Page 84 of Relentless (The Titans of Founder's Ridge 2)

Con snatches the phone, “Lilith was stabbed coming out of Blanc Bridal. Claire and Ivy were abducted. Before Lilith passed out, she said the abductors were speaking in Russian.”

Fuck.

I see my driver a block down, so we start running for him.

“I’ll give you the code to track Claire. She and Lilith both have earrings fitted with tracking devices that they can activate by spinning.” Con pauses while Lake yells at Nolan, their tech guy. Con rattles off a list of numbers and disconnects after Lake says he’s on the tracking.

“Fuck!” Con slams his fist into the dashboard. “I don’t know what to do. Go to Lily or go after Claire and Ivy. Sonofabitch!” He roars and fists his hands.

“We’ll go after Claire and Ivy,” Griff says. “You call Victor.” He turns to me, “You call Frank, he’ll want to be there for Lilith.”

My heart is racing. If anything happens to Ivy, I will hunt down the abductors and kill them slowly and painfully. I’m as torn as Con, though, because Lilith is beyond a friend, more than a cousin to me. She’s the sister I never had, a missing piece to help fit me together when I didn’t even realize I was broken. I don’t know if we’re connected so closely because our moms were twins or if we just get each other, but I can’t fucking lose her.

The tension in the car is through the roof. We’re all pulled tight and ready to explode. Guys speaking Russian leads me to believe it has something to do with Con’s family. I swear to fuck I will rearrange his face if this is some sort of retribution for his family’s shady ass business.

We make it to the hospital they took Lilith to in record time, and Con flies out of the car and into the building without looking back. We follow on his heels, hopefully we’ll have enough time before Lake and Nolan get here to find something out. Con’s yelling at the receptionist, trying to get something about Lilith’s condition, but all we’re told is to wait while she’s in surgery.

I’m about to go yell at him for this but stop when I see the unshed tears in his eyes. They’ve made his normally dark green eyes a light vibrant green. Griff senses the anger radiating off me and puts a hand to my chest. With a firm shake of his head, I back off. The logical part of me is saying to calm down, Con doesn’t want this anymore than I do. The primal part of me, however, wants to tear the city apart until I know Lilith is safe and Ivy is back with me.

Griff’s phone beeps with a text from Nolan and Lake; they’re out front waiting for us. I leave without saying a work to Con. Griff hangs back to make sure he’s okay.

“Do you have a location on them?” I say as I slide into the back seat of Lake’s truck.

“Yeah,” he points at the GPS display, “they are the blue dot. It looks like they’re heading out of the city toward Connecticut.”

Griff gets in and closes the door. “Let’s go get them.”

“There are guns and vests behind your seats. Do you two know how to shoot?”

“Yes,” we both say at the same time.

“Good. I haven’t alerted the police yet. We’re going in on our own first.” Lake says. “Tell me everything you know so far.”

If there was anyone qualified to do this, it’s him. He runs a mercenary group of former soldiers and marines. They do a lot of rescue missions in eastern Europe and Asia. I let Griff fill him in on everything, my mind is too busy compartmentalizing everything so I can keep functioning. My eyes trained on the blue dot traveling toward Connecticut’s coast.

“Fuck,” Nolan mutters, “it looks like they’re heading toward Bridgeport.”

Lake and Nolan share a concerned look.

“The fuck is that look about?”

“There’s a shipping yard and several marinas,” Nolan answers. “I’ll hack into the street cameras to see if I can watch the progress of the van that way too. Maybe get some ID on the guys.” He hands a second tablet back to Griff, “Here, you do the same. I know we have similar skill sets.”

I make eye contact with Lake in the rearview mirror. His eyes are hard and focused, almost as dark as his black hair.

“We’ll get them back,” he says firmly. The sun’s going to start going soon, and they have at least forty-five minutes on us. I’m not remotely as confident as he is.

28

IVY

I wakeup slowly with a splitting pain in my temple. Everything is dark, but I’m moving. I try to touch my face but realize my hands are bound behind my back with what feels like duct tape. We hit a bump, which jars me to the side where I touch another body. It stiffens, but then I hear my name very faintly.

“Ivy?” Claire asks. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I whisper. “Are you?”

“Yeah, but it’s just us. Lilith isn’t in here with us. Do you have a bag over your head, too?”

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