Chapter 31

Kilian Savage

I barge into Pierce's police station, and luck must be on my side because he's actually in there instead of patrolling the town. He looks ready though, leaning against the front desk as though he'd been waiting for someone to arrive. Me?

Behind him is the last person I least expected, but it only confirms that I'm the one Pierce is waiting on. Why else would Cole be here? Is he here to protect Pierce against me? Is he here because he's thick as thieves with Derek? Either way, I'm immediately on the defensive.

Cole stands there with his arms crossed, his expression pinched and stressed. Paint covers his jeans, and his cut-off shows his bunched-up biceps, coiled tightly like the wrinkle lines between his brows.

I don't know what look is on my face, but Pierce and Cole meet me halfway, and immediately, Pierce opens his mouth. "Tegan called when you left the store. "

With zero fucks to give right now, I ask, "Did you ever even get the warrant for your grandfather?" I'm ready to play the blame game because, in my opinion, he is to blame.

He narrows his eyes at me. "I know you're scared, but you don't need to take it out on me."

"The fuck I don't." I ball my fingers into fists and step into his space. "This could have been prevented if you'd just done your job."

"Killian," Cole murmurs. He comes to stand by both our sides and uses his hands to push us a few more inches apart. "This isn't going to solve anything."

I ignore him and continue to direct my questions at Pierce. "Answer me."

Pierce sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. With closed eyes, he says, "I didn't need to. He let me and the guys search his place without one. We found nothing but a few lilies he took from the field." He drops his hand back to his side and looks me square in the eye. "Everyone takes flowers from that field. It wasn't enough to take him in aside from vandalizing."

"When did you search his place?" Cole asks. He crosses his arms, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say he was on my side. I look at him for a moment, a little surprised, before I turn my attention back to the sheriff.

"A few hours ago," he answers, looking slightly guilty but still holding his ground with me.

"Before or after he took Tori?" Cole interjects for me. All I want to do is strangle this man with nothing but a noose, and Cole must know that.

He scrubs the back of his head. "Based on the time stamp of the video Tegan sent me, it was before."

Through a clamped jaw, I ask, "Where is he now?"

He looks down the hall. "I had a bad feeling and took him in for vandalizing about an hour ago. And then I saw the camera feed… Look, he doesn't know that Tori had cameras, nor the true reason I now hold him." He looks back at me. "I really didn't know he was involved in this. I really thought you guys were wrong, that I knew him well enough to believe he wasn't capable of this. I feel like I should apologize."

"You should," Cole grunts. "Because now Tegan's best friend is missing, and the only person who could possibly tell us where she is happens to be related to you, and you chose to ignore any and all signs."

Pierce looks down at his shoes and stuffs his hands into his uniform's pockets. "I care about Tori too, you know."

"Apparently, not enough," I growl. This asshole gets no claim to her. He lost that right the moment he chose to ignore her first inkling about who was the dangerous one. He deserves nothing, not even sympathy. There's a special place in hell for people like him because, in my opinion, he's just as guilty as his grandfather.

His nostrils flare as he exhales. "I can't let you into the interrogation room."

"Why?" I demand. I know I could get the answers a lot faster than he could.

"Because we have to do this with the law on our side, Savage. Letting someone like you interrogate him for answers will only raise more questions than actual convictions. Even I can't interrogate him. One of the other guys is leading it, and we have someone else going through his phone."

I flex my jaw and look away. I want nothing more than to make Kent hurt for what he's done. Demand answers one broken bone at a time.

"He's right, Killian," Cole mutters. "And you know it. "

I look at Cole. "Would you be okay with sitting by if this were Tegan?"

His lips twitch with distaste for whatever feeling that brought about inside him, but he answers, "No, but I'd also know that, if I messed any of this up by not listening, I'd never forgive myself."

I huff, even though he's making complete sense.

Satisfied that he got through to me, he turns to Pierce. "Hurry up."

Pierce nods, and with one last glance at me, he takes off down the hall and eventually disappears into a room. The sudden silence besides my heavy breathing engulfs me, threatening to choke me. I start to pace as Cole stands there and watches me. Doing nothing is not in my nature. I'm a man of action, a man who gets answers no matter the cost, and here I am, not allowed to do anything.

"You know," Cole begins. "We don't know each other, we don't even know anything about each other, but something similar happened with Tegan last year."

Without looking at him, I turn and make another stride in the opposite direction. "Did Tegan get taken for the purpose of being bred like some bitch dog?"

Silence. Utter silence aside from my shoes tapping on the tile. "No," he eventually says. "But it was just as devastating."

"What are you trying to tell me?" I ask, whipping to face him because I cannot stand the inner turmoil. His wife turned out fine. My girl won't be, even if she survives. Even if we find her, we could be too late. She could have irreversible damage that I can't call her back from. I'll lose her in a different way than I lost my wife, and I don't know what's worse: death or this.

"I don't know," Cole says, swiping a hand down his face. "Faith, maybe. "

Faith. After everything I've done, everything I've witnessed, having faith for something that's in the hands of the human race isn't one of them.

"Why are you even here?" I rumble low and dangerously. I know he hasn't done anything wrong, but Pierce is no longer here, and I need someone to point my anger at.

Thankfully, he doesn't take offense to my hostility. He takes a seat on the front of the desk and looks at me tiredly. "To support Tegan. To make sure Tori is found. You're not the only one who cares about her, you know."

"You don't know anything," I hiss. "You don't even know a single thing about me. About me and her, even. You know nothing ." I spit the last word.

I have to give him credit; he doesn't rise to my tone, even though every ounce of me wants him to. "I don't need to. You love her, it's as simple as that."

My head whips back as if I'd been popped in the mouth, and I blink at him. "What?" I ask because his words filtered in my head, but they didn't settle there.

He shrugs one shoulder as if it's not a big deal. "Everyone who has been watching you knows you love her." He raises an eyebrow at me. "I'm surprised you don't."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I do, actually." He smirks, and all I want to do is wipe it from his face. "Go ahead. Tell me it's not true."

Because I can't growl out those words, I start pacing again. I love my wife. I want her and my family's revenge, but it's no longer about just that. The moment I saw that camera feed, it became something else. It was devastating and destructive to my soul to know that I may never see Tori again, that the Lillian might win all over again but in a whole different way. The thought of losing Tori makes me want to stop breathing, to stop existing because, not only is this my fault but . . .

I love her.

The thought hits me like a train, and I take a step back as if I'd almost been struck by one.

"And there it is," Cole murmurs.

My face hardens because now, with the realization that my confusing feelings were actually that of love, I'll stop at nothing to get her back, even if she doesn't come back to me whole.

"I'm going to kill him."

"I know," Cole says straight-faced. As if he's privy to the knowledge of the Lillian. About my family. As if he knew I wasn't talking about the pastor. "But," he adds softly. "Speaking from experience, rotting in jail is far worse than death."

I narrow my eyes at him. "You seriously want me to go by the law here? Would you?"

He shakes his head. "No. I'd make him pay and then kill him slowly. But this isn't me, and since I'm the one with a level head, I'm qualified for the advice. Let the law handle this, Killian."

"I don't know if I can," I admit.

He scratches the side of his head and sighs. "I once got advice from Tori, and I'm going to give you the same advice: Don't murder him and then end up in jail yourself. Think of what that would do to Tori if we ever get her back."

I want nothing more than to snarl for throwing Tori's words at me, words that were never said to me, advice that she had never given me. But I know she would now. She would say the same thing, and even though she doesn't like Pierce, she'd tell me to stay on the side of the law.

The door opens, and Pierce strides down the hall. His face is as red as a tomato, and I know whatever happened in there pissed him off. Good.

Another cop I recognize from the search at Tori's house follows closely behind him, and when Pierce reaches us, he dismisses him. Once he's gone, he says to us, "He refused to talk and asked for a lawyer, but they found something on his phone - numerous calls to and from one number."

"Who?" I demand.

He looks me square in the eyes. "What do you know about Tori's employee, Josiah Cruise?"