Page 79 of Never Say Never

"Is Dad coming home soon?"

My laptop out, I checked the tracker I put on York. He was on his way home. Another twenty minutes, maybe. My boss was too damn skilled for me to slip the tracker onto his person, but the rental car he had was easy enough to bug.

"Yes, he's on his way."

Their collective sighs did little to comfort me.

"How are you two holding up?"

"When are you coming over?" Navy asked.

"Yeah, we keep asking Dad but he never tells us," Nyra added.

"Can you come over now?" Navy asked.

They weren't giving me a single second. My answer was, yes, of course I wanted to come over. I'd missed them.

"I—" A small flicker on the screen caught my attention, stealing my focus. There was movement two floors down from them. I’d thought I was being paranoid about setting up cameras on the other floors.

The girls kept talking, but I was focused on the small black dots. I checked the front of their door where the security firm guys should have been. Nothing. But I swore they were there earlier. I didn’t have time to check the feed. I had to go off my instincts and they screamed to get to the girls now.

The guards wouldn’t leave without a reason. Either someone drew them out or they were dead. Hoping my instincts were wrong, and it was a trick of the eye, I waited on bated breath.

"Paul!"

Not yet. My stomach was in tight knots, sweat beaded on my forehead. It was subtle, but there was movement. I checked all the other cameras. No one was inside but the girls and Shelly. No security, no one to protect them.

"Girls, listen carefully."

Both of them went silent. I don't know if it was my tone of voice or if York already had them trained for such times.

"Where is Shelly?"

"Bathroom," Nyra answered.

Fuck, and I didn’t have her number. I was up and making my way out the apartment and down the stairs, jumping most of them.

"Okay, can both of you go to your dad's room and look for those tasers he confiscated?"

"But Dad said we aren't supposed to play with them anymore," Nyra said.

I nodded. "Normally no, but you two are big girls. Navy, do you know where they are?"

"Yep. Top shelf in his closet."

Smiling, I couldn't help but to be proud. "Good, both of you go in there grab them. Get Shelly and wait out in your dad's closet." I waited for the questions even as I pushed past the heavy metal door of the building across from them. "Girls?"

"We're listening, Paul," Nyra said. Her voice was too soft. She was normally the soft spoken twin but she sounded even quieter than normal. "Is Dad close?"

"Yes, me and your dad will be there soon but I need both of you to do me a big favor and turn on the loudest movie you can, okay?" My heart was firmly in my throat. If I couldn't make it to the girls in time... My brain stopped any further thought. No one was going to touch a single hair on their heads.

"Found them!" Navy shouted. It wouldn't kill the intruders, but it sure as shit would give the girls enough time to run.

The notion of doing this alone slammed into me once more. If I had my brothers, it would be no issue. I couldn't call the team either. There was no telling if the other mole was one of us or in the department somewhere.

"Good job, girls. I have to get off the phone but make sure you do what I asked."

"We will," they promised.