This was absolute bullshit.

I paced angrily back and forth in front of Walker and our group, my trigger-happy ass one second away from running into the building and open firing on anything that moved.

"This is bullshit," I said for the hundredth time to anyone who could hear me.

Jay stood with his arms crossed, looking as angry as I felt, watching me pace.

"Let the police take care of it, man. No one wants to see you back in prison on murder charges."

"It'd be worth it."

His lack of answer showed his agreement.

I meant it. I would go back in a heartbeat if doing so would save Reggie and put Daphne in a grave.

That fucking psychotic bitch.

She had done this.

She had taken Regan from us. And I was going to kill her for it. It might not be today, but I'd do it. Then I'd kill Stephen.

Or maybe I'd make her watch as I killed her brother.

Yeah, her goddamned brother.

That nugget of information had sent me, Jay, and Mal on a deep dive into unfiltered rage. When Raphael told us what he had overheard while disguised as the homeless man, the three of us lost our fucking minds. If Mal hadn't still been healing from his bullet wounds, he would have taken the whole house down to the ground.

Jay held his hand out, motioning me to stop and we both looked over to where the SWAT team had begun to enter the warehouse.

We should be with them. We were the ones that tipped them off to the location. That was our girl in there.

It was Reggie.

Mal was with the SWAT team, small comfort that it was. The only reason he was allowed was because of his previous work as a detective, and the team leader owed him a favor. I saw his towering form stop, helmeted head jerk a nod in our direction and then enter the building.

My feet were carrying me toward the warehouse before I realized what I was doing. But I wasn't alone. Jay was right by my side, and the rest of the guys followed closely.

I guess none of us had intended to listen to the SWAT team's orders to stay out of the way.

If Reggie was in there and alive -

No.. no ifs. She was alive. She had to be.

We needed to be the first faces she saw.

I checked my Glock again.

I heard the others do the same behind me.

Jay was the only one without a weapon, as he liked it. He was far from a pacifist, but he had a hard rule about guns. He had at least agreed to wear the bulletproof vest, understanding that no one else here felt the same way about the weapons. I hated him being unarmed in this situation. There was no arguing with him, though.

SWAT had disappeared into the darkness of the warehouse, moving silently and undetected. We knew that Daphne and Stephen were both in there. Raphael had seen them enter after parking a newly stolen car near the rotting and rusting loading dock. Walker's guys had been monitoring the building from all sides ever since, and no one had left.

One of the men had reported hearing a female scream.

While Jay was breaking every traffic law to get us here as fast as possible, Walker had armed up with his favorite rifle, ready to initiate a one-man rescue mission. If the police had arrived only one minute later, the psychotic siblings inside would have be mincemeat, and Reggie would be safe.

I held up my gun, stepping forward into the shadows.

There was a shout and then gunshots.

We all took off in the direction of the noise.

I didn't give a fuck if I paid for disobeying the police. Someone was shooting, and my girl was in here somewhere.

There were more shouts; it sounded like some of the SWAT yelling orders, and then Mal's voice cut through the rest. "Go after him! He doesn't get away!"

I almost turned to run after Stephen, guessing at the direction he was escaping based on where all the shouts were coming from. Mal wasn't going to catch him. That tough bastard should still be in the hospital. Jay pivoted, probably thinking the same thing.

Then I heard the distinct shrill scream of Daphne.

More gunshots.

Was she firing at the police?

Jay was on my heels as I took off, hunting down the sound of her maniacal shrieking. The police were ordering her to come out, drop the gun, and surrender.

She was screaming back at them to go to hell.

We came around a corner, the whole scene playing out directly in front of us. SWAT was taking cover behind some fallen roof beams and old furniture. I could see one of them gesturing to the others to split up, sending some men in each direction, while he stayed back to draw her fire.

Daphne was across the room from them, holding an assault rifle and not bothering to hide. It was like a sadistic game of whack-a-mole. Each time one of the officers popped up to fire at her, she'd take aim - I use that term loosely - and open fire at them. She held the gun against her hip, sweeping it back and forth, her mouth open and laughing.

How the fuck had she gotten her hands on a fully automatic rifle? It must be what she used to gun down Mal and the front of our house.

I grabbed Jay and hauled him back around the corner.

"We need to find another way around and come up behind her."

He glanced back over his shoulder, scanning our surroundings. "I think this used to be a hall of some sort. If we go back that way, there might be an opening to her."

I nodded, pulling a second gun from my holster. He led the way with me covering him. Stephen was still around somewhere, and that fucker was probably going to jump out of the dark and dirty crevices of this building any second.

Jay had been right. We made our way down the crumbling skeleton of the hallway and found an opening that led us right up to Daphne's back.

I watched as she rained down bullets on that sorry sucker still stuck behind the barricade. She was completely oblivious to the other SWAT members inching their way closer to her on either side. The second she saw them, they better say a prayer because they had no cover. The lone team member was doing a great job of taking her fire, but he wasn't going to be able to keep it up. One miscalculated move by him, and he'd be dead. Daphne didn't seem like she could aim for shit. With the amount of ammo she had, she didn't need to. One stray bullet past the protection of his body armor would do the job.

I met Jay's eyes to make sure he understood what we were about to do.

That was when Daphne saw what the police were doing. She swiveled toward the men that were on her right.

"Daphne!"

I jumped out from my hiding place without fully thinking about what I was doing.

She whirled, weapon up, and gaped at me. Both of my guns were steady, aimed at her face.

It was a short-lived standoff. As it registered who she was looking at, she slowly lowered the rifle.

"Noah?"

"Yeah, Daphne. It's me."

Her face brightened with one of her soulless smiles. "You came for me! I knew you would."

"Something like that, sure."

My Glocks remained raised. She either didn't see them or was so delusional that she thought I'd never dare shoot her. She took a few hurried steps closer. One of the SWAT guys shifted, and her attention went right back to them, rifle up.

"Hey," I cooed at her like she was a fucking toddler, trying my damndest not to let my voice shake. "Don't worry about them. They're with me."

Her wild pale eyes darted back and forth between us. I prayed those stupid bastards would take the hint and stop moving. I was trying to keep this from being a total bloodbath. I couldn't look at them, worried that if I moved my gaze from her, she'd open fire on all of us.

Sell it, you dumb motherfucker.

"I've missed you, Daphne."

That did it.

She immediately forgot everyone else and focused on me. "You did?"

I nodded. "It's been so long since I've seen you. I thought maybe you forgot about me."

She tucked her wild hair behind her ear and shook her head. "Oh no, I'd never forget you. That's why I did this, you know? I needed to get that whore out of the way so we could finally be together."

I ground my teeth together so hard that one of them might crack. "Stephen couldn't handle the job, huh?"

She scoffed. "Phillip? He fell for her whore ways just as easily as you."

My fingers tightened on the triggers, arms flexing with the restraint to keep from blowing her face off.

"So you decided to kill her?"

"She's not dead. Well, maybe she is now. Phillip was especially rough the last time he fucked her."

One shot. Two.

Daphne screamed, trying to bring her rifle up to aim at me. An officer to my right fired at her.

Threefourfivesix.

Her screams continued, full of curses as she fought to hang on to the rifle. Her arms weren't working anymore, my first shots entering each of her shoulders to debilitate her. The police officer who fired next hadn't taken any chances and shot her in the chest. She fell to her knees, bloody teeth bared at me, her crazed fury morphing her plain face into something straight out of a horror film.

"I loved you!" she yelled, spraying blood. "You were mine!"

It seemed the police were going to let me finish her off. I saw them drop their weapons but none of them made any move to surround and capture. I caught the barely noticeable chin jerk from the man behind the barricade.

"Never," I hissed.

Seveneightnineteneleven.

Her screams gargled out as she fell face-first into the filthy floor.

Jay was beside me, pressing a hand on my arm and forcing me to lower my guns. Had he been there this whole time?

Chest heaving, I stared down at the frail, crumpled mess at my feet, her blood spreading towards my boots. The urge to stomp down on the back of her head was nearly overpowering any self-control I had.

"She's here!" Ben called from not too far away.

Daphne lay forgotten as we sprinted toward him.

Neither of us was prepared for what we found.

My legs gave out before I made it to the table where Reggie lay naked and trembling. Jay turned and vomited.

Reggie. Oh God.

Ben checked for a pulse and nodded quickly. Reggie moved slightly as if to get away from his touch.

Never in my life, not even in my time behind bars, had I seen someone so beaten and tortured.

My beautiful girl's face was so swollen and bruised, covered in cuts and ... Jesus Christ. She had clearly defined hand prints bruised into her neck.She wasn't able to see any of us, both eyes so black and puffy, her vision had to be totally obscured.

Her body -

I looked her over from where I dry-heaved on my knees. The site of her wasn't what was making me retch. The thought of what she had endured under their hands ... the level of pain and torture they had inflicted on her for her to be like this, I couldn't stomach it. Some of her limbs were obviously broken. The way she was splayed out on the table made it clear what Stephen had been doing to her. The blood she lay in came from between her legs, and numerous horrific injuries on her body. Her whole midsection was almost black with bruises. She twitched again, jerking to try and get her body to shift away from us.

Did her thigh say -

Those two psychopathic fuckers had carved their names into her legs.

Joshua wiped the sick from his mouth. "Noah. Oh God, she's -"

"Alive. She's still alive." Mal pulled me to my feet. He ripped his helmet off and let it fall to the ground

Jay lunged past us, reaching for her.

"Oh baby, what did they do? Fuck, baby, can you hear me? Regan, baby, please."

She didn't respond. Her jaw looked dislocated or broken.

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep it together. I had been prepared to find her in a bad way, knowing she hadn't been left untouched after twelve days alone with Daphne and Stephen. My hope had been that he was obsessed with her enough to want to keep her alive and well.

With all his talk about marrying her and Reggie being his wife, I knew, even though I fought to believe it, that he'd touch her - violate her - and that would be the worst of it, even as disgusting and terrible as that would be for her. And I knew she was a fighter. During all my sleepless nights worrying for her and driving around Boston looking for any clue that would lead us to her, my one comfort had known that she was giving him hell.

Seeing her cower and mumble, unable to speak or see - they had broken our girl. They had stolen the fight from her.

"Mal," I gasped. "Jesus Christ - is she, is she -" I whirled to look around us. "We need help over here! Where are the paramedics? Walker!"

They had been outside, waiting for SWAT to clear the warehouse and call them in. Where the fuck were they?

I tore at my hair, a scream of frustration ready to explode from me...

"Baby," Mal stopped over the table, leaning close to her but not touching. "It's okay. We're here. We've got you."

"..over soon... dying ... let me die...."

Jay was crying, looking down at her, helpless to do anything. His hands shook so badly with the need to touch her, cover her, soothe her. He bit his bottom lip to keep from audibly sobbing as he heard her soft, miserable whisper.

"No, Reggie," I said, getting myself under control and taking one shaky step and then another to get to the table to stand with Jay and Mal. "You're going to be fine. Don't talk like that."

"...no talking," she barely whispered. "Dying."

My heart cracked every rib on its way to the ground.

Ben was on the other side of the table, removing his flannel shirt and carefully draping it over her. Jay helped him cover Reggie. Her head shook from side to side. I wanted to die when a tear fell from her swollen eye.

"Hurts."

"I'm sorry, baby girl. You need to be covered up. Shh, don't cry. Please."

I'd never felt so helpless, so impotent. I needed to take away her pain and horror and grief ... just everything. I'd condemn myself to an eternity of hell to spare her from this torment and trauma.

"Where the fuck are the paramedics?"

I couldn't make a deal with the devil, but I'd at least get her to a hospital.

Finally, the EMTs came running in, a stretcher wheeled along with them, Walker directing them through the chaos. I didn't miss how one of them paled significantly as her eyes fell on Reggie. But she was pro, shaking off her initial shock and immediately getting to work.

With great effort, the three of us stepped away to let them help her. Even when Reggie started to make a low wailing noise filled with pain as they moved her onto the stretcher, we stayed back, shoulder to shoulder, shuddering with emotions that had no outlet.

Reggie cried when they stuck her with an IV, her arms flinching when they tried to get her heart rate. When they began to move the stretcher over the uneven floor, jostling her, her moans grew louder.

"If you aren't more careful, I'll fucking carry her out of here."

The EMT's looked at me, then at Jay and Mal. The male narrowed his eyes at me, not slowing his pace. "You want us to save her or take her on a leisurely ride?"

"Save her," Jay spoke up. "Please."

They quickened their pace, past the worst of the debris and puddles. Mal grabbed my arm and pulled me in the direction of his SUV. Knowing he intended to follow the them, Jay and I ran after him and jumped in just as they were slamming the doors shut on the ambulance.

This was the last time I'd ever let Reggie out of my sight.