Page 40 of Beautiful Scars

"Think about it. He kills Sunny, kills my mother, leaves that message—and then just vanishes?"

The more I say it out loud, the more certain I become. "Someone had to have helped him. Someone with resources, connections. Someone who knew how to make people disappear."

"Someone like your father?" Zane's question is careful, measured.

The thought has crossed my mind before, but I've always dismissed it. "No. I think Garrett was exactly the kind of man that my father always avoided. I remember him saying'Some dogs never take to the leash, and those are the ones to stay away from. You'll never be able to trust them.'"

"Your father had a lot of friends. Powerful ones."

"And enemies." I lean against the railing, staring into the darkness. "What if... what if this was never about Garrett at all? What if he was just a weapon aimed at me?"

The possibility makes my blood run cold. All these years chasing a puppet while the puppeteer has watched from the shadows, laughing at my failure.

"If you're right," Zane says slowly, "we need to change our approach. Stop looking for Garrett and start looking for whoever's pulling his strings."

I nod, feeling the familiar darkness rising inside me. If someone orchestrated this, if someone used Garrett to take everything from me—

The rage builds, hot and familiar.

"We need to be smart about this though," Zane continues, reading my expression. "If someone powerful enough to hide Garrett for this long is behind this, we can't go in blind."

I watch Zane disappear back into the warehouse, his words echoing in my head. Seven years of dead ends, only to find out we may have been playing the wrong game entirely.

The night air carries the scent of coming rain. I roll my shoulders, feeling the familiar ache of tension. Every muscle screams for rest, but rest means dreams and dreams mean her.

The warehouse door creaks again. I know it's Colt without turning—his footsteps are lighter than Zane's, more precise. Everything about him is calculated, measured. It's what makes him so damn good at what he does.

"We're all set," he says, joining me at the railing. "Got him secured downstairs. Doc's checking him out now—making sure he'll be stable enough for round two tomorrow."

I grunt in acknowledgment, watching ash fall from my cigarette.

"You should see some of the intel we pulled from his phone already," Colt continues. "Looks like—"

"Tomorrow," I cut him off. I can't process anything else right now. My head is too full of possibilities.

Zane emerges again, wiping his hands on a cloth. "Everything's cleaned up. No trace left." He claps me on the shoulder, his grip firm. "Go home, brother. Get some rest. This'll all still be here in the morning."

They both head back inside, leaving me alone with my demons. The warehouse door closes with a metallic clang that echoes through the empty lot.

My fingers are already pulling out my phone before I consciously decide to do it. The screen glows blue in the darkness as I navigate to that folder, to that message. To her.

"Hey Handsome..."

I close my eyes, letting her voice wash over me again.

If someone helped Garrett disappear, if this was all some elaborate plot—that means that someone out there knows what happened that night when he left. Someone knows where he is. And when I find them—

"I'm almost finished getting ready..."

The rain falls harder now, but I barely notice.

"I miss you."

"I miss you too, Angel," I whisper out to the emptiness. "I miss you too."

Chapter Twenty

Levi

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