Page 7 of Unfulfilled Promises
Everyone understood how hard it must’ve been to relive your worst memories, and Stella was stronger than any of us. She took charge of her and Hailey’s futures, eradicating any threat that might arise. As Stella got close to the door, Hannah stood from her chair and offered her big sister a hug. The women embraced before Hawk patted Stella on the back and she followed him out the door.
So far, I hadn’t learned anything new from her revelation, so I was beginning to question the purpose of all this.
“Can I ask a question?” Hannah asked, and Rhys perked up and nodded to her. “Did my mother keep that journal or did it belong to someone else?”
Lucian shrugged. “We’re not sure really. Would you look at it?”
He held it out, and she walked up and took it from him. Flipping the leather cover open, she ran her finger down a few pages before closing it and handing it back to Lucian. “Unless she took lessons, that’s not Kelly’s handwriting. I have a letter from her that you can compare, but she had chicken scratch for handwriting and this is very legible and neat.”
“So, someone else was keeping the books for Sergey, but who?” Rhys asked, and we were back to the beginning again.
“Has anyone asked Waylon?” Hannah questioned, and there were more than a few confused looks around the room. “I know you talked to him about what he knows, but did you ever ask him what he witnessed? They treated him like garbage, and even though he kidnapped me, he was the one who helped me. I may be wrong, but I believe he knows more than he’s said. And before you think he’s hiding anything, I’ve gotten to know him over the last few months. He’s been emotionally abused, so he’s trained to not overshare. If you don’t ask him specifically, he won’t say it.”
“I’ll go talk to him,” I volunteered, and Lucian’s knowing gaze met mine.
“I don’t need you going in there and scaring him into a heart attack, Seth.” I shrugged, not caring one way or the other. It’s hard to have compassion for someone who helped kidnap a helpless woman and drug her into a nightmare. “I think we can do this the right way and give him the benefit of the doubt at the same time. Hannah, why don’t you and Rhys go speak with Waylon and maybe set up a video feed so we can ask him some questions?”
She nodded, and Rhys stood from his seat and walked around to take her hand into his. He kissed the back of it, and she smiled at him. The pain that shot through my chest was unexpected, and I instantly realized I was jealous. Not of the two of them together, but of what I wanted and didn’t have. At least, not yet.
Booker cut his eyes to me as my gaze moved to the far side of the room. He’d been my best friend since basic training, and over the last fifteen years, he’d always had my back. When Caldwell joined us, we became the three mercenary musketeers, and for years, business was good. We worked with Lucian and killed countless men—and a few women—who needed to stop breathing immediately.
Now, I was ready to settle down and start a family. And I wanted it with Regan, if I could ever figure out what secret she’s carrying around that made the light inside her seem like it was dimming.
Rhys and Hannah left the room, then James began to speak again. “I do feel like there are truths in this journal, but they don’t make any sense to me. For instance,” opening the journal, he found an entry and began to read it out loud, “today, I had to teach the mouse a lesson for refusing to tell me the truth. I madeher first time one for the books, but even after four men went at her for hours, she still didn’t speak.”
“Why would something like that need to be recorded? It’s not like she kept records of all the men who came and went, so for her to write that is confusing,” Devlin stated, and we all silently nodded.
“Are there any other entries like that?” I asked, and Caldwell reached his hand out to James.
James passed him the book, and he opened it and began skimming the pages as Devlin stood from his seat. This was weighing on everyone, but he seemed to be carrying the heaviest burden. Devlin was the one who decided to open his mouth and tell the world about his love story with his wife, Elise, or his ‘lamb’, as he calls her. Since that day, we’d all been drug through hell and back, so this needed to be over before his family had a new target on their backs.
“My father used everyone and everything he could to gain more power, including turning a vulnerable FBI agent into his personal lackey. I think we need to shift our focus to finding Ricardo Pickens. As I see it, he’s got the potential to be the biggest threat to us and our families. The rest of it, we can figure out as we untangle Sergey’s lies, but for now, we need to stop Ricardo from coming after us. Or worse.”
Caldwell tossed the journal back onto the table and said, “Sixteen entries about someone called ‘mouse’. Each time, it says something about not telling the truth or hiding the details. And each time, the degradation gets worse. I think we need to figure out who this person is because it seems like Kelly was looking for answers this person had.”
A heavy sigh came from the end of the table as Lucian sat back in his chair and scrubbed his hands down his face. “Add that to the fucking growing list. I should’ve killed that asshole when I had the chance.”
“You thought you were doing the right thing at the time. You had no way of knowing he turned your handler into a double agent. Hell, Rhys worked day in and day out with him and he didn’t have a clue. And you certainly couldn’t have known Sergey was aware of everything going on and was just torturing you for fun. He was a psychopath, but he’s dead, and now, we have to clean up the last of his mess to make sure our family is protected in the meantime,” Devlin explained as he rested his hand on his older brother’s shoulder.
“Devlin’s right,” James said, and Devlin smiled like the madman he was known to be. “Don’t add that to your overinflated ego.” Chuckling, he reasoned, “We need to see who tipped off Stella about Sergey, we need to find Dick Pickens and torture him until he squeals, we need to see who this mouse person was, and we need to find the last family member Lucian’s been hunting for years. And we need to be quick because the longer this drags on, the longer they have to recruit potential members and victims. We can’t let another initiation occur.”
The weight of that last sentence hung in the room like a fog. If we can’t figure out all the who’s, where’s, and when’s, some other woman would be taken against her will and hurt in a public setting, all for some sick glory these wannabe gangsters believe was rightfully theirs.
As we let the weight of the situation press down on us, I started seeing snippets of a picture that didn’t make any sense yet. But something in the pit of my stomach said when I finally saw the whole image, it was going to tear me apart on the inside before it solidified my resolve to take what I wanted.
And what I wanted was Regan and her broken warrior love that would probably burn us both to the ground.
Chapter 4
Regan
My tears had dried, and I had my head tilted toward the sun when I heard the door to the isolated patio open behind me. I didn’t bother to see who it was as I heard their footsteps grow closer.
“Are you okay out here?” my brother asked, and I wanted to roll my eyes but didn’t want to be rude to him.
Turning my head to face him, I lifted my arm and shaded the sun from my eyes as I smiled up at him. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
He exhaled and pinched his lips together before he spoke, changing the subject. “Hannah and I are running out for a while, and everyone is still in the war room. I think Elise, Aubrey, and Amaya left a little while ago, so I wanted you to know I would be gone.”
