“I get it,” Julian cuts in. “I would have done the same if any of my brothers was in your sister’s place. You do what you have to do for family.”
“I almost told you about it at the gym yesterday,” I say softly and feel emotions rise up in me because I hurt everywhere, I’m exhausted, and I’mso sick and tiredof being scared all the time. “God, I wanted to, but?—”
“Come here,” Mateo says, and tugs me into his lap, hugging me close, his hand brushing through my hair in that way he does that feelsso good. “I’m fine. I’m just fucking glad you’re talking because you and your secrets have been driving me up the fucking wall.”
“Same.” I laugh and hug him back. “But you have to understand, I’ve been doing this alone forseven years. I don’t trust anyone. The cops failed me spectacularly.”
“They were likely on the asshole’s payroll,” Rome says. “They didn’t help you because they were told to make the whole case disappear.”
I stare at him and just feel so damnsad.
“Well, damn.”
“I’m sorry about your sister.” Mateo kisses my temple. “We’ll help you find her.”
“I’ll start digging tonight,” Julian says. “I have more access to thedark webthan you do.”
“I’ll reach out to my contacts too,” Carson agrees.
“And what about this Damien guy? Does he live in Vegas? Could she still be here?”
The five of them share a look, and the pit that’s resided in my stomach for seven years, the one that had just started to loosen, tightens right back up again.
“We’ve been looking for him for a long time,” Mateo says. “He’s a piece of shit, definitely deals in trafficking, and for personal reasons, we want him long dead. But as far as we know, he doesn’tlivein Vegas.”
“The girl in the van said that Rosie wasn’t here anymore. I don’t know if she meant that she’s dead or what. If he’s moved her, I have to find out where so I can move too.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
Nineteen
MATEO
My brothers have left, and I return to the living room, where Violet is curled up on the couch again, watching the lights of the Strip through the window. How she’s still upright after the beating she took and with all the adrenaline gone, not to mention the emotional exhaustion from the past hour of talking with my brothers, I have no idea. She’s going to crash, and it’s going to behard.
Rather than sit across from her, I join her on the sofa and wrap her in my arms.
“I know you said you’d help me,” her voice is so small, it almost breaks my heart. I press a kiss to her shoulder. “But if you don’t trust me now, or if I hurt you and you don’t want?—”
“Listen to me, Savage.” I turn her so she’s facing me and ghost my fingers over her forehead, gently swiping the loose red strands there aside. “I really fuckinghatethat you felt you had to lie to me, that you didn’t trust me not to be a piece of shit, and most of all that you walked into that warehouse tonight on your own. You took ten years off my already-too-short life when I saw you in there.”
“Why is your life already short?”
I grin and lean in to kiss her nose. “Because of what I do for a living. Short lifespan. But in case you didn’t get the message before, I’m going to make it as plain as I can. You’remine. From this moment on, there are no more lies between us. Not from me, and not from you. There’s no need to stalk each other, no more games. If we’re going to find your sister, we need to let go of all that bullshit and focus.”
Now her eyes fill with tears, and she tries to blink them away, but it’s no use. They spill out onto her cheeks, making my heart clench.
“Don’t cry, baby.”
“You’re really going to help me.”
“We’ll find her.”
She swallows hard, and her big blue eyes are so wet and so full of sadness, I have to lean in and kiss her.
“What if she’s dead?” It’s a whisper, as if voicing the words would make them real.
“Then we’ll get the answers you need.”