Page 114 of Queen Of Dark Money

Wecouldn’t let him put his life on the line, butIwould have done the same in his shoes.Inthe end, she’d touched every single one of us, and our lives were nothing compared to hers.

“Whohas her?”Iasked, but a part of me already knew.Deepin the marrow of my bones,Iknew.

“Sinclairand some guy he calledTheo,”Riverswore. “IfIhadn’t letStonerun off with her alone–”

“Youhad a club to deal with,River.Itcould have happened to you, too.”Jasper’srattling wheeze concerned me, but not as much as the fact that he’d mentioned my son’s name in that list of kidnappers.

“Didyou sayTheo?”

Iceran through my veins, chilling me to the bone asIwaited for confirmation.Mymind raced back to the day he’d shown up at my apartment, all smiles and winks, his eyes glued to the attractive girlIknewwas his ex.Whohe’d mistreated in the past.Andnow, the woman he’d stolen from me.

Buthe was far from the onlyTheoout there, right?Surelysomething from my own balls couldn’t have stooped so low.Surelymy son wasn’t involved in this–

“Doyou have a visual?”

Rivercleared his throat, already knowing where my mind was headed. “Sendingthe footage to your phone now.”

Ipulled it away from my ear and flipped it to speakerphone, tapping my foot nervously asIwaited for the attachment to download.Whenthe picture finally loaded on my phone,Iswore.

Therein black and white, clear as the dayI’dstood face to face with him not that long ago, was my fucking spawn, a needle in his hand, shoved into the arm of the only womanI’dwanted for myself in a very long time.Iwould know him anywhere, even behind that fucking mask he wore to hide himself from her gaze.Iknew him by the mark on the back of his neck, the birthmark he’d gotten when the doctor nicked his skin on the way out.Itwas a faint purple patch with a thin scar down the middle, the only part of that skin that wasn’t dark.

Myrage boiled over, andIstood with a roar, kicking my chair across the room in my fit of rage.

“Iswear to god, if he harms a single hair on her head,I’llkill him myself.Bloodor no blood.”

Rivercleared his throat, waiting for me to stop cussing on the other end.HeknewIwas serious, they all did.Hell,Imight not often raise my voice or resort to violence, but they all knew whatIwas capable of.Andthey knew to stay out of my way whenImade these kinds of threats.Imeant every word.

Every.Fucking.Word.

“He’sgoing to regret this,”Ispat, hatred for the sonI’dbrought into this world burning like an oil fire on the ocean. “I’llkick his ass from here to the jailhouse, and he’ll beg them to arrest him to get away from me.”

“Idon’t plan to let him get that far,”Rafegrumbled on the other end, his voice muffled. “Holdon,Ijust got a strange link in my inbox.Anyof you get it, too?”

Iglanced at my notifications, spotting the link he spoke of. “Yeah, it’s in my inbox, too.I’mgonna click on it.”

Iopened the link warily, hopingIhadn’t just allowed myself to be hacked.Whenthe video flickered to life, the urge to vomit rose in me again.

Hanginglimply from a set of chains in the center of the screen wasKenzie, her hair matted with blood, her eyes still full of fire, even as she winced from the pain.Weall watched in silence together as she stared off into the camera like she was looking for something that wasn’t there.Likeshe was looking for help she knew wouldn’t get to her in time.

“Noteven wearing shoes,Isee.Likethe classless street urchin your mother raised you to be, no surprise there.”

Shemumbled somethingIdidn't catch, because the ringing in my ears tuned out everything else.Myvision turned red as he mocked her, and with every fiber of my being,Imade a promise to myself to makeEddySinclairanswer for his crimes against the daughter he didn’t want.

Shespat blood at him, andIcould hearRafemutteratta girlin the background, but none of us was in any mood to laugh at her antics.Evenhanging there, bleeding out, facing down death like she was half reaper herself, she still found a way to mock him right back, giving as good as she got.Somethingabout her touched every single one of us and ripped out our hearts collectively, and in the pit of my stomach,Ijust knew there was no way in hell we’d ever make it to her in time.

Butwe had to try.

“Keepthe video playing.I’mgoing to callSpectreand see if he can get a lock on the origin point of the transmission.”

Iflipped over to another call and dialed him in, swearing on all that was holy thatI’dcastrate the bastard if he didn’t pick up the fucking phone.Whenhe answered, after far too many rings,Icut him off, desperate and out of my mind.

“Ineed you to track a video stream.I’mpretty sure it’s live.”

Hedidn’t hesitate for a second. “Sendme the feed.”

Iforwarded the link to him, andIcould tell the second he opened it by the way he gasped in shock. “Isthat–”

“Findher,Spectre, justfucking find herbefore they go offline.”

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