Hunter's Alpha (gxg) ✓

48. Goddess

HUNTER

"Where are they?" I snarl.

I am standing on the dock beneath the pouring sky. The air smells like lightning, and electricity crackles along my skin. Infuriating me—filling me with heat and rain and fury.

Where is Jude?

We touched down in Sicily on Falcone's plan just minutes ago. Now, as I stride onto the Sicilian Harbor, scanning through the storm to see where the Yakuza are, my heart clenches.

What if she's dead?

They could have already killed her.

The thought is so unbearable I freeze in my tracks.

Rain sluices down my skin, soaking my hair and the leather of the jacket on my shoulders.

"Are you ready to go?" says Elijah from next to me.

Unsurprisingly, he is holding open a neon pink-sequined umbrella.

His rose-and-gold polka dot tuxedo are impeccable, as always. Behind him, Mikayla and Gianina step off the plane.

I turn around when I hear a voice—Angel Falcone.

Her and Cade have promised to be backup. Maybe I shouldn't, but I trust them. I know they won't let us down.

I wanted to ask the Italian Mafia for help, but Cade pulled me aside earlier and said, Don't do it.

What do you mean? I asked.

Don't trust Maria, she said grimly. You're better off.

Something about Maria did indeed seem off—but I thought I was imagining it. I decided to listen to Cade because I can't take any chances. There can be no wild cards in this game.

"Hunter," Angel calls out. "There's something you might want to see."

"Can't it wait?" Jude. Jude is my priority right now.

"No," she says grimly.

As I duck my head back into the private plane, rain saturating my hair and trickling onto the floor, Angel steps back.

She is holding something up by the back of its collar.

Something—someone.

A child.

"I'm sorry, Momma," says Lacy, sounding absolutely not sorry at all.

When I think it can not possibly get worse, Cade appears from the other end of the plane. Struggling to hold on to Kiara, who is squirming in her grip.

For a moment, I am too stunned to speak.

Chess—this is a game of chess, and yet I did not predict this move.

"You were supposed to stay with Tommy," I say in a low, dangerous voice. "Do you understand the risk of this? Do you understand how you have put your lives in jeopardy?"