Reign of Wrath (Dirty Broken Savages #3)(96)

Priest nods. “He doesn’t seem like an immediate threat, but we should be watchful.”

“And if he becomes a threat…” Knox cracks his knuckles ominously and grins.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” I tell him. “I think trying to cover up offing an FBI agent would be a big thing. And we’ve got enough on our plates right now.”

“Exactly,” Gage agrees. “Speaking of which, we should go pick up Cody.”

We get ready and head out, getting in the car to make the drive to the school Julian shipped Cody off to.

It’s hard to know how to feel now that we’re on the way, but I try to shove those mixed feelings down. I’ve killed two of the Maduro men now, and I hope that has interrupted the cycle of them turning into cruel, manipulative assholes. Without Julian’s influence, hopefully that won’t happen to Cody. I’ll make sure he doesn’t end up like that.

He deserves better than that, and Hannah deserves better than to have her son, who she cared so much about, turn into someone like Julian or Lorenzo. Both men who abused her and treated her like shit.

Having Cody be happy with Hannah would have been the best thing, but having him safe with me is the next best plan, and it makes me happy to think about it.

Getting vengeance, ruining Julian’s empire, and taking his money is one thing. But this is the true thing I was doing for Hannah. Protecting her son. That overrides any weird feelings I might have about all of this because that’s what it’s about. It’s about helping Hannah rest in peace, knowing her son is okay.

We reach the school where Cody is, and it’s a big, sprawling campus.

Ash lets out a low whistle, glancing around. “This is a swanky place. I guess at least Julian didn’t ship his kid off to some shit hole.”

“He wouldn’t have,” I tell him. “Because that would have looked bad on him. He had to make sure his son was somewhere nice if he wasn’t going to look after him himself.”

We get ready to get out so we can go inside and look for the kid, talking about maybe splitting up to cover more ground. Ash points out that of all of us, I’m the only one Cody really knows, so it’s probably better for him to see me there than one of the guys, who are all still strangers to him for the moment.

It feels weird to be the one Cody knows, but it’s a good point.

Before we can get out of the car, we see two figures come striding down the lawn, moving quickly.

One of them looks like a woman, walking briskly, with a child behind her. As they get closer, it’s clear the woman is almost dragging the kid along, trying to get him to walk faster and keep up with her.

Then they get close enough for us to see their faces, and my heart stops.

It’s Natalie.

She beat us here. And she’s trying to take Cody away.





40





Ash





Natalie drags Cody to a car parked in the lot near the school’s sprawling campus, her grip firm on his arm and a hard look on her face. She opens the backseat of the car and ushers him in, then walks around quickly and slips in behind the wheel on the driver’s side, starting up her car and driving away.

“Follow her,” River bites out.

Gage is already doing it even before she speaks, pulling away from the curb to tail Natalie at a bit of a distance—hopefully enough that she won’t see us behind her.

“What the fuck?” River breathes. “What the fuck is she doing? What does she want with him?”

Her body is so tense that she feels like a statue beside me, and her jaw clenches as she stares out the front window. We’re not losing sight of the car, but she keeps craning her neck, trying to keep it in view. I know she’s freaking out a little because this wasn’t a part of the plan. And after last night turned into a shit show pretty quickly, I can’t really blame her for being worried about it.

We didn’t think to account for this. Didn’t think Natalie would have any interest in Hannah’s son, especially since she clearly hated Hannah.

All the shit we did to dismantle Julian’s life before we killed him fucked his sister over pretty thoroughly too, and I figured she’d be too busy dealing with the fallout over that to worry about her brother’s kid.

“That fucking bitch,” River mutters under her breath. She throws herself back into her seat for a second but never stops staring at the car ahead of us, like she’s afraid if it gets out of her sight, they’ll disappear forever.

Her worry is palpable, filling the car like a sixth passenger. I know killing Julian was the main focus of our planning sessions over the past weeks, but getting Cody back is the part that ultimately matters most to her. If we fail at this, she’ll never forgive herself.

“Natalie won’t get away with Cody,” Gage says from the front seat, as if he’s read my damn mind. “That’s not going to happen.”

“What’s the plan, though?” I ask, my fingers moving restlessly. I don’t have a coin in my hand at the moment, but the habit is ingrained in my muscle memory by now. “We can’t just attack the car. The kid is in there. It’s too fucking risky.”

Gage lets out a rough breath. “I know. For now, we’ll just follow her. See where she’s going. If we can get the kid away from her, then we can figure out where to go from there.”