Page 118 of The Vigilant

“Sorry,” I muttered, swallowing down a fresh wave of helplessness. Not again.

Before I could move, I was moved. Tynan swung his leg in front of him, getting off the bike and then lifting me off it like I weighed nothing.

His hand framed the back of my neck, hauling my head higher, so I had no choice but to focus on him.

“We’re going to find her, alright?”

“How?” I croaked. Even though I knew there were other options—other leads like the text Mara had sent to Rob a week ago—it somehow felt a whole helluva lot more hopeless now.

Tynan’s jaw pulsed, and then his hold on me tightened. “I have Kang’s phone. Creed and Rob are bringing the Straw Sandal back to the garage. Something…someone will know where she is.

“Why was Kang there?” I didn’t understand. Not finding Mara was making all these unknowns crush against the side of my skull like a vise. I needed something to make it make sense. “Why would they guard him?”

Tynan didn’t have an answer any more than I did.

“Come on.” He released my neck and took hold of my hand, guiding me inside, through the maze of motorcycles, and then into the office.

I sat on the edge of the table, watching as he slid Kang’s phone onto his desk, plugged it into his computer, and clicked something that made the screen light up.

“Sutton,” he drawled low, and suddenly, I noticed the small tics of anger that he was trying to suppress. His eyes snapped to mine, and the beating thing in my chest recognized what washurting him even before he spoke. “You went after him…without me. Without protection.”

I stiffened. “I couldn’t let him get away.”

“He had a gun?—”

“I didn’t know that,” I countered, fuming. By the time I’d run out of the apartment to chase him, Kang had already grabbed the gun from the fallen guard outside of the door and was bolting into the stairwell. “Plus, I could’ve handled?—”

“A gun? With your knives?” His nostrils flared, and suddenly, he looked like a massive bull caged inside a china closet. “I know you’re smarter than to think that.”

“Are you going to punish me for it?” I asked, suddenly craving the pain—the release—and the hold of his arms.

He was in front of me in a second, my neck back in his hold.

Dark and stormy eyes gazed into mine, and the power of him—the presence—it calmed my rage that would’ve punished me regardless.

“You better fucking believe I am,” he growled next to my ear, my nipples hardening at the sound. “You almost fucking died right in front of me.”

I sucked in a breath and turned my face toward his, wanting—needing—and then he was gone, drawing back with a curse as he reached in his pocket for his cell. Yet there was no mistaking the length of his cock stretched hard against the front of his jeans.

“Fuck,” he cursed and then answered the call, “What?” He paused, his brows knitting tighter and tighter together. “What do you mean they’re gone? That can’t be right.” Another pause. “See you soon.”

“What is it?” I demanded before he’d even hung up. My whole body felt charged. Between believing that we were walking into that apartment and would find Mara to staring down thebarrel of that gun and the bitter rage in Kang’s eyes, I couldn’t take any more surprises.

I felt like a ball of energy—of anger and frustration and pain and defeat—with nowhere to expend it. Nowhere to let loose the emotions that seemed they’d soon start to tear apart the seams of my skin.

“The bodies are gone.”

My jaw dropped. “Wh…What?”

“The driver that Rob left in the dumpster and the men, including Kang, that I shot at the apartment building…Creed secured the Straw Sandal back in the car and then went to clean up and do damage control, and the bodies were already gone.”

“How…”

“No idea. Creed’s going to go back and get more footage from the alley after they bring the Straw Sandal here,” he rumbled.

“So, we’ll wait for them?—”

“No.”

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