Love Renewed (Entwined Hearts #3) (25 page)

Turning me around to face him I feel my body shaking. I look into his black eyes and feel the fear I thought I’d left behind all those years ago creep back into my veins.

“Why?” I say the word on a sob.

“Because I fucking can,” he answers and everything goes black when I receive yet another blow to the head. This time, though, it’s familiar. It’s like old times.

“Pea, calm down and go upstairs with Eleanor. Send Con down. I need to talk to him.”

“About what? Don’t leave me out of this Dane!” she snaps.

“Pea,” I say, my voice low, trying to keep the anger restrained. This isn’t her fault. I love my sister, but this is not the time for her to argue with me. The tears form in her eyes, but she nods, hugs me quickly, and then runs upstairs. A few moments later Con walks down.

“What the fuck is going on Dane? Why is Pea in tears?” he asks crossing his arms over his chest.

“Listen to me carefully, Con. This needs to get through, all right?”

He nods but says nothing.

“I work in a different field from you all. I have a situation where they have taken my friend and it looks like because Nova came over to my house without me being aware that they’ve taken her too.”

“What the fuck?” Con’s words are clipped and annoyed.

“Con. Understand I’m never going to tell you everything. I’m giving you what you need. Which is more than I want to give, so you can deal with keeping Pea as calm as possible. The only person who I owe the details to are Nova. She’ll know everything. When I get her back. Right now just know, until you hear from me you stay in the house. You answer the door to no one and if you hear any weird noises or anything at all you call the police immediately. Con rubs the back of his neck.

“Fuck Dane, what have you gotten us into? I have Pea and my baby daughter here. Shit!”

I feel a pang inside at what I’ve caused.

“I’m sorry. I really am. Please know that. Also, know I love all my family and will do whatever needs to be done to protect you all.”

“What about Saul?” he asks.

“He’s fine. I’ve told him to stay out there until I let him know to come home,” I answer.

“And what? He’s just agreed without questions?” Con laces his fingers together and puts his hands on the back of his head.

“Pretty much. He understands that I tell him what he needs to know and nothing more. He trusts me.”

Con sighs and sits at the kitchen table. “Well, I trust you too. But if I didn’t, Saul trusting you would be enough for me anyway. I’m just scared man. Those two up there are my life.”

“I know,” I whisper the words out. “If I don’t come back, just tell my little sister I love her.”

“Don’t fucking talk like that Dane. Fuck! Pea will lose her shit, we all will.”

“I’m coming back,” I say, but even I can hear the words are carelessly thrown out there without any determination behind them. Because I know. If she’s gone, then I might as well be too. She’s worth the fight, but she’s also worth the sacrifice. And although I will always fight for her, if she’s already gone, I’ll give up for her too.

An hour later I stand in my private office. The one nobody knows about. Pulling out the memory stick, I open all the documents on my laptop. There isn’t much. Three photos of Ryan. One of Ryan and Nova, the one that makes me grit my teeth again. Other than that there are three pieces of paperwork. One is Ryan’s history. Homes he’s lived in and people he’s associated with. Then there’s details of his training.

When the fuck…he was trained?

I look at the dates and see he started four months before me, then stopped six weeks after I was recruited. The third is his birth certificate, which has nothing of any interest on it. So, Ryan was trained, if only for a short while and he knew where Nova was even when he said he didn’t. This is obviously centred around him somehow. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I locate his number then put it into the app on my laptop. His phone is off, either that or he’s using a burner. This is going to have to happen the old fashioned way. I grab my laptop and make my way outside, getting into my car and pointing it toward Ryan’s home.

Thirty minutes later, I pull up a few streets away and jog a couple of houses down from Ryan’s. Checking the immediate vicinity, I can see a man out the front. Foot soldier. Then another two standing near a car. I watch as Ryan walks out and gets into the car, which shoots away. I notice another car out the front as the two men from before slip back inside.

Nova must be in that house
.

I go back to my car and pull out a tracker. When I arrive back at Ryan’s the foot soldier has disappeared, so I use that moment to slide under the second car and attach the tracker. Now I just need to get home and prepare myself for a dawn attack.

After being at home for a little over two hours, I find myself pacing. I feel useless being here. I know they have Nova and I don’t know what they’re doing with her. It’s almost enough to crush me, but I’m useless to her unless I focus. I need to treat her like any other client that I’d be saving. Only my heart knows different and that knowledge cuts deep.

There’s a knock on the door startling me. Grabbing my gun, I walk into the hall. I can’t check the peephole like I normally would. Not with things the way they are. I have known people to be shot through it straight into their eye.

“What,” I shout.

“Dane. Lewis. I’ve come to help,” I hear thrown back. Confusion washes over me and it’s not an emotion I deal with well. Being in control is something I strive for. I pull the door ajar and see Lewis and another man. Widening it, I wait for them to come in then glance outside before closing it again.

“Through here,” I tell them moving into the lounge.

They look around but say nothing at the state of the place. Will and his crew blew through here and made a mess.

“Not meaning to be an arsehole, but you’re Con and Nov…Libby’s friend. And I’ve spent some time with you and think you’re solid. But what do you know about this situation? What are you doing here? And who’s he? In reverse order,” I demand.

Lewis smirks at me. “This is Cayson.” My eyes flit to the other man, then focus back on Lewis. “In a previous life, I was a bounty hunter.” My head jerking back doesn’t go unnoticed when Lewis chuckles. “I know, you can’t imagine it, right? That’s what I always get. It’s the sharp clothes and witty humour isn’t it?”

Smiling back at him and shaking my head, I reply, “Takes all sorts, brother.”

The corner of his mouth tips up and he winks. I just look at the floor for a second trying to work out when my life got so crazy.

“So I called Libby about forty-eight hours ago as we were supposed to be meeting for coffee on Sunday. I needed to re-arrange as I set up a date with this woman who wanted to do—”

“Focus,” I growl and Lewis rolls his eyes at me.

“Anyway, when I couldn’t get hold of her I went to her work. They hadn’t seen her. Then I called Con. He said she was on her way over to you. That night I was talking to Cayson here. I gave up the hunt a few years ago. Cayson and I stayed tight. He told me about this situation with one of my boss’s old allies. Your boss, Archer.” He stares at me waiting for a reaction. “Shit, you give nothing away do you?” I allow my lips to tip up and that seems to placate Lewis because he continues, “Seems the situation, as I’m told, is all about agents going rogue. But this Archer has his wires crossed as far as my old boss tells Cayson here. Thinks one set of agents have gone rogue when it’s actually a different set. I think nothing of this. We’re chatting over beer so it’s just bar talk,” he tells me pointing to Cayson. “Until they say that the rogue agents have aligned themselves with an outside operative. They think they’re in it for the money. The outside guy who’s leading the situation is in it for revenge, or jealousy. Some shit like that. Apparently, he was dating a girl. Someone in a tight spot. Things went bad. She disappeared for ten years…to America. He found her, but he didn’t care, she was existing not living, made this sick fuck happy. Seems this guy started caring again when she met up with her childhood sweetheart. Someone he didn’t want to see happy. Someone he had gotten all kinds of sick pleasure out of watching live his life miserable.”

Every single muscle in my body is pulled tight. Like it’s about to snap.

“Here’s the kicker. This guy wants to get the woman’s childhood sweetheart so he can kill him, so his plan is to get this dude’s old mentor first then trap him. But then he got intel that the woman was coming back to the UK. All bets were off. That’s when I got Grayson to dial in and find out the name of the woman…Elizabeth Burchall. Next plane out brother, I was on it. Cayson joining me. He’s still in. I’m out. But you never forget when you need to remember.”

I sit down trying to breathe. Trying to rein my fucking emotions in. I lay my head back.

“What do we need to do?” Lewis asks, all joking has been stripped from his voice and I see a different side to him. One I wouldn’t have realised even existed. I walk over to my laptop and activate the GPS.

“There. This is a car that was outside the house I saw Ryan come out of. This is where it’s gone to. Looks like an industrial estate. You can go check it out,” I tell him.

“What’s at the house?” he asks warily.

“Nova,” I reply.

“Then that’s where we should go,” he tells me and I narrow my eyes at him.

“She’s mine,” I growl.

“Of course. But you’re too close. We need to go for her. You go to the estate.”

“Fucking hell!” I shout. I know he’s right, but I don’t want him to be. Now I have help though I need to utilise it in the best way, and Lewis and Cayson going to the house is the better option. I’d be overly emotional. Wouldn’t think straight.

“You fuck this up—”

He stops me before I start. “I get it. I fuck up, you’re going to kill me.”

I smirk at him. “Not even close. You fuck up. She dies. You’ll be begging for death.” His eyes widen and he chokes out a laugh.

“Shit, you really are as crazy as they say.” He shakes his head with a smile. Then looks at Cayson. “Get the address, let’s go.”

“Now?” I question looking at the time. It’s only just after ten pm.

“What would they expect you to do?” he asks.

“Nothing. They don’t expect anything from me as I never follow a pattern. I can’t be worked out.”

“Right, so no point waiting then.”

“Shit,” I snap, wiping my hand down my face. I’m already overthinking and making the wrong decisions at this rate
I’m
going to fuck this shit up. Nobody else.

I grab my keys and note the location of the GPS. “Give me your phone.” I hold my hand out to Lewis.

“It’s a burner,” he tells me.

“Perfect. Mine too. I’ll put my number in.” He nods and we swap numbers.