His front door.
Not the massive steel gate at the front of his property, but the actual front door.
I don’t know how Tac opened the security gate from wherever he was, nor do I know what happened to the armed guards that were patrolling White’s grounds before I walked through the gate.
Didn’t give a fuck.
All that mattered was no one stopped me or came near me as I strode up to the door and rapped out a knock on it.
Whatever Tac had done to the grunts, he’d done it silently. And effectively. No alarms had been raised, and no bodies were visible.
Shoving my hands into the pockets of my tuxedo pants, I stood—loose, charged, and ready—and waited for the door to open.
I didn’t expect White to be the one to answer it.
He didn’t.
Ronnie did.
My heart smashed up into my throat, choking me. My chest crushed.
Our eyes connected for a fleeting second as she whispered “Lucas”, and then I lunged for her.
And missed.
She leaped backward, out of my reach, shaking her head, eyes wide. “No, no, Lucas,” she hissed, waving her hands in front of her. “Stop. Stop.”
I did.
I had no fucking clue what was going on, but Ronnie told me to stop, so I stopped.
Standing still, on the doorway’s threshold, I studied her. “What’s going on, babe? Are you hurt?”
Running a gaze over her, my gut twisted.
Her wedding dress was gone, replaced with a short slip of a dress made of red satin that revealed an obscene amount of cleavage and an equally obscene amount of thigh. Her hair was a tussled mess. The engagement ring I’d given her was gone from her finger.
What. The. Fuck.
She shook her head again, remaining at least three steps out of my reach. “No.”
“What’s going on?” I repeated. Cold. I felt cold. And furious. What had the fucking bastard done to her? I was going to rip his fucking throat—
“Ah, you’re finally here.” White strode into view, smiling broadly as he slipped his hand over Ronnie’s hip and drew her close to his side.
She stiffened but didn’t fight against him.
My Ronnie, letting another man touch her.
My world imploded. I stared at him, on fire, and at the same time chilled to the bone.
“Let her go,” I ordered. “It’s not Ronnie you want. It’s me. Dead.”
White laughed, flicking a look over my shoulder to the grounds behind me. He tried to hide it, I could tell, but a knot of tension bunched his jaw, and a shadow fell over his eyes. Fear? Worry?
Yeah, he had every fucking right to be worried.
And scared.