Page 67 of Under His Control

Franco ran with us, weaving through the guests. “I’ll call out a crew to head to the house as backup.”

Even if it wasn’t a worry, even if Danicia didn’t answer her phone for a simple, valid reason, we would never slack in protecting Olivia.

The house was a fortress. I knew that. In the logical part of my mind, I wanted to stay convinced that Olivia was locked behind doors and the perimeter gate, safe with all the soldiers patrolling the property.

But anything was possible. Half of my iciness and putting up walls was a defense mechanism, but it was also the chronic buffering to bad things. To violence. To threats.

She will be okay. She will be fine. We’re just overreacting. Things aren’t adding up, but that doesn’t mean she has to be hurt.

I winced, swallowing hard at the worrisome idea that we could’ve left her to be taken by our enemies.

I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to her. Never.

And by the tense grip of Liam’s fingers wrapped around mine as we reached the exit, I knew he would never forgive himself either.

25

LIAM

“She’ll be okay,” Eva repeated frantically on the drive home. “Shehasto be okay.”

I squeezed her hand, taking the risk to hold it as I drove as fast as I could. “She has to be,” I agreed. Eva had more experience with this. She was more familiar with the layers of protection at that house. I’d been trained—so far—with more duties suited for spies and handling men we captured to interrogate.

Eva had grown up with this lifestyle, but when she repeated that panicked claim that Olivia would be all right, it sounded more like a desperate wish than a convinced belief.

It seemed that silence was a better option. As we rushed to the house, neither of us could confirm whether Olivia was all right or not. Eva kept calling Danicia to no avail. Franco had to be calling the guards at the house. No one was answering, and that couldn’t be “okay”.

We settled for not speaking, though, because trying to think of something to say seemed too difficult, a distraction we couldn’t afford as we hurried to the house to check on Olivia.

Tense and stiff, we sat on the edge of our seats until I slammed to a stop in the long circular driveway to the mansion I’d more or less called home for months now.

I had my gun in my hand as I opened the door. Franco and other soldiers came to a stop abruptly, but I didn’t waste time telling Eva to stay back. She wouldn’t, so concerned and panicked to know that Olivia was safe. And I wanted her with me, anyway. She wasn’t a liability, but a partner. If I needed backup with my daughter, she was who I wanted at my side, always.

The soldiers ran in with me, fanning out but also surrounding Eva. Franco rushed in hot on our heels. As we ran up the steps, two soldiers stayed back to check on the guards down on the ground. I ran past them so quickly that it was a blur. I didn’t slow, dead set on finding Olivia, but from a quick glance, it seemed that no blood was spilled. The men were unconscious, but others could help them.

My goal was my daughter. My mission was to find out what the hell was going on and reset the balance of right and wrong. No one would touch my child for any reason without my say-so, and it was with a violent fury that I ran inside.

Olivia’s cries reached me instantly. She lay on the floor within the pack and play structure, clutching Danicia’s shirt over the edge of the short fencing. The doctor—babysitter for the night—was on the carpet, prone and unmoving.

“Olivia!” Eva cried out and hurried close with another guard.

I wouldn’t have hesitated to rush to my crying baby for many reasons. Spotting the man running out toward the back of the house was one of the reasons I’d let Eva handle her instead.

She could comfort her. She had a good rapport with Olivia even though I was her father.

And while I counted on my woman, on my partner, I sprinted after the motherfucker who'd dared to sneak into the house.

“Liam!”

I turned slightly at Romeo’s voice. He’d arrived, also alerted about all of this.

“This way!” He was running with me, helping me chase down the man who’d busted through a window in the back. Soldiers and guards swarmed the place. Other patrollers lay on the ground, all of them unconscious.

If this asshole brought backup, the arrival of the Constella forces would keep Eva and Olivia safe. They would. I was one of these men now, and I trusted them with my life, with the lives of my daughter and my future bride.

In the meantime, there was no fucking way on earth that I’d let someone else chase down this perp and kill them. This was my duty. This responsibility would fall on my shoulders, and it was with this rabid need to slaughter this trespasser that I ran harder and faster through the house with Romeo’s shortcuts.

We burst into the back yard and cleared the patio, hot on the trail of this Devil’s Brothers bastard. Spotlights popped on, set off with the motion sensors, and under the rays of illumination, the dark leather cut was visible. The biker’s patch swished back and forth as he pumped his arms to run faster and evade us, but between me and Romeo, there wasn’t a chance in hell that we’d let him escape.

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