“I am getting very tired of your half assed answers, Marco,” Killian bit out. “I’m not going to play fifty questions with you. Tell me everything or so help me God, I will skin you alive across this desk.”

Looking dazed, Marco scrambled higher in his chair, one hand clutching the side of his face. His wide, stunned eyes shot up to Killian.

“I … I’m sorry…” He moistened his lips quickly. “I never wanted any of this to happen. I never wanted to hurt anyone.” His deep inhale shuddered through the room. “The first time they sent the message, it was pinned beneath the windshield wipers of your father’s town car. I thought it was one of the security details playing a joke so I ignored it—”

“What did the message say?” Killian cut in.

Marco frowned. “Something about being chosen. It made no sense so I threw it away. A few weeks later, another one appeared. This one more detailed. It went on to explain I was hand selected to fulfill a great task and that by accepting, I would get everything I ever wanted. But if I didn’t, I would be sorry. I had a day to decide by signing the bottom of the page and putting it beneath my wipers. Once again, I chalked it up as bullshit and tossed it.” He broke off to stare at his hands. “A few days later, I came home to find Lisa missing. All her things were still in their places, her car in the driveway, but she was gone. I looked everywhere, called everyone we knew and nothing. No one had seen her.”

Killian vaguely remembered hearing something about Marco’s wife leaving him years before. He hadn’t paid much attention to the gossip. At the time, his mother had gone missing and his mind had been preoccupied. Later on, it was just concluded that she’d left him and no one ever asked again.

“What are you saying?”

Brown eyes shone beneath the tears clinging to damp lashes. “They took her. The same people who have Juliette.” A tear squeezed free when he shut his eyes. “They left another note telling me that I had a week to do what they said or I would never see Lisa again. So, I agreed. I had no choice. They had my wife … and our son.” He rubbed a shaky hand over his face. “Lisa was pregnant when they took her. I had to get them back. I had to.”

Killian’s frown deepened. “That was years ago. What does it have to do with Juliette?”

Veins throbbed along Marco’s jaw. They pulsed at his temples. He licked his lips, but it made no difference.

Sniffling, he cleared his throat. “Because it was the same people who asked me to take your mother.”

The weak confession brought the world screeching to a halt. An electric silence descended, turning the air thick and sweltering. Currents crackled along his skin, burning and making the hairs rise.

“What?”

“Yegor Yolvoski had my family,” Marco explained hurriedly. “He said my wife for Callum’s, but he never gave her back and I was too afraid to tell your father so I said nothing. I had hoped that when your mother was found, my Lisa would be too.” He lowered his head. Dark strands tumbled over his downcast eyes. “Saoirse was given back. I never saw Lisa again.”

“You gave them my mother? You took her?”

It was the one thing Killian had never considered. When his mother had been taken, it had simply been assumed that one of Yolvoski’s men had ambushed her detail and taken her. No one ever considered the possibility that it was someone on the inside. But now that Marco was telling the story, Killian saw it. He remembered how his mother’s guards hadn’t even drawn their guns. There had been no struggle, because they had known their attacker, had trusted him. Killian’s mother had trusted him.

“You took her?” The vicious growl tore through Killian’s esophagus.

Marco blanched. “They had Lisa…” he croaked. “What would you have done?”

Even while a part of him already knew the answer to that, knew he would give whatever they wanted to get Juliette back, the rage remained. It continued to blanket him even as his mind fought with the two scenarios. He wondered if he would have been more forgiving if it had been a stranger and not his mother. Would it have made a difference to him? Would it have made the situation any less horrible? Marco had been in the exact position Killian was in now, only he’d lost two people simultaneously. Did that justify the pain and suffering he’d caused Killian’s entire family? Killian didn’t think he was in the proper state of mind to consider those questions, not when there were more important ones to ask.

“Yolvoski is dead,” Killian bit out, willing his rage to taper long enough to find out where Juliette was. After that… “He can’t possibly have Juliette.”

Marco nodded. “I don’t know who this person is, but they knew about Lisa and what I’d done. They threatened to kill you if I didn’t bring them the girl.”

That momentarily surprised him. He had expected a great number of reasons for the treasury, but not that.

“And why would you care about what happens to me after what you’ve done?” Killian demanded.

Marco’s head slipped even lower on his neck so the sharp bones along the back jutted out beneath the pale skin. He was practically doubled over in his chair with his face in his hands and his elbows digging into his knees.

“I lost my son that day.” His muffled confession was barely above a whisper. Marco sniffled and raised his head a notch. “After they were gone, I thought of you as a—”

“Don’t you dare!” the snarl lashed out of him before he could stop it. “You kidnapped my mother. You let her get tortured and murdered and you knew all along who had her and you did nothing! Now you’ve taken Juliette. You took the woman I love and gave her to men who are doing God knows what to her right now. Don’t you dare sit there and tell me you thought of me as your son.”

Marco’s head lowered all over again, but he said nothing.

“Where did you take her? Who contacted you? What else did they tell you?”

While he waited for a response, he charged past the broken man and stalked to the doors. He yanked them open and motioned only Frank inside. But Vi sprinted in after him. Killian started to tell her to wait outside, but opted against it. He just left the door open behind her as he returned with Frank to his desk.

“Where did you take her?” he asked Marco again.

Marco straightened a notch. “They gave me a street address. A van was waiting there and two men jumped out and took her.”

“And you let them?” Vi blurted. “You just … let them?”

Marco said nothing.

“How could you do that?” Vi went on.

“Viola.” Killian put his hand up to stop the girl. “Now isn’t the time. I promise he will get exactly what he deserves once we get Juliette back.”

Vi said nothing else, but stood glowering at Marco like she wanted nothing more than to jam a pen in his eye.

“Where did you meet the van?” Killian turned his attention back to Marco.

“On the corner of Easten and Broad. Right next to an old bakery. There are no cameras there. They were careful.”

Killian ignored that. “Assemble a crew,” he told Frank. “We’re going to the location. I want every inch of it searched.”

Frank started to incline his head when a movement in the doorway had them all turning. Jake, Melton, Laurence, Javier, Phil, John, and Tyson stood in a loose cluster on the threshold. They were already in their Kevlar and camo. Their guns were tucked into holsters strapped to their legs, across their chests and anchored at their ribs. They were dressed ready for war.

“What’s this?” Killian demanded, although he had a feeling he already knew.

John stepped forward. “With all due respect, sir, but we’d like to be that crew.”

Something in the determined lines of their faces, the hard strength of their shoulders, and the fire burning in their eyes filled Killian with a burst of pride and a hint of amusement that he concealed behind a frown.