Page 61 of Torment

“What?” Clearly he wasn’t hearing right, because if James knew where she was, then why the fuck was he still here?

“The bug you placed under Scarlet’s collar worked. That’s how we knew where to find you, and we also know where they took her.”

Suddenly, all Hunter’s strength was back—and so was the urge to kill someone. He grabbed James by the collar and slammed his back into the wall. “Why the fuck are you not saving her, then?” Hunter yelled, spitting the question in James’s face.

“Because we can’t!”

“You can’t, or you won’t?”

“She’s my daughter, for fuck’s sake. Don’t you think I’d be out there already, going after her if I could?”

“After what went down here today, I don’t know what I think.” Hunter tightened his grip on James’s collar.

“Believe me, I want nothing more than to be able to get my little girl. But I can’t.”

Hunter leaned back slightly. “And why the fuck not?”

“Because Brent is no longer the biggest threat here.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that we have bigger problems right now than Brent Wolfe.”

Hunter let go of James’s collar and stepped back. “Talk.”

After straightening his jacket and moving away from the wall, James started to pace, and Hunter could see he was busy thinking about what to say.

“Out with it, Baxter.”

“I knew he was desperate. I knew he was starting to get impatient, but I told him to give it more time. He just needed to give it more fucking time. Fuck!” Baxter slammed his fist against the wall, and Hunter didn’t know if it was anger or disappointment that had driven him to do it. But Hunter couldn’t care less. He needed answers, and then he needed to find Scarlet.

“I’m going to ask this one more time. What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On?”

James shook his arm, trying to get rid of the pain in his hand, before facing Hunter. “Colton, he has a sister.”

“And I have a fucking Chihuahua. What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”

“His sister was kidnapped years ago. After some investigating, Colton figured out she was sold on the black market.”

“I’m sorry, but right now I don’t give a shit about anyone else’s problems—especially his.” Hunter’s only concern was finding Scarlet.

“Just listen, okay? It’s been twelve years since she got kidnapped, and she’s the reason he decided to join us. In hopes of finding her, or at least a clue as to what happened to her.”

Now Hunter started pacing. “Is she even still alive?”

James nodded. “We think so, yes. Colton and I have been searching for her for the last ten years, while trying to rescue the other girls. From the info we’ve managed to gather, she might still be alive.”

Hunter rubbed the back of his neck. “Please tell me what the fuck this has to do with anything.”

“I promised Colton that I would help him, and that we would use every resource at our disposal to figure out what happened to her. But he was getting impatient, anxious, even though he knew we were so damn close. I told him just to wait a little longer.”

Hunter lifted his gaze to the roof and shook his head. “What the hell does all this have to do with the fact that he basically handed Scarlet over to Brent on a silver fucking platter with a red bow tied around her neck?”

“Brent has a way in.”

“A way in where?”

James stared at Hunter with a somber expression on his face. “You heard them talk about Rex?”

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