“Sophie went missing from the hospital”—I pull my phone away from my ear, looking at the time—“twenty minutes ago. I got footage of the guy that took her. I need you to be ready to roll when I text you the info my man sends me.”

“Shit,” he growls, and I can tell he’s up and moving. “Hit me back when you got something. Do you know who we’re looking for?”

“Yeah, man. A guy Sophie worked with at the school. His name is David, and I think his last name is Rasmussen. He must have been watching her for a while.”

“Fuck. All right. I’ll get the guys rounded up. As soon as you know where you want us, text me.”

“Thanks.” I hang up with him just as Justin calls.

“Go,” I say, opening the door to my car.

“His address is 382 Donner Street in Springhill. It says he has another house over on Commerce in the same area. His background is pulling up all kinds of fucked-up shit, man. He was married twice, and both times, his wives went missing. The first one was when he was nineteen and his wife was eighteen, and they had dated throughout high school. The second wife was when he was twenty-eight and she was twenty-three. She went missing a year after they got married. He was suspect number one in each case, but the police couldn’t find any evidence.”

“Jesus.”

“That’s not all,” he says, and my gut goes f**king tight. I can’t imagine anything worse than what he just told me.

“What?”

“Seems he moves around a lot.”

“And?” I prompt.

“Each place he has lived, there have been women who come up missing, and not long after they go missing does he move from the area.”

“Fuck,” I roar. That sick f**k has my woman. She’s still recovering from the C-section she just had, and he f**king has her when she’s in no state to fight back.

“Go get her, man,” Justin, says before hanging up.

I look at Kenton, giving him a silent signal to get into the car.

“Talk to me,” he says as soon as I hit the gas.

I don’t know what to say; I don’t want to say out loud the fucked-up shit I just heard.

“We’re going to get her back,” he says, filling the silence. I pray he’s right; I can’t imagine having a life where there’s no Sophie in it.

“The guy who took her has a history of women disappearing,” I choke out, feeling bile crawl up the back of my throat.

“Fuck,” Kenton clips.

“I need you to call Leo and have him go to the second address Justin gave me. Tell him about his history and let him know I want that fucker dead.”

“If he doesn’t get taken out by one of us tonight, the second he’s in jail, he’s dead,” Kenton mutters.

I know he has that kind of power, has people everywhere who owe him. I want that. Either way, the motherfucker’s gonna die for even looking at Sophie.

I stoop, making my way in front of one window then another until I’m at the back of the house. I can hear arguing from inside, and I signal for Kenton to follow. I take three steps, my back hitting the wall near the back door before I turn the handle. It clicks open, and I lift my Glock, pressing the door open with it. I search both ways while stepping into the kitchen. I hear Kenton behind me as we scope out the first two rooms we come to.

“It’s all clear down here,” he whispers.

I nod then point up the stairs. We make our way to the top, and there are two doors; one has a light penetrating from the bottom of it. I gesture to it with a tilt of my gun, and Kenton signals over his shoulder to the door behind him. He cautiously opens it to find it empty, and then I lean forward, trying to hear anything from inside the lit room. I hear two male voices and a whimper.

I have been moving on autopilot since she was taken, just doing what was necessary to get her home. I know the minute I open the door that I’m going to kill whoever is in that room with her.

Kenton nods to the room he just checked, motioning with his left hand to show me that he’s about to set off a distraction. It takes two seconds for the flash bang to go off. The door to the room I’m covering flies open, and one guy comes out. I shoot him in the head without a second thought. The second guy we heard inside points a gun at Sophie.

“Drop the f**king gun,” I tell him, my gun aimed at his head, ready for the smallest opening.

“You killed my brother,” he says, looking down at the man at my feet.

I hear Sophie whimper and look at her for the first time. Her eyes are full of tears, she has a gag in her mouth, her face is pale, and she is tied to a chair. All I can think about is getting her out of here to somewhere safe.

“I should f**king kill her. You killed my brother!” he yells, and I watch his finger tighten on the trigger.

“Drop the f**king gun, David,” Kenton says this time from behind me.

“Fuck you! I’m not David. I’m Dustin.” He looks at Sophie. “I f**king told him you weren’t worth it. You didn’t even know, did you? He’s my twin. We like to pretend to be the same person. It’s a fun game, and no one ever figured it out until it was too late.”

“Eyes on me, fucker,” I growl, his eyes coming back to me. “You’re dead. There is nothing you could say or do to get out of this.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. This is all your fault.” He points the gun at me. “You and your brother Cash’s fault. I thought I had chance at something real with Lilly, and then he came along and took her from me—just like you took Sophie from David.”

“Fuck me,” I breathe.

“You’re crazy,” Kenton says calmly.

Before I have a chance to blink, there’s a loud explosion in the hall, and Dustin moves his gun towards us. I take my opening and shoot once, hitting him between the eyes. Blood goes everywhere, including on Sophie, who starts to scream against the gag in her mouth.

I go to her side, carefully pulling the gag out before untying her hands and feet, wrapping her in my arms. She starts sobbing, her fingers digging into me, her face going into my neck. I pull her away, wanting to check her over.

“I got you, baby. You’re safe,” I tell her, cupping her face. I check her over and see nothing until I reach her stomach, where the nightgown she has on is covered in blood across her lower abdomen. If those f**ks weren’t dead, I would kill them all over again. “I’m gonna get you to the hospital, baby.” I put my arm under her knees and pick her up.

“Leo’s here,” Kenton says, coming back into the room. Two seconds later, Leo and two other men I met recently walk in behind him.

“Ambulance is en route,” Leo says, looking at Sophie, who is clinging to me.

“We’ll get this cleaned up. Take care of her,” Kenton says.

I nod, carrying Sophie out of the house and down the stairs, and as soon as I reach the front door, the ambulance pulls up.

“I got you, baby,” I tell her, not sure if I’m reminding her or myself at this point.

“Our girls?” she asks against the skin of my neck.

“They’re at the hospital with Ma and Dad.” I kiss her temple. The ambulance door opens and I don’t even stop; I just carry her right inside, laying her down on the gurney. “She just had a C-section. I think her stitches are torn,” I tell the EMT, watching as they start to pull up her nightgown. “You wanna shut the f**king door and get a blanket to cover her first?”

“I’m okay,” Sophie says, palming my cheek.

I look down at her and shake my head. “You’re not okay.”

“I am. You found me.” Tears start to fall from her eyes again.

“I will always find you,” I tell her, kissing her forehead.

The door to the ambulance closes, and a blanket is laid over Sophie’s lap. I sit back and watch as they lift her nightgown, showing her waist and the incision from the C-section. The wound is open, and I can tell she’s in pain. I grit my teeth, not wanting to flip out and make this harder for her.

The guys clean up her wound as best as they can, and as soon as we reach the hospital, she is rushed back into surgery while I’m forced to wait for her outside. I call my dad and mom to make sure they’re okay with the girls up in the nursery of the hospital. Ma tells me that they are fine and that Kenton called as soon as we were in the ambulance to let them know that we were on our way back to the hospital.

I feel like crying in relief that the situation is finally over, but at the same time, I know going through something like this is going to f**k with Sophie’s head when she just started getting over what had happened to her when she was younger. Hell, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with it. I hate that I wasn’t able to protect her when she needed me. I vow right now that nothing else will ever touch her again. I don’t care how small or big—she will never be worried or scared as long as I walk this earth.

Chapter 15

Sophie

"Nico, why is your mom calling to tell me you’re not letting anyone see the girls?" I ask, walking into the nursery where Nico is sitting, holding Willow.

"The girls are too small to have everyone over right now," he grumbles then smiles over at Harmony, who is now awake and cooing at her daddy through the slats of the crib.

"Honey, they’re old enough to have people over to visit." I roll my eyes.

"They’re too small. Look, she fits in one hand," he says, proving his point by putting Willow in one of his hands.

"Your hands are freakishly large," I argue.

"You like my freaky hands." He smirks before looking down at Willow as he tells her, "Your momma is a dirty girl." He laughs when she smiles at him.

"Nico, don't tell our daughters that," I growl. "This is getting ridiculous." He is so overprotective of the girls and me. I'm lucky if I'm able to go to the bathroom alone.

"Baby, I'm not ready."

"They’re family." I run my hand down the back of his hair, trying to get him to relax.

"They’ve seen them," he grumbles sullenly, making me smile.

"Call your family and tell them to come for dinner."

"My mom talks too much." He looks up at me with puppy-dog eyes, making it hard to fight to do the right thing.

“Your mom wants to get to know her granddaughters. There is nothing wrong with that,” I tell him, walking over to pick up Harmony, who sees me and begins to fuss.

“I hate when they come over. They are all like, ‘Oh, just let me hold her for a couple of minutes,’ and then they don’t give them back when I tell them to,” he complains, looking completely serious.

I shake my head. I want to laugh at how ridiculous he’s being about this, but I can’t. He loves his girls; he’s hands-on with everything. I don’t ever need to ask for help. He’s always there the second one of the girls starts to fuss.

“Honey, you need to get over what happened. You can’t lock us away forever,” I tell him quietly. I hate that what happened to me is so hard on him. I haven’t even had one nightmare about it. He has woken up twice drenched in sweat. The minute he knows where he is and I’m there, he’s on me. I know it’s his way of reassuring himself that I’m okay, but I hate that he still thinks about it when I never really do.

“I can’t get over it.” He shakes his head. “I will never get over thinking you were lost to me and our girls.”

“I wasn’t, so please try for me and the girls to be reasonable about this.”

“I want you guys to myself. I only trust us with my most prized possessions.”

“As much as I love you for that, I know that, even if we were in a room full of the most dangerous criminals in the world, you could and would protect us. But, honey, the people who want to come over are not criminals. They’re your family. They love you, the girls, and me. They would never hurt us, and even if they tried, you wouldn’t let them.”

“Fine. Dinner. The minute dinner’s over, I want them gone.”

I avoid rolling my eyes in front of him and sit down in the rocker next to him, pulling my tank top down and freeing my breast for Harmony.

“Four days,” he says under his breath, making me smile.

I can’t wait until we can have sex again either. The next four days can’t come fast enough.

Nico

“Ma, I don’t care,” I tell my mom, who has been hogging Willow and Harmony since she walked into the house.

“Nico, go away. I’m their grandmother. I want to spend time with them.” She blows me off then smiles down at my girls, who are lying on the floor smiling up at their grandma.

I shake my head and look at the clock on the wall, counting down until everyone is out of my house. It’s not that I don’t love my family or want them around; I just want my own little family to myself. I hate sharing them with everyone.

“Son, come outside,” my dad says.

I look at him, then down at my girls, then back through the house to the kitchen where Sophie’s sitting, talking to November, Liz, and Lilly. I nod, looking back at my dad before following him outside.

“What’s up?” I ask, standing near the door so I can look inside through the glass window at the girls and Sophie.

“Relax, man,” Trevor says, handing me a beer. I don’t even know how to relax anymore. My body is wired lately.

“This is an intervention,” Asher says before taking a drink of his beer.

“Yeah, bro. You need to f**king chill,” Cash says, and I wonder how the hell he could seem so calm when the same sick f**ks who took my wife had wanted his.