In my room, I rummage through my drawers, throwing enough clothing into a bag to get by for a few more days, in case we head back to the Madden house. I have no idea where we’ll be, but I’ll be ready. Might have to take to leaving a bag of clothes and toiletries in the truck, but what the fuck ever. Doesn’t matter to me, so long as I’m with Royal, Beckham, and Echo. And Chase. That little squirt has literally been the highlight of staying over there. I’m thunderstruck by the way I need all of them. It’s a heady, overwhelming feeling, but so fucking right, I wouldn’t change a thing.
As I’m about to return to the others, I hesitate, my gaze being drawn to the closet. I work my jaw to the side, considering whether I should take the evidence we’ve collected with me. It can’t hurt, and I’d rather not be worrying over someone discovering it anytime we aren’t here. This is SIN, and I wouldn’t put it past some of these guys to snoop around. I hurry over to the closet, set the duffel bag on the floor, and unzip it.
Stooping down, I pry up the loose board. I stop with my hand outstretched. There’s an envelope in my motherfucking secret hiding place. I hiss, jerking upright, and turn around, not that I think anyone is in here with me, but now I know for sure there’s a fucking camera in my room. Yep. This shit is coming with me. With my heart racing, I pluck the envelope from the top of the pile, then transfer the plastic bags of evidence to my duffel.
Seconds later, I burst into Royal’s room, dropping the bag to the floor. Echo sits straight up, immediately on alert.
“What’s going on?” Beckham’s blue eyes search my face for answers, but I don’t know how to say that I’m about to blow up our lives again.
Shifting an ice pack as he sits up, Royal winces, whether from pain in his shoulder or seeing the envelope in my hand, I have no idea. He gestures toward it, his tone clipped as he barks, “Where the fuck did that come from?”
“It was in my closet with all the evidence.” I hold it out in front of me for all of them to see.
“A Sin Keeper card to cap off our night. Great,” Beckham mutters, sifting a hand through his hair.
Echo shakes her head. “I don’t know if I can handle this. Have you looked yet?”
“No.” I give a swift jerk of my head as I stalk to the side of the bed at the same time Royal climbs from it. He stands close to me as I pull the card out. Truthfully, I don’t think I want to know, either, but I drop my gaze to the card and read, anyway.
I pass the card to Echo and Beckham, frowning as my mind has difficulty deciphering this odd riddle at such a late—or early, however we want to look at it—hour. Then, all of a sudden, themessage begins to untwist itself in my head. “Wait. Is River theherbeing referred to?”
“‘But she’s already been replaced.’” Echo repeats the line, frowning as she hands the card back to me. “What’s that mean?”
Royal’s pale-green eyes grow wide, and he turns his head to meet my gaze. “Thehewould be Brian, then?”
Echo begins to shake her head furiously. “No. Say it’s not what I’m thinking. We know Brian was away this weekend.”
“He’s cheating on River with ‘K,’” I murmur, the awful truth bubbling to the surface. My stomach pitches and heaves. “Kara wasn’t withToddthis weekend. She was with motherfuckingBrian.”
THIRTY-FIVE
ROYAL
“Why aren’tany of them answering?” Echo’s frustration mounts with each second that passes, fear slicking every word.
I heave out an agitated breath. After blowing up Kara’s phone to no avail, we’ve been trying to reach River and Davis, too, with no luck. The silence doesn’t sit right with me. Zero response from any of them. Nothing. Sure, it’s nearly two in the morning, but one would think with so many incoming calls and messages to three different people, we’d have a good chance at least one of them would realize something is going on and alert the other two.
Flying through the night, Wilder pushes the limit as he drives, but it’s still not fast enough for my liking. My heart careens around in my chest with every beat, terror lancing through me. I run a hand over my face. “How the fuck did we not realize what was happening?” I don’t know how the fuck we’re going to tell RiverorKara what their man has done.
“I feel like such a fucking idiot,” Echo hisses. “We knew he was cheating with ‘K,’ River shows up here, meets Kara, and then Kara takes off with her boyfriend for a getaway weekend. The reality is, she’d been at that fancy hotel just outside of town, not realizing the horrifying truth about the sadistic pig she’s with.”She huffs out a frustrated breath. “If he’d treated her like he has River, she woulda been out the door.”
Wilder glances back at Echo. “The reality is he’s been using her. To get to you and Chase and Royal.” His knuckles are white with how tightly he grips the steering wheel. Shaking his head, he mutters, “I don’t fucking see the connection, and it’s driving me fucking insane. What reason could Brian possibly have to threaten the three of you?”
I growl out my irritation. “There’s gotta be something we’re missing. But I can’t tell what it is yet.” I can’t wrap my head around any of it. Hopefully, by the time we do, it won’t be too late.
“Almost there,” Beckham says from the front seat. “I think we’re lucky Kara has remained relatively unscathed. It could be worse. He could have beaten her, too.”
We skid around the last corner and blast down the street the Maddens live on, coming to a screeching halt outside their house. The place is completely dark. My stomach turns. That damn light over the sink is always on. Always. A feeling of foreboding hits me hard in the chest, pushing me into action.
Everyone else must have the same sense of urgency, because all four doors of the truck open at once as we spill from the vehicle. We race to the front porch, and Echo hurriedly jams the key into the lock. She throws the door open, automatically spinning to disarm the alarm.
Only… it’s clearly not set, as there’s no beeping indicating that it’s about to sound. Her head swivels, worried eyes finding mine, Beckham’s, and Wilder’s. “What the fuck,” she spits. She shakes her head, running for the stairs. Fear rises within me as I follow, taking them two at a time, Wilder and Beckham right behind me.
On our way down the hall, we throw open doors, the guest room first, which we expect to be empty, but then, as I’mheading for Chase’s room, Wilder flings Davis’s open. “Fuck. Where is she? River isn’t here,” he heaves out.
What?My head whips around. I was hoping we were about to give his pregnant sister a heart attack, that everything is actually fine, and we’re overreacting. As I throw open Chase’s door and turn on the light, everything in me crashes to a halt. Every cell in my body ceases to function. Our little boy isn’t in his bed.
It takes the wind out of me. I fall to my knees at the side of his empty bed, an anguished noise tearing from my lungs as my hands clench into fists. I bow my head, struggling for air as I choke out, “Echo, I need you in here.”
