“Allegra who?”
“What about Allegra?” Hayes could be heard in the background.
“Give her the phone, Lev,” Loch demanded.
Bitching about it being too early for such heaviness, the phone was handed off. “Lochlan?” Hayes soft voice came across. “What’s wrong with Allegra?”
“She’s been at Ma’s for a couple nights now. She’s got bruises along her neck and shoulders. Sage is talking to her now, but she needs help. She spent the night outside while we were all in Vegas rather than going home. She needs help.” He couldn’t convey that strong enough.
“What kind of help?”
“I was hoping the kind Ryder might be able to offer.”
Silence met his words. “I’ll call him,” she said promptly before hanging up.
It was only a few minutes before a text came through stating Ryder and a friend would be there in an hour.
Loch waited in the kitchen while the girls stayed outside. The sun had risen, the birds were chirping happily, not realizing devastation happened during their happiness. When he’d met Brett and Allegra that first time, Brett had mentioned his worry over the younger girl. He hadn’t wanted to be too obvious, but Loch caught on.
After seeing her again, the bruising, the sullen look in her gaze, Loch was confident something was happening at home, and none of it was good. A fifteen-year-old girl didn’t get bruises like that and not seek out where she felt safest. Her coming there was telling.
“Lochlan?” His mother had snuck up on him in the kitchen. “What’s going on?” Her gaze was glued to the girls.
“Do you think that could have been Sage?” he asked instead of answering. The fear that not too long ago that had been his new bride. Terror and rage spiked through his system.
Turning to him, Lorraine smirked. “Sage is much different than Allegra. She has an underlying strength that can’t be extinguished. I hate to say it, son, but with or without you, she’d have forged her own path. She wouldn’t have bowed down, no matter what.”
The image of his love lying in the hospital, beaten and broken, it was hard yet so incredibly easy to believe. His girl was a fighter. Even if her last breath were the only option out, she’d have escaped.
“I think Sage has her talking.”
“You do?” She seemed astonished.
“Ryder and a friend are on their way to see if they can help, too.”
“They are?” She looked down at her ratty robe, stolen from his father when he passed, and mumbled, “I better get presentable then,” as she left the room.
It wasn’t long after that, the doorbell rang. The girls both jumped at the sound. Sage turned to see him standing up. Her once worried gaze turned soft and full of love as she spotted him. He was one lucky son of a bitch.
Ryder Morrison had been shocked at the call from his sister, Hayes. She’d been excited when he first came home but soon became cold towards him. Not that he blamed her.
Even though his kidnapping and subsequent torture hadn’t been his fault, he’d been rescued more than a year ago. After his medical care and rehabilitation had finished, he didn’t know how to get back into civilian life. His life was far from normal.
His family had thought he was in the Navy in the Pacific fleet, and while it wasn’t a lie at first, it only lasted two years before he was recruited to be part of a top-secret team that answered solely to the President. They took on the missions no one else could or would. While he was living this secret life, and in recovery, Task Force 779 had become more than a brotherhood. They were family. And he couldn’t find it in himself to regret meeting his team.
“What are we doing here again?” Theo Burkhart, the expert sniper and all-around jackass of their team, asked him as they pulled up to his sister’s soon to be mother-in-law’s home.
“Hayes asked a favor. I’m doing it.”
“But why am I here at the ass crack of nothing?”
“Because I’m going in blind. Now stop bitching.”
“Fuck,” Theo spat out as Ryder rang the doorbell.
The door opened to a young man just a couple years his junior looking serious. “Hey, man, thanks for coming.” He stuck out his hand for Ryder to shake.
“You Loch?”