I don’t know where the words came from because I didn’t have that kind of sway in the world, but I would give everything I had to make it happen if she didn’t give me what I needed right now, and I knew targeting her habit and what she used in life to keep it going would be a trigger. The death of her grandmother, the violent beating her cousin had endured, the fact a woman had been kidnapped because of her, and her daughter’s life hanging in the balance hadn’t, but drugs would.
Fucking Christ.
There was a silence that stretched on for so long that I thought for a second that she’d hung up on me, but then she whispered, “In the purple bear. It’s in there.”
The fucking purple bear? Whatever was worth her daughter’s life was in that piece of shit bear that she’d given to her daughter. She had to have known it would put her life in danger, but she’d done it, anyway.
Fuck. Fuck me!
And that’s when all the remnants of the pity and ideas of helping save Effie from the demons that were controlling her and driving her to live a life of drugs I’d had left me. She’d knowingly and deliberately put her daughter’s life in danger.
Looking back at Leo and seeing him looking ashen and devastated, I hissed, “Right now your father is looking like his world has just ended finding out his daughter deliberately put his granddaughter’s life in the hands of a psychopath.” When she went to say something, I snapped, “Shut the fuck up and fucking listen to me. Your grandmother is in a bad way – Last Rites kind of bad way,” I clarified, listening to her gasp. “Your daughter will now know that her mother not only didn’t care enough about her to raise her and give her the world she deserves, but she’ll know that you cared enough about yourself to dangle her over the edge of a cliff. If anything, anything happens to that baby or my mom, I’ll deliver you to Perkins myself. Now, the last thing you do for your daughter – in fact, it’ll be the only thing you’ve ever done for her – is you text me the number you have for Perkins. If you don’t, I’ll find you and get it myself, and trust me – you don’t want that to happen.”
Before she could say anything else, I hung up and gestured to the men in the room who were all now standing. Apparently I’d been so absorbed in the phone call and dealing with a real-life version of Satan, that I hadn’t seen the new arrivals to the group.
“I don’t know what it is, but whatever he wants is hidden in that bear because the toy itself is worth jack shit.”
“I’ll go get it,” Bond offered, Canon and Reid nodding and standing close to him. “Is it still on the shelf in her room?”
Shaking my head, I went to push past them, but DB caught my arm. “You’re not going. The house needs cleaned up, Jarrod. You seeing that again with this new information will fry your brain and we need you.”
Seeing the wisdom in this, I swallowed over the lump in my throat and then cleared it so I could talk. “Yeah, it’s in the Steiff box that the other bear came in. We’ll meet at the garage and I’ll call Perkins with the news.”
Not needing to be told what to do, my brothers turned and left to get it. They’d just cleared the door when a hand grabbed my other shoulder and I turned around and saw Leo standing there, his face wearing what I figured was a similar expression to mine.
“If anything happens, I want her dealt with. I’m thinking you don’t have the power you made her think you have, but whatever needs to done I’ll help you with.”
The conviction and determination in his voice shocked me, and then I got why he’d looked so confused when I’d asked him if he was with me before. “This is your daughter we’re talking about. I’m not sure it’s possible for you to do that to her, man.”
“No, my daughter wouldn’t do this to her family or her daughter. My daughter wouldn’t have walked out of the hospital after she pushed Elodie out. My daughter wouldn’t set her baby up to the possibility of having her life taken from her by giving her something that belongs to a man who’d take lives to get it back. So that isn’t my daughter, that’s a fucking nightmare and I want her stopped.”
Nodding at him, I shifted the angle of my body to include him in what I was going to ask the men to do.
“We meet at the garage and wait for them to come with the bear. As soon as I’ve got it in front of me, I’ll call Perkins to arrange a meet.” All the men nodded at this plan, but there was more. Focusing on DB and his men, I said, “You’re the law enforcement in this, so I need to know what you can do and give you the lead once we’ve got the bear.”