do if Zander decides to stay in?” He asks.

Leah turns her head slightly at the mention of Zander.

“Zander can do what he wants, but Velocity is only giving you a year,” I clarify.

As soon as we land and pull into a hangar, Leah checks her phone. Veronica still hasn’t responded to her texts, but they’re showing delivered now. At least we know her phone is on. Isaiah calls her, but she sends him to voicemail.

“She’s bold now. She thinks she got away,” he says, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

“Chance, go find the Grant Holdings plane and search it,” I order.

I exit behind him to stretch and get some air. The heat and humidity make me think of hell, and I’m suddenly very fucking glad Noel wants to move to Tennessee. We’re crossing Florida off her travel list and won’t be back after this.

My phone rings.

“I need an address, G,” I groan into the phone.

“I’m sorry, boss. There’s nothing here connecting Grant to Miami.”

Ending the call, I put my phone back in my pocket and walk to the only hangar out here with light creeping through the cracks.

Chance pulls a gun on me when I open the door out of instinct and holsters it just as quickly when he recognizes my face. I follow his lead to the cargo door of the plane to see a man tied and gagged.

Thank fuck .

Grabbing the rope around his hands, I drag him out and back into the moonless night toward the open hangar I just came from.

His muffled shouts are loud enough to alert everyone else, so I don’t bother. Instead, I hang his hands over a fork lift and turn it on to lift him so that he’s dangling by the rope between his hands. By the time I’m finished raising him high enough for his feet to hover, Zander and Isaiah have joined me.

“Who’s this?” Zander asks.

Pulling my pocket knife out, I say, “Let’s fucking find out.”

Grabbing his left shoulder, I put all my weight on him to pull up. My knife slices his face as I cut the gag. Before I’m done, I can feel his shoulder dislocate. He tries to use his legs but doesn’t have the leverage to shake me. I grin, enjoying the sound of his pain.

I fall back to the ground with a thud and wipe the blood off my blade onto his pants.

“Fuck you!” He screams from above me.

Zander takes the phone out of his pocket and passes it to Isaiah. Then, he snatches down on the guy’s right leg suddenly. The fucker screams out almost immediately as his right shoulder dislocates from the angle and weight.

“Are you fucking crying?” I scoff, looking up at him.

“Who the fuck are you?” He asks between his groaning and moaning.

“I’m her husband and your worst fucking nightmare. Where did they take my wife?”

I fist the handle of my knife, ready to stab his thigh when he refuses to answer, but Isaiah rattles off an address behind me before my human target has a chance.

“You sure?” I ask over my shoulder, glaring up at the man I’m about to end.

“They have a pretty impressive tracking system. There’s three men inside that address. It’s about twenty minutes away. ”

“Fuck!” The man screams, and I stab him in both inner thighs and walk away. Before we make it back inside the plane, he’s done screaming.

Isaiah sets the phone down on a table, and everyone sits around it. Zander works on gathering the things we need from the cargo bay while the rest of us discuss strategies for getting in quietly. We don’t want to create an unsafe situation for Noel.

It’s a small house surrounded by woods. An old real estate listing shows the layout of the home, so we’re able to get a fairly detailed plan together with some contingencies.

An hour fucking later, the Tahoes Isaiah rented finally show up. We jump in and haul ass to the address, parking down the street.

We walk through the woods to surround the house, staying hidden from view. The sun is rising, so we can’t use darkness to sneak up to the house.

I’m in position towards the front of the house with an ear bud in to hear from everyone else as they get in position, compliments of Isaiah. My phone vibrates against my thigh unexpectedly. Checking it, I see it’s Garrett again.

“Grant is fucking here,” Garrett says.

“What?” I growl, trying to keep quiet.

“I’m watching the cameras, and he just walked into the elevator inside this fucking building.”

“Grab him. Call me when you know who the fuck took her to Miami. We’re already in position here,” I tell him and hang up.

“I don’t know what we’re about to walk into. Grant just got in the elevator at Grant Holdings. He isn’t in this house,” I whisper into the quiet.

“Wait for Garrett to call back. This might be a fucking set up!” Zander puts my thoughts into words .

“Fuck! You’re right, but goddamn it I don’t want to fucking wait!” I’m whisper-yelling and definitely being too loud anyway.

“I’m going in to get Veronica either way, and it’s more likely that Noel is in there with her than in Birmingham with him,” Isaiah speaks.

“I’m in. Let’s do this,” I confirm.