Page 87 of The Fighter

“I made him pay, Conrad. I broke him down here. I gave him pain. You can play house all you want, but a part of me will always have a hold of him.”

That wasn’t true. Tav was resilient and strong. He only feared Devlin because of the threat to his sister. And he didn’t break him. He didn’t break him at all, because Tav was stronger than Devlin. Than this basement and this city. Than me.

Feeling defiant, I lifted my eyes to meet his. And that was a mistake, because Devlin smiled, big and bright and evil. “Oh, feeling brave?” He leaned closer, so that his lips nearly kissed the bars of my cage. “I’ll break you too, Conrad,” he said softly. “And then I’ll send you back in pieces to Husk. He’ll have to live with knowing that you’re gone because he betrayed me.”

He walked up the stairs without another word. The door shut behind him, and I fought to breathe through the pain in my head, my chest, and most of all, in the pulsing beat of my heart. I had to survive this. Tav might have broken once, but I’d pieced him back together. He’d do the same for me.I just had to survive.

THIRTY

Tav

A few hours earlier

The beep of the front door jolted me awake. My hand immediately grazed Con’s side of the bed, finding it cold. Rubbing my eyes, I rolled onto my back as footsteps pounded down the hallway. I waited to hear Con greet whoever it was—Nik or Ben as they were the only ones who had the code to his door other than me. But Con’s voice never came.

I sat up with a grunt and hollered down the hall, “Thought you agreed to text before you came over.”

Nik probably just wanted coffee, but his footsteps continued down the hallway, toward the bedroom, which made me frown. He never came in here.

The door flew open, and Nik halted there. His expression made my blood freeze in my veins. It wasn’t the look he’d had when he pulled the gun on me—that had been controlled. Confident. Annoyed but not angry. He’d clocked the knife in my hand and immediately knew he’d come out on top.

But this was not that look. His gaze met mine, and the emotions there were all wrong. His body posture. The throbbing vein in his neck. The white-knuckled grip he had on the doorknob which made his tattoos look even darker.

Dread slithered down my spine like ice water, and I was immediately wide awake. I slid from the bed and stood, not caring that I was naked. “Talk to me.”

Nik’s jaw was tight. “Devlin took Con. We don’t know where.”

Each word was a body blow, and I tightened my core to absorb the hits. But the echo of them spun around the room, returning over and over again to deliver fresh pain. I held myself together just barely, even though all I wanted to do was fall apart.

Nik inhaled sharply. “Get dressed. Ben will be here soon and so will my crew. We have some leads on where he could be.” His eyes softened a fraction. “We’ll find him.”

“Damn right we will.” My voice didn’t sound like my own.

By the time I pulled on a pair of joggers and a sweatshirt and strode into the kitchen, the entire apartment was like war central. Maps were spread over Con’s island, the same place where he’d bent me over the counter last night and fucked me. A dozen men were spread out in the space, some cleaning guns on the couch where Con and I watched cooking shows. Others were on their phones, barking orders at whoever was on the other end. I met the hard stare of Cameron, the leader of their crew, and he gave me a tight nod that held sympathy I didn’t want to think about.

Ben and Nik stood with their heads bent over a city map. Ben looked up as I entered the kitchen. He reached for me and then seemed to think better of it. He dropped his hands to his sides. He opened his mouth, and I was pretty sure he was going to saysorryorhow are youor something equally dumb.

I didn’t want to hear it. None of that mattered. Every conversation needed to be focused on Con. So I cut him off. “Tell me what we know.”

Nik’s head went up, and my tone must have been the right one, because I swore I saw a flash of pride in his eyes. “Conrad left the apartment at 7:12. He was on the phone with me at 7:40 when I heard sounds of a struggle before the phone went dead.”

“Why the fuck did he leave the apartment?” I asked.

He pointed to Conrad’s phone on the counter, the screen cracked. Next to it was a familiar paper bag that made my gut clench. I hung my head as Nik said unnecessarily, “He got cinnamon rolls from the bakery.”

I closed my eyes as dizziness swamped me. I could feel the phantom swipe of Con’s tongue as he lapped the sticky cinnamon sugar from my chin, all while bitching about how messy I was. I rubbed at my chest as I fought to maintain my composure. He’d left for me. He’d made himself vulnerable for me. “So fucking stupid, Con,” I muttered.

When I finally opened my eyes, Ben was watching me, but Nik was pointing to a place on the map, and I squinted at it, but couldn’t make sense of the location right now. “That’s the last place we picked up his signal.”

I frowned “What signal?”

“The tracker on his ring,” Nik said. “He wore it so we’d know where Devlin took him.”

I felt a chill wash over me. “What do you meanso we’d know? Was thisplanned?”

Nik’s jaw shifted. “Yes and no.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”