Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 122206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“Obviously, I’ve tried her phone, ye plank.”
I counted to five.
“Look, she might end up missin’ tonight’s session. We had a fight.”
I glanced at Harley and mouthed, “Phone Ina.”
He did so without hesitation.
“Absolutely not. That girl is a knitter. She’s required to be here. She signed her name and gave me her blood and her word.”
I counted to ten this time.
“Lilly, I don’t have time for this.”
I looked at Harley when he shook his head and said, “It’s ringin’ out, then goin’ to voicemail.”
A sinking feeling in my gut told me that something was wrong.
“Date—”
My phone beeped. I looked at the screen and saw it was my father on the other line.
“Lilly, I’ll phone ye back. Me da’s tryin’ to call me.”
I hung up on her before she could say a word in protest and answered my father’s call.
“Da?”
“Date!” He coughed. “Fuck. Can ye hear me?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong?”
“I’m in Ina’s apartment. Some bastard attacked me.”
I went rigid.
“What? Da? Are ye okay? Who was it? Are ye hurt??”
My brothers surrounded me in an instance, and I quickly put the call on speaker.
“You’re on speaker. What happened?”
“I brought Ina home and figured I’d go up to her apartment with her and have a cuppa so she wouldn’t feel alone. I barely made it into her kitchen before some culchie bastard grabbed hold of me neck and said if we called the guards, he’d kill her. He smacked me over the head then. It knocked me out, and I just woke up, and she’s gone. I’m grand. I just can’t fuckin’ believe this is happenin’.”
I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience.
“Fuck.” I panicked. “This is her ex’s doin’. He’s kidnapped her. It has to be him. He’d have the same accent as Ina. Fuck.”
This couldn’t be real.
“I think I’m gonna be sick.” I gripped my stomach with my free hand. “Christ.”
“I’m halfway down the stairwell. I’ll be at the garage in ten minutes. He didn’t take me keys, which tells me he took her in his own vehicle. I’m gonna ring Kane straight away and tell him what’s happened so he can find out how this prick got into the buildin’ and into Ina’s apartment. Do not go after her without me!”
The line went dead, then my phone instantly rang. I answered Lilly’s call automatically.
“I can’t believe ye hung up on me, Date Collins.”
“Lilly, please!” I said a little harsher than I meant to. “Me da just phoned me and told me Ina’s ex showed up at her apartment, and now I don’t know where she is. I’ll phone ye when I know—”
“Why didn’t ye say so?” Lilly interrupted. “Give me a minute, and I’ll tell ye where she is.”
I stared at my phone, and my brothers did too.
“How can ye tell me where she is?”
“I stuck her with a trackin’ device when she was legless in HQ last week.” Lilly said it like it was the most casual thing in the world. “I like to keep track of me members, to make sure they don’t join with enemy forces. Before ye waffle on about it being illegal, I already know and don’t care.”
This miniature woman scared the shite out of me.
“Okay,” I said, accepting what she said at face value. “Where’s my Ina?”
“County Carlow,” she replied, tapping away at something. “In the middle of a huge field. Me guess would be some kind of farm. The closest thing to the place is a tiny village called Kildavin, and that’s ten minutes away from it.”
Kildavin was the name of the village where Ina grew up.
“Thanks, Lil. Can ye send me the exact address?”
“Already done it, sunshine. If Ina’s in trouble, let me know. Us knitters take care of our own.”
Lilly hung up on me.
“I don’t mean to be the arsehole of the group here,” Gavin began, “but is there any chance at all that Ina went with this bloke willingly? Forget that he smacked Da. Would she go with her ex while she was feelin’ low about what happened today, Date?”
The panicked thought momentarily crossed my mind, but I quickly dismissed it.
“No, she’s estranged from her da, and she was scared of her ex. She wouldn’t leave with him, even if he was the last man on Earth. He took her against her will. I know it.”
My phone rang again, and this time, it was Kane calling.
“Your dad called me. I had my security team do a sweep of the footage in and out of the building, and we tagged a man who snuck in the back entrance at the same time as a scheduled plumber this morning. The security mistook the second man as an employee from the same company and left them to do their work. I’ve tracked him on the feed. He knew to go up to the fifth floor and which apartment was Ina’s. The motherfucker knew her door code and let himself in.”