Shoving Trevor’s hand away, he leapt over the rest of the small steps. Olivia’s door was ajar, the place eerily quiet.
He raised his right hand and slowly pushed it open. It gave way with a soft creak, and his world came crashing down.
A strangled sound of denial escaped his throat as he took in the gruesome scene. Everywhere he turned, there were signs of a struggle.
A broken chair lay at his feet. Blood was on the floor, not far from where he stood.
Jake looked toward the living room, his knees shaking when he noticed the pile of broken glass that used to be Olivia’s coffee table. His throat closed around a painful knot when he saw more blood there.
God forgive me. I’ve failed her again.
Woodenly, he stepped further inside. Turning to the right he noticed coffee cups and knives strewn across the countertop, stove, and floor. Broken porcelain crunched beneath his feet as he continued into the kitchen.
Jake ignored it. All he could focus on was the blood. Olivia’s blood.
It was smeared all over the normally pristine countertops. Jake zeroed in on a particular steak knife lying on the floor near the edge of the stove.
Once again, Liv had been forced to fight for her life. This time, in the one place she should have been safe.
But it hadn’t been enough. She was gone. My world is gone.
Jake’s mind raced with questions to which he had no answers. They hit him at full speed, their effect dizzying.
Where was she? How long had she been gone? How badly was she hurt? How could I let this happen?
Stumbling out the door, Jake was down the steps before even realizing he’d walked outside. He passed by his teammates in a haze. Could hear their voices, but didn’t bother listening to what they were saying.
He didn’t care. All he could think about was the fact that the love of his life had been taken by a madman hell bent on revenge.
His breathing picked up. His heart raced. Liv was out there somewhere, and she was hurt.
That bastard, Cetro, had put his hands on her for the second time, despite Jake’s promises that he would never be able to touch her again. She may already be dead.
Ah, Christ, he couldn’t take this. The guilt, the pain, the fucking gut-wrenching fear for what Olivia may be going through was a living, breathing thing.
It was tearing him apart, piece by fucking piece. And it was all his fault.
“Goddammit!” Jake roared as his fist slammed into his truck’s passenger-side door.
He felt no pain, only the fear that now consumed him to the point of madness. Chest heaving, he raised his fist again. When he started to swing again, his arm met with a strong resistance.
Ready to fight, Jake spun around, surprised to find Grant’s hard eyes staring back at his. The other man must have arrived while he’d been in the house.
“Let me go,” Jake growled menacingly.
With zero intention of following orders, Grant said, “Can’t do that, boss.”
“What the fuck do you mean, you can’t do that?” Jake tried to jerk from the other man’s grasp but was unsuccessful. “Let. Me. Go!”
Grant’s only reaction was a curt shake of his head and a clear, “Not happening, boss.”
Jake’s nostrils flared as his breaths moved in and out in hard, fast puffs. He couldn’t believe that, Grant Hill—of all fucking people—had his hands on him. Was disobeying him.
Jake opened his mouth to tell the asshole off, but the big guy didn’t give him the chance.
“Don’t do this to yourself, Jake. It’s not your fault.”
“The hell it’s not!” Jake finally managed to pull from Hill’s grasp. “She’s mine to protect, and I let her go!”
“And she needs you, boss.” This time, it was Coop who spoke up. “You’re not going to be any good to her like this.”
Jake looked at Coop then glanced around at Trevor and Mac who had all moved in closer, their faces covered with matching looks of concern. Finally, he looked back at Grant.
“That bastard has her, again. He’s hurt her.” His voice broke. Tears fell down his face, but Jake didn’t care. “And it’s my fault.”
He looked back at the house, the images of what he’d found inside, forever burned into his mind.
“I swore to her that we’d caught him. I told her he’d never be able to hurt her again. And now he has her, and I don’t even know if she’s alive or—”
Trevor chimed in with, “She’s alive, Jake. If Cetro wanted her dead, we would have found her body in the house. There would have been no reason to take her.” Jake’s friend took a step toward him. “But you losing your shit, right now, isn’t going to help get her back.”
Jake’s mind cleared just enough to realize his friend was right. If Cetro just wanted to kill Olivia, he would have done it here and left her for him to find.
He was keeping her alive, for now at least, but God...Jake couldn’t allow himself to think about what that bastard was doing to her. What he would do. Because Jake had no doubt that Cetro would kill her eventually.
“Boss, this isn’t your fault any more than it is ours,” Grant spoke up again. “Now, you can stand here feeling sorry for yourself, or you can get your head out of your ass and do what needs to be done to ensure that Olivia makes it out of this thing alive.”
“You don’t understand Grant—”
“Do you love her?” Mac’s voice broke through.
Jake’s eyes burned. He blinked back more tears. Turning to her, he whispered, “More than anything.”
She gave him a small smile. “Then let’s go find your girl.”
Mac’s blunt question and matter-of-fact attitude was like a slap in the face and a splash of ice-cold-water, all wrapped into one. And it was exactly what Jake needed.
Just like that, he was in battle mode. Except, “I-I don’t even know where to start looking.” He ran a shaking hand down his face before rubbing the back
