“Hunter, wake up. Wake up, man.”
Slowly, painfully Hunter started to wake. His body ached, his head pounded, and his fucking chest felt like it had been split in two.
“Hunter, you need to wake the fuck up.”
Someone jerked him by the shoulder, and he groaned. With a fuck load of effort, Hunter managed to open his eyes. James was crouching down next to him. “You okay?”
“What happened?” Hunter tried to push himself off the ground, but his arms started to shake.
“Take it easy. Here, let me help.” James grabbed his shoulders and helped him sit up with his back against the wall. Hunter pulled his hands down his face, his skull feeling like it was on fucking fire.
“What the hell happened?” Hunter looked up at James, and the men standing behind him. That’s when it all came rushing back, crashing through his mind like a fucking wrecking ball.
“That son of a bitch. We have to find her. We have to find Scarlet.” He struggled to get up, his legs feeling too damn weak. “James, he took her. The motherfucker took her! Riggs—the bastard—he’s a snitch.”
“I know, Hunter.” James helped steady him when Hunter finally managed to get on his feet.
“Then why the fuck are you here and not out there looking for her?”
James looked over his shoulder at the other men before leaning closer to Hunter. “We know where she is.”
“What?” Clearly he wasn’t hearing right, because if James knew where she was, then why the fuck was he still here?
“The bug you placed under Scarlet’s collar worked. That’s how we knew where to find you, and we also know where they took her.”
Suddenly, all Hunter’s strength was back—and so was the urge to kill someone. He grabbed James by the collar and slammed his back into the wall. “Why the fuck are you not saving her, then?” Hunter yelled, spitting the question in James’s face.
“Because we can’t!”
“You can’t, or you won’t?”
“She’s my daughter, for fuck’s sake. Don’t you think I’d be out there already, going after her if I could?”
“After what went down here today, I don’t know what I think.” Hunter tightened his grip on James’s collar.
“Believe me, I want nothing more than to be able to get my little girl. But I can’t.”
Hunter leaned back slightly. “And why the fuck not?”
“Because Brent is no longer the biggest threat here.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that we have bigger problems right now than Brent Wolfe.”
Hunter let go of James’s collar and stepped back. “Talk.”
After straightening his jacket and moving away from the wall, James started to pace, and Hunter could see he was busy thinking about what to say.
“Out with it, Baxter.”
“I knew he was desperate. I knew he was starting to get impatient, but I told him to give it more time. He just needed to give it more fucking time. Fuck!” Baxter slammed his fist against the wall, and Hunter didn’t know if it was anger or disappointment that had driven him to do it. But Hunter couldn’t care less. He needed answers, and then he needed to find Scarlet.
“I’m going to ask this one more time. What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On?”
James shook his arm, trying to get rid of the pain in his hand, before facing Hunter. “Colton, he has a sister.”
“And I have a fucking Chihuahua. What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”
“His sister was kidnapped years ago. After some investigating, Colton figured out she was sold on the black market.”
“I’m sorry, but right now I don’t give a shit about anyone else’s problems—especially his.” Hunter’s only concern was finding Scarlet.
“Just listen, okay? It’s been twelve years since she got kidnapped, and she’s the reason he decided to join us. In hopes of finding her, or at least a clue as to what happened to her.”
Now Hunter started pacing. “Is she even still alive?”
James nodded. “We think so, yes. Colton and I have been searching for her for the last ten years, while trying to rescue the other girls. From the info we’ve managed to gather, she might still be alive.”
Hunter rubbed the back of his neck. “Please tell me what the fuck this has to do with anything.”
“I promised Colton that I would help him, and that we would use every resource at our disposal to figure out what happened to her. But he was getting impatient, anxious, even though he knew we were so damn close. I told him just to wait a little longer.”
Hunter lifted his gaze to the roof and shook his head. “What the hell does all this have to do with the fact that he basically handed Scarlet over to Brent on a silver fucking platter with a red bow tied around her neck?”
“Brent has a way in.”
“A way in where?”
James stared at Hunter with a somber expression on his face. “You heard them talk about Rex?”
Hunter closed his eyes while he tried to remember every last detail of what went down before Riggs knocked him out. But the fear on Scarlet’s face, her screams, and her pleading for him to help her was all that played over and over inside his head. It hurt. It fucking hurt so damn much it felt like someone had tied a ten-inch chain around his chest, tightening and tightening it until Hunter could no longer breathe right.
Hunter pulled his hand through his hair, rubbing vigorously. “My God, Baxter, just…how do we save her? Where is she?”
“Do you remember Brent mentioning Rex?”
“Yes!” Hunter blurted out. “What about him? What does Rex have to do with Brent taking Scarlet?”
“That’s the deal Colton made with Brent. Scarlet, for a way to get close to Rex. We’ve been trying for years to infiltrate Rex’s circle, but no matter how hard we tried, how much we invested in it, the man is untouchable.”
Hunter’s head was starting to hurt again. “So how the fuck can someone like Brent do what your entire organization failed to do in, like, what, twenty years?”
“Rex hasn’t always been in control. He took over a few years ago when his father died, and we believe Brent might have had a hand in that.”
Hunter narrowed his eyes. “In what? This Rex guy’s father’s death?”
“Yes. Rex’s father was assassinated.”
“By whose orders?”
“Rex’s.”
Hunter rolled his head and shoulders, unable to process all the bucket loads of shit that were currently being dumped on him.
“Okay, this shit is real fucked-up and all, but right now the only thing I care about is finding Scarlet and killing Brent…slowly.”
James leaned his back against the wall and rubbed a hand over his bald head. “It’s not that simple anymore. From the information we managed to gather over the last few months, it seems that Rex and Brent knew each other before Rex took over for his father. Brent offered to hook Rex up with the right people to ensure he took over sooner rather than later.”
“Let me guess, soldier boy is using Brent to get close to Rex.” Hunter turned around and felt like he could bash his own fucking head open against the wall. “The motherfucker! I knew he was trouble!”
“Yeah. Colton saw an opportunity and took it. If anyone knows where his sister is, or if she’s even alive, it’s Rex. Nothing happens in his world without him knowing about it.” James shook his head and closed his eyes. “Rex is cunning, ruthless, and a fucking genius when it comes to running his empire. He’s one clever son of a bitch.”
“Okay.” Hunter turned around and walked up to James. “Enough. We’ve wasted enough time. I don’t care who the fuck this Rex guy is, or about whether Colton finds his sister or not. I don’t give a shit about anything right now other than finding Scarlet. So where the fuck is she?”
James pushed away from the wall. “Brent took her back to Bella Vista Estate.”
“What? Are you fucking kidding me? That’s only a few hours away. What the fuck are we still doing here?”
Hunter rushed to the door, but James intercepted and blocked his way. “He’s there, Hunter.”
“Who? Brent? Good, then I can kill him while I go get your daughter.” Hunter tried to sidestep around James, but James moved in front of him again.
“No. Rex. Rex is there too.”
Hunter stepped back. “What the hell is he doing there?”
“We don’t know. We got tipped off about half an hour ago that Rex entered Bella Vista. We don’t know why, and we have no idea what the setup is, which is why we haven’t been able to go get my daughter yet.”
Hunter cocked a brow. “I don’t get it. You said this guy’s circle is impenetrable, so who the fuck tipped you off?”
James placed his hands on his hips. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Even though this has now become a personal matter, there is still information I’m not at liberty to give you.”
Hunter wanted to fucking roar. “Your daughter’s life is in danger and you’re not at liberty to give me information that might help me keep her safe?”
“What do you think I’m doing, huh? All I’ve ever done was try to keep her safe.”
“And a hell of a lot of a good it did her.”
James glowered at him, and Hunter was sick of all the mind-fucking bullshit games everyone was playing. What did a man have to do to get straight answers out of these people? One would think that since his daughter’s life was at risk, he wouldn’t give a fuck about the rules. But oh, no. Rules were this fucking man’s life it seemed.
Hunter broke the deafening silence between them first. “I don’t care what the fuck you’re going to do, but I’m going back to Chicago and I am going to find her. And then I’m going to break Brent’s fucking neck before I cut Riggs’s goddamn heart out.”
“We can’t do anything until we know why Rex is at the estate. Until then, we need to sit tight.”
This time, Hunter did try to pull his hair out of his skull, thinking he was about to lose his shit any second and try to rip Baxter’s head off.
“Are you fucking insane, Baxter? Scarlet is currently with the fucking psychopath who hurt her in the worst possible way. Who the fuck knows what he’s doing to her right now. And you want to sit down and lay out a plan? Would you like that in a Word document, or would you prefer it in a table format on a fucking Excel spreadsheet?”
James snorted. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“You don’t know shit.”
James cocked an eyebrow. “I want to get her back as much as you do, Hunter. But if we’re going to be reckless and stupid, we won’t be rescuing anyone. We need to sit tight until we figure out what the hell Rex is doing there before we can make a move.”
Hunter crouched down to the ground, holding his face in his hands, screaming into his palms. This was not how it was supposed to go down. This was not supposed to fucking happen. He was supposed to keep her safe, just like he promised he would. Scarlet was supposed to be safe—at his side. Instead, she was gone. Taken by the man she had been running from for years, and all Hunter could do was sit there and listen to the shit Baxter was telling him.
Hunter stood up straight and peered at James. “I don’t care if the fucking president is at the estate. I don’t care if fucking Hitler got resurrected and decided to take up residence at Bella Vista, I’m going there, now, and I’m going to get her out.”
“Hunter, if Rex is there, you won’t even be able to get through the front gate without being shot.”
Hunter brushed past him. “I’ll take my chances. But I am not just standing around here and waiting for the fucking grass to grow while I have no idea what kind of hell Brent is putting her through.”
James turned around to face him. “Do you think this is easy for me? Knowing exactly where my daughter is being held by a man who raped her, and I can’t do shit about it?”
“Did you give a shit about her twenty-four years ago when you decided to let her grow up without a dad?”
“Judge me any way you like, but I did what I thought was right. And right now, it’s fucking killing me knowing that I can’t go help her this very second.”
“Then go help her!” Hunter shouted.
“I fucking can’t!”
Hunter and James were standing so close, glaring at each other with their faces inches apart. The atmosphere was thick with tension, the make-a-move-and-I’ll-take-you-down kind of tension. Both of them were breathing raggedly, fists balled and veins pumping fucking lava.
Hunter was first to speak. “Then what the fuck do you suggest we do? Sit around and wait for whoever to let you know it’s okay to go get her?”
“We just need to wait until we know the reason why Rex is there. It’s unlike him to move around in the open, especially making unscheduled stops at a place like Bella Vista. There’s a reason he’s there, and we need to know what it is.”
Hunter leaned in closer. “I don’t give a fuck why he’s there. I’m going.”
He was done chit-chatting. He spun around and headed toward the door when James called after him. “One day, Hunter. Just give it one day. If we haven’t heard anything by tomorrow morning, we’re going in. But I am begging you, just one day. If we go in there blind, there’s a big chance not one of us will walk out of there alive—Scarlet included.”
Hunter paused, hung his head, and cursed. The desperation in James’s voice was loud and clear, but the desperation in Hunter’s heart was clearer, more determined.
He turned around and gave James a challenging stare. “I’m going back to Chicago, now. So you have about three hours to figure out why this Rex character is there. If you haven’t figured it out by the time I get there, I’m going in. Even if I have to fucking kill every goddamn person on the motherfucking estate with my bare hands. I’m going to go get her. Now.”