Page 5 of Protect

“Where do you think I’m going?” Dimitri growls.

At least he’s as pissed as I am. Makes me feel a little saner. I force a slow exhale. “Jared clearly knows something more. He has to, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten that video.”

“I know that,” Dimitri mumbles.

We head over to the apartment and I glower at my phone as if that’ll make Knox call me any quicker with an update. I keep thinking of Jared resting too comfortably in the hospital while our girl is dealing with her father. She’d be safer with the damn devil at this point. But she’s safest with me.

With me is where she belongs!

“Hold on—” Dimitri starts as he rummages through his pocket for the key but my patience is too thin for this.

I step back, then kick open the door. The frame cracks and gives way easily. Dimitri sighs. “Can you tone it down and avoid breakingeverythingtoday?”

“I knocked,” I replied. “The door folded as easily as Jared did.”

“Yeah, we still live in this building. Take it down a notch. We’ll need a safe place for her when we get her back.”

I swallow Dimitri’s words as he heads in first.

We’re going to get her back. We will. And I will kiss every injury she has. I’ll make sure her father wears the same marks. I’ll give him scars inside and out. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll let him live. As a man who can’t do anything but blink. It wouldn’t be a mercy.

I’d make sure of that. He’ll hurt every day until his pain is all he knows and he’ll know it’s because of what he’s done to her and the way he used us. Long after Hope’s recovered, he’ll still be in agony.

The thought makes me smile while I start working through the apartment as we have done before, but now we’re lookingfor any connection to Coach. Dimitri takes his time, going over everything, but the lack of evidence, the lack ofeverythingis getting on my nerves. We need answers and I might just have to break things to make sure we get it.

“Did you check his computer?” I ask and Dimitri shakes his head as he stalks closer to the coffee table to open it.

“I’m still working on whoever sent that video to Jared,” he sighs. The laptop screen lights up and I peek over Dimitri’s shoulder as he does a quick search.

“I have some programs running on it, but nothing yet,” he says.

It doesn’t seem like there’s anything we didn’t find before until Dimitri logs into Jared’s email account with ease. We both go still as we see the new message pop up.

“Same sender as last time,” Dimitri mumbles and opens the attachment.

A video pops up, one that immediately threatens to ruin me. My anger is going to consume me entirely. I can’t see anything through the red haze pulsing across my gaze other than Hope, afraid, holding herself.

I dig my short nails into my palms until it hurts enough that I can think.

“Shit,” Dimitri whispers.

Hope is there surrounded by darkness. Her knees are pulled to her chest with her arms wrapped around her. She rocks herself back and forth with something dark in her eyes. She takes a slow breath and looks around before holding herself tighter.

I can hear her heavy breathing, can see the tears on her face, the bruises across her exposed skin. They’re new. Some are so new they’re obviously red and still welting up.

“I’m going to break each of his fingers,” I hiss.

“Her dad or…”

“Her father—I’m going to break every bone in his body, but Jared… if he has this, you’re right. He knows more. He has information he’s been keeping from us. We can’t have that. He owes us,” I say.

“Seems like he’s the next stop then. Jared’s going to answer every question,” Dimitri agrees darkly.

“And the hospital won’t discharge him anytime soon,” I agree.

Dimitri closes the laptop and tosses it in his bag. We leave the apartment and are at the hospital before I can fully clear the short twenty-second video from my mind. If it weren’t for Dimitri’s calmness, I wouldn’t be able to be of any use. That’s why we work: he keeps me and Knox in check, in balance.

We were always drawn to each other, taking care of each other on the field. But Coach was the one who tied us together. Who made us brothers.