Page 104 of My Darling Mayhem

Kane. A lump was in my throat as I replied, “My brother.”

“Will this man hurt him?” Scotty asked as two of the dogs circled back to us, their tongues wagging from their mouths as they tried to cool down.

I pictured Brit and when I’d been the one to identify her body because her family couldn’t do it. I thought of my mom and how I was too young, but I’d also been in the morgue with her as well. “Yes, he’ll hurt him.”

Scotty lifted his gun and spit something to the side. “He has exactly four minutes on us. We need to spread out and find him.”

Kingston fell into step next to him as we turned and started moving, my mind feeling like it was outside my body.

“Who else is out here with us?”

Scotty fell into a light jog, answering the twin. “Your mother. Your sister and Carter are in the Jeep, trailing up the far side of the tree line.”

Where were Wren and Cruz?

Kingston must have someone else he was concerned with too because he fell into a run next to Scotty. I hadn’t even realized I was jogging to keep up with them.

“Where is?—”

Scotty turned, snapping at him. “She’s guarding the woman and her son in the house.”

Relief found a tiny place in my sternum. She was safe, which meant all I had to do was focus on Kane.

We ran in a singular direction as the dogs led us until we came to a clearing in the trees, and there was nothing but a blonde-haired woman wearing a faded blue dress, the hem muddied and torn. She clung to Juan as he hugged her, and then Kyle was on his phone, pacing around, while a gun dangled from his hand.

“What happened?” I pushed forward. Thistle was right behind me, but the longer I was around these people the more I felt like they were less of a threat and more of a terrified family. I’d brought the devil to their door, but perhaps this wasn’t their first time dealing with one.

The woman was breathing hard but faced me with a grim expression.

“We lost his trail.”

Juan pulled the woman back into his chest.

“What do you mean, wasn’t he headed straight through the tree line?” I glanced at Kyle who was talking to someone. Scotty’s jaw flexed while he scanned the surrounding area.

“Directly through. His men were taken out; it’s just him and the kid. He couldn’t have gone far.”

Yet the dogs whined as though they couldn’t pick up his trail. My stomach spasmed with fear as the thought of losing my brother hit me in full force. What if I found his body in the woods? What if Saul wanted to send a message to me, sick fuckthat he was, and decided to use a five-year-old little boy to do it. I had to think.

Pulling up my phone, I slid through my contacts, discerning our timeline. He had men with him they said had been taken out. I could ask Thistle to call Ruth and see if she could pull up satellite images, but we were on Juan’s property…and Kyle’s. However, the fuck that worked. It didn’t seem like they’d ever allow themselves to be put in a position to be hacked into.

Kyle was suddenly yelling at someone through his phone. I heard bits and pieces before he lowered his arm, glancing over at me.

But it was Scotty who spoke up after checking his cell.

“She left the boy with his grandmother in a panic room.”

Kyle and Scotty locked eyes.

Kingston searched both their faces and all it did was remind me his twin still hadn’t resurfaced. “I thought Presley was watching them.”

Scotty spoke up again. “Presley took the woman?—”

“Wren. Her name is Wren,” I cut in, because calling her something as generic as a woman was making me insane.

“Presley took Wren, they left five minutes ago.”

Fuck.

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