Page 69 of Under the Radar

Mac stepped closer. “Now you’re talking.”

“She was here until about forty-five minutes ago. I tried to help her some.”

“Where is she now?”

Alice lifted her chin. “I’ll tell you everything, but not until you get me and my babies out of here. We’re dead meat after you come barging in here like this. They’ll accuse me of setting them up and kill me and my kids.” She released a ragged breath. Yeah, it was defiant, maybe stupid, but God help her—she wasn’t telling him anything until she was out of this neighborhood. She could die in the hood or outside of it. She chose outside.

Ethan nudged the gun against her temple. “Better not be lying to us, girl.”

Alice shook her head, tears streaming down her face.

Mac signaled Beck and Derek on the stairs. Within seconds, the babies stopped crying. For one horrified moment, Alice’s blood froze. The silence was so abrupt. Maybe the men had killed the babies. Her knees buckled at the thought and a wail of grief tore from her throat.

Ethan lifted her into his arms, hurried out of the house, and placed her in the backseat of the Hummer. Seconds later, Beck and Derek joined them, set a baby on her lap, pulled the door shut, and the vehicle sped down the street.

Alice fumbled with the blanket to make sure the infant was alright. “Oh, here’s my boy, but where’s my little girl?”

“Relax, lady—she’s tucked right here in my shirt.” Derek leaned forward. She glimpsed her daughter under his t-shirt, sucking her thumb against his chest.

Alice sobbed into her fist. For the first time in two years, she’d left the neighborhood that stole her youth, killed her self-esteem, and had sworn with a blood-oath to destroy her every dream.