The Marine (Black Hawke Security #3)

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

AIDAN

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B riar, where the fuck are you?

My heart hasn’t stopped pounding for over twenty-four hours. Since she’s been missing.

I sip the black coffee—fuck cream; I need the powerful shit right now—and go over and over everything in my head.

The news hit the media early this morning.

Escaped fugitive Johnny Trevis has been captured. He married Briar Sutton, assistant to actress Savannah Sinclair, in 2019 and has been living in Los Angeles...

Blah, blah, blah.

If I was a man with less self-control, there could have been another news story on this morning. It might have read either one of the following:

US Marine throttles woman in her home.

Old woman stabs US Marine in her own home.

Neither happened.

But it was close.

“You!” Mrs. Sutton said when she saw me. “What are you doing here?”

I held my hand up, stopping her from shutting the door in my face. “I’ll leave if you tell me Briar is here and safe.”

“Even if she was, I wouldn’t.”

Thank you.

You just did.

“Then you need to talk to me. Briar is missing. Your daughter is missing.”

Her face paled even further, and her mouth dropped open. “What did you do?”

I rolled my eyes.

“For the love of god.” I growled, trying to stay conscious of my size and power despite this woman trying my patience.

With four words.

“Your daughter is missing. Let’s put aside the past and find her. If she’s not here, where would she be?”

Her eyes darted around and then landed back on mine. I had tried to give her time to catch up with what I told her. My presence had shocked her, and I understood that.

But I didn’t have time for her bullshit and drama.

“What did you do?” She repeated, crossing her arms and taking a step back. “She’s never run away before.”

I stepped into the doorway but didn’t close the door behind me, nor did I go any farther.

“I need to call the police. You can’t be here. You murdered my husband.”

Christ.

Do not shoot her in the face.

“You know very well that I didn’t kill your abuser. Sorry. Your husband.” I wasn’t sorry for pointing out the fucking obvious. This woman was the epitome of ignorant.

Her face was full of fury when she lifted the phone and met my gaze. “They may not have been able to prove it, but I know you did.”

My patience had begun to run out.

“Bullshit.” I snarled. “The only thing killed that night was the love between Briar and me. In fact, no, fuck that. You killed it with this nonsense story of me being responsible for his death. He drank. He was an angry man.”

“He loved us. Provided for us!”

“Abused you!” I shouted back.

“You don’t understand.” She shook, the phone wobbling in her hand.

“Maybe not. But I know you stood by while that man harmed your daughter over and over and over. Then, because of this fucked up story you led her to believe, she was led into the arms of another god- damn abuser.”

She waved the phone at me. “Kael is her husband. You need to stay away from her.”

I slid my hands into my pants and rocked back on my heels. I was looking forward to this part, even if that did make me sadistic.

“You need to sit down,” I said. “Kael is not who he says he is. He was a fugitive on the run until a few hours ago.”

“What?” Her mouth fell open.

I nodded at the sofa and ordered, “Sit.”

She actually did, walking across the room and dropping down onto the same green sofa I’d seen a decade ago. It was faded and old now.

“I need to ring the police if she’s missing,” Mrs. Sutton said, and I could tell she was in a bit of shock.

“They can’t do anything for twenty-four hours. You know that.” I told her. “I have a team of security experts searching for her.”

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know. But her husband—ex-husband—whatever. Kael, whose name is actual Johnny Trevis, is in custody so she’s not with him, or at home, or at her friends. She left the wedding in the middle of the photos and hasn’t been seen since.”

I let that sink in.

“My god. Has she been abducted? Did Kael...whoever...did he have accomplices?”

She’s watched too much TV. Not that we didn’t consider that. We hadn’t completely ruled it out, but from what we know, Johnny Trevis worked alone. He was simply abusive to women.

“I can’t believe he was a fugitive. All this time.” Mrs. Sutton shook her head, then eventually lifted her eyes to mine. “He hurt her.”

I nodded.

I would never not blame her, even though Briar was now a grown woman making her own choices. If her mother had found the courage to leave her husband, it would’ve taught Briar—even subconsciously—that there are other options in life.

That she didn’t have to stay.

That she could have left Kael years ago and... fucking been with me instead.

Goddamn it.

She belonged to me right from the start.

These fucking people. I want to scream and turn back time, to protect her.

“Where would she go?” I asked, pushing back all the things I want to say to her.

Finding Briar was far more important

“I would’ve thought she’d be with Alice and Trina. Otherwise I don’t know,” her mom said. Then she proceeded to tell me I needed to stay away from her daughter and her family, that I was a no good (insert a bunch of choice words here).

That’s when I crossed the room and stood in front of her, fury pouring from me. I didn’t care how terrifying or intimidating I’d looked.

“If I have my way, when I find your daughter, I am going to knock some sense into her. Knock your toxic words out of her and marry her.”

Her mother gasped.

“So you have until then to sort your shit out and accept it, because I swear to god if you destroy this last chance for both of us to be happy, and for your daughter to be loved by a man who will finally protect her, then you will have to answer to your maker.”

Not that I was a religious man, but it was the safest threat a man like me could make.

Not the one I wanted to make, let me tell you.

I watched as she fish-mouthed it for a long moment, before I spun and stormed out of the house.

And damn, I enjoyed the sound of it slamming behind me.

Now, almost a day later, it just feels bittersweet. The truth is, I don’t know if Briar wants me, and we still have to find her. But I’d waited ten years to say those things to her mother and yeah, it felt fucking good.

After I left, I’d driven around for hours going to all the spots we went to.

I rang Alice.

I rang Trina again.

I had my team on autodial, but we had nothing to trace. Briar didn’t have her car or her phone, but she did have her debit card. She was smart enough to get cash out from an ATM near her apartment. That’s the last transaction she made late yesterday afternoon.

Five hundred dollars.

It would run out soon.

I walk to my favorite armchair and sit down, closing my eyes. Where would she go?

Briar, where the fuck are you?

It’s not until the next morning, when my eyes flick open, that I sit up in my bed with a jolt.

I dreamed of the first night we made love. Feeling our souls connect in a way that’s never happened with anyone else.

I know where she is.

I’m sure of it...mostly.

I shower, have breakfast, do a little research online, then leap into the Porsche and head out to the coast.