“What are we going to do? Do you have a plan?”

I glanced at the bed and smiled. “I do, but we have to hurry.”

“Why did the light go out?” Nick whispered from his location in the closet.

“They’re here.” After we’d made the bed look like a body was in it, we took up our posts and waited for over two hours.

Now the time had come. I peeked through the curtains, and luckily, there was only one guy cloaked in darkness. He had his gun out and was attaching a silencer to it.

“How many are there?” Nick whispered through the closet door.

“Just one. He’s coming now.” I flattened myself up against the wall. Gun in hand, I took a deep breath. As soon as I heard the little click inside the door, it was time.

The door steadily moved open and there was no sound at all. The guy was good. He pointed the gun toward the bed and before he could shoot, I kicked his knees in and heard them crack as he fell to the floor with a grunt.

When he dropped the gun, Nick bolted out of the closet and lunged for it. “Got it,” he said, pointing it at the intruder.

I’d half expected him to cower in the closet, but he proved me wrong. “Keep it pointed at him. If he moves, shoot him.” The guy’s legs were splayed at an odd angle. He wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

I grabbed his feet and he hissed as I tied him up. When I turned him over, I recognized him immediately from the video. He was the one who helped Connor stage the accident. He was a big guy with long brown hair and a scar under his right eye. There was nothing but death in those eyes.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I’m not telling you a fucking thing,” he snarled. I could barely tell what he said because of his thick, Irish accent.

“Didn’t think so.” I reared back and punched him hard across the cheek. Blood spurt out of his mouth, along with a tooth. I knew he wouldn’t speak and I was banking on that. He was going to suffer.

“Damn,” Nick exclaimed. “That shit was hard core.”

“I’m just getting started.” Resting my boot on one of Scar’s broken legs, he winced when I pressed down. “Still no answer?” I goaded.

He didn’t give me as much as a groan. The fucker wasn’t going to ever walk again, once I got done with him.

As hard as I could, I jumped on his legs with all my weight. He screamed in pain, but I didn’t stop. My knuckles hurt from punching him. I could barely recognize him once I was done. There was blood everywhere, but I wasn’t ready to quit. If they were going to fuck with me, I wanted them to see I could fight back. Grabbing him by the neck, I squeezed and listened to him choke.

“Blake, stop! You don’t want to kill him,” Nick shouted.

“Why not? He was going to kill us. I think it’s only fair.”

“Uh, I think you’ve done worse than kill him. The fucker’s not going to be able to walk probably ever. His bones are shattered.”

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and let him go. His head fell to the floor with a loud thump. His body had to be in shock from all the pain. “I need to call in backup. We have to get out of here.” I washed up quickly and then dialed Mason’s number. He had contacts everywhere.

“Evans, what’s up?” he answered.

“If I had the time to tell you, you’d probably shit a brick.”

“That bad, huh? I heard about Hadley. I’m sorry, brother.”

Rushing over to the computer, I pulled Connor’s file back up. “That’s just it. She’s alive, Mason. And I need your help.”

“Alive? Her funeral is tomorrow. It’s all the media can talk about.”

“I know you think I’m crazy, but I’ve been working with Logan on getting some footage, and I saw the accident. It was staged. Hadley’s out there somewhere and I’m going to find her. She’s being held by the Irish mafia.”

He choked and barked out a cough. “Are you fucking kidding me? How did she get involved with them?”

“I think her father has something to do with it. But right now, I’m in Burnsville with a half-dead body in my motel room. They sent one of their goons to kill me. I need you to contact some of your people and get them here as soon as you can.”

“All right, I’m on it. I know some guys who can probably be out there within the hour.”

“Good. And do me a favor, don’t tell anyone Hadley’s still alive. Someone wants us to think she’s dead and we need to keep it that way. I’m trying to find out where she is and I think I might be close. Her bodyguard is with her. His name is Connor MacCabe.”

Mason blew out a sigh. “I’ll give my people a call and search for this MacCabe. Good work, Evans.”

We hung up and I concentrated on the screen. Nick sat on the bed, sneaking side glances at me. “Something you need to say?” I inquired.

“Not really. I’m just sitting here like it’s normal to be around a dead body.”

“He’s not dead yet, but I’m sure he wishes he was. You get used to seeing shit like this in my line of work. Sometimes it’s much worse.” There were things I’d seen that still gave me nightmares.

Looking at Connor’s file, I found his address in Canada and wrote it down. He’d been in North America for only two years. What made him come here from Ireland? There were several profiles attached to his and it was all people he was connected to, including the ass fuck on the floor—Flynn Dillon. He moved his head and groaned.

“I hope it was worth it, cocksucker. All you had to do was tell me your name. Looks like I had it all along,” I spat.

“Who is he?” Nick asked.

“Flynn Dillon. Apparently, he lives in Canada too. I’m seeing a trend here. I guess we know where we need to go.”

Nick pulled out his phone. “My best friend lives just across the border. I can call him and see if we can crash there while we figure everything out.”

I held up my hand. “Give me a second to figure out where this Connor lives before doing that. Canada’s a pretty huge place.” Once I had his address typed in, I waited for the map to come up; his house was five hours away. “All right, it takes a few hours to get there. He lives in Kingston. If we leave now we can get there late morning.”

“Really? That’s where my friend lives too.”

“He your best friend?”

Nodding, he scrolled through his phone until he found some pictures of Hadley with both of them. “He and Hadley were good friends. He wouldn’t tell anyone what we were doing,” Nick said, showing me the pictures.

“What’s his last name?” I asked.

His brows furrowed. “Doherty, why?”

“How long have you known him?”

He closed his eyes, pursing his lips. “About two years.”

I skimmed through Connor’s file again and clicked on the others associated with him. There were about twenty men. MacCarthy, no. Carroll, no. Shit, where did I see it? Then I found it.

“Give me your phone,” I ordered. I held the picture up beside the photo on file. They looked exactly alike, only one was much older than the other.

Stunned, Nick gasped. “Holy shit.”

Hadley

My head pounded. At least there wasn’t any light coming through the window to make it worse. I cracked an eye open and groaned; it was dark outside. For a moment, I almost forgot where I was, but then one name was all it took to drag me back.

“Blake,” I whispered frantically. Jumping out of my bed, I scrambled into the closet and pulled a handful of clothes down. I took off my shirt and shorts and pulled new ones on. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. Rushing to the window, I lifted it up and felt the cool breeze brush across my skin. I half expected an alarm to go off, but luckily, it didn’t.

Taking a deep breath¸ I lifted one leg over and straddled the sill. The drop down could easily break bones if I landed wrong. “Here I go.”