Page 52 of The Heart

“Please. There’s no one else I trust. No one else can do this,” my father pleads with Sebastian and Luke before turning his gaze on me. “If you won’t do it for me… please, Leena, do it for Kat. We need to get her back.” He’s practically shaking now.

He’s scared,I realize.

I’ve seen this man be a lot of things, butscaredwas never one of them. He knows what they might do to her. So do I.

“Can we have a minute?” I say without looking at him, my teeth grinding. I gesture between him and the door. He silently gets up and leaves the room.

The second he does, I crumple to the fucking floor.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

LEENA

“This is up to you, Leena,” Luke says once I’ve semi-pulled myself together.

“I can’t,” I say, staring at the floor. “I can’t drag you guys into this again. Not after last time. We almost lost Seb because of me…” I start to lose it again, but then Sebastian is there, his large arms wrapping around me.

“Oh, sweetheart.” He kisses the top of my head. “I’m right here,” he says, and I relax in the comfort of his embrace. Of knowing he’s still here.

When he pulls away, he places his large hands on either side of my face, forcing me to face his concerned dark blue eyes. “That wasnotyour fault. Luke and I chose to follow you anywhere long before you were kidnapped. We knew this kind of shit had been following you your entire life, knew that it would continue. We know you didn’t choose it to be that way. And you know what? We don’t care about any of it. All we care about is you. So if you asked us, we would gladly kill the entire fucking Deck for you, Leena. All you have to do is ask.” His eyes bore into mine, and I feel the tears leave them again, until his thumbs brush them away.

“I can’t ask this of you,” I whisper.

“You don’t have to,” Luke says. I turn in Sebastian’s arms, facing him.

He steps closer, holding the three rose gold loops of my necklace between his fingers. “Leena, we gave you this necklace so we wouldn’t lose you. I hope you know we meant it, even then. We’re with you, no matter what. You’re our family, which means Kathryn is too. So if you want us to help you save your sister, then we’ll help save your sister. If you want to stay out of it, Sebastian and I can handle it. We’ll get her back for you. Or, we can tell Ward to go fuck himself and to handle his own shit.”

I chuckle as he steps closer, brushing his knuckles gently down my cheek.

“Just tell us what you want, sugar. We’ll make it happen,” Sebastian says softly in my ear, and I know they will.

I’m so overwhelmed by these two men, their love and understanding, that I don’t have to think about this anymore. I’ve made my decision.

I take a deep breath, letting my fingers interlock with Luke’s as Sebastian holds me tighter. Finally, I find the courage to speak.

“She’s my sister. I know the kinds of things they do to their prisoners. I couldn’t live with myself if I let something happen to her. But we’ll do this together,” I say, looking between them. They both nod in agreement, and I lean over to hit the button for the intercom.

“Sandra? Would you send William Ward to the conference room, please? We’ll be in there shortly.”

—

I sit down at the table between Luke and Sebastian and open my laptop to take notes, staring down the man sitting across from us as I do.

It’s Luke who speaks first. “How long has Kathryn Hart been missing, and what makes you suspect she was taken by the Deck?” he says.

“Since yesterday, around two-fifteen in the morning. We had plans to meet for breakfast and when she didn’t show, I checked the cameras I have outside her apartment.”Of course he has fucking cameras on her.“They took her right out the front goddamn door. And no, you can’t see their faces or any tattoos on the footage. They were covered up and wearing masks,” my father adds.

“How many men?” Sebastian leans back in his chair and crosses his arms.

“We caught five on the camera outside her apartment, but the ones in the parking garage were down, so we didn’t get a make or model on a vehicle,” my father replies.

“Did they leave anything behind?” Luke asks, tapping his pen on a notepad while I studiously take notes. Because it’s more pleasant than talking to this man.

“What, like a photo ID? Or a fucking map to their location? No, Campbell, they didn’t,” my father spits out.

I grit my teeth. He can talk to me like that all he wants, butLuke?

Fuck no.

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