The pain spiked, scoring into his brain.
“Hey, buddy.”
“Rocky doesn’t know I’m usin’ her phone. I swiped it. But I had to…I had to…” He drew in an audible breath. “Can I go to the station? Maybe Tanner can come and get me. I just…I just wanna…sit at the station.”
Fuck, he sounded scared.
His boy sounded scared.
Pain skewered Garrett’s brain as he beat back the fury.
“Prefer you where you are right now, kid,” Garrett told him.
“I know, but—”
“Ethan, bud, I gotta be doin’ what I’m doin’. Tanner’s helpin’. Mike. Cal. Colt. Sul. My dad. Everyone. So I got no one to look after your gramma except you. Need you to look after Grace. Can you do that for me now? Look after your gramma?”
“Yea—” His voice broke and Garrett’s vision blurred. He listened to Ethan clear his throat before he said, “Yeah. I can do that. I can look after Gramma.”
“Good, bud. See you soon, yeah? I’m gonna see you soon, buddy. You hear me?”
It was weak and nearly inaudible when Ethan replied, “I hear you, Merry.”
“Suck it up, Ethan,” Garrett ordered gently. “Need you strong, okay? Before you go back to your gramma, suck it up for me. Go back to her strong. She’s probably scared. You need to take care of her, yeah?”
Ethan didn’t reply.
“You with me?” Garrett prompted.
He heard Ethan clear his throat again and his voice was a lot stronger when he said, “I hear you, Merry. Gotta get back to Gram.”
“Yeah you do. See you soon. See you both soon.”
“’Kay, Merry.”
“Love you, son.”
A sniff, then, “I love you too.”
“Right. Later.”
“Later, Merry.”
They disconnected.
Garrett drew a sharp breath in through his nose and kept scanning.
“You did right, Garrett,” Mike said softly. “Gave him strength, direction. Something like this happened when Jonas was Ethan’s age, a time he’s just beginnin’ to figure out what kinda man he wants to be, he wouldn’t wanna look back and remember himself fallin’ apart.”
“Right,” Garrett bit out.
“He needed a mission.”
“Right,” Garrett repeated.
“You did right.”
Garrett said nothing.
Mike drove.
Garrett’s phone rang again.
He looked to the screen.
It was Cal.
If Cal had something to say that wasn’t important, he’d text.
He was phoning.
Garrett took the call.
He didn’t say a word before Cal spoke.
“Burgundy Taurus, man, right in your woman’s goddamned driveway.”
The pain spiked.
He looked to Mike. “They’re at Cher’s.”
Mike turned on his blinker.
“You got eyes?” he asked Cal.
“Walked by. Sheers closed but movement in the kitchen,” Cal answered. “Otherwise, made no approach.”
“Distinct movement?”
“Yeah. One person. Couldn’t tell much. But it wasn’t Cher.”
It wasn’t Cher.
“Stay clear,” Merry ordered. “We’re on our way.”
“Got it.”
Garrett disconnected and ran his thumb over the screen.
“He took her to her own fuckin’ house?” Mike asked.
“Cal says car’s in the driveway and there’s movement in the kitchen, not Cher,” Garrett answered as he made his call and put the phone to his ear.
“Yo,” Colt answered.
“Cal reports burgundy Taurus in Cher’s drive. You and Sully. Mike and me. And I’m calling Tanner. We go in soft with no one else there to fuck this shit up.”
“You’re too close to this, brother. Let me call Drew and Sean there. Adam and Ellen,” Colt replied. “We’ll take care of her.”
“If I’m too close, you’re too close,” Garrett gave him the truth.
There was a pause, then, “Fuck.”
Colt knew the truth.
“You call cap,” Garrett ordered. “Tell him what we’re doin’, but do not let him throw everything we got at this so fifteen squads from all over the county roll in hot and tweak this guy to do somethin’ even stupider than abducting my woman. We don’t know what we’re dealin’ with here. We go in easy.”
“You got it. I’m on it. Meet you there.”
“Our ETA, five.”
“Ours, seven. But we’ll shave off two.”
They disconnected.
Her own fucking house.
He called her number. It was the fourth time he’d called since he’d heard.
She didn’t answer.
Then he called Tanner and gave him the news.
“Okay, keep your shit, man, but if this is about Lowe, her bein’ Lowe’s and now you bein’ hers, this could be about you. Goin’ to her place, he could be drawin’ you there,” Tanner warned.
“That thought crossed my mind,” Garrett replied.
“We’ll get her, brother,” Tanner assured.
They would.
They had to.
Because he definitely could survive losing Mia.
He could even survive losing his mom.
But he wasn’t sure he was capable of waking up and not seeing Cher’s pretty.