The reminder that I could have had her more and one of the reasons I hadn’t gotten that chance sat there on my sofa in front of me. The bitterness that had slowly been fading away came back in a rush. Oakley had the power to make a man forget his fucking name. I wasn’t going to let her make me forget that she was one of the people who had robbed me of the time I should have had with my daughter. Time I could never get back.

  She had blinded me once, but never again. I had let her in today. My mom had said things that made me think I could trust her. Allow her back into my life as well as Sarah’s. But there was the past, and Mom didn’t know all those details. It was something I didn’t discuss because the outcome had been Sarah. Blaming Oakley for crushing me and sending me on a drunken binge that had had me waking up with Sylvia in my bed felt like I was, in return, holding the birth of my daughter against her. I could never regret Sarah. Even if there was a time when I’d thought I’d never be happy again. That Oakley had taken any chance of that from me.

  There had to be a line, and I couldn’t cross it. Oakley having movie night with us had made Sarah happy and made me feel like less of a dick for what I’d said about her. But even if she had grown up and changed, it had only been six years since she had told the judge I wasn’t fit to have custody of Sarah.

  “Okay. I’ll get this cleaned up before Belladonna sneaks in here and does it herself. You don’t want her sick. It can get messy,” Oakley said, standing up.

  “I can get it,” I told her. “You need to get on the road. It’s late, and you have a five-hour drive.”

  When I had asked her to stay and watch a movie with us, I had fully intended for her to stay the night. That moment had passed. I could forgive her for the part she had played in the past with Sarah’s custody. My mom was right; Oakley had a good heart. She was a good person. The past was done, but just because time had changed her didn’t mean I could let my guard down with her.

  “Oh, yeah, right,” she replied, turning from me and picking up two bowls. “I’ll just move these so she doesn’t help herself while you tuck Sarah in, and then I’ll get going.”

  I stood there and watched her as she hurried from the room, not once looking at me. I felt like a fucking asshole, but this was the right thing to do. For Sarah and for me. I had to protect what was mine, and Oakley had once been a threat. That didn’t mean she couldn’t be again. At least where I was concerned.

  Shifting Sarah in my arms and pulling her closer to my body, I focused on her face. How big she was getting. How important she was to me and why Oakley needed to be kept at arm’s length. Allowing myself to remember how she had charmed my entire fucking family today—helped my mother, even gone out of her way to make Scott’s date feel like a part of the family—was just going to cause issues.

  Oakley was good with people. She had the beauty and charisma to command a room and mold everyone in it like putty in her hands. But she hadn’t betrayed them. She hadn’t turned on them out of spite and taken something from them that they could never get back.

  Forgiveness was one thing. Forgetting was another. She couldn’t have both. Not from me at least.

  I was almost to the top of the staircase when I heard the front door open. I didn’t look back to see her walking out of the house. I didn’t tell her to drive carefully or text me when she arrived home safely. It wasn’t my place or my concern. She was an adult and could take care of herself. If I started caring, I didn’t know if I could stop. The line had to be drawn somewhere, and I was using a motherfucking Sharpie to do it.

  It took two days for Sarah to start talking to me in full sentences again. When she had woken up to find out Oakley had gone home after the movie, she had been upset. With me. Granted, I probably deserved it. When I saw her texting Oakley that morning and Oakley responded, I’d been so fucking relieved because she had made it back safely. She was a woman. I would have been worried about any female driving that far alone at night. Especially if I was the reason she had done it to begin with.

  Now that Sarah was back in school and I wasn’t off dealing with that shit in Atlanta, I could get back to my regular routine. Whatever the fuck that was. Things had gotten so twisted lately that I was forgetting what normal was.

  The images of what we’d done to the guy we tried to get to tell us who was in charge of their death-sentence drug smuggling still played in my head when I let my guard down. The shit that had been done to him and he never gave up a name—it was fucked up. He was dead now, and for what?

  Running my hands through my hair, I sighed in frustration. When I was alone, it all haunted me. Came back to me. Reminding me how deep I’d gotten in this world. The one my mom had wanted to save me from, yet my father had cemented me in it. There was no going back. Not anymore. I was in this for life. Just like my dad and his dad, who had died because of it when my dad was only fifteen years old.

  I started to make my way to the shower when my cell rang. Turning, I went back to pick it up from where I had left it on my desk. The screen said Blocked, and I paused for a moment before answering. I should probably trace this, but I wasn’t sure where I could set that up quickly.

  “Hello?” I said into the phone, my body tense as I gripped the cell phone.

  “Wilder Jones.” The voice was being distorted with software made for that sort of thing.

  I began walking toward the room hidden in my closet, the door locked.

  “You took something of mine, and I want him returned. You have three hours before everyone you love is taken from you.”

  I froze as my heart slammed against my chest. Sarah. She was at school. Fuck!

  “I don’t have anyone. Who are you wanting returned,” I replied, putting in the code to unlock the door as my hands trembled. I had to get to Sarah. But I needed his fucking location.

  “Yes, you do. He’s about five-eleven, dark hair, dark eyes. You and the rest of that fucking squad of yours took him. You all will wish you’d never touched a hair on his head if he isn’t handed over to me.”

  My blood ran cold in my body. The man he wanted was dead. His torture was the one I couldn’t get out of my head. I’d been there. I had witnessed it. I’d listened to his cries. There was no way we could hand him over. All that was left of his body were pieces tossed into the ocean, and by now, they’d been eaten by sharks.

  “Where do you want him brought if I find him?” I wasn’t going to fucking find him but I had to figure out where he was.

  “The house you still own in Madison,” he drawled slowly.

  “I’m five hours away. I need more than three hours.”

  “Fine. I’ll make it four. But you need to hurry because I’m real close to that sexy-as-fuck piece of ass you are so fond of. She might decide to go somewhere soon, and I can’t stop what happens when she turns that key in her car.”

  The line went dead.

  Fucking hell. Oakley’s car. Motherfucker!

  Slamming my phone against the wall, I made sure it broke into several pieces, then fell to the floor. There would be a tracer on it. They’d kept me on the phone long enough to set that up.

  Jerking the door open to my hidden room, I grabbed two unused burner phones and stuffed one into my pocket, and then I broke into a run as I dialed Blaise Hughes’s cell.

  How did I get my daughter, Mom, and Porter safe and get to Oakley in time? FUCK! This could not be happening to me. I hadn’t touched the bastard. I had just been there.

  “Jones.” Blaise’s deep voice came over the phone.

  How the hell did he know it was me? I was on a damn burner.

  “Boss, I have a problem,” I said as I jumped into my truck.

  “The same one that Sebastian and King have, I imagine. Who are they threatening?”

  They’d called Sebastian and King? Dammit! I had planned to call one of them to go get Oakley. They would be racing to save their own families now.

  “My daughter, mom, stepdad, and Oakley Watson. My deceased ex-wife’s—”

  “I know who Oakley is. I keep close tabs on the people who get close to the family. Get your daughter. I’ll send Huck to get your mom and stepdad. Meet him back at your house. He’ll stay there as a guard outside. You leave Sarah with them, then get to the airstrip. I’ll have the jet waiting to get you to Georgia. You need to get Oakley safe so they have no leverage over us.”

  “But they have a bomb on Oakley’s car. If she starts it—”

  “Then, call her and make sure she doesn’t start her goddamn car,” he barked before ending the call.

  How was I supposed to tell Oakley anything? She wouldn’t listen to me. After I had sent her home, she probably wouldn’t answer my call.

  “FUCK!!!” I roared, gripping the steering wheel as I sped to my daughter’s school.

  Twenty-Three

  Oakley

  I finished drying my hair and plugged in the straightener just as my cell phone rang in the other room. Setting down my brush, I walked into the bedroom to get it. Hamilton’s name lit up the screen. I’d managed to avoid him since Thanksgiving, but I was starting to feel guilty about it. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He was nice to me. He liked me. He wasn’t Wilder, and that counted for a lot since Wilder was a jackass.

  I answered my phone.

  “Good morning,” I said.

  “Hey, stranger,” he replied. “You’ve been hard to get in touch with.”

  Yeah, no kidding. “Thanksgiving ended up being busier than I’d thought, and then I had work to catch up on. How have you been?”

  “Good, but I thought I’d see if you were available tonight. Dinner and a movie?”

  I stared straight ahead, looking out the window. There was no future in this, but did I never see a future because I measured everyone up to Wilder? The Wilder I’d once known. Not the jerk he had become. I had to find a way to move on and let go of the past. Hamilton wasn’t that guy, but was it wrong to enjoy dating? It wasn’t a promise for a future. Just dinner and a movie.

  “Yeah, that sounds nice. What time?” I replied.

  There was a brief pause. I started to check to see if he was on the line.

  “Let’s say, six? I can pick you up.”

  “That sounds perfect,” I told him.

  He let out a soft chuckle. “If you only knew how those three words have changed my mood.”

  At least someone was happy about being near me.

  “I’m glad I could help,” I said, smiling.

  “What are you doing now?” he asked me then.

  “I just finished drying my hair, and I’m about to get ready to go buy some groceries.”

  “Why don’t you finish catching up on all your work, and I’ll pick you up at five instead? We can go get your groceries together.”

  I frowned. That was a weird suggestion. Why would he want to go grocery shopping with me?

  “Uh, okay, if that’s what you want to do,” I replied.

  “It is. Besides, it gives me an excuse to be with you longer,” he said.

  That was … sweet. Possibly. Or just odd. But whatever.

  “I’ll finish up the orders I had come in last night, and then I’ll see you at five.”

  “Promise?”

  Okay, so Hamilton was starting to get a little clingy.

  “Uh, yeah, I promise.”

  “Good. See you soon, beautiful.”

  When the call ended, I stared down at my phone, confused by that entire conversation. I should call Daphne and ask her about Hamilton’s relationship history. She wouldn’t have set me up with a stalker type.

  I started to set my phone down when I saw five missed calls and five text messages. What in the world? This had to have happened when I was in the shower or drying my hair. Opening my phone back up, I saw they were all from an unknown number.

  I clicked the voice mails first.

  “Oakley, it’s Wilder. I’m going to call back. Please answer your phone.”

  The next one.

  “Dammit, Oakley, answer! I need to talk to you. It’s important!”

  My heart started to race. Was Sarah okay? Oh God, what was wrong?

  “Oakley, listen to me. Stay in your house. Do not leave. Do not open your door to anyone. Do not walk outside. And please, I am begging you, DO NOT get in your car.”

  I was gripping the phone so tightly that I realized my hand was sweating. What was going on here?

  The last voice message.

  “Please. Call me back. For Sarah, listen to me. DON’T leave your house. CALL ME.”

  Pulling the phone from my ear, I opened the text messages, all from the unknown number Wilder had been calling from.

  Oakley, you are killing me here. I need to know you’re okay.

  Answer me, dammit!

  Stay in your house, Oakley. Do it for Sarah.

  I need to know you’re alive. Just give me something here.

  Oakley, please! Answer your goddamn phone!

  I was shaking. I checked the time these had been sent, and it was an hour and a half ago. I’d been in the shower with my favorite playlist blaring.

  I started to dial the number back. Sarah had to be okay. Why was he worried about me? What was going on? So many questions were running through my head. I didn’t know what to ask him first.

  The moment the phone rang, I heard a loud noise in the front of my house. It sounded like someone had kicked in my door. I looked frantically around the room for something to use as a weapon. The only things that looked remotely dangerous were my hand weights. I ran over and grabbed them. They were only fifteen pounds each, but if I hit someone in the head with one hard enough, it might buy me some time.

  When I turned around, Wilder was filling my doorway, and the sight of him made me want to weep with relief. Until I remembered that he had just broken into my house after calling and texting me several times.

  “What is going on?!” I shouted, panicked. “You could have knocked or—I don’t know—used the doorbell.”

  “We have to leave. Let’s go. NOW!” he barked at me.

  I didn’t move. “I don’t have to do anything. You can either tell me—” I stopped talking as he stalked over toward me. “Wilder, what are you doing?!”

  “We are leaving,” he said simply before taking the weights out of my hands, tossing them onto the floor, then picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder.

  “WILDER! What in the hell?! PUT ME DOWN! I don’t even have on clothes! This is a towel wrap!” I beat on his back as he carried me through my house.

  He didn’t respond, so I kept pounding on him and started kicking. This was insanity, and he needed to talk to me now.

  “You are crazy! Put me down!”

  “Don’t make me gag you and tie you up, Oakley,” he warned as we walked out of my house.

  The damaged door was standing wide open. He hadn’t even tried to close it.

  “I need clothes, my phone, to lock up my house! Wilder!”

  “You need to shut up!” he snarled.

  I couldn’t see where we were going, but I tried to lift my head enough to see my surroundings. We passed by my car and kept going. My house wasn’t locked up and couldn’t be thanks to the damage to my door. That stressed me out.

  “Wilder, my house can’t be left open like that. I have my things in there. Anyone could break in.”

  “It’ll be taken care of,” he replied, then opened a car door I couldn’t see and shifted me into his arms before shoving me into the backseat.

  Black leather, tinted windows, the faint smell of cigar, and a man I did not know was in the driver’s seat.

  Wilder climbed in after me and slammed the door. “Buckle up,” he ordered me.

  I glared at him, tugging my towel wrap down to cover up what I could of my upper thighs and adjusting it over my breasts. I was practically naked and being kidnapped by my former brother-in-law. Things could not get any more twilight zone than this.

  “Ready?” the driver asked.

  “Yeah,” Wilder replied. “Make sure the house is locked up when the car is taken care of.”

  The guy nodded.

  “What car? My car?” I asked him.

  He didn’t respond. The only reaction I got from him was his jaw clenching. This was Wilder. Sarah’s father. He wasn’t going to hurt me. I knew this. Yet here I was, barely covered up, in the back of a strange SUV, after he barged into my house and took me.

  “Wilder, can you tell me if Sarah is okay?” That was my one real concern. The rest would fall into place after that.

  He nodded. “She’s fine.”

  Okay. I could at least be relieved about that.

  “Thank God. Now, will you please tell me why I am basically naked in the backseat of this vehicle after being forcefully taken from my home?”

  He turned his head, and his gaze drifted down my body, as if he was just now registering that I was wearing a terry-cloth wrap. I had told him I was naked before. He hadn’t cared.

  Muttering a curse, he leaned forward and pulled off the brown leather jacket he was wearing. “Put this on,” he said, shoving it at me.

  I reached out and took it. “This is great and all, but you need to explain what is going on.”

  His gaze swung back to the road in front of us. “You’re in danger, Oakley. I had to get you out. That’s all you need to know.”

  Danger? Me? What?!

  “Wilder, that isn’t an answer. How am I in danger, and how would you know I was in danger? Are you … high?” I asked finally, not able to come up with any other reason this man had lost his damn mind.

  The driver laughed, then tried to cover it up with clearing his throat.