Page 65 of Mad Love

“I’ll call you back,” I told him, ending the chat and leaving my room. The alarm got louder in the hall, where I found Linc, his hands clapped over his ears.

“Fucking fuck,” he griped. “Seriously, I’m kicking Bishop in the balls for this. I told him we didn’t need—”

“Got your attention, didn’t it?” the man in question snapped, brushing past us and heading for the stairs.

“Dude, turn off—” The alarm died before I could finish the demand. “Thanks, asshole.”

He flipped me off over his shoulder, and Linc and I started to follow.

Bex poked her head out of her room, her face pale. “What’s going on?”

“Not sure,” I admitted, looking at my friend.

“Go.” He waved me on. “I’ll hang with Bex until we know what’s up.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” she muttered.

Linc pushed her back into her bedroom with a grin. “Please. Now I have an excuse to hang out on your bed and piss off Court. Win-win, babe.”

Rolling my eyes, I hurried down the stairs and met the others in the dining room.

Court’s head snapped up. “Bex?”

“She’s fine. Linc’s keeping her company.” I walked to where he, Ash, and Bishop were standing in front of a monitor that showed images from the cameras we’d set up around the property. “What tripped the alarm?”

Ash pointed at the lower right square, where a pair of headlights pierced the dark. “Company.”

A growl worked its way up my throat. “We know who?”

Bishop shook his head. “Knight’s checking it out. Royal went out as backup.”

Bracing a hand on Ash’s chair, I leaned over his shoulder. “Can you zoom in?”

He tapped a few things, and the screen enhanced to full size, giving me a good look at the beat-up Corolla. Knight was paused a few feet away, his Glock trained on the driver. He was speaking, but there was no audio.

The cameras were sharp enough that I saw surprise flit over Knight’s face a second before he holstered his gun. He reached for his phone, and mine started to ring in my pocket.

“Who is it?” I demanded, my eyes fixated on the screen.

“Guy says he knows you,” Knight replied, his tone clipped. “He’s with some chick, but he says he knows where Maddie is.”

My fingers tightened on the phone. “Who the fuck is he?”

“Charles Winthrope?”

Fire licked through my veins. “Bring him to me.”

CHAPTER 25

RYAN

A bitter smirk twisted my lips as Knight and Royal dumped the Duke of Douches at my feet. Although, he didn’t look much like an heir to anything with messy hair and a bruise on his shadowed jaw. Instead of the usual pressed shirt and pants, he wore jeans and a t-shirt. The whole look was super… normal.

“Where the fuck is my wife?” I snarled, more than ready to beat the answers out of him.

He opened his mouth to reply when Court brought in another person. A girl, probably Maddie or Bex’s age, cursing like a damn sailor as she slapped off Court’s hand and twisted away with a defiant tilt of her chin. She clutched a laptop to her chest, her white-knuckled grip around it the only sign she was scared. The defiant tilt of her chin and the glare in her eyes—a vibrant shade of blue that looked almost purple—showed she was pissed.

Ash appeared behind her, already reaching for her laptop. She spun away with a glare, holding it tighter. The dark hair she’d scraped back into a messy ponytail just missed slapping my best friend in the face.

---