Controlled Burn, page 20
“Does it say how much?” I ask, waiting impatiently as his fingers continue to work. A few miles to cover is still nearly impossible especially in an area that’s notorious for hating cops. Even if people have information or saw something, they’re not going to be very forthcoming with that information.
“Thirty-five hundred. Her daily limit.”
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“She has nearly ten grand more, so with any luck, they’re going to hold on to her to get the rest.”
“Probability of them using the same machine?” I ask, getting ready to go park across the fucking street if I have to and wait.
Wren types even more. “According to my crime mapping program, four-point-two percent.”
I frown. That’s a shitty percentage, but it’s still not zero, and that’s what we were working with without this recent update.
“Hold on,” Wren says when I turn to leave. “Holy shit. Look.”
The screen switches from camera view to camera view, and I’ve seen him do this enough to know he’s tracking the car. They’re still in Kendall’s car and hope fills my chest as I watch it, turn after turn.
“They’re in the industrial district.”
I’m on the move, knowing every single minute is precious.
All the guys are on alert when I leave the office, and the look on my face must tell them what they need to know because they move en masse toward the elevator.
Something happened when I was in the office because Kayleigh rushes up to me with tears in her eyes.
“I told her because I thought she should know,” Kason says, regret filling his young face which is also stained with tears.
“My momma?”
I look to Kayleigh. “Sweet girl, I’ll protect your mom with my own life. I swear.”
She nods, giving me a little sniffle before running across the room right into Anna’s arms.
Kason stands before me, his eyes shining with fresh tears. “Please, Finn. Bring Momma home.”
“I swear I will,” I tell him, and I feel that truth in the deepest parts of me.
He nods at me before turning away to join his sister.
My throat is clogged with emotion as I walk across the room toward the elevator. Deacon claps me on the back as I climb on. The entire ride down, I pray I just didn’t lie to that little boy. He’d never forgive me.
I’d never forgive myself.
Chapter 33
Kendall
My brain and my body aren’t on the same page. I’m terrified, couldn’t eat a thing if it were offered to me, but my stomach is still growling.
That noise is drowned out by the arguing going on in the warehouse. I’m back in the industrial building, and the man with the neck tattoo was here when we got back from the ATM. My captor, the one who has been with me the entire time, wasn’t very happy to see him. He shoved me back in this room, reminded me of what was at stake, and then he left.
“And I told you it was taken care of!” neck-tattoo guy yells, growing increasingly frustrated.
The other guy murmurs too low for me to decipher what he’s saying.
“They’re gone. That’s all you need to worry about. I’m not giving you the fucking details so you can hang me out to dry. Fucking look at you, all twitchy and shit. This is the last fucking time I do a job with someone I don’t know.”
More murmuring, but I can’t focus on their fight.
They’re gone echoes in my head, a broken record of words playing over and over.
He was the one who had my children.
They’re gone.
They’re gone.
They’re gone.
I collapse to the side, curling into a ball. He was talking about my kids.
They’re gone.
I’m numb, the sounds around me nothing but background noise as my heart breaks.
They’re gone.
They’re gone.
They’re gone.
It can’t be true because if he means what I think he means then I’ll never survive it. I can’t exist in a world where my children don’t.
Laughter and the smiling faces of Kason, Kayleigh, and Knox flash in my head, drowning out the pops from the warehouse. I grin into my arm, feeling truly crazy as I try to remember holding each of them for the first time. I was alone in the hospital, only surrounded by hospital staff with the twins. Ty just couldn’t be bothered to return my phone calls despite being in labor for hours and hours. He didn’t pop back up until after I was already home with them.
It was two weeks before he met Knox, claiming some out-of-state job that prevented him from making contact like he was a fucking spy or something. The man seriously thought I was an idiot.
I frown, shoving all thoughts of that man away, trying to replace it with happy ones involving my kids. We have had a lot of happy times despite me scraping every extra penny I have into savings. They enjoyed trips to the park and didn’t care if their clothes were from last season’s sales rack. Kayleigh was the only picky one in that regard and so long as it was pink, purple, or had sparkles, she was as happy as a clam.
I think of Kason and the way he tried to boss them like he was the man of the house.
I think of Knox and his serious face when he’s drawing with his favorite blue crayon.
My perfect little babies.
My angels.
This last thought makes me sob, all the good fading away into darkness.
They’re too young for wings.
Maybe all of this could’ve been avoided if I’d only listened to Finn this morning. He offered to come along while I looked at the house. It was another give on his part, another thing I couldn’t take from him because I’ve already taken so much, but losing my children is the worst I told you so in the history of them all.
My horrible choice in men brought me to this point, and that damage, all the pain Ty caused, made me push away a deserving man.
I’m fighting a battle in my head, trying to determine what’s honestly worse—never having met Ty, meaning I wouldn’t have my children, or this current situation where three innocent children die because of my choices.
I’m choking on sobs, my entire body convulsing when the door to the room opens. Let them kill me or rape me. I couldn’t care less at this point. They’ve taken from me the only things that matter. I’m fucking numb to the rest of it.
Hands roam over me, and that fight instinct I thought I’d lost kicks in. I smack at the touch, crying out when I use my right hand to defend myself. The man who abducted me forced me to drive to the ATM earlier while he hid in the back seat to make sure I didn’t just take off and leave. I was able to get a good look at my wrist, and it’s clearly broken. Pain shoots up my arm and I try to curl into myself once again, the pain making my stomach swim with nausea.
“Baby, stop. You’re safe.”
My eyes flutter open, so sure this is another dream, and I feel my lips smile, my uninjured hand reaching up to cup Finn’s scruffy jaw. His green eyes shine with tears, making me realize it really must be a dream. A man as tough as Finnegan Jenkins doesn’t cry. He’s not one to shed tears for any reason. He’s too tough for that.
“Your wrist,” he says, cupping the injury softly in his huge hands.
I look down at myself, noting the blues and purples have made their way up my fingers.
“Doesn’t matter,” I whisper, my voice broken and pained.
“Sweetheart,” he says, pulling me to his chest and being careful not to hurt me further.
This is only half of what I need, and I hate that my dreams are betraying me right now.
“My babies,” I sputter, my heart in pieces inside the very core of me.
“They were at the office, but it got late so Wren and Whitney took them back to their place.”
I nod against him. At least he’s not telling me that they’re in purgatory.
“Let’s get you up.”
I comply, trying to get to my feet, but I’m weighed down with the guilt of what I’ve let happen. It wouldn’t surprise me if this man was sent to drag me to hell.
I use my hands to push up to standing, only to fall back, screaming in pain.
“Fuck, Kendall. Let me help you.”
My eyes snap to him, Finn’s jaw clenching as he reaches for me.
“Finn?” I blink at him, my eyes hazy from the pain in my wrist, but somehow clearer than it was a few minutes ago. “You’re here?”
“I’m here, baby. Did they hurt more than your wrist? You seem a little—”
“They hurt my kids,” I confess. “And it’s all my—”
“The kids are fine, Kendall.”
I shake my head, knowing what I heard, and this man lying to me is the cruelest thing I can think of. I try to pull away, but he doesn’t allow it.
“Baby,” he says, pulling me against him and reaching into his pocket for his phone.
I sob loudly, uncaring for the other people I sense in the room at our backs.
“Put them on,” he snaps when the call connects.
There’s shuffling.
“Look,” Finn snaps, hitching his shoulder to get me to lift my head from it. “Look, Kendall.”
My tears fall even more when I look at the screen. There in a bed are my children. Knox even has his little blue dinosaur clutched to his chest.
“Glad you’re okay, sweetheart,” Wren says, turning the phone so I can see his face instead of it being a monster looking after my children.
“They’re okay?” I ask as Finn hangs up the phone and pockets it.
“They’re fine.,” he assures me. “A little worried about you, but healthy. The guy who took them—”
“The man with the dragon tattoo,” I clarify.
“That man picked them up from school and immediately dropped them off at the park. They were there unsupervised for a few hours, but a concerned citizen called it into the police. The police called us, and they were at the office all evening until shortly after you visited the ATM.”
I nod, trying to absorb everything he’s telling me, but my heart is stuck on the fact that my kids haven’t been hurt. They’re safe, tucked into bed at Finn’s friend’s condo.
“I need to go to them,” I insist, trying to shove past him to move toward the door.
I gasp when I naturally use my right hand. The pain is unbearable.
“We need to get you to the hospital,” Finn argues.
“My kids, Finn.”
“Baby,” he says, turning me in his arms and forcing my eyes up to his. “We have to make sure you’re okay.”
He presses his lips to mine before pulling back a few inches. His eyes roam over every part of me, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt more valued than I do right now.
“You were crying,” I say, reaching up with my uninjured hand to trace the scruff on his jaw.
“I’m really happy you’re okay,” he says.
“I didn’t think you could cry.”
He smiles a sad smile before brushing another soft kiss against my lips.
“I’ll tell you why some other time, okay?”
I nod as he turns me around, his palm resting protectively on my lower back as he guides me from the room.
“Oh my God,” I gasp as we walk across the warehouse.
“They must’ve gotten into a fight. The tattooed guy shot the other one then turned the gun on himself,” Finn explains as he tries to usher me quickly out of the building, but my eyes are glued to the carnage in front of me.
Other than television, I’ve never seen such a scene in real life.
My mother’s funeral was closed casket, and then realization hits me that I’ve never seen a dead person in real life before. The blood pooling around their bodies looks so much darker than what’s portrayed in the movies. Their skin is an ashen gray, and I don’t know that I’ll ever fully get the sight of their corpses out of my mind.
“Hospital, Kendall. You’re safe now.”
I nod, letting him steer me away. It may be the end of those two, but I doubt this incident is the last time I hear from anyone connected to the Keres MC.
Three hundred thousand dollars will never be forgiven. Even bloodshed wouldn’t satisfy Adrian Larrick. His pride has been wounded. He was bested by Ty Penman, and that won’t go unpunished.
I cling to Finn on the ride to the hospital, his boss Deacon driving the sleek, black SUV.
I’m somehow wired and utterly exhausted, in a weird catatonic but functioning state when he shifts his weight in the back seat, telling me that we’ve arrived.
The numbness is setting back in, and because of that, I plan to take all he has to offer, at least until I can get my kids and me out of the state. I won’t stick around and hope that Adrian grows a heart. Leaving and getting away is the only way to keep us safe.
My kids are the only things that can matter. My broken heart will always come secondary.
Chapter 34
Finnegan
“What color are you going to get?” I ask stupidly as I sit beside the gurney Kendall is lying on.
“What?” she asks, her head slowly turning toward me.
She was given pain medicine when we first arrived. Her wrist has been x-rayed, and it’s definitely broken. Now we’re waiting for the doctor to come put her cast on.
“Your cast,” I clarify. “What color?”
I give her a weak smile, but she doesn’t even attempt to give me one back.
“Doesn’t matter,” she whispers, once again looking away from me.
She’s safe. The kids are safe, but I still feel like I’m in the middle of a nightmare. Ty Penman has been gone for years, but he’s still managing to drain her, to take from her, and it kills me that I can’t seem to find the right words to make everything okay.
Telling her she’s safe now would be a lie.
This is Adrian Larrick’s doing, although neither Wren nor the local police have been able to find a direct link between the Keres MC and the two dead men at the abandoned warehouse. They didn’t have club tattoos nor were they wearing the custom-leather cut.
Wren has contacted the feds working the cases against the MC to see if those two have popped up on video footage, but I know they won’t find anything. Larrick is meticulous with how he outsources jobs. Hell, the two men working for him may not even know that’s who they were working for. Rumor has it from others arrested and suspected of carrying out jobs for Keres that all they get is an untraceable phone call, and once the job is done, they pick up money from a drop location.
I know Larrick isn’t going to stop until he gets what he wants, and the man doesn’t care who he has to plow through to get it. Pride will keep him moving the pieces until he produces the outcome he desires.
So, no, Kendall isn’t safe. She’s not in any immediate danger, because I’m sure Keres is regrouping, but it’s far from over.
“Kayleigh would pick pink,” I say, continuing the ridiculous conversation. I also want to remind her of those three special people waiting for her to return.
I doubt the woman is giving up, but I also don’t want her mind racing. She gets a little crazy when she gets a thought in her head—the fake bomb at the office for example—and the last thing I need her doing is something outlandish to put her right back in Keres’s line of fire.
“Or purple,” she mutters, but there’s no enthusiasm in her tone.
“You feeling okay?”
She shrugs, her shoulders only lifting an inch or so as if she can’t manage more.
“Ready to see my kids.”
I pull out my phone, unwilling to leave her side, but needing someone to light a fire under the doctor’s ass. Before I can hit send on my text, the doctor walks in with the supplies needed for her cast.
She ends up with a plain white cast, showing no more enthusiasm when the doctor asked if she wanted a different color.
It takes another thirty minutes to get her paperwork signed and taken care of, and despite Deacon’s offer to drive us, I decline.
I need some time alone with her, but I still can’t find the words she needs to hear on the drive back to the condo.
I don’t bother hitting the elevator button to my floor, choosing Wren’s instead. Trying to convince her to get some rest would fall on deaf ears, so I don’t waste the energy.
“You’ll like Whitney,” I tell her as I lift my hand to knock softly, remembering Kendall once complaining about people ringing the bell when the kids are sleeping.
Both Wren and Whitney are in front of us when the door is pulled open, and although Whitney has never met Kendall before, she doesn’t hesitate to pull her in for a hug. My girl sinks against the stranger, wrapping her arms around her as tears stream down her face.
“You have the most amazing kids,” Whitney offers, her face tucked into Kendall’s hair. “Kayleigh is going to destroy hearts when she grows up.”
Kendall chuckles at this, her head nodding as if she agrees.
“Knox may never grow out of his love for the color blue, and Kason is going to be a mad genius who tries to take over the world.”
Kendall’s laughter strengthens as she steps back, using the back of her hand to swipe at the tears on her face.
“Did they give you any trouble?”
“No,” Whitney answers, stepping aside so we can fully enter the condo. “But they did try to convince us that you let them sleep with the TV on. Full disclosure, we allowed it, but turned it off about an hour ago because they were all conked out.”
“We figured the distraction was good,” Wren adds.
“Thank you both so much,” Kendall says, her voice tinged with another wave of emotion. “I need to see them.”
Whitney nods in understanding and guides Kendall to the guest bedroom.
I stick close to Wren who watches the two of them leave the room. The lights are turned down low in the condo, and I’m grateful not to hear the birds squawking and making noise. They must still be at the office.
Unable to handle the physical distance between us, I walk toward the bedroom. Wren sticks close, and I appreciate the moral support, but I just want to be alone with her and the kids. I’d never tell him to get lost, this is his condo after all, but he must sense it because he presses his hand to Whitney’s back, and they walk away.
