Page 2 of Dangerously Kept

Come on, Ronan. Call Mac. Find Harper. Keep her safe.

I repeat this to myself as if it will somehow push away the blackness taking over my vision.

I drop to my knees, unable to hold the weight of my own body any longer. My phone falls from my grip as I hit the ground. Suddenly, my eyes feel heavy—so, so heavy. Tipping over onto my side, I fight with everything in me to keep my eyes open.

I can’t sleep.

I have to find her.

I have to find Harper.

But, it’s no use. I can’t fight against it.

Just as darkness takes over, I hear it. I hear her voice. It sounds so weak. So sad. She calls out to me, “Baby.”

2

Mac

“Tell me, boy. How does Harper like her new security detail?” Declan’s menacing threat rings through Finn’s otherwise silent Audi Q2. I look over from my spot behind the wheel just as Declan hangs up the phone, and it falls into Finn’s lap. I’ve been running through every light and breaking every speed limit to get through the streets of New York and back to the apartment as fast as possible since we got into the car. I’ve been trying to get ahold of Ronan since Declan called Finn’s phone, but he isn’t picking up. And now . . . now I know something is wrong. Declan’s words are like a razor blade to my skin. He’s done something. And if the look on Finn’s pale face is any indication, he knows it too.

My hands grip the steering wheel impossibly tight as I swerve through the busy streets. I can feel it start to settle in my gut. I can see it crowd the edges of my vision and hear it ringing in my ears—the killer, the animal inside of me gearing up to destroy anything in its wake.

“Not yet,” I whisper to myself. I can’t lose control yet. Not until I know what we’re dealing with.

Get a fucking grip, Mac.

Finn’s voice brings me back. But he doesn’t sound like himself. My strong and steady best friend sounds unsettled—he sounds terrified. “Mac, what if she’s gone? What if he—”

“Don’t.” I cut him off before he even dares to speak the words that would be the end of my life as I knew it. “She can’t be dead, Finn. She’s not fucking dead.” I know I’m trying to convince him as much as I am myself, but we can’t think about any of that right now. We can’t think about the fact that she might be gone, that right now, she might be in unspeakable pain. We can’t think about what happened to my brother. We can’t think about the fact that they both might be dead. The only thing we can do right now is get back to the apartment.

Finally, our building comes into view as I round the last corner. The second we get past the security in the parking garage, I throw the car in park, not even bothering to pull into a stall or turn it off, and Finn and I sprint to the elevator. The moment the doors close, we draw our handguns from where they’re tucked in the waistband of our pants. Ready and willing to kill anyone that gets in our way.

As we begin climbing the highrise, I feel my pulse pick up, my breathing becoming more rapid by the second as I stare at myself in the reflection of the elevator doors. The side of me I fight every day to keep locked away, begging to be released.

Finn’s hand squeezes my shoulder, and I snap my face toward his. Slowly shaking his head, he says softly, mimicking my words from the car. “Not yet. Not yet, brother.”

His hand remains on my shoulder the rest of the way up as if he’s grounding himself to me and me to him. Once the elevator reaches the floor below ours, the two of us share a look in our reflection on the doors and take a deep breath, silently preparing ourselves for whatever we’re about to find. The door dings and the elevator stops, along with my heart in my chest when the door opens and I see Tanner, dead, lying in a pile of his blood, with his throat cut open ear to ear. Neither Finn nor I take the time to deal with Tanner. Stepping over him, we race through the kitchen to find Ronan unconscious on the floor at the mouth of the hallway. I drop to my knees beside him and wave Finn on. “Go! Go find Harper.” Without arguing, he moves toward Ronan’s room, gun at the ready.

Looking down at my brother, I notice a small pool of blood on the ground beneath his head, coming from the decent-sized cut on his forehead. My breathing slows slightly at the sight of his chest rising and falling with each shallow breath.

He’s alive.

I reach for his neck, relieved to feel his pulse beating strong. There isn’t enough for him to have passed out from blood loss, so his unconsciousness is likely due to a pretty decent concussion. Whatever happened with Logan, he got the drop on Ronan, and I know he will never forgive himself.

I have to wake him up. We don’t have time for this shit.

“Sorry, brother.” I rear back and slap him across the face, not hard enough to worsen whatever injury he has but enough to wake him up.

The second my hand meets his cheek, his eyes snap open, immediately meeting mine. It’s then that I know. I watch Finn slowly walk down the hallway, and before he even says anything, I know she’s not here. The sadness and anger swimming in my big brother’s eyes is unlike a look I’ve ever seen on his face before.

She’s gone.

They took her.

They took Harper.

I look up at Finn from where I sit on the floor next to Ronan. He stares at me momentarily before dropping his chin and offering me a slight nod.

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