I WAS GROWING impatient. Like a thief in the night, Mian had fled, and money, threats, and favors couldn’t find her. Her little friends were loyal to a fault, even when I threatened death, but they were also her weakness, and I intended to keep them close.

After three weeks of no trail, trace, or cookie crumb, I paid a visit to the prison. Theo hadn’t had a visitor since I told him his daughter had a price on her head, but maybe he knew where she would go.

“What are you doing here?” His greeting was about as inviting as crotch rot and he looked like shit. The bruises might have faded since I last saw him, but the weight he lost and the fatigue clouding his eyes were obvious.

“You look like shit.”

“What do you want?” he demanded more forcefully.

“Your daughter is missing.” I watched his pale face whiten even more. Unfortunately, I couldn’t relish his suffering given the reason.

“You were supposed to protect her.”

“Victor got to her. She vanished after that.” I left out the part about her almost killing me.

“Victor,” he whispered. His gaze lost focus as his shoulders trembled. His head lowered until his forehead hit the table with a harsh thud. Staring at the back of his head, I considered putting a bullet in it—damn the consequences. When he finally lifted his head again, his eyes were rimmed with red. “This is all my fault.”

I ignored his plea for pity, and said, “He’s dead.”

“Then where is my daughter?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be here.” The day he had been led away, I dreamt the next time we met would be the day I put a bullet in his heart. “Where would she go, Theo?”

“I don’t know.”

“Think hard. The price on her head is high. There will be people who won’t stop to find her.” Including me.

“How do I know that debt isn’t being paid to you?”

I ignored him again. “Who did she run to?”

“She has no one!” He then pointed his finger accusingly. “But she should have had you! I gave her to you because I thought you would protect her despite what happened between me and your father.”

“She was always mine. My father knew I wouldn’t let you stand in my way, so he made you an offer you wouldn’t refuse. You should have thanked him instead of getting him killed.”

“You don’t know everything.”

“I know about the marriage you and my father forged between Mian and me.”

Regret shone in his eyes as he shook his head and gazed at me with pity. “When it comes to Mian, you’re a bigger fool than I had ever been.”

“I know it was my mother who pulled the trigger, but you aren’t innocent of what happened that night.”

“He fucked my wife, but did you know he killed her too?”

I didn’t react even as shock and suspicion ran rampant. “Your wife died from cancer.”

“My wife had cancer, but she died from suffocation. All this time, I believed cancer took her earlier than we expected, but the truth was, he not only fucked my wife, he had her killed. Victor told me everything, and Art confessed that night. Ceci threatened to expose them if he didn’t leave Bea, so he had her killed.”

“Why did my mother kill him?”

“Why do you think? She overheard us. I went there to kill your father, Angel. If your mother hadn’t—”

“You don’t need to explain,” I coldly interrupted. “I know what you went there to do.” It was the other reason I didn’t hesitate to frame him for my father’s murder.

“What would you have done?” he boldly questioned.

“Nothing.” He looked surprised by my answer. “My wife wouldn’t need to fuck another man.”

“Love is fickle,” he shot back.

“Except your wife didn’t love you when she spread her legs for my father. She probably never did. I was there when my mom told Mian about their history. Can you guess why she married you?” We both knew Ceci didn’t marry Theo for love. He had been her ticket closer to my father’s heart. She used him.

He cleared his throat and looked down at the table. “The reasons don’t matter anymore. They’re both dead.”

“Your daughter will be too if I don’t find her first.”

He sighed, and for a moment, I thought I won. “Then so be it. She’ll finally be free of you.” He got up and walked away.

 

* * *

 

“ WAS EITHER telling the truth, or he really did condemn his daughter to die,” Lucas mused.

“Do you think Art really had Mian’s mother killed?” Z questioned without a note of doubt. What Theo claimed was exactly what my father would have done to keep his secrets swept under the rug.

Lucas and Z knew it was my mother who shot my father. They had been the only ones I could trust with the lie I told to protect her. It hadn’t mattered in the end. They’d found Theo as guilty as I and wanted him dead, as well. After all, he’d said himself he had gone there to kill my father. My mother’s state of mind was never the same after she blew that hole in my father’s heart… so I gave her another truth to live.

I shrugged my answer. My father would have done anything necessary to protect the family he neglected, but Theo’s last day breathing was circled in blood. He had every reason to lie.

Would I still kill him without knowing the full truth?

Absolutely.

Theo knew the stakes just as I did.

“Anna’s getting a call,” Z suddenly announced. Before we let them go, he bugged Anna’s phone, so we could monitor her calls. It’s been more than three weeks since Mian’s last call, and I had begun to think I underestimated her.

We were all tense as we listened to Anna tear Mian a new one. I held in a laugh at Mian’s tone. I could tell she was frustrated with Anna’s fussing but didn’t want to upset her anymore. The exasperation on Lucas’s face as Anna shrieked and shouted also made it hard to keep my composure. I was just glad she was his problem instead of mine. When the little bulldozer convinced Mian to tell her where she is, humor faded, and I went on alert.

Z didn’t waste any time pulling up a map and finding the small blip I would never have thought to look if Anna hadn’t led us right to her.

“Look’s like we’re heading to the swamps, boys.” Lucas and Z wore triumphant grins while I sat as still as a statue.

Gotcha.

“The rock she crawled under is small as fuck,” Z complained while tapping the screen of his phone. “There aren’t even five hundred people living there. If we go there asking questions, she’s going to know we’re there before we even get to her.”

“You don’t need to ask questions. She’s working at a diner. A town that small, my guess is you two won’t have to look too hard.”

“Wait… you’re not coming?” Lucas baffled expression was priceless.

“I’m not the only one looking for her. I need to keep eyes on Staten. I can’t do that while chasing her.”

“Son of a bitch… Going after Mian will lead him right to her.”

“Precisely.” Their confused looks were expected. “When she sees you, she’ll try to run, but if she knows the senator has found her too—”

“She’s smart enough to know her chances are better with us,” Lucas finished for me.

“There’s one more thing.” They leaned forward, taking cues from my tone. “She can’t know I sent you.”

My request earned a rare scowl from Z. “How the fuck will we get her to believe that?”