Page 20 of Four Times Saved

I didn't own a gun, but I wished I did at this moment. Although, it could always be turned back on us.

"You think if someone was here to kill us, they'd knock?" Ryan scoffed on his way to the door.

"They could!" I defended, wishing he'd turn back, but his hand was already opening the door.

Fuck, that meant I also had to go to the door to watch his back. We all got up and followed him. The door opened. A man in all black lifted his head.

"Tyler? What are you doing here this late? They almost shit themselves," Ryan said.

Ann-Marie's husband? Why?

"Look man, now is just not the best time," Ryan started, blocking the door with his body.

"But I have something you'll be very interested in." Ann-Marie's husband pulled out a piece of paper.

"What's this?" I asked, looking at an address. There was an echo from somewhere deep within me. Maybe it was my heart dropping like a log in my chest as I brought my widened eyes up to his. "It's not...is it?" My hands shook.

"That's Marco's address," he confirmed. I got the wind knocked out of me a bit. Of course it wasn't Lily's location, but this was still good news.

Eric grabbed the paper from my hand. "How the hell did you get this?"

"Let's just say I have a very special set of skills. Skills that you'll find useful if you let me help you." Tyler's gray eyes were chilling, his stance stoic.

"What kind of skills?" The question left my mouth. I wasn't sure my stomach was prepared for the answer. I must have whispered it, because no one acknowledged the question.

"This is great, man." Eric was too focused on the gift we'd received to notice the shift in energy.

"If you could find him, maybe you could help us find her father too?" Ethan said.

Tyler smiled at Eric, nodded at Ethan and turned to me. "Why don't you let me in and we can discuss my skills?"

Gulping, I stepped aside and watched as he walked by, tingling with awareness that something dark had just brushed past me and into the house.

Chapter 11

Ryan

We were all left gawping at Tyler after he was done explaining his idea of a plan to us.

"If we're going to be working together on this, it's only fair that there's full transparency. That I can trust you and you can trust me," he said.

I had the urge to ask what would happen if we broke that trust, but I feared it wouldn't end well for any of us. The man had just opened up and told us all his secrets. I never do background checks on my clients, so I can't be sure who I'm working with, but I wouldn't have guessed that Ann-Marie was marrying a former mob boss. This was insane. If I'd known that, I wouldn't have taken the job. I don't like to get mixed up in stuff like that, regardless of how much money is involved. But if I hadn't taken the job, I wouldn't have met Lily.

Oh, this was bad.

Let's not get it twisted, I'll do anything to save Lily. And in theory, I've been angry enough to kill the bastards who took her, but that's just in theory. All I want is for her to be safe. If I were standing in front of the assholes who took her, well...okay, I'd lose my shit. Let's not front. But kill? I ain't never killed nobody before. I can't think about putting that theory into practice. But here we all were, sitting with a man who had drained the blood of countless others without a thought. That man was sitting in our living room, a wolf in hiding, the husband of Lily's best friend and he was offering to help us find her.

"What's in it for you?" I heard myself saying.

"Excuse me?" He broke the conversation he was having with the rest of the equally spooked guys.

I swallowed. That question was supposed to be an inside thought, but it was out now. "Why are you doing this?" I rephrased.

"For my wife." He answered with a sort of nonchalance as if I'd asked him to solve one plus one.

Looking at the other guys, the redness in their skin gave away their discomfort. Since I'm darker, my discomfort isn't as easily read, unless you count the crack in my voice, the shaking of my leg and my lack of eye contact. I remained unconvinced of his answer. All the movies and stories I've read have told me that it can't be this easy. You don't decide to jump in bed with a mob boss and not expect a catch. Former mob boss, I corrected myself inside my head. Former, not former, it's all tomato, tom-ah-to at this point.

"Yeah, but what's in it for you?" Eric repeated my earlier question, taking time with his words and I breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't letting it go.

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