Page 87 of The One Night Match

“There’s more.” I hesitate for a beat, knowing that the second I tell him the next piece of information, it makes everything real. “There was blood in my office. It looks like Riley may have been trying to tell me something. Like maybe she was taken under duress. But she might have done that to throw us off the scent. To give herself time to get away?” It’s foolish to hope that’s the case, but I can’t help it.

The alternative is allowing myself to consider that my wife has been taken, and that’s a reality I refuse to believe.

Colten is quiet for long seconds that feel more like hours, and every moment that ticks by is more excruciating than the last.

There’s a reason men in the Mafia don’t fall in love, because love makes you vulnerable, something you can’t be when you’re running a criminal empire. But I’ve never felt the reason more than I do right now.

“Fuck,” he mutters.

“What is it?”

“Monica. She and some guy I don’t recognize came to the house, took out Gavin and Craig by surprise.”

“And Riley? Did she leave before they came?” I ask with far too much hope.

“No,” he hesitates for a moment before he audibly swallows.

“Colten, tell me what the fuck is going on!” I snap.

“They got her down the side of the house, and the cameras cut out right as they came into view. They’ve hacked the system.”

I try to breathe through the crushing panic that slams into me, but instead, my body folds in half, desperately dragging in ragged breaths.

“I’m a few minutes away, but I need you to keep your shit together, brother. Check the side of the house, see if you can see anything down there that will help us work out where they took her.”

It takes longer than I would like to get ahold of myself, but when I finally do, I stride out the back door and into the cool evening air. It’s only September, but the weather in Seattle is already starting to gear toward winter.

I don’t react when I see Gavin’s dead body by the back door. I’ll make sure his family is taken care of, but right now I need to focus on finding my wife.

My gun turns the corner before I do, but when I find no one lying in wait, I walk forward quickly, looking for even the tiniest hint that Riley was here.

By the time I reach the front of the house, I’m beginning to lose hope, until I see the puddle of blood pooled within the stones.

I look around, my eyes dragging over the trees that surround the house, scanning for any sign of my girl or the people who came to take her from me.

“Colt?”

“Yeah, man. I’m a minute out.”

“You still got cameras in the forest around the house?”

“I do. Why?”

I swallow through the bile that climbs up the back of my throat. “I think Riley made a run from Monica. I think she’s in the forest.”

FORTY-SIX

RILEY

My lungs burn as I sprint through the trees, but they’re not my main worry right now.

Nor is the fact that my feet and ankles are bleeding, or that it’s getting colder by the second, and I’m dressed in nothing more than a men’s T-shirt and a pair of destroyed socks.

No. My concern begins and ends with the two people who are chasing me like I’m their prey.

And I guess I am in some ways.

They’re hunting me, a trophy to take back to whoever the hell hired them, but I’m not going down like a frightened deer.