Decker
“What do you mean you left her there alone?” I was ready to tear my hair out. “Do you not understand that her sister was murdered for this?” I held up the flash drive. “It didn’t occur to you that either Marshall Livingston or her own father might assume she has it since she was given her sister’s effects? Fuck!”
> Spinning around, I went back the way I came in. If I stayed another minute longer, I’d rip Grinder’s damn face off. I pulled my phone from my pocket and swiped the screen. Mila’s cell rang three times and then went to voicemail. Classic avoidance; she’d manually declined my call.
“Goddammit,” I swore at the phone. Now wasn’t the time for her to avoid me. I needed to know she was safe.
I climbed back into the Bummer, so pissed that I’d been two minutes away from her place when I decided to turn around and go back to the ranch. It would take me ten minutes to get back there if I took the fire road, fifteen on the highway.
“Decker!” I heard Edge yell right before I pulled away.
“What?”
“We put a tracker on Judd Knight’s vehicle. He’s at the house with Mila,” Edge yelled.
“Go!” Grinder added. “We’re right behind you.”
Edge ran around to the other side of the Bummer, but he was too late; I’d already peeled away.
When I pulled in behind the barn, I cut the engine. From there, I could see Judd standing near the back of the house. He looked like he was in a conversation, and while I couldn’t see whom with, I assumed it was Mila.
I ran as close to the side of the barn as I could, gun drawn. I’d have to cross in the yard out in the open, but if Judd saw me, at least he’d know I was near enough to get a clean shot off if he tried anything.
I took off running, and Judd saw me, but his reaction was one I didn’t expect. I was close enough to see the terror that flashed in the man’s eyes. Judd didn’t want the person he was talking to, to know I was there.
When I got closer to the house, I stayed near the exterior wall where I could still see Judd—more importantly—I could hear him.
“Let her go, Livingston. It’s me you want,” he said, raising both his hands.
“Fuck you, Knight. I don’t want you. I want my money. All the money you stole from me. Every goddamn penny.”
“Let her go and you’ll get it.”
The cackle I heard from the other man sent a shudder up my spine. It was identical to what I’d heard in the surveillance video.
When Judd lowered his chin and then raised it again, I peered around the corner.
Marshall Livingston held Mila around her waist and had a gun pressed firmly against her temple.
37
Adler
“No! It can’t be!” I screeched when the woman played the video on her phone.
“Watch it,” she seethed, shoving the screen into my face when I tried to look away. “Who is that, Adler? Look at it and tell me!”
“I’m going to be sick.”
“I don’t care if you throw up all over yourself; you’re gonna watch every minute.”
I shook my head as tears ran down my cheeks. There was no denying the man in the video was my father. It was the third time she made me watch and listen to the vile things he said and did.
“I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know,” I cried.
“Where’s your father now, Adler?”
When I shook my head, she slammed her fist into my nose and then grabbed the hair on the back of my head. “Where…is…he?”