Halfway through breakfast, Violet appears. She stayed in one of the spare rooms last night because she refused to let me be on my own.
“You must be Wyatt!” she says as she sits opposite him.
Wyatt looks at me first, and I hold his hand, giving it a squeeze.
“This is my bestest friend in the whole world, Violet,” I tell him.
Violet pours him and herself a glass of orange juice and places it in front of him.
“I heard you have a goat called Gary, and I am desperate to meet him,” she says.
That gets him out of his shell. “Lola, can I go get him, please?”
I laugh. “Yes. After breakfast.”
He proceeds to eat his food at an almost record pace.
She offers me a smile. She looks as exhausted as I feel. “Any news?” she whispers, leaning close enough that Wyatt can’t hear.
I shake my head. Fresh tears press against my eyes.
I keep seeing the handcuffs. The way they threw him onto the dirt. The sound his cheekbone made against the metal.
I clench my fists under the table.
I check my phone again. Nothing from Ace.
I just have to wait. Wait and see what my future holds.
CHAPTER SIXTY
HUNTER
I hopinto Drago’s Aston Martin in silence.
At least I’m back in my own clothes. That’s something. The jumpsuit is in a trash somewhere in that station, and I hope it fucking rots.
My wrists ache as I rub at them, staring out into the darkness ahead. Drago pulls onto the main road without a word. This Russian isn’t a man of many words. But I can feel him thinking. The gears turning behind a face that was designed to make people confess just by sitting across from it. He’s part of Enzo’s organization. A trained killer. A lawyer. A hacker. There isn’t much this beast of a man can’t do.
“You must have worked some magic in there to pull this off,” I say, breaking the silence.
He half laughs. “Money. Not magic. And some data Enzo passed over that was of interest to them. We’ve bought you time, Hunter. Not freedom. Not yet.” He checks the rearview. “They still want someone in jail for this. A woman was murdered in her home. People are scared. And my guess is, they’re getting paid ashit ton by the Greeks for this, too. Now we have to find a way to get the law on our side and find the bastard feeding them intel.”
I rub my hands on my jeans. “We’re working on it. We think we have a rat in camp.”
“Yeah. You do.” He glances at me. “And I’m going to fucking find out who they are.”
“Okay.” I turn to study him. I know he is good at hacking—second only to Enzo himself.
“And once this shit is dealt with, we take a little trip to Los Angeles. The Quinn brothers are happy to repay the favor for your assistance recently.”
I crack my knuckles. “Nice. Did Romeo get anywhere with the security footage around Ashley’s street?”
His jaw ticks. “That’s what I’m working on. Nothing is ever fully erased. It won’t take me long to figure it out, Hunter.”
I blow out a breath as we turn onto Sterling Ranch property. The iron arch passes overhead. The gravel crunches under the tires.
Home.