Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 102754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
We’d caught him before anything happened, thank God. But it was a gut punch just the same. I’d already been on edge about the kids, about Sayla’s window, and about Nolan singing damn lullabies like we were in some twisted fairytale. Now this.
They were escalating, and I was done waiting to see what they would do next. It was time to push back hard.
There wasn’t a doubt in my mind—Simon Cliffe had been there for Kairo and Kaida.
It was my kids who’d been photographed by those assholes. My kids they’d tried to get close to.
Just in case, we warned every parent from the daycare. Quietly with no panic and no headlines. Just a firm heads-up and instructions to keep their eyes open and routines tight. I also had one of my most trusted uniforms posted discreetly outside Delicious Divas—Sayla’s place. He was going to watch the storefront and the side alley. Anywhere someone might get ideas. He’d rotate with another guy I trusted when his shift ended, but someone would be close either way. I wasn’t leaving anything to chance again.
I was driving toward the station, already going over the little we knew about Cliffe in my head, when my phone buzzed.
“Yeah?”
“Get here, now,” Keir ordered. His voice was sharp, urgent. “You need to see what was in this guy’s car.”
That sent a chill through me. I hung up and floored it the rest of the way, blowing through a yellow light and barely stopping before the parking lot. The second I got inside, I followed the murmur of voices to the evidence room, where half the team was standing around a metal table.
I pushed in—and stopped cold.
It wasn’t just the stash of drugs and cash I’d expected, though that was there. Plastic-wrapped packets, crumpled bills, and a ziplock bag of loose pills and powder scattered the table. But that wasn’t what made my stomach twist.
It was the other stuff.
A roll of duct tape, strips of torn fabric, two more cans of pepper spray, another pair of handcuffs, a bottle of ketamine, needles, syringes, and keys—way too many keys. Who the hell actually needed this many keys?
Whatever Cliffe had been planning, it wasn’t just a snatch-and-run. This was preparation and intent. It was something vile.
Ketamine was dangerous enough in the wrong hands. But used on a child, it was beyond reckless and a death sentence waiting to happen. Too much, and they’d go under and never come back.
I stared at the table, every muscle in my body drawn tight, fists clenching without realizing it. This wasn’t just about a drug ring or some petty criminal trying to scare us off. It was about control, power, and exploitation.
And they’d come this close to getting their hands on my kids. There was not a chance in hell I was letting that happen.
Chapter 22
Sayla
It had been a month since the attempted break-in at the daycare, and all Roque told me was that they’d caught the guy.
I didn’t ask for more. Not because I wasn’t curious—God knows I was—but because I saw how Roque’s jaw tightened whenever it came up. Whatever it was, it had shaken him, and if he wasn’t ready to talk, I figured it was better to let him deal with it in his own time. I was just glad whoever it was had been taken off the streets.
After that, I’d tried moving back into my house. The window had been fixed within days—Roque had been on top of it before I’d even finished my coffee the morning after it’d happened. But when I’d mentioned going home, he’d looked at me with this quiet, unwavering firmness and said, “Not yet, I’d rather tie up some loose ends first.”
I didn’t push it. Something about how he said it made my skin prickle, so I stayed.
And, if I was being honest, I didn’t really want to leave anyway.
We’d found a rhythm with the kids and each other. Waking up to Kaida babbling from her room and Kairo sneaking into our room with his stuffed fox in tow had become my new normal. Making breakfast with Roque, tiptoeing around each other in the kitchen, stealing kisses behind the fridge door—none of that felt temporary anymore.
But I’d noticed things.
Judd and Keir seemed to always be around. Sometimes, they made it obvious they were there with a purpose, sometimes they just leaned against their cars like they were waiting for something. And there was always a patrol car nearby. Roque had said nothing about it, and I didn’t ask. It was probably just a coincidence, right?
Still, a part of me knew better.
Today, though, I was focused on Kairo’s birthday.
I’d been up since 4 a.m., too excited to sleep. I’d stored most of the decorations at my place—balloons, goody bags, little race cars for the kids to take home—and now I was back there with DB and Alex, loading everything up to set up in Roque’s backyard.