Another ring sounded, but this one didn’t come from his phone. He peered up at the rearview mirror and noticed the OnStar button.

Shit. They had a phone in the fucking car?

Hitting the button, Jase waited for the caller to speak.

“Jase?” Leyton.

Shit. “Yeah?”

“Where are you?”

“I’ve got somethin’ to take care of. Keep Ashlynn safe until I get back.”

There was a pause before Leyton’s voice returned, harder than he’d ever heard it before. “Get your ass back here.”

“I can’t,” he replied, tempted to hit the button to hang up, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Jase…” Leyton’s tone sounded frantic, but Jase pretended not to notice. He didn’t want them to worry about him. “We’ll handle this together. That’s the way it works now.”

“Now? That wasn’t your brother who died! This isn’t your fight!” Jase yelled, the anger that had been simmering in his gut exploding into a full-out inferno of rage.

“No,” Leyton bit out. “But he was yours. And since I love you, I consider it my fight.”

Something momentarily softened inside him, but Jase pushed it away. He needed the anger and the rage; they were the fuel that would drive him to do what needed to be done.

“Come back,” Leyton said, his tone much softer. “We’ll find him. And we won’t stop looking until we do. Don’t do this.” Leyton sighed. “Please.”

Jase’s chest ached. He’d never heard Leyton talk like that before. Not to anyone. He could’ve understood if it had been Ashlynn, but Leyton… It was more than he could bear.

Pulling into a parking lot, Jase searched for words. He couldn’t find any, couldn’t even get air into his lungs.

“Jase? Are you still there?” Leyton sounded concerned now.

“Yeah. I’m—”

“Stay right there,” Leyton barked, his voice hard, demanding. “I’m right behind you.”

Jase jerked around to see Max’s Escalade pulling into the vacant lot right behind him. They’d fucking tracked the car through OnStar. Damn it. That wasn’t how this was supposed to go. He was supposed to take care of Moroso, then … then he could…

The driver’s door opened, and then Leyton was standing right there, his arms coming out to grab Jase, pulling him toward him. The passenger door flew open, then slammed shut, and Ashlynn was right behind him, her arms tightening around his neck as though touching him was her reassurance that he was all right.

“It’s bein’ handled,” Ashlynn whispered. “I swear to you.”

Jase tried not to fall apart, tried to push them away, but he couldn’t. His arms felt as though they were made of lead.

Rock, standing behind Leyton and facing the street, blocked the view from anyone passing by. It only took a moment for Jase to wonder why that was, why it would matter.

But then, as he grabbed on to Leyton and Ashlynn, burying his face in Leyton’s neck while gripping Ashlynn’s arm firmly, he knew why.

Leyton and Ashlynn were offering him what he’d needed all along, someone to hold him, someone to give him a chance to deal with the pain.

Which was exactly what he did.

He broke down and he fucking bawled like a baby.

And the two people he loved most in the world simply held him, not saying a word, and in turn, making Jase love them all the more.

Chapter Fifty-Three

Time to put an end to this shit once and for all.

Nearly three hours after Leyton had assured him that they’d found Jase and were taking him back to Leyton’s for a while, Max had known what he needed to do. For the past week, he’d been waiting for Ace to do the job he’d been hired to do, but somehow Moroso had eluded him.

Then, after Rock had called to tell them they were on their way because Ashlynn’s house had been hit and Derrick and Sal had been killed, Max had done what he’d been holding off from doing all along. He’d had Moroso’s sister and nephew grabbed. With one phone call, he’d engaged the two men he had watching their house, giving them the go-ahead. Although the sister and nephew were probably scared, he’d ensured that they were being holed up in a fucking hotel, being given everything they wanted. He wasn’t his father, after all; he had no intention of hurting a woman or a child, but he needed Moroso to understand he was fucking serious.

Unfortunately, Max should’ve done it when he’d originally planned to instead of holding off, hoping like hell it wouldn’t come to that.

And because of that, the unthinkable had happened. Two of his men had been killed in a fucked up attempt to kill Ashlynn. As much as he was grieving their deaths, Max knew she’d been the target and Derrick and Sal had been collateral damage, but that didn’t fucking matter to him. The people who worked for him, especially someone as loyal as Sal, were as much family as his own brothers and sisters. Then again, if Ashlynn had been killed…

Max didn’t want to think about that.

Regardless, Moroso’s last move was the same as signing his death warrant. It was the last mistake the bastard would ever make.

Max was done fucking around. It was time to do what he should’ve done all along. Which was why he’d placed the call earlier, once they’d realized Jase had disappeared. Max had known Jase was seeking vengeance, going out on his own to try and take Moroso down. And maybe he could have, but Max wasn’t willing to take that chance. For the first time in all of her life, it seemed as though Ashlynn had finally found what she needed. There was something different about her, and that wasn’t a bad thing.

When the phone rang, Max knew who was on the other end before he even glanced at his phone.

“Yeah?” he gruffly answered.

“I found him,” Danielle said simply.

His cousin Danielle, daughter of Nick Adorite, Max’s uncle—the man who’d previously been second-in-command of their family before a stroke had pushed him into retirement—had called him back after he’d left her a message instructing her what he needed. For the past three years, Dani had gone off the grid, heading overseas to go to school in France, of all places. It hadn’t been until her return a few short months ago that he’d learned she hadn’t simply been pursuing an education and dealing with some personal issues as Genny and Samuel had led him to believe. She’d actually been running.

Ironically, she’d been running from the Kogans—Courtney’s family—after she’d seduced, then fallen in love with Courtney’s brother Hunter during her attempt at getting close to them as instructed by Max’s father.

Obviously, Samuel had been far more obsessed with the man that Genevieve had supposedly been in love with—who coincidentally happened to be Courtney’s father—more than four decades earlier. So much so that he’d forced Danielle to get close to one of Courtney’s brothers in an attempt to get dirt on Casper Kogan. It hadn’t worked, because Dani had a conscience. She’d never relayed any information to Samuel, and in the end, she’d walked out on her own wedding, leaving Hunter at the altar.

Fucked up all around, it was. But now she was back, and she was doing him a favor by using her technological skills to locate Marco Moroso.

“Where is he?” Max asked.

“The dumb fucker’s still here,” she said with a snort. “He thinks he’s underground, but turns out, he’s not the only one who’s willing to turn on the people he works for.”

“Someone ratted him out?” Max didn’t tolerate rats. Regardless of their reason, or whether or not it benefited him, they couldn’t be trusted, and he’d just as soon put a bullet between their eyes as look at them.

“Yeah. Low-level enforcer who works for him. Said Marco thinks you’re bluffing about his sister and her kid. Plans to wait you out.”

“You get an address?” he asked, not wanting to know more about the asshole who’d sold out his own boss. Why the fuck couldn’t people be loyal anymore?