A Debt Repaid (The Debt Duet 2)

After a while, he leans away and looks at me, staring into the depths of my soul with his tear-filled eyes. They hurt to look at, but I refuse to look away. “She’s gone … isn’t she?”

I nod, crying too. “I’m sorry.”

He sucks on his lips and fiddles with a paper lying on the table. “I didn’t want to believe it was true when I saw you come back home on your own.”

I frown as he picks up the paper and shows it to me. “This was in the mailbox.”

There’s printed text on the paper.

The little girl is mine unless you surrender yourself, Charlotte.

Call the attached number. If you don’t … more will get hurt.

Your father.

My eyes widen, and my jaw drops.

All along, I thought Easton took her so he could get me back … and now I find out my father did this? He could kill that little girl just to get me because his life is at stake. This is even more dangerous than I thought.

“What do I do?” Deion mutters, his voice as broken as his heart.

“Nothing,” I say, grasping the piece of paper. I stare at the phone number at the bottom. “This is my fault … and I will fix this.”

I get up from the floor and go to the living room. Deion calls out from the kitchen, “What are you going to do?”

With the telephone in my hand, I sit down on the couch and sigh. “I’m going to give myself up.”

He doesn’t follow me back to the living room as I stare at the number on the paper. He knows as well as I do that I have to make this choice. Only I can fix this.

But if I call my father now, I doubt he’ll give Ashanti back.

In fact, I’m certain he’d have her and Deion killed while picking me up.

There’s only one thing I can do to prevent that from happening. Only one person who would ever do something if I begged for it.

I dial Easton’s number.

Easton

My phone rings, and I immediately pick it up, expecting to hear from Davis or one of my men. It’s been far too long since I heard news about Charlotte’s disappearance from any of them. It’s as though no one is looking anymore … or they’ve already found her and kept her hidden from me. Let’s fucking hope not because I’d rip out their throats if they did.

“Van Buren,” I growl.

“Easton?”

My eyes widen. “Charlotte?”

“Easton … I … I …” She’s sobbing out loud.

“What happened? Where are you?” I ask, grasping the desk.

“My father … He took a little girl …”

Her father? What the …?

I thought I told that son of a bitch to contact me if he found out anything. And here she is calling me to tell me he’s abducted a girl?

“What girl? You’re not making any sense,” I reply.

“I’ve been living with a family. Somewhere … close.” She swallows loudly. I can tell she’s trying her best not to tell me her location, but she knows as well as I do there’s no point in lying about it. I will find out where she is, one way or another.

“But my father has been tracking my location since I called him and my brother, and now he took this family’s little girl,” she says, sniffing. “I don’t think he’ll bring her back.”

So he went behind my back anyway … that fucking bastard. He knew where she was, and he didn’t care to fucking tell me.

“Tell me where you are right now,” I say, clenching the phone in my hand so hard it almost breaks.

“No,” she says.

“Then why did you call?” I say.

Even though it’s hard, I have to be patient with her. After all, this is the first time we’ve talked since she escaped my grasp, and I don’t want to scare her away. I can’t let this chance to find her slip away.

“Because … you’re the only one I could call,” she says.

“You want me to help you,” I answer for her.

“Yes. I want her back.”

I rub the stubble on my chin. “You know the price, right?”

She takes a deep breath, and there’s a pause. “Yes.”

A devilish smile forms on my lips. “You did good to call me.”

“Will you bring her back?” she asks. “Please?”

That final word undoes me, stripping me bare of all my defenses.

“If that’s what you wish,” I mutter. “I will honor your request on one condition.”

“Yes,” she says in one breath. Not a moment of hesitation on the answer because she knew all along where this road would take her.

“You already know your answer without knowing the question?” I say.

“There’s only one thing I know Easton Van Buren wants most of all,” she replies. “My answer is yes.”

She’d sacrifice that much for a single girl? Interesting.

“Deal.”

I hang up the phone. No need to find out any more details. Davis will give me exactly what I need …