Page 33 of Hunted Vengeance

Bodenand I crash for a couple of hours in our own rooms before we wake up, order coffee and food, shower, and get ready to tackle today. I’ve already decided that I’m going to watch and follow Colette to the mysterious location her father is sending her.

There are going to be answers to questions that I have in that location. Is it a safe house? Is he sending her away and canceling the wedding? There is something big, a movement that I don’t understand, and I know it involves her new future husband and those three fucks who showed up yesterday.

“You ready?” I ask as I look over to Boden.

He’s standing in the kitchen of the suite, coffee in one hand and his phone in the other as he slides his thumb across the screen, no doubt scrolling some kind of social media app. He lifts his gaze to meet mine and smirks.

“I thought you said she was being taken in the afternoon. It’s only nine.”

I stare at him for a long, silent moment, waiting for him to start moving. When he lets out a heavy sigh and shoves his phone into his pocket, I know he’s ready to move.

“You don’t have to come with me,” I point out. “You can stay right here.”

“Calm the fuck down, Merrick,” he snaps as he pushes away from the wall. “I’m not letting you handle shit on your own. Just fucking relax.”

Turning my back to him, I march out of the hotel suite and make my way to the hallway. He follows behind me, although reluctantly. I know he has my back, and I shouldn’t be annoyed because the likelihood of Colette being gone already is slim, but I don’t want to risk it.

Boden drives us in the rented black sedan. It doesn’t take us long to get to the limestone house, but when we arrive, we park down and across the street so we’re catty-corner and can see everything without being obvious.

I’m surprised to see Adriano stepping out of a car and onto the sidewalk. He walks up to the front door of the house, then stops and looks to the side. He’s alone, but I try not to read too much into that since it’s still early. It’s ten in the morning, and I heard him, in his own words, say afternoon.

Boden doesn’t say anything as I stare at the house and wait for her to come out. After Adriano slips inside the limestone house, I watch for the door to open again and for her luggage to be wheeled out onto the sidewalk.

It doesn’t happen.

As each hour passes and the house stays shut tight, I realize that she’s already gone. I missed her. My gut was telling me that she was going to leave earlier than Adriano announced, and I didn’t listen to it. Not that I think if we left five minutes earlier, it would have made a difference.

I should have never left in the first place.

I fucked up—big-time.

Boden chances speaking to me, although I know he can feel the vibes in the car are electric. He still takes that chance, and that is one of the reasons he’s here. Nobody else, aside from maybe Theron, would take such a risk with the signals I’m sending out right now.

“Just because she’s gone right now doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find her. That wedding is going to take place.”

Yeah.

Right.

What the fuck ever.

“Let’s just go,” I mutter.

He doesn’t start the car, though. Instead, he presses his lips together, his gaze flicking from the house to me, then back to the house. Slowly, I turn my head and look at his profile. He’s thinking, but what he’s got rolling around inside of his head, I could probably never guess.

Then he speaks, and again, it’s something I would have never guessed. This fucking guy.

“It might be crazy, but what if we had Vaughn add Adriano to that dark web list. I would pay for that fucker to get knocked off just based on the bullshit he’s pulled with you and your wife.”

I would pay for it, too, but as much as I want to lay all the blame on Adriano, I let him take Colette, and I signed the paperwork for the annulment and sent it back. Shaking my head, I tell Boden just that, and he grunts.

“He’s still a piece of shit,” he snaps.

Dipping my chin in a single nod, I agree. Adriano is a piece of shit. “I do want to ruin him, every fucking ounce of him. I want to watch him suffer, but I also want to ensure that Colette is safe when I do so, and if I put his name on a hit list right now, I’m not sure she would be safe because I have no idea where she is.”

“But we agree that he needs to go down.”

“Agreed,” I murmur. “Maybe Lucille can do something financially without us even touching a hair on his stupid fucking head.” Boden snaps his fingers together before he lets out a chuckle. “But not until I get Colette back.”

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