“Bash and Damian think The Lucaya Group has her.”
“And what do you think?”
“I think they’re right. Only someone with their connections could make someone disappear like this.”
Rhi smoothed her soft fingers across the back of my neck, and the tiny hairs stood at attention. I loved the way she touched me. My wife always left me wanting more. But I had to focus on locating Kali.
She was out there somewhere. I just needed to find the backdoor. With Drake Battle’s help, I had access to the Dark Web. I searched chat rooms, postings, any online traffic that dealt with selling women. Unfortunately, this part of the Internet was full of depraved lunatics. Finding the needle in a haystack was near impossible with this group of degenerates.
I ran a search on every place Kali had lived in the three years she was gone. And after sorting through the usual bullshit, I found a smoking gun. “Holy shit.”
Rhi leaned closer to the computer monitor, her eyes wide. “How could Kali keep this from your brothers?”
I hit print and lifted Rhi off my lap as I rose to my feet. She stood beside me, studying the page in disbelief. So this had to be the reason Kali fled Devil’s Creek three years ago, the reason she didn’t want to come back. It all made sense.
“Kali said something a few weeks ago,” Rhi said as we left the room.
I locked the steel door behind us, sealing it with my thumbprint. “About leaving town?”
“Sort of. Kali said she wished you had left her in France.”
I folded the piece of paper and stuffed it into the pocket of my suit jacket. “Now we know why.”
“Do you think she ran?”
“Until today, I wasn’t sure. I thought Bash and Damian were right about her kidnapping.” I stopped in front of the metal ladder attached to the wall of what Alex called my Spy Shed. “Are you okay getting back up on your own?”
Rhi glanced up at the hole which led to my backyard. “Yeah, I think so. If I weren’t so damn big, it would be a lot easier.”
“I tried to warn you.” I kissed the top of her head and slid my hand to her stomach. “But my wife is so stubborn.”
I didn’t want Rhi to come down here with me, not with her belly so big she was ready to topple over. My hideout was underground, the secret entrance hidden in my backyard. Pushing my hand to her back, I helped her onto the rungs of the ladder, right behind her as we slowly climbed. When she reached the top, she pushed the metal lid to the side.
Once on land, I sent my brothers a group text, telling them to meet us in the dining room so I could share the news. I squeezed Rhi’s hand as I led her across the patio and into the house. She looked up at me with a smile that reached her pretty green irises. We only had a few more months until we welcomed our daughter into the world.
I was so excited to meet her.
Why did our lives have to be so dramatic? Couldn’t we get one year of peace to enjoy our families before we had another threat to handle?
The document I printed wasn’t evidence of Kali’s whereabouts, but it explained a lot. I understood why she left three years ago and why she fought me so hard about returning home.
Damian and Bastian sat beside Luca at the dining room table, and I took my seat on Luca’s right. We had a new configuration within the family. Dad was dead, Luca was the boss, and I was okay with it. I never wanted to be the leader of our family. None of this shit ever interested me. But now that we were on our own, we had to be united.
I removed the folded paper from my pocket and slid it across the table before Bash and Damian. They read in silence. Damian clenched his jaw while Bastian shook his head.
“This is bullshit,” Bash shouted. “Where did you find this?”
“Online.” I pointed at the table. “That’s all the proof you need to stop looking for her.”
“She didn’t run from us,” Damian said as if it hurt his pride too much to consider the possibility. “No, someone took her. And this proves nothing.”
“It had to be The Lucaya Group,” Bastian confirmed. “She would have popped up on someone’s radar by now if she’d left on her own.”
Luca grabbed the paper from the table, shook his head, then laughed. “Fucking Kali. Unbelievable. She had a baby.” His eyes lifted to look at my brothers. “Which one of you is the father?”