Page 10 of Hold Me Before You Go

“Larks and Hale spent the majority of their affair in that city. She could have a special connection to it,” I explained.

A deep breath came from him. “Going back to St. Louis will make this more complicated than it already is. Bringing in Oasis is the last thing we need. Their close ties to the Italian Mafiacomplicates things.”

“The Mafia?” Humbly parroted, looking back and forth between Hayes and me.

“Does it look like I care?” The only thing I fucking cared about was getting her back—to me.

“You want to owe a favor to Collin Stevens?” Hayes challenged. “You and I both know the things he’s fucking capable of. What if he asks for something we can’t give, Gray? What then?”

“If we get Jeremy involved, the chances of finding Carrie are much greater than if we did it on our own,” I said, trying to be a voice of reason. I knew it was a bat-shit crazy idea, but she’d only been gone a few hours, and I was going insane, bursting at the seams. Oasis had reach, and their hands were in networks I couldn’t get into because of Red Snake.

Hayes’ brow raised. “Are you saying Red Snake can’t handle this?”

I bit down on my jaw—hard. “She’s my fucking woman, Hayes.”

He nodded once. “I know she is, which is why the boys and I are willing to pull strings we normally shouldn’t be pulling—for herandyou. We want her safe just as much as you, Gray.”

I looked away from him, unable to handle the pain in my gut.

His voice softened as he added, “She’s your happiness. Why the fuck wouldn’t we want to keep that safe?”

My eyes cut to him. He was right. If we wanted to pull the strings Red Snake had, we would need to keep this as far away from the Mafia as possible. Their involvement could lead to eyes on Red Snake, eyes we certainly didn’t fucking need.

“Fuck,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair.

“Sit down. Let’s get a visual on this building, and we’ll go from there, yeah?” Hayes said, stepping around the table.

We both took our seats, focusing on the screen.

A throat cleared, and we looked up to find Humbly staring at us with wide eyes. “The fucking Mafia?”

Sighing through my nose, I shot a glare at Hayes. “Humbly, there are a lot of things you don’t know about Carrie’s past, things I’m not willing to tell you. What you just heard isconfidential, and from now on, you’re on a need-to-know basis. This is something you don’t need to know. Now, do me a favor and bring me that fucking video footage from the store. There’s no reason it should be taking this long.”

When Humbly was out of the room, we got to work.

A few minutes later, we had the footage we needed.

“What’s the news on Carrie’s father?” I asked as Hayes directed the drone back to our Charlotte office.

Carrie’s father, the ex-mayor of St. Louis, was currently in prison for human trafficking. He struck a deal with the Bratva, the Russian Mafia, and bit off more than he could chew. Due to his stupidity, Carrie’s husband was brutally murdered—chopped into pieces over a year ago. Carrie was the one who discovered the body. As time passed, I was beginning to think I needed to send a gift basket to Moscow, to the surviving members. Robert Hale was an abusive asshole, and if he hadn’t been dead already, I would’ve been the one to make sure he was six feet in the fucking ground.

Before Carrie was kidnapped, I’d sent Hayes to the prison where her father was serving his sentence for a little chat.

His eyes remained on the screen as he told me the harsh truth. “He refused to come out of his cell. According to the guards, he only comes out for one person.”

“Who?” I demanded.

Hayes’ eyes met mine, holding them for a moment. “James Garner.”

“Son of a fucking bitch,” I bit off, shaking my head.

“Yeah,” Hayes muttered.

Something snapped inside me.

Shooting up from my seat, I pulled out my phone and called Jake, Ash, and Dominic.

When they all answered, I declared, “This is a team meeting. Drop your shit and pay attention.”

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