“Wh-who is this?” I ask, my voice trembling as I watch Jared scramble to his computer and start typing furiously as Miah rolls his hand, gesturing for me to keep them on the line as long as possible.
“Who I am is not important, Miss Mayfield. It’s what I will do to your little friend you should be worried about.”
“Please don’t hurt her,” I plead, cringing when Jace hits the speaker button and the sound of Paulie crying out in pain echoes throughout the room.
I hear Jared growl and can almost feel the violence coursing through the air when Paulie cries out again and starts sobbing.
“She’s been a bad girl, Miss Mayfield. She started asking questions that are better left unanswered. You can have her back, though—for a price, of course,” the tinny voice drawls, making me clench my teeth against the need to tell this animal to go fuck himself.
“What do you want?”
Laughter follows and I feel Jace tense against me as his arms come around me to hold me up when my knees threaten to buckle at the sound of more hitting and Paulie’s pain-filled cries.
“You tell me where she is, Tracy, if I can call you that…”
“Fine,” I grit out between my teeth, watching Jared go crazy on his computer when Paulie cries again, louder this time, and after the unmistakable thud of a fist striking again. “Who is she?”
More laughter follows and I close my eyes as shivers track down my spine.
“You know who, Tracy. Do not play dumb or I’ll take my mood out on your pathetic little friend here. She’s a screamer, Tracy. Would you like to hear?”
“No! No, please, don’t hurt her anymore. I’ll do whatever you want, just leave her alone,” I scream, going to my knees as tears course down my cheeks.
“I want to know where she is.”
“Who?”
“You know!”
“No, I—”
“You have an hour to decide whether your secrets are more important than your friend’s life, Tracy dear. I’ll give you that time to decide while I have some fun with Paulette. I’ll call back in an hour.”
“No! Wait!”
I’m screaming and crying hysterically as the line goes dead and I hear Jared yell out a curse before something heavy goes crashing into the wall.
“Babe.”
“They have her, Jace. They have Paulie and she sounded so scared and they were hurting her,” I sob, completely falling apart as the gravity of the situation hits me.
She’s been gone for days now, and if they’re having that much fun hurting her, how long has she had to endure that treatment?
Jace closes his eyes and pulls me closer, keeping a tight hold on me as I struggle to stem the flow of tears.
“They know about Lynn. How do they know about Lynn?” I ask, finally calming enough to take a deep breath and pull away with only a few hiccups.
Miah and Wyatt are standing off to the side and are completely silent. I wait for some answer while Jared seems to be on the verge of a breakdown.
“I don’t know, babe. No one knows. Just the family,” he answers, looking at Jared with raised brows.
“It’s only us. Not even Ma and Pop know yet. It’s just us,” he snarls, throwing a fist through the drywall.
“That is obviously not true anymore so let’s try to think here, guys. They want that crazy person back and will obviously not stop till they get her. Paulie is in trouble here and we need to get her before they do something terrible to her, so think!”
Yelling is not a good idea now. Emotions are high and extremely volatile, especially with Jared looking like he could happily rip someone’s head off with his bare hands, but I’m wound so tight right now that I feel like I could snap at any moment, too.
We need to go get Paulie and start looking for Roman and that Goddamned safety-deposit box before these animals start pulling out the big guns.
“We can’t tell them,” Wyatt finally says, shrugging apologetically. “We can’t have that woman leading her people again. We may not survive it this time. With her resources and God knows who behind her, she could get to us all. I have a wife and child to consider here, and I won’t risk them for—”
“She’s mine! And you want to just leave her in their clutches? They will fucking kill her, Wyatt!” Jared roars, stalking towards Wyatt with blood in his eyes.
“Whoa, Jared, calm down, bro. Wyatt is not saying that we should leave one of ours to those animals, are you, Wyatt?” Miah grits out, holding Jared at bay with a hand to his chest.
“No, you assholes. What I’m trying to say without risk of being ripped limb from limb is that we need to put some measures in place before we give Lynn’s location up! Jesus, Jared, do I look like a fucking monster to you, bro?” he yells, shoving a hand through his hair as Ma and Pop come through the doors with Ellie and Clari hot on their heels.