Page 30 of Shattered Souls
A commotion in the hall is quickly followed by the door being thrown open, and Logan rushes in. Riley is on his heels, Gray bringing up the rear.
“You have a lead?” Riley asks, breathless and wide-eyed as she stares at me.
Fuck, there is so much hope in those eyes. This lead better pan out because the thought of getting her hopes up only to be crushed sickens me. I’m already in a state of constant agitation, made worse when Riley startles awake in the middle of the night from a nightmare. I can’t bear the thought of adding even more disappointment to her plate.
“Maybe,” I hedge.
“What the fuck do you mean, maybe?” Gray snarls. “You said you had a fucking lead.”
I arch a warning brow at him. Now is most definitely not the time for his temper to get the better of him. This room is already suffocatingly small with all of us in it.
Teeth grinding, he sucks in a breath before slowly exhaling.
“What’s the lead?” Logan asks, defusing the situation as he pulls Riley into his arms, holding her steady.
Dax turns the laptop to face them, giving them a second to take in what they are seeing before pointing toAriel’spicture. “Do you think that could be Aurora?”
My gaze remains glued on Riley’s pale face as her eyes bounce over the screen, seeming to linger on every one of the twelve pictures before coming to rest on the one that may be of her daughter.
Her throat stretches around a swallow before she steps forward, coming closer to the screen as Logan’s arms fall away. However, he doesn’t let her go far, remaining right behind her in case she needs him. He’s the source of comfort she has needed this past week. The only one of us who knows how to care for her while I do everything I can to track down the sick bastard who purchased Aurora, and Grayson… Grayson gives Riley an outlet for all those ugly emotions she’s feeling and unable to process or give voice to. He has a knack for sensing when she needs that outlet—someone to explode on—and he’s perfected the art of pissing her off.
“I—I don’t know,” Riley admits in a tight voice after staring at the photo for several long moments. “Maybe?” She shakes her head, eyes never leaving the screen as frustration creases her brow. “I can’t be sure. The hair looks like hers, and the size and build look similar, but…” Her eyes lift to mine, the turmoil I find in her hazel depths slaying me. “Shouldn’t I know what my own daughter looks like?” Her lips tremble, and my heart openly bleeds for her. It takes everything in me to remain in place. To not round the table and pull her into my arms so she can freely fall apart.
“It’s a poor-quality photo, sweetheart,” I try to soothe instead. “And you can’t see her face. We didn’t expect you to be able to discernibly identify her.”
Tears rim the bottom of her lids as she holds my gaze. “But you’re going to investigate anyway?”
I nod, holding her stare and hoping she can see that I won’t stop until I find her little girl. She latches onto my gaze like it’s a lifeline. A buoy in rough waters preventing her from being dragged under.
“What is this anyway?” Gray asks, stepping up beside Riley to get a closer look at the screen.
“We think it’s some sort of auction,” Dax explains.
“Youthink?” Grayson’s harsh snap might have others jumping out of their skin, but Dax doesn’t even miss a blink.
“As I was saying,” Blue drawls, interrupting the stare-off between Gray and Dax—oh shit, I completely forgot he was on the phone—“That’s all the info I can get without registering to attend the event. Whoever is organizing this has covered all their bases. They have everything locked down. I’ve been searching for hours but can’t find a backdoor past their security.”
“Keep trying,” Dax tells him as he grabs his phone from the desk and ends the call. Pushing to his feet, he casts his eyes around the room. “This is a discussion between the four of you.” Meeting my gaze, he adds, “Whatever you decide, you know you have my support. I’ll get a team organized.”
I nod, and without another word, he strides from the room, leaving oppressive silence, the stench of fear, and the tiniest amount of, dare I say, hope in his wake.
“What’s he talking about?” Logan asks, glancing between the closed door and me.
“Along with the image Blue found, there’s a link to a private room where you can get the event details—when, where, etc.” My gaze drifts over each of them. “There’s a price simply to get into the chat room—it’s steep.”
Riley’s face drops as Logan scoffs. “Whatever it is, we’ll pay it.”
“Agreed,” Grayson adds.
“I figured as much.” Given how, between us, we had agreed to put a hell of a dent in our inheritances to get Aurora away from Lydia. However, since we don’t know for certain that thisisAurora, I needed to run it past them first.
Riley glances between us with an open mouth and so much gratitude shining in those hazel eyes. However, she doesn’t mount a word of protest—for once. I didn’t expect she would, not when it comes to something so precious. She may feel guilty, butshe won’t object. Nor would we let her get her way, even if she did.
What is the point of having money if we can’t spend it on making the woman we love happy? And nothing will make her happier than having her daughter back in her arms. Not that I’ll let that stop me from spoiling her. I might not have the same bottomless pit of inheritance the others do. In fact, I have pennies in comparison—My dad all but disinherited me after I publiclydisgraced the family. In other words, he didn’t give two shits about what I’d supposedly done when he’d swept it under the rug, but once Halston got wind of the accusations, and the rumor mill started, he claimed he needed to ‘distance’ me from the King name. If he had another child, I’m confident I’d have been excommunicated. As it was, he settled for publicly disowning me and financially cutting me offto teach me a lesson.
The only lesson I learned was that I don’t need my father’s money to survive. I do just fine with what I make from my fights, plus a few well-placed bets on myself.
However, I do have a small inheritance from my grandfather that I have never been more grateful for than I am now.Thatis the money I plan on using to help get Aurora back, and I don’t give a shit if I spend every penny achieving it.
