57. River

FIFTY-SEVEN

RIVER

Charleigh was rocking on the couch wrapped in a blanket. Unable to sit still as she swam through the anguish. Finding out that Nolan was her biological son and losing him in the same goddamn breath.

While I stormed back and forth across the living room, trying to tamp the rage. To save it up for the fucker who I was going to carve into a million little pieces and take pleasure while doing it.

"We're going to find him." Raven whispered it where she sat next to Charleigh, rubbing her leg like she might be able to give her comfort.

Knew there wouldn't be an ounce of comfort until we brought Nolan home.

We'd warred about going to the local Sheriff. We'd been feeling him out, trying to decide if he could be trusted to be brought in, but we hadn't been able to discern that yet.

So there we'd been, weighing risks, and my crew had decided we had to continue to go this alone.

But this was my fuckin' son we were talking about.

Charleigh's son.

"We are going to find him," Otto grunted. His attention flashed to me. It was one of those moments when I knew the old wrath that had lived in Otto had been revived. When I knew he'd gladly go up against this monster and rip him to shreds. Make sure he suffered the gravest pain.

Fucker was going to have so much of it, he'd be begging us to cut short his last breath.

We'd searched the entire fucking town and came up empty, so my crew had gathered here at the house. Trent and Jud had come, too. Their kids were out playing in the back with Eden and Salem watching over them.

It was fucking gutting that Nolan wasn't out there with them.

An atrocity that wasn't going to go without penalty.

My hands fisted as I turned and started back the other direction, boots causing an earthquake on the floor. I dipped my head and ran my hand over the back of my neck in an attempt to squash the brutality that pounded through my veins.

Bloodlust on my tongue.

So excruciating that death was the only thing I could taste.

I wanted to hunt. Track him down. But just taking off in some random direction wasn't going to do Nolan any good. Not when we already knew the reason for him going missing.

This motherfucker wanted Charleigh.

Drawn, my gaze shifted to the woman who'd come into my world and obliterated my foundation.

Her hair was a mess, and her eyes were nearly swollen shut, but she was still the most gorgeous thing I'd ever seen. Most glorious kind of beauty I'd ever touched.

I'd fallen so fucking hard for her there would never be any getting up from off the floor.

I'd be on my knees for eternity.

Maybe I should have known the pull between us had to be something bigger than the both of us. Should've known the energy that compelled had drawn her to this place because she should have been here all along.

Kane, Jud, and Theo were talking in hushed tones in the kitchen, no doubt trying to come up with a contingency plan, while Trent and Cash remained quiet on the other side of the room…just fuckin' waiting.

On a shattered breath, pain ricocheted from Charleigh, and another sob ripped from her throat.

In a flash, I was on my knees in front of her.

Hands on the outside of her thighs, rubbing up and down. Hoping to give her some comfort the way Raven had been trying to do, only I wanted to crawl all the way inside her. Rid her of every ghost. Slay every fucking monster.

Fine.

One monster would do.

"I can't believe I failed him again. If I would have…" She choked over the words that had kept trying to get loose for hours. Blaming herself for not admitting to me who she was, thinking that might have changed something.

"No, baby, no. You had your reasons for not telling me your identity. You were protecting yourself the only way you knew how to do. You had no idea that Nolan might be involved this way. Not one fuckin' clue."

And we still had no idea which of them Frederick had discovered was alive first. If one or the other had drawn him here. The only thing we weren't questioning was it was him.

If only I'd have been able to sniff that bastard out that day when she'd come to me, but I had a hunch Frederick Winston wasn't acting alone. It was unlikely I would have recognized who'd been tracking her through town.

"I just…we have to find him." She looked up at me. Grief was carved on every inch of her face. I reached up and tried to wipe some of the moisture that wouldn't stop falling down her cheeks.

"We're going to. This asshole isn't going to disappear with him, Charleigh. You know that."

Charleigh nearly hit the ceiling when her cell phone rang, and she scrambled to grab it to look at the screen.

Hope and terror blazed across her face.

"It's an unknown number," she wheezed .

A wave of anxious quiet rolled through the room.

This was what we'd been waiting for.

Knowing Frederick would make contact some way.

I gulped around the animosity and hate that butted up against my own swell of hope.

My nod was slow.

Encouragement.

Charleigh was shaking as she answered and put it on speakerphone. "Hello?"

A wave of depravity rushed from the hushed silence that hovered on the other end of the line. It was the type of silence you knew without a doubt was a trap.

"Hello?" she asked again, her voice tripping on what amounted to a plea.

The man on the other end of the line tsked. The sound was malicious and cruel. "Chastity. You've been such a devious little wife."

A shiver jolted her, and the oxygen clogged in her throat.

"After all the things I gave you," he continued.

I wanted to snatch the phone from her lap and demand to know where he had Nolan. Utter all the ways I was going to torture him so he could stew and fret in the trepidation before I made the nightmare a reality.

But we'd agreed if he called, it needed to be Charleigh who did the talking.

"Where's Levi?" she whispered.

"Don't worry, Sweet Pea, he's fine. You wouldn't think I'd harm someone I love, would you? Especially after I've been mourning his death for five years?"

Horror streamed down Charleigh's face, rods of pain that drove through her middle, and her hand was on her heart like she was trying to keep it from bleeding out.

I ground my teeth. Searching for restraint. To be fucking patient so we could ferret out this piece of shit.

Frederick Winston released a discordant laugh. A clang of malice and spite. "I would have been mourning my beautiful wife, too, if I hadn't known the second I went to identify her body that it was not actually you. I've been searching for you for years. The second I saw pictures of the two of you on that dance floor…I knew he was alive, too."

"What do you want?" Charleigh gasped it. "Just tell me what you want."

"What I've always wanted…You."

Revulsion beat against her fear, and Charleigh's expression morphed into this deep-seated sorrow, though it was cut with devotion and determination.

I squeezed her knee. A silent reminder that I was there and she wasn't alone. Not anymore and not ever again. And more than anything, I wanted to reassure her that we were going to get Nolan back.

She looked up at me. Caramel eyes shimmered with pain, though the cinnamon flecks blazed with fire.

She cemented her voice. "You can have me as long as I see Levi is whole and unharmed."

My hand squeezed again. Riddled with pride because my girl was fuckin' stronger than anyone I'd ever met. It was twisted with the ruthlessness that carved me into shards. The crushing urgency to get my son back.

"1645 Mabel Street in Keeton."

Fuck, he had him in the next town over.

"Seven o'clock. Come alone. You've heard it said it is the child that pays for the sins of his mother."

Then the phone went dead.

Charleigh shot to her feet. "I'm going."

I flew to mine, and the words ground off my tongue. "No. We already agreed on the plan, Charleigh. We find out where he has Nolan, and we go in and get him back."

I left off the part where I was going to put a permanent end to Frederick Winston. He wouldn't hurt either of them ever again.

Charleigh's jaw clenched, and a fresh round of tears slipped from her eyes. "That's my son, River. You can't expect me to sit aside and wait. I know you will fight for him…but don't ask me not to fight for him, too. "

Half a second later, I had her in my arms. Plastering her against me. That sweet body burned, fire against my flesh, and her heart bashed in time with mine.

Two chaotic souls who'd give it all.

My hand wound in her hair, and I kissed her.

Kissed her hard and desperate and with every ounce of devotion I had.

Then I pulled back and murmured, "Let's go get our son."

Everyone had gathered, antsy and eager, unsure what we were going to come up against. We weren't fool enough to believe a man like Frederick Winston was just going to do as he'd promised.

And neither the fuck were we.