Chapter 55 Lovelyn - a few hours earlier In the yard at the back of the safe house, hidden from the street, a medic fussed over my father. We'd been moved outside for fresh air once the short-acting knockout gas had worn off. He slapped her hand away. "Get to fuck. My blood pressure is fine, and if you attempt to put that mask on me again, I'll arrest you and use it as handcuffs." The medic recoiled and came to me. More politely, I refused further treatment. "My head has cleared, thank you." Jacqueline appeared in the doorway to the building, her expression grim. "It looks like his accomplice picked the cuffs and they went out the window. Sorry, sir." My father's cheeks reddened. "You let them go, you mean. Two men jump the wall and ran, and all you do is sit in your fucking car and watch them?" "It happened so fast. I gave chase⁠-" "While the rest of their gang gassed me. Didn't see them either. Convenient." Fury raged in his eyes. Jacqueline darted her gaze at me. I smoothed out a wrinkle in my skirt and set my tone to reasonable. "It's hardly fair to expect her to both chase them and intercept the men who attacked us. She had no warning, and neither did we. If you can tell me who you had up there, I can help work out what happened." My father swore. "Police business." Yeah, right. Anything routine, I knew about. He only hid his under-the-table dealings. But I knew. I was glad Convict had gotten away. With a muttered apology, Jacqueline beat a hasty retreat. "Can you tell me now she's gone?" I asked. His focus snapped to me. "No. It's also convenient that you walk in and two minutes later I'm unconscious and my mark has gone." "What mark? You're keeping me in the dark, and that's hardly helpful." His eyes held mine, thoughts ticking away behind them. I hated this. I took care not to lie directly as the nerves would consume me, so I placed my words carefully. "I'm not in the habit of looking too closely at workmen, which you wouldn't either if you were a woman. If I'm walking past a dust storm, I run. I had no idea it was a decoy. Then they gassed me, too. Or did you forget that?" He didn't acknowledge the explanation I'd already given once we'd woken from a heap in the hallway. "Why are you here, Lovelyn?" "They're raising the Eden today. Wait, did I miss it? I need to go." Again, not a lie. I was highly curious over what they'd find once that ship was brought out of its watery grave. There was a reason it had been sunk, and it couldn't be good. Finally, the weight lifted from Julian's scrutiny, and he scrubbed his bloodshot eyes. "It's already up, according to my messages. If you walk to the dock, you'll see it." I leapt to my feet with a quick thanks, my head swimming with the after-effects of the gas. He paused me. "Not so hasty. I had a piece of intel land on my desk a few days ago. A warning." My stomach tightened, and I spun back from the gate. "Oh? About what?" "You. A threat. Maybe don't go out at night for a while." "A threat to me? What did it say? How did it reach you?" Without further answer, he strode back inside the building, leaving me to white-knuckle the gate handle. A direct threat to me was new. What was old was how my father gave the information like he didn't care. I'd find out through other channels, but it hurt how he'd known about this for days and said nothing. I pondered if I'd truly damaged a relationship that was important to me, but what had been my alternative? A small voice inside me whispered that if Arran had tried to use me as a hostage, my father wouldn't have taken the bait. The voice needed to shut the heck up. Right now, I needed to get over to the harbour. In a hurry, I fled the safe house and crossed Bernard Street, taking a shortcut through a warren of new-build flats and older buildings, the narrow streets and lanes giving me a quick route up to the area of the harbour where the Eden had been moored. My urgency made me careless. Hadn't I just heard a warning? It was the lack of detail that made me sloppy. Or perhaps the underlying thought that Julian could've made up a story to scare me because he was pissed off that I'd been around when he'd been bested. That was my excuse for not looking twice. On Timber Bush Lane, a dark-coloured van purred along the pavement behind me. I barely gave it a glance, ducking into an archway under a building and pretty certain I could get all the way to the front this way. As I walked, I checked the police messaging group my father was a member of that gave CliffsNotes on active operations. An illegal chat, obviously, but always buzzing with gossip and corpse humour that made awful situations bearable, or so I gathered. Scrolling back, I scanned the pictures of the Eden rising from the water then read through the flurry of comments. From the amount, every officer in a hundred-mile radius was intrigued by this boat. If I had a pound for every dirty secret in that hull, I'd retire and buy a nicer mistress. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ Fɪndηovᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Lifted her faster than my ex ever lifted my dick. Someone crack it open. If there's no coke or corpses, I want my taxpayer money back. A door clunked open, and something slid on rails. I kept scrolling, fighting the urge to roll my eyes at how the remarks got cruder the longer they waited for an update from the first camera views inside. Then I stopped breathing. A breaking-news style comment gave an update. One that had my heart restarting and the chatter whooping and hollering. Bodies found inside. Holy hell. Poor Mila would be devastated. I had to call her. Better to hear it from me and not when the police gifted the media with their field day. I went to place the call. A black cloth descended over my head. I squeaked in shock and lashed out, but a hand clamped over my mouth, smothering me with the material and cutting off my ability to scream. Thick arms picked me up like I weighed nothing and carried me to a vehicle. It had to be the van I'd ignored, which meant my abductor had followed me here. I kicked out. Struggled. It made no difference when the door slid closed. Unlike earlier, I had no idea of who'd attacked me, only of the terror at becoming their prey.