Page 98 of Midnight Racers

“Can we see her?” I asked.

“Just for a few minutes. She was lucky she had her seatbelt on and the airbags cushioned her or there would have been little we could do.”

Victoria and I were ushered into the room. Charlotte lay still in the bed, a bandage around her forehead, her face swelling. Tubes were connected to her arm and two monitors beeped at the side of the bed.

The nurse who had come to take her medical history wrote on a chart. “Mum and baby are both stable.” She pointed to each monitor separately.

Her hand felt cold in mine, her lack of movement disturbing. Charlotte moved even when she slept, talking to herself when she was on the edge of sleep.

“This needs to end,” I told Victoria. “She can’t live her life on the run.”

“This baby needs both parents.”

I lifted Charlotte’s hand and pressed a kiss to her wrist. “Stay safe. I’ll be back soon.”

Jordan was right. There was nothing I could do here, but I could make sure the world was a safe place for her to return to.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Megan is staying here,” Jordan replied. “Caine is coming to stay with her. I’ll be going with you.”

“They tracked Craig down with his phone information,” Declan said. “Dale happened to be with him. They seemed to be waiting for information of the heist.”

“Fuckers,” I muttered.

Death, I understood. Torture was a phenomenon I was well acquainted with. Today, blood would spill and vengeance would be sought. That woman lying in there owned every single beat of my worthless heart, and I would kill to protect her.

***

Chapter Thirty

Flynn

I normally preferred to drive, but let Jordan take the wheel since my skin felt too tight and my emotions were all over the place. The darkness that I kept hidden within my soul threatened to eclipse all the light remaining in my life. Charlotte had held it back, but there was nothing there to prevent it from taking over.

The storage facilities were secluded, the security in them to ensure no one ever saw what happened in here, and that included local law enforcement. Our footsteps echoed down the corridor as we made our way to the men who had been left for us. They sat at a table, their phones removed for download.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Dale demanded, jumping to his feet to try and get in our faces.

“Sit the fuck down.” I punched him, doing what I wanted to do the last time I’d seen him, only there were witnesses.

“You can’t kidnap people,” Craig informed me. “It’s against the law.”

“So is running innocent women off the road to steal their technology to pay your debts,” I countered. “But then you wouldn’t have the balls to do that, would you? Other men have to do your dirty work while you slime around in the background like a giant slug with a cold.”

Jordan and Declan stood at the door, letting me get my frustration out of my system.

Craig smirked up at me. “You don’t scare me.”

“No?” I enquired in a soft voice.

“Wrong thing to say,” Jordan muttered. “He scares me.”

I grabbed Craig by the collar and tossed him across the room, my foot connecting with his stomach. I’d seen his phone, and Dale kept him away from the major players. He was a waste of oxygen in a world where we all had to do our bit for global warming.

I pinned him to the floor by his throat. “She is the kindest person alive and you deliberately hurt her because you were jealous of her.” My fist connected with his face over and over and over again until blood gurgled from his mouth and his eyes rolled back in his head.

“You.” I pointed at Dale as I dropped his partner in crime to the floor. “Charlotte is your sister. What the fuck do you think you’re doing putting her at risk?”

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