Page 129 of Full Throttle

He was silent.

“Dominique Wells is the only reason I’m still breathing, Xander,” I told him. I looked into the mirror, making sure Nik was behind me, the others behind her before I merged onto the interstate, heading straight for downtown Seattle. “On my eighteenth birthday, Mom lost her ever-loving mind, thought I stole her fucking money or something shit. She held a gun to my face and, honest to Christ, I knew she was going to pull the trigger. She wasn’t getting anymore checks from the state anymore because I was an adult.”

“Jesus,” he hissed, running a hand through his dark hair.

“Nik rushed into the house—she fucking distracted Mom long enough for me to get a handle on the situation,” I told him. “She saved my fucking life. So you wanna do something to repay me for all the shit I did for you—then you fucking save the girl I love. Whatever it fucking takes, you hear me?”

“You have my word, Cain. Whatever it takes.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Nikki

We split up once we entered Seattle.

Mina, Leon, and I veered left while Dontell and Cain continued straight.

My stomach was in knots, my fingers flexing on the steering wheel of the Fairlady. She was a sweet ride, but nothing like my car. I was anxious, shocked that I hadn’t had any flashbacks to my wreck during this drive.

Then again, I wasn’t racing into hell. I was cruising into it with my family.

There’s a difference in that.

“Clover,” Cain’s voice filled my ear. Even though everyone else could hear him, I couldn’t help but whisper his name in return.

“You sticking close to Lee, baby?” he asked, his engine humming in the background. “You’re falling behind.”

My brows pinched together. How in the hell did he know that?

He was on the other side of downtown. Before I could assess that further, Leon’s voice cut through my thoughts.

“She’s good, Cain. We’re coming up to the parking garage.”

“Right behind you, Nikki,” Mina said. I looked in the rearview mirror to see her waving her fingers at me.

I nodded to myself and focused back on Leon, who was a few hundred feet in front of me. My foot pressed hard on the gas as I closed the distance between us before we came to stop at the red light. Leaning forward, I squinted, peering up at the multi-story parking garage at the end of the block.

The entrance to Devils Den was half a mile north of the parking garage—underground. The tunnel opening was in the basement of the garage, and according to Agent Garner and Cain, anyone could walk in. Anyone—and I mean anyone—could stumble upon that tunnel and never see the light of day again.

There was definitely a correlation between Devils Den and the staggering number of missing persons cases in and around this area.

“Nikki, park on the top level. Sis, you're on the one below that,” Leon ordered. “I’ll meet you at on the first floor.”

Knives gathered in my throat, and as we waited for the light to turn green, I blindly felt for the gun Cain had given me strapped to my pants, then for the multiple knives Mina and Dontell had given me. I was armed. I was protected. I would be okay.

I would be okay.

Cain would be okay.

Everyone would be okay.

I chanted under my breath as the three of us crawled through the intersection, switched lanes, and turned right into the parking garage. Leon peeled off to the right, and then I went left, Mina trailing me. She parked on the second to top level as instructed while I continued to the top. Once there, the rain still pelting down, I parked and pressed my finger to the earpiece. Something buzzed in my ear and I winced.

“Fuck,” I groaned, jerking my head to the side.

“Should've mentioned this on the plane,” Agent Garner’s voice came into my now-ringing ear, “You don’t have to touch it, just say what you want to say.”

“Can you hear everything going on around me?” I asked.

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