“We are going to find that kid,” Keltan hissed. “He’s gonna be in one piece. And that woman is gonna fuckin’ hold her son again.”
“Not for you to say,” Lance replied, even though he wanted to believe it.
Keltan’s eyes hardened. “Yes, it fuckin’ is. Because we’ve got intel on the guy. Recently transferred here, working as a detective. Wire has already told me he’s got plans on runnin’ for office like his dad. Most likely scenario is that he wants the pretty wife and son back to help boost votes. He’s not gonna lay his hand on that kid. He’s a piece of shit of the worst kind, but from what I understand, he’s not stupid enough to hurt him.”
“He was stupid enough to hurt her,” Lance replied, thinking of the bruise on her beautiful and delicate face and having to withhold his wince. That was odd. It wasn’t even that serious of an injury. He’d seen much worse. On plenty of people who didn’t deserve it. But with her it was different.
“Men stupid enough to lay their hands on women don’t have any smarts,” he continued. “They don’t have anything left to make them a man. They’re lowest of the low. They’ve got no limits. Morals. So that kid is in trouble.”
Keltan chose this moment to grab him by the shirt. He was surprised he didn’t hit him, he could tell he wanted to. It didn’t faze him, he was used to people wanting to hit him for telling them a truth they didn’t want to hear.
He wanted to tear the flesh from his own skin hearing that truth echoing in his brain.
“You need to stop, now,” Keltan commanded, voice cold. “You need to do your job, focus on that. And make sure you stay the fuck away from Elena. I don’t want you spewing any of your shit anywhere near her. She’s gone through enough.”
After a beat, he let him go and stormed from the office.
Keltan didn’t have to worry about him going near Elena. He planned on keeping as far away from her as he could.
He also planned on getting her kid back for her.
“Fuck,” Luke breathed after Keltan had briefed them all.
He’d gotten the whole team together.
Usually each of them was competent enough to handle shit on their own, most of them specialized in certain fields. Duke was good at the celebrity babysitting crap, Luke did a lot of the security installations, had law enforcement connections, Heath with roughing people up when needed, Rosie, being all-around fucking insane, and him with the dirty work. And cleaning up after the dirty work was done.
This shit was all hands on deck.
They were gonna go and get the kid as soon as possible. But there were logistics to take care of. Safeguards to make sure that piece of shit knew he could never go near Elena or the kid again if he wanted to keep breathing.
And they had to keep the fucker breathing.
She didn’t want him dead.
It angered him unlike anything had.
He didn’t think he had the ability to be angry again. Anger was an emotion, wasn’t it? And he didn’t have emotions.
Until today.
Now he had too many, it was hard to think straight. It was because he knew she was in here, somewhere.
He needed to get out of here. He was crawling out of his fucking skin. But Keltan had called the meeting.
“Yeah,” Keltan agreed.
Rosie’s eyes were hard and her small hands fisted on the table. “Where is she? Elena?”
“In the rooms upstairs. Got Stella getting her something to eat ‘cause she honestly looks like she’s about to pass out.”
Lance thought about that. The fact that her body was lean to the point of gaunt and she was a woman who was meant to have curves. You could tell that by just looking at her. Full lips, all that fuckin’ hair. Beautiful caramel skin.
He was a piece of shit for even thinking that in this situation, but he was a piece of shit.
And he’d never had a reaction to a woman before. He didn’t have much of a reaction. He fucked them because he knew it was a necessary release of pressure, but it wasn’t something that drove him. There was no animal need.
But he had it with the bruised, battered single mother pleading for help to get her son back.
Yeah, he was a piece of shit.
“She won’t pass out,” he spoke, even without meaning to. All eyes went on him because he never usually spoke at these things. He kept words to a minimum. He didn’t like the sound of his own voice in his head. “Woman like that, only time she’ll fall over looking for her son is if her heart stops beating.”
Keltan’s eyes focused on him, too fucking intensely. They were still hardened from the exchange earlier. He nodded, before looking to the rest of the room. “Lance’s right. She’s strong. Tough. A good woman. But she’s holding on by a fucking thread.”