My brother’s truck. At a meeting with the Greeks.With Reese.
“Fuck,” I hiss. And it comes out sounding as heartbroken as I feel.
“I’ll fuckin’ kill him,” Ace seethes.
“Colten,” I say into the speaker. My voice doesn’t sound like my own. It sounds like something dredged up from a place I’ve never been. “You said two things. What’s the second?”
“Romeo traced a property purchase from eleven months ago in New Falls, right on the outskirts. A house bought under a shell company. The company is registered with a law firm in Scottsdale.”
“Reese’s firm?” I question.
“Yeah.” A pause. “Hunter, the property’s utility account was activated this morning. Someone turned the lights on.”
This morning. The same morning, Beau drove my wife to the airport. Every piece falls into place at once. Not slowly. Not one at a time. All of it—a cascade, an avalanche, the entire structure of lies collapsing into a single, devastating picture.
Beau didn’t drive Lola to the airport. Beau drove Lola to Reese. Beau killed Ashley. Beau framed me. Beau has been working with the Greeks and Reese from the beginning.
He wants the money they’re offering. He wants me gone. And he’s going to use my wife and Reese's hatred for me to make that happen.
And right now, Beau is at my ranch. With my son. “Send me the address,” I say.
“Hunter—”
“SEND ME THE FUCKING ADDRESS, Colten! And get your ass back to the ranch and get our brother away from my son.Beau is in on it; his truck is in the damn footage. Take another look.”
“What the fuck?” Colten hisses.
My phone buzzes as Colt drops the pin. “I’ll head there now. I’ll bring Romeo, get Wyatt to safety, and meet you at the address. It’s going to be okay, Hunter.”
I look at Ace. He’s slamming the truck into gear and speeding out of the parking lot. And I’m calling Jerry to get Wyatt and take him to Colten when he arrives. “Jerry. Where’s Wyatt?”
“Oh, Beau took him about half an hour ago. Said they were going to the grocery store for ice cream. Cute, actually, Wyatt was real excited?—”
The phone slips from my hand.
It hits the center console. Jerry’s voice keeps going, tinny and distant, still talking about ice cream while my entire world disintegrates.
Ace watches my face. He doesn’t need me to say it, but I do. “He’s got Wyatt.” My voice comes out barely human. “Beau took my son.”
The silence in the truck is absolute. Ace’s hand closes around the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turn white.
I can’t even see straight. I can’t function. I can hear Ace shouting down his phone at Colten.
My hands aren’t shaking. They’re past shaking. They’re still in the way a man’s hands go still when he’s decided someone is going to die. “Get every person we know to that property, Ace.”
“Hunter—”
I look at Ace. His gun is in his lap. His jaw is locked. His eyes are wet and furious.
“When I find him,” I say, “I’m going to kill our brother.”
Ace nods once. “He ain’t no brother of ours.”
The two people that I love more than anyone in the world are in that address. I know they are. Beau and Reese ain’t cleverenough; this is a rushed plan that is about to blow up in their faces.
The man who took them has Sterling blood running through his veins.
Blood he doesn’t deserve.