Page 83 of Stolen Hearts

We’ll see about that.

He didn’t know Denver. Didn’t know his family. The Malones would never stop searching for her. They would reunite her with the man she loved and with her child.

When he left the room and locked her in, she thought she would feel relief at being alone. But fear and his words gnawed at her.

The house was sealed tight. She hadn’t shared anything about her family with Denver—he wouldn’t know where to start looking for her.

And Ravencroft had been planning this for years.

She collapsed against the bookshelf, legs buckling. Her lungs burned for air.

A foot away lay the crumpled note, and she closed her fingers around it, holding in the last remnant she had of her father. This room was filled with photographs of her parents.

She would not let their deaths be for nothing.

Even if she was terrified, even if she didn’t know how to fight Ravencroft, she had to find a way to endure. Denver would come for her. She had to cling to that belief.

Her SEAL wouldn’t stop until he found her.

* * * * *

The second Denver got confirmation from Dante, his heart stopped beating—and then roared back to life like a war drum.

“She’s alive.” His voice cracked. For a moment, he pinched the bridge of his nose hard, chest heaving with emotion and relief.

Dante’s voice came over the encrypted line. “Satellites tracked movement from a private jet to a convoy on the ground in… You’re not gonna fucking believe it, man.”

“What? Tell me.”

“She’s in New Jersey at the Rivers’ family estate.”

“Jesus.” His fists knotted, and he bowed his head. “You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

Dante continued talking, filling him and his brothers—filling in the Black Heart Security team—with every scrap of intel he dug up. “After her parents died, the estate remained in Rhae’s name, with a trustee.”

“Robert Ravencroft.” The name scalded the back of his throat and burned a path of rage through him.

“It’s undergone some renovations.”

“Like what?” His voice held an edge.

“Fortifications. Gates. Bars on the windows.”

“Jesus fucking Christ. Are you telling me that Ravencroft made the house into a prison?”

To keep Rhae inside.

He already knew she came from New Jersey…so damn closeto the Blackout Charlie team’s base, a mansion seized by the government and granted to the team for use as a base, hiding them in plain sight.

His team could provide backup. They could get to Rhae withinminutes.

He could practically feel the ghosts of past missions breathing down his neck, and that old sensation of floating accompanied the ringing of his ears, a product of the medical condition that ended his contract with the Charlie team in the first damn place.

Even as these thoughts tripped through Denver’s mind, he knew it was impossible for Charlie to step in. Unsanctioned missions would get them in deep shit with their commander.

“Thank you, Dante. I… There aren’t words.”

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