Page 24 of Broken Empire

“Benice baby!Sheesh!Noteveryone wants me,” she says with a roll of her eyes.

“Hunterhere was just asking about you and little man,” he tells her instead of replying to what she was just saying.That’swhen she finally looks over in our direction and squeals before getting up and out of his lap and rounding the table again.

“Hunter!I’vemissed you!Wherethe hell have you been?” she squeals as she hugs him, well tries to hug him, since her belly is quite big like she’s about to pop at any moment.

“It’sgood to see youAddy,”Huntertells her as he hugs her again and squeezes her for good measure.

“I’mhuge now, so this is the best of a hugIcan do.Yourhands can barely go past me,” she says with a laugh.

“You’restill as beautiful as ever.Ifyou ever get tired of this hump, my offer to run away together is still on the table,”

“Handsoff my woman dickhead!”Colegrowls and bothAddyandHunterroll their eyes.Thenhe turns to me. “Thisis my wifeAddisonand my sonMatteo.Addy, this isMason,Hunter’ssupposed soon to be brother-in-law.”

“What?Carteris getting married to this guy?LastIheard,Ithought he was with theRomanovheir.Thisone looks a bit young if you ask me, but whatever is floating his boat at the moment,Iguess,” she says andHunterbursts out laughing.

“Ithink my brother has his hands full withAdelaideandBlazeand won’t be adding anyone else to the mix.I, uh,Iactually have a sister and this is her—” he says but cuts himself off.

“Boyfriend, dickhead!”Igrumble, which hasColelaughing.

“Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that,” he mutters andIdon’t even answer his ass.

Wetalk for a while more,HuntercatchingAddisonup on everything including what a shitheadI’vebeen.Ican’t help looking at her andColeright now.I’mnot jealous or anything, but whenIlook at them and see the love, they clearly have for each other and the bond they share with their son,Irealize thatIwant that and so much more withWinter.

Iwant to be able to look at her every day whenIwake up and just bask in her light and warmth.Iwant to do whatever it takes to make her happy every single day for the rest of her life and yeah,Iwant kids with her someday too.Ijust want my forever girl back again andIwant her to be happy.Idon’t even realize thatI’mstaring, lost in my head untilCole’svoice cuts through my thoughts.

“Isthis kid trying to get himself killed?”

“RelaxMr.GrumpyMafiaman.Can’tyou see the poor guy looks lost over there,”

“I’msorry.Ididn’t mean to stare.Iwas just lost in thought thinking about my girl and what hell she must be going through.Ifeel like a complete failure that we haven’t gotten to her yet,”Isay with a sigh.

“Don’tworry we’ll find her.Anddon’t forget you have a lot of powerful people lending you a hand now,” she says, giving me a smile.

“Thanks,Addison.Iappreciate it,”Isay.

Hunterchats with them for a few more minutes before we decide it’s time to leave.Colelets us know that he’ll call us as soon as he hears something from his men.Wemake our way back to theVIParea to get the guys before we head out, back to the hotel to wait.

* * *

We’reall just sittingaround the suite doing something or other while we sit, not so patiently waiting.We’vebeen back at the hotel for an hour and a half already and the wait is killing me slowly, at least that’s what it feels like.

Hunter’sphone finally ringing cuts the conversation all around the room as we all turn to focus on him.

“Heyman.Whatdo you have?” he asks as he answers the phone.Helistens to the person on the other end for a few minutes before hanging up. “Let’sroll boys!”

“Whatdid he say?”Iask asIhop up from my seat and make my way over to him.

“Oneof his men spotted an unconscious girl being taken off one of the planes, but he couldn’t make any sort of identification because none of the cameras caught her face,” he tells me.

Thesoldiers andHunterall suit up and get their guns ready while me and the guys just look on in fascination.Imean it’s not every day you see guys with big guns getting ready for battle.Hunterthrows a bulletproof vest toward me while the soldiers do the same to the guys.

“Suitup!Idon’t think my sister would want your stupid ass to die,” he tells me.Iignore his ass but do asI’mtold.ImeanIhave to be cautious, sinceIwant to make it back to her alive and all.

“Ineed a gun too just in case,”Itell him.Helooks at me like he doesn’t want to but then he nods and one of the soldiers gives one to me.

“Weneed some firepower too.Andif you’re worried, don’t be.Weall know how to shoot,”Becksays whenHunteris about to probably tell him no.Huntjust sighs and shakes his head before nodding to one of his men to hand them each a gun.

Weall hurry out of the room after that and make our way down the elevator.Wetake it all the way down to the underground parking garage of the hotel.Whenwe step out we head for theSUVsand get in.

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