Page 36 of Hunted Innocence

“You got a hold of your shit?”

Turning my head, I look over my shoulder at him sitting in the back seat, my eyes on his, focused on his before my lips curve up into a grin. “Absolutely not. But I’m not going to jeopardize anything.”

“Before we get to the end of the driveway, I wanted to voice something,” Vaughn says. “I did a little digging.”

He doesn’t continue immediately. I suck in a breath and hold it for a moment before he finally speaks. When he does, a whole new wave of emotional bullshit slides through my body. I don’t know how much more I can handle.

Instead of feeling any of it, though, I stuff it down where it belongs, as deep as it can go, and hopefully, it never comes back up again. Because fucking hell, I don’t want to feel any of that shit ever again.

“Landon was the connection on the inside. It wasn’t anywhere in his file. I was able to connect them by digging into the past, the far past.”

“How?” Theron demands. “How does it connect?”

His fingers grip the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turn white and the plastic begins to crackle. There is a moment of silence, and then Vaughn tells us something that I could never have fucking imagined in a million years.

“Landon Tate was undercover for a few years back…then.”

I tamp down the feeling that rolls through my body, the way my stomach squeezes at his word.Then. I know what he’s referring to. Every man in this car does. Thankfully, he doesn’t pause long enough for us to focus on that thought before he continues.

Theron stops the car in front of the building, but nobody makes a move to exit the vehicle.

“Something happened, not sure what, but I have a feeling it’s on that thumb drive and the whole reason Ravet was neverbothered again and was a goddamn mystery and so hard to find for so long.”

We need to find Landon Tate.

Chapter Fifteen

GRAYSON

The revelationthat Vaughn announces rocks the fucking car. But we don’t have time to dwell on it in any way because as soon as he tells us what he’s found, half a dozen men walk out of the Night Devils clubhouse.

Instantly, I recognize the man in front with the bushy gray beard as the man who drove Nadine’s car away from the construction yard. We don’t respond to Vaughn’s new information. That’s going to be something for later. Maybe when we finally lay our hands on Tate.

“Which one of you is Grayson?” the bearded man booms before we can even approach him.

Lifting my hand, I give him a little wave. I watch as he crosses his arms over his massive chest, then snorts. “Seems about right,” he mutters. “We need to have a discussion,” he says, then flicks his gaze behind me. “You boys wait in the bar.”

I don’t turn around and look at my men. Instead, I follow behind the bearded man as he spins on his heels and marches back into the building.

I have no fucking clue what is going on here, but I know that he has Nadine, and I know that this is where Brody is the one in charge, so I’m going on an assumption that this isn’t going to turn bloody, but if it does, I have my own means of protection.

When he turns into a room, I follow behind him and stop when I realize I’m in an office. “Close the door,” he mutters.

Shutting the door behind me, I clear my throat as I watch him walk over to the window. It’s dark now, and I can’t help but wonder what the fuck he’s looking out at, but when he starts talking, I realize he’s just thinking.

“We don’t know where Brody is,” he announces. “We had a meeting scheduled for after work tonight, and he didn’t show up. Normally, I wouldn’t even notice if someone was missing, but he’s the one who called the meeting, and since he’s also the one who leads them, we all kind of noticed.”

“Is that what you were doing at the yard?” I ask.

He turns around to face me, his lips twitching beneath his beard. “Figured you’d have seen me there.”

“Where is she?” I ask, trying not to sound demanding, but on the other hand, not quite giving a fuck if I do.

“She’s safe. What I want to know is what the fuck is going on here?”

“Man, I don’t evenknowwho you are.”

We stare at one another, and I’m not sure which one of us does it better, but since he breaks eye contact and speaks first, I consider myself the victor. My lips twitch into a smirk as I listen to him speak.

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