***
"How can we take his power away?" I asked the captain as I sat in front of his desk.
His eyes were wide with surprise. "He kidnapped you?"
"Yes." I leaned toward him. "Jack. I have to figure out how to take him down. We have to figure this out."
"Fuck." He bolted up and paced the floor behind his desk. "We have to catch him. That's part of the fucking problem. Every time we get close to him, he up and disappears. That or we can't link the act to him specifically."
"I have a tracker inside of me. I would assume it's iodine based." I stood and crossed my arms over my chest as my phone buzzed in my pocket. "And I'm telling you now that I'm going to do what King is forcing me to do. His promise to kill everyone I love if I don't is more than enough to force me to."
Captain nodded and turned my way. "What's he asking of you, Dani?"
"I have to get Johnny Moretti to him in a few days or so." I reached up and ran my hands over the top of my head. "He's Jason Moretti's guardian."
"Your parolee who's been acting up?"
"Yeah." I turned and walked to the door. "We'll figure this out, right?"
"Of course we will. You're not handing over another human being to Tanner King. We'll get a group on it now. Hang tight and make it look like you're doing what you need to be doing."
"For him or you?" I forced a smile and walked out without an answer.
My phone buzzed again. Jason. His tracker was removed and inactive.
"Shit." I jogged toward my desk and dropped down, pulling up the program on my computer that would help me locate him. The tracker was still on the move, which was weird. Was the kid keeping it as a souvenir? Or was he playing bait for me to follow?
No. Tanner had his time with me. There was no way he was luring me out of the city to follow after Jason. That would make no sense.
"Dani." Johnny's voice surprised me, and I bolted up to my feet. How the fuck had he gotten past Margie at the front desk?
"Fuck. You scared me." I pressed my hands to the desk and stared up into his handsome face. "Jason is on the move. I have to go after him."
"You're not going without me." His deep blue eyes narrowed. He wasn't asking.
"Fine, but this is police business. You're going to ruin your reputation being seen with me all the time." I grabbed my keys and walked toward the door with him in tow.
"I'll take my chances." His voice was nothing more than a whisper. Maybe I wasn't the only one that Tanner had by the throat.
I glanced back as he held the front door for me. "We're taking my car."
"Not a chance. We're taking mine." He reached up and snagged my keys from my hand. "There's no way we're driving a cop car into purgatory. You realize how ridiculous that would be, right?"
I paused and glanced around as he jogged down the stairs to the parking lot. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Someone was watching me. Watching us.
"Danielle. Let's go." He turned to face me.
"Right." I moved down the stairs and walked beside him until he stopped at a sleek, black Mustang. "This yours? Where's the bike?"
"I have a lot of toys." He got in the car and started it as I glanced around one more time.
I bet he had a lot of toys. Candace King was one of them. Was I?
"We need to head toward Jersey from what I can tell." I got into the car and yelped as he reached out and half-dragged me into his seat. His fingers sunk into my hair and his lips pressed tightly against mine.
I fought against the kiss for a moment before relaxing against him and opening up. I hated myself for letting him have me the minute he wanted to. Nothing good was going to become of us, and the minute we finally had Tanner King in the ground, Johnny would most likely be back to his old life of loving and leaving.
And where would that leave me? Right. Left.
Ignoring the sadness building in my chest, I pressed into the kiss and reached up to slide my fingers down the side of his face. The moment felt so right, so damn good. Like we were meant to be together somehow even though the odds were completely stacked against us. There was no way we would survive intact and willing to build something together. Not after I had to use him as bait to get to King.
"Where have you been the last few days?" He kissed me again and brushed his nose by mine.
I flinched as his fingers tightened around one of the many bruises on the back of my head. "My car flipped off the bridge by your house. I've been at the hospital."
"What?" He jerked back and studied my face as he cupped it. "Fuck, Dani. Why didn't you call me?"
"Because I didn’t want to bother you.” I pulled back and got into my seat. I missed his warmth immediately. "Look, I don't know what's going on between us, but maybe-"
"Don't." His tone was mean. Angry. "Let's find Jason, and we'll figure it out, but don't minimize how good it feels when we're together. Period."
I nodded and sunk down into my seat. I didn't know how to be a liar, how to trick someone or pull them into a web. I was one of the good guys. All I knew was how to infiltrate the madness and bring light to the darkness. It's all I ever wanted to do.
"When is the last time you were with Candace?" I turned my face toward him as my heart ached. I couldn't let him know that Tanner got to me or all would be lost. I had to figure things out on my own, and I would.
He glanced my way as he pulled out of the parking lot. "A few days before you and I met. She's the one woman I couldn't refuse."
"Couldn't or can't?"
"There's no way in hell I'd touch her again now that I've met you." He reached up and pulled down the visor. A pair of dark sunglasses fell into his hand. "She's my past, Dani. The only woman I've ever loved."
"And do you still love her?" I tugged at the seatbelt, feeling quite uncomfortable with the conversation.
"I love the memory of her." A smile played at the edge of his mouth, which pissed me off. "She was innocent when we met, and I was too. Tanner was my best friend in school. I've known that fucker all my life."
"What happened to him? Has he always been a horrible person?" I let out a quiet breath I didn't realize I was holding and tried to relax. We had a little bit of a drive from what I could tell.
"No." He shook his head and took a deep breath. "He took a turn for the worst our senior year. His mother was caught up in a sex scandal. She was fucking ten guys on a regular basis and taking money from it."
"Prostitution?" I pressed my hand to my stomach as it turned over.
"Yeah." He glanced over at me, his stare a little prolonged.
"Look at the road, please. I don't want to die today."
"It's hard when you're next to me." He reached out and took my hand, pulling it into his lap. "The worst part was that his father was in an accident a few years before and paralyzed from the waist down, so he wasn't able to get it up. The bitch was running around on him while he sat there alone at night and waited for her."
I squeeze his hand as sadness raced through me. Not for Tanner, but for his dad. How could people be so fucking vile?
"Shit," I mumbled and shook my head. "Did Tanner find her with the guys or something?"
"No. His father found everything and wrote Tan a long note. I was there the night he read it. I've never seen someone so destroyed before. He was enraged beyond words."
"Where's his dad now?"
"Dead." Johnny glanced over again. "He killed himself that night and left the note on the table."
"Oh, God." I turned to look out the window. Not that Tanner King deserved an ounce of pity, but monsters were often created out of the need to survive past their own soul-shredding moments. It was no different with King. "And his mom?" I whispered softly as the air around me felt too hard to breathe.
"She's a sex slave in his organization last I heard." Johnny released my hand. "I knew he was a monster the day I found that out. Death wasn't enough for her, so he's making sure that she gets what she deserves every day for as long as she lives."
"That's horrible." I turned toward Johnny. "Please tell me you didn't get involved in that.
He jerked the car over to the side of the road and narrowed his eyes. "Are you really asking me that right now? I know you don't know me and shit, but really? Do I seem like the kind of man that would subjugate a women to anything?"
I turned and looked him in the face, studying the hurt in his eyes. He was a beautiful mystery, and one I wanted to belong to almost more than I wanted anything else in that moment.
"I don't know you at all." I reached out and touched his face. "Tell me your story. Help me understand. Let me in."