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“Have to say, Sarah. I’m impressed with your brilliant mind. It took a lot of intelligence to pull this off.” I bit my lip. To her, it was flirty. To me, it kept me from calling her a fucking cunt.
Her face lit up. “Thanks. Seth planned most of it after I brought him in. But I took all the risk coming into your house.”
“And now?”
Her smile widened. “Now there’s nothing standing in our way, Julian. You, me, Penny. It’s what he promised me. We can have it all.”
“Yes, we can, Sarah.” The words felt like acid betrayal. “Why don’t you give me, Iri—Penny? Then we can walk out of here.”
She stared at me for a moment before nodding and uncoiling her arms. My heart sped up. This was it. I’d have my daughter back then I’d knock this bitch out.
Suddenly, her face contorted, and she pulled back. “No. Someone’s with you.” She looked around me to Chloe. “This isn’t right. It’s not right.” She repeated the phrase as she squeezed Iris tighter. A pained squeal from underneath the blanket constricted my heart.
She’s hurting her.
Instinct took over, and I lunged. She jerked away from me and started to run. I cursed, falling after her, grabbing at anything I could get my hands on. Chaotic commotion ensued until a sharp blast of a gun broke through the noise.
Sarah’s leg erupted in a waterfall of blood and she stumbled. Screaming, she braced her fall by flinging her arms out in front of her. I watched in terror as the blanket fell from the safety of her arms.
“No!” I dove forward, closely followed by Chloe. My elbows hit the concrete with a crack, and my hands were empty. Frantic, I glanced back at Chloe, lying on her side, her hands just as empty.
Iris.
Not her too.
Soft cries pulled my eyes from the floor to my right, where Faith sprawled out on her stomach, her breathing heavy. I’d flipped over enough bikes in my life to know the rattle of broken ribs when I heard them. But that wasn’t what held my gaze.
In her hands, held high above her head, was a blanket wiggling to be free. Faith glanced upward, sighed with a sickening rattle, and dropped her face to the ground.
It took a moment to find my voice. “Is…is she okay?”
Faith nodded, her voice pained. “I think so.” Within seconds, Zane was beside her…wiping her face as he brought her to her knees and took Iris from her. With an expression I’d never seen on my best friend’s face, he handed my daughter to me.
“I think this belongs to you.”
She yawned as she looked up at me. I wanted to run into the night and get fresh air into her tiny lungs. Instead I kissed her forehead and leveled a stare at Zane, who stood bent over Faith, checking her ribs.
“We’re not done.” I’d come all this way. A deep-rooted part of me needed to bring her home.
I had no intention of leaving without my wife.
***
After sending Faith to the car with Iris, Zane told me he and Faith had come in through a boarded-up window and followed our voices. As they’d approached us, McKellan rounded the corner, delivering a hard punch to the side of Zane’s face. After a struggle, Zane put a bullet in his chest.
“I’m sorry,” I said, looking away. “I never meant for you to have to do that.”
He snorted, surprising me. “I’m not. The motherfucker had it coming.”
The three of us quietly slipped around corners, searching for the one man I was damned and determined to find. I refused to leave this hell hole until I saw Daniel Dalton dead. Phoebe’s nightmares may be over, but mine were just beginning. Fuck if I’d let Iris grow up with the same blinding fear her mother lived with. I owed that much to Phoebe.
It didn’t take long to find him sitting in a chair alone. Dalton was a cocky fucker. In the back of my mind, I knew he’d been waiting.
I lifted the gun to the back of his head. “Where is my wife, you sick fuck?” His throaty laugh only infuriated me more. “I asked you a question.”
Slowly, he stood and faced me. Phoebe tried to describe the evilness that radiated off him, but the reality didn’t compare. My eyes saw a living demon. I’d finally come face to face with the man who murdered my wife. The need for revenge consumed me.
“Gone.” His smug one-word answer caused me to re-aim at his forehead.
