by Meghan March
I stare at Moses, shock searing through me as his words penetrate. The threats he just made. The ultimatum he just laid down. He just threatened to kill Mount for me.
“Fuck you, Gaspard. This is my daughter we’re talking about here!”
“And we’re getting her back. No one is dying today but Reyes. You have my word.”
Several beats of silence pass, and no one in the SUV breathes. We’re all waiting for judgment to be handed down. Whatever Mount says next will change the course of our lives. Hell, it’ll change this city if he decides to bathe the streets in blood.
He’s done it before, and that was over Keira.
No one will survive if something happens to Rory.
“You try to stop me from getting my kid back, and your life is forfeit, Gaspard.”
“We’ll get her back, but I won’t hand Magnolia over to a madman who will butcher her. Promise me right now, on your wife’s life, that you’ll fucking work with me, or I don’t bring Magnolia back to you. Understand me? He wants her, and you know I can make her disappear. Neither of you will ever find her again.”
“Stop it! Both of you!”
Keira’s voice comes over the phone next, and shame eats through me like battery acid from the pain I hear in her ragged words.
“I’m so sorry, Ke-ke. I didn’t think— I would’ve never come to you— Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” Sobs rip from my throat, and all I want to do is hit my knees and pray, because I’m not strong enough to handle this by myself.
“You come back, and we’ll work it out. My baby will come home, and no one is killing my best friend. Period. You hear me, goddamn it?”
Like a fucking empress, Keira tells us all exactly how it’s going to go. A flicker of hope ignites in my soul that I didn’t just ruin the lives of the people who matter most to me.
Thirty-Nine
Moses
We have no fucking time to waste, but I still walk into the lion’s den with caution. Mount is a wild card right now—rightly so—and as much as I don’t want to kill the man, I will do what I have to do to save that little girl and Magnolia.
I didn’t just get her back to lose her all over again. Even though I understand exactly where Mount’s coming from.
With Magnolia’s hand clasped in mine, I’m one hundred percent certain she’ll give herself up to Reyes to save Rory. I know it down to the depths of my soul. She would never choose to live if it meant that baby lost her life or endured a single bit of pain on her account.
But I’m not letting any of it happen today.
No fucking way.
Footsteps pound up the pavement from behind us as we walk into the door from the garage. I whip around, my gun in hand, ready for anything, but relax when I see Trey and Jules.
“On the way back from the funeral, our driver said Mount’s kid was kidnapped. Is that for fucking real?” Jules asks, looking from me to Magnolia with wild eyes.
“Yeah, it’s for real. Come on. We don’t have time. We gotta get a strategy together. We have barely thirty minutes before we gotta go.”
“It was Reyes?” Trey asks.
My head dips once.
“Fuck. He wants Magnolia bad,” Jules says with a shake of his head. “We can’t go in there. Mount will serve her up to get that kid back. No fucking way this ends well.”
“You try to run and you all fucking die,” Mount’s voice bellows from the darkness ahead of us. “Get in here before I end you all where you stand for bringing this to my door!”
“Stop it!” Keira says, tears coating the steel in her voice as the light flips on. “There are enough people we already have to bury after today. We’re not adding any more bodies to the count. Everyone in. We’re getting our baby girl back, and no one else is dying. Goddamn it, don’t make me say it again.”
“I’m so sorry, Keira.” Magnolia rushes her friend, wrapping her arms around her as she sobs. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll go. I’ll go. I won’t let anything happen to her. I swear. This is my penance. I’ll pay for my sins. Rory is coming home to you. I swear it.”
My heart cracks right down the middle to hear the despair and finality in Magnolia’s wrecked voice, but it doesn’t make a single dent in the stony expression on Mount’s face.
“We doing this my way? Or are we having it out right here?” I ask him, my finger resting alongside the trigger of my gun.
His fingers twitch, telling me he’s thinking about going for his piece too. We could all die right now. But I can read people. And this man wants to see his baby girl grow up, get married, and have babies of her own.
Mount releases a long breath. “We’re doing this the way that keeps the most people alive as possible. But if anything goes sideways, Rory is the only thing that I care about.”
Keira shoots him a glare as she rocks back and forth, holding on to Magnolia, but it doesn’t matter.
“I’ll take it,” I tell him with a sharp nod. “Now, he said Keira comes with Magnolia—”
“Over my dead fucking body,” Mount bites out, interrupting me.
“That’s what he said. You want to call him back on the phone he took from a woman he filleted? You want to tell him it’s not going his way when he’s got a knife near your baby girl? When he’s already threatened that if we’re late, or don’t follow his rules, he’s going to start sending pieces of her to show he’s serious?”
If there was murderous rage on Mount’s face before, I don’t know what the fuck this expression is, but I’m surprised we’re not all dead from the sheer force behind it. Mount swings around and punches through the nearest plaster wall.
“Lachlan! I’m going! So help me God, he’s not cutting my baby!”
Mount spins back around, blood dripping from his knuckles. His jaw shifts from side to side. “What else did that dead motherfucker say?”
“They go to the far end of the market, near Esplanade. They walk the stalls. Keira finds Rory, and he finds Magnolia and takes her.”
“He ain’t getting out of there with her,” Jules says, incredulous. “How the fuck does he really think he’s getting away with her? Not a chance. We can do this.”
Mount doesn’t even bother to look at him as he speaks. “He has a plan. We need a better one.”
Forty
Magnolia
“You know what to do? You got this?” Moses clasps my face between his hands as I stare into those brilliant green-gold eyes.
“I know what to do. I’ve got it,” I repeat back to him.
“And you know you’re coming back to me, and we’re gonna live an amazing fucking life after this asshole is dead, right?”
I nod because he needs to see me agree, but I’m not sure I believe him. If anything goes sideways, it’s my life for Rory’s.
I finally understand what the Hanged Man meant when Celeste drew the card for me.
The ultimate sacrifice.
I’ve been selfish my whole life. I’ve struggled and fought and tried to get what I thought I was owed. I’ve lied. Cheated. Stole. Betrayed people I loved, and committed more sins than I can possibly remember.
And it all comes down to this.
I have a chance at redemption, and if my life is demanded to save Rory, I’ll give it up gladly.
There’s no doubt in my mind, and not a drop of hate in my heart. This is the path my decisions have led me to, and I won’t let that baby suffer for a single moment longer if I can prevent it, no matter the cost to myself.
A calmness settles deep within me.
But I can’t tell Moses because he’ll never let me go. He’ll find another way. I believe in him, but I also believe we don’t have time to waste, and I refuse to be the reason Rory is missing a finger or an ear or something worse.
That child deserves a beautiful life.
And if I get through this, maybe I’ll get to have one too. Maybe I’ll even truly deserve it.
Moses studies my face, his eyes glowing with emotion. “Tell me you underst
and, mama. Tell me you trust me. I need to hear the words.”
“I understand. I trust you. And . . .” I suck in a ragged breath. “And I fucking love you so much. You’ve always been it for me, Moses. From the beginning. I knew it then, but I was too scared. I was weak. A coward. And if this is all the time we get—”
Moses opens his mouth to stop me, but I shake my head and keep going.
“No, I have to say this. If this is all the time we get, these were truly the best days of my life. I love you, Moses. No matter what happens next. I always loved you. I always will.”
“Goddamn it, mama.” His hands shake as he pulls me closer to his face. “Don’t you think those thoughts. This isn’t all the time we get. I refuse to let that happen. So you get it through your stubborn head—you’re coming back to me, and Rory is coming home safe. Understand? Don’t let anything else into that mind of yours. Believe this.”
Both of our bodies shake with the intensity of the emotions rolling off him.
“I believe you,” I tell him. “And I love you. Now, let’s save that baby.”
When he crushes his mouth to mine, I taste everything I’ve ever needed in that kiss, because it’s all Moses.
Forty-One
Keira
“I’m only doing this because you want it this way,” my husband, a merciless force of nature, says to me as he grips me by the shoulders.
I reach out and curl my palms around his arms. “I know you are. And we have to. Because how the hell am I supposed to live with myself if I traded my best friend’s life for my daughter’s?”
“It’s not even a fucking trade,” Lachlan says, his words coming out like a low growl. “And if it comes down to it, there’s no question whose life matters more to me.”
Tears spring to my eyes, and I blink them back, because he means it truly and completely. But I can’t think like that, because that’s not who I am.
It’s how we balance each other out. I’m Lachlan Mount’s humanity when he’s on the hunt for blood, and that’s a role I’m strong enough to play. But not when it comes to the man who took my child. To him, I will be lady justice, and I’ll make sure he dies for daring to lay a finger on her.
Because that’s what Lachlan Mount gave to me. Unbridled strength and power.
My voice is strong and even when I speak. “As soon as I have Rory and you see that motherfucker, you shoot him in the fucking face for daring to touch our girl. Swear it to me.”
Against all odds, a ghost of a smile flickers across his face. “My fierce hellion. I knew you’d be a lioness for our children, and I was fucking right. Go get our baby girl. I’ve got a bullet with that son of a bitch’s name on it.” His eyes are black as coal, but promise burns within them.
“I love you, Lachlan.”
He yanks me against him, wrapping his arms around me, pinning me against his body. “I fucking love you, Keira Mount. You are my life. And Rory is my heart. And, God fucking damn it, I have Magnolia to thank for all of it, despite how livid I am.” He pulls away and glares down at me as he shakes his head. “I’ll try my damnedest to save both of them, but I make no promises. Rory comes first.”
“Rory comes first, but I’m begging you to save them both.” I don’t plead often, but if there was ever a moment, it’s now. “Please.”
Forty-Two
Magnolia
Keira and I lock arms and thread our fingers together as we take our first steps across the sidewalk and into the French Market at five minutes to twelve. Sizzling sausage and sweet dough saturate the air with delicious scents, but at the moment, they turn my stomach.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her for the thousandth time in the last thirty minutes.
“Stop it,” she says, her eyes more determined and wilder than I’ve ever seen. “This is the work of a sick, twisted madman. His fate is sealed. He’s a dead man walking now. But you didn’t deserve for that woman to hire his brother to try to kill you. You didn’t force his brother to take the job. You didn’t want to have to defend yourself the night you killed him. This is not your fault.” She stops and turns to me, her green eyes boring into mine.
“If I hadn’t lived the life I’ve lived, there wouldn’t be anyone paying someone to kill me.”
Keira drops my hand and grasps me by the shoulders. “For the last time, you don’t get to be a martyr here. This isn’t on you. I don’t blame you. I blame a fucking psycho who killed my friends—in my own home—and stole my flesh and blood. He’s going to die today because that’s what he deserves. You’re going to live a long and happy life. Trust me, Magnolia.”
Keira shakes me, like she’s not sure it’s getting through my thick skull, but it is.
“I want to believe you.”
“Fuck that wanting bullshit. I don’t have time for it today. We can argue about it later, if you like.”
She gives me a nod, and I can’t help but mirror her and give her one right back.
“Okay.”
“Good. Now I’m going to get my baby back.”
We walk into the market, united in more ways than we’ve ever been before. I scan every person I see, searching for Rory’s untamed auburn hair and sweet face—and the face of a killer.
An ambulance is parked at the road, but I don’t see any EMTs anywhere. A cop car is parked in front of it, but I don’t see them either.
“What was she wearing again?” I ask, making sure I have it right and my riotous brain didn’t somehow decide I was looking for something different.
Keira’s head is on a swivel when she replies. “Pink leggings. White-and-pink striped shirt.”
I rake my gaze across every face in every booth and every customer, looking everywhere for our girl.
Goddamn it, couldn’t he have given us better instructions? A fucking stall number?
No, of course not. That would make it too easy, and this is a man who’s way fucking smarter than we realized when this nightmare began.
“We don’t see him or Rory.” Moses’s voice comes into my ear through the wireless comm earbud that Mount’s people produced. “But keep walking. Keep looking. If you see anything, you know what to do.”
He means I make the gesture we all agreed upon in the few minutes we had to come up with a haphazard strategy to save Rory and not get me killed in the process.
If Moses is terrified right now, he’s not letting it show. He’s aware I won’t hesitate to sacrifice myself if that’s what it comes down to.
“I think I see—” Keira’s chin jerks toward a stall with knitted goods, and then her whole body deflates with disappointment. “No. Not her.”
“We’re still a few minutes early. Let’s keep walking.”
We weave our way through the stands and the busy Saturday crowd, looking at everyone. Everywhere.
Someone bumps into me, and I whip around, expecting to see a man with a knife, but I stare into the eyes of the same damn kid who tried to steal my purse the day I was walking through the Quarter. The day Moses returned.
“Not today, kid. No fucking time today.”
“I’m not trying to steal anything. Some dude gave me money to bring you a note.” He offers it up, and I unlock arms with Keira to rip it out of his hand.
“Did he have a baby? Pink pants? Did you see a little girl?” she asks him as I flip the note open at the same time.
“No. Just a dude in a hat and sunglasses. He told me to come to you.”
His words fade away as I read what’s scrawled on the page.
* * *
Stall 202
* * *
I look up to ask the kid another question, but he’s gone, already melted into the crowd.
“What does it say?”
I show it to her, and her eyes light up as she reads it out loud, which is what I should have done because I need Moses to know where we’re headed.
“Go straight and then turn left. Head down the row. It’s the second to last from the end, according to the map,” Trey says in m
y ear.
I nod in the right direction, showing Keira where we need to go.
“Oh God. My baby’s here. I can feel it,” she whispers.
I pray she’s right. Hope floods my soul, but with each step we take toward stall 202, I worry it’s one step closer to the end for me.
I want to believe this is going to work out, but I have to prepare myself for the alternative. The blood-encrusted murder weapon Cavender tossed on the table flashes through my brain.
Please don’t let them show Moses the murder weapon if this goes south. Please don’t let him be the one to find me. And, God, why didn’t I just read that damn letter from Bernie? Will I ever get a chance?
That’s when we see her. Rory bounces in the arms of a woman behind a stall who is scanning the area, looking confused.
“There she is!” I almost forget to make the gesture, but I do it as Keira breaks into a run.
“Rory! Baby! Mommy’s right here!”
The woman’s head jerks up as Keira flies toward her, and then she shifts her body like she’s trying to protect the little girl.
I rush forward only to ram into a group of tourists who seemingly came out of nowhere. I push through them, shoving bodies out of my way as they jostle me.
And then I feel a fiery stab of pain, right in my lower back, that stops me in my tracks and takes me to my knees. Oh my God, that fucking hurts.
“Stupid puta. You don’t get off so easy.”
His face is hidden by sunglasses and a hat, just like the kid said, but I would know it was him from the hate dripping from each word spewing from his cruel mouth. The group of tourists acts like a wall, blocking us so no one can see what’s happening.