Enticing: Chapter 26

“What the hell were you thinking?” Hunter asks from the other side of the table in the interrogation room. He’s pacing behind my lawyer, Devon, who’s got his phone up to his ear.

“I was thinking he told her two weeks ago that he’d kill her, and tonight he had his hands around her throat. What the fuck would you be thinking if it was Skylar?” I bite back, losing my fucking mind as I see it all in slow motion. “You gotta find out how she is. Come on, man. I’m dying here.”

“Why didn’t she call the cops when he threatened her?” Devon asks as he hangs the phone up.

I growl, and Devon puts his hand up. “I’m on your side. But you’re in a lot of fucking trouble here, Sinclair. So I’m going to need to know it all. Now, if he threatened her, why didn’t she call the cops?”

“Because we called you, asshole. We went over all of it with both of you the very next fucking day. We got a security system and considered a fucking bodyguard, that I now wish I’d forced her to get, but I let her say no. And now where are we? Oh, right. I’m here, and my fucking wife is in the hospital, and my fucking kids have got to be scared to death. So now. We didn’t call the cops, and you know it.” I push back from the table and pace the fucking room.

“Leo, sit down,” Hunter snaps. “You beat this guy to within an inch of his fucking life, and you assaulted two cops. I don’t know if we can make this go away.”

I want to scream at the top of my fucking lungs.

I want my wife.

I want my kids.

I want to go back and actually kill the motherfucker.

Devon looks through his notes, then closes his notepad. “You hit him once, and you both went down. A witness said you stopped, and the victim said something to you, and then you, and I quote, lost your mind. What did he say?”

“He’s not the fucking victim,” I growl, and Hunter’s knuckles go white around the chair he’s holding onto.

“I’ve got to leave this room and tell your father, who I’ve been friends with for over thirty years, that you’re spending the goddamned night in jail, Leo. Can you help us out here, for fuck’s sake?”

“You want to know what he said . . . ?” An icy chill skirts down my spine. “He fucking smiled and said, I am going to kill her. And you’re going to watch.”

Devon’s phone rings, and he looks at me and answers, “You’re on speaker. What did you find out?”

“The wife’s going to be okay. She has a grade-two concussion, but they just released her. Lilah Ryan is driving her home and staying with her tonight. As of right now, both kids are with Sinclair’s sister, Grace, at her house. Not sure what the plan is for them.”

“Who the fuck are you?” I demand, and Devon shakes his head.

“Don’t worry about that. He’s the one getting us answers. How about Dryson?”

“He’s not so lucky. He’s got a grade-three concussion, a broken jaw, two broken ribs, and multiple lacerations and contusions. It doesn’t look like there’s any bleeding on the brain, and he’s alive, so at least we’re not looking at homicide.”

“I wish I’d have killed him⁠—”

“Shut the fuck up, Sinclair. You can’t say that. Not in here. Not to anyone. You understand?” Hunter waits for an answer.

“Yeah. I got it,” I groan, not feeling a single ounce of remorse. Fuck him. “I want to talk to my wife.”

“Well, you can’t right now,” Devon counters. “I’ve got shit to do and judges to talk to. You’re going back to your cell, and you’re going to be quiet and compliant tonight. Let me do my job, and do not make it more fucking difficult. Got it?”

“Yeah . . .” I drag my hand down my face. “Get me out of here, Devon. I need my wife and kids.”

He stands and looks from Hunter to me and shakes his head, not instilling a whole lot of confidence. “Try to get some sleep, Leo. It might be a long few days.”

“I’ll sleep when Addie’s next to me.”