Free On the Edge of Love (Mama's Brood Book 1) by Shay Rucker

called to him.
    Maxim stepped around the back door. Measured steps, controlled. He blinked and felt the anger and frustration as he pulled alongside Reed.
    “You’ve found something?”
    “Yes, sir,” Reed said, holding out a five-by-seven photo. It took Maxim a moment to realize he was looking at a photo of Sabrina. A bruised and bloody Sabrina lying unconscious on what he suspected was the floor of the warehouse he was supposed to have retrieved her from. It seemed impossible, but even beaten, her beauty was more compelling than he remembered.
    But she could be dead based on the formless way her body was splayed out over the floor. She could also be alive and hiding in the surrounding rock formations, bushes, or trees.
    “Let’s spread out and search the area, Reed,” he said as he shrugged out of his suit jacket.
    Reed stopped him. “Turn it over, sir.”
    Maxim frowned at him and turned the photo over. Four black words, written with bold penmanship, mocked him. Look what I found.
    In less than a millisecond, rage flared, consumed him, turned the steel in his blood molten, and cooled, making his will harder. He folded the photo and placed it in the interior pocket of his jacket, against his heart.
    He walked back to the town car and slid inside.
    Over the years he had become adept at helping people understand why it was an unwise idea to cross him. But people were people, and so the lessons would have to keep coming apparently.
    “Call New York, Reed. Have my men brought over. Let’s find out if whoever took Sabrina knew all they’d be sacrificing when they made this unfortunate decision.”
    Reed pulled out his phone, hit a button, and brought it to his ear. Maxim sank back into the leathered interior of the car.
    “Derek, Mr. Kragen wants the team here in…” Reed looked to Maxim.
    “Now.”
    “The length of time you need to gather, equip, and get to the jet, then subtract three hours. Yes, Derek, it does mean have your asses on the plane within the hour. Yeah. See you soon.” Reed disconnected.
    “What do you want me to do with the truck, sir?” Eddie called out.
    The truck his Sabrina had bled in, suffered in. The only intact evidence linking Sabrina’s abductors to the men from the warehouse. “Take it up high and drive it over a cliff. And Eddie, I need that truck to burn.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Reed slipped back into the car, this time in the driver’s seat as Eddie retrieved a canister and flare from the trunk of the town car, then returned to the truck, somehow securing the items toward the back of the undercarriage, near the tank. Eddie quickly drove the truck up the hill, Reed trailing a safe distance behind him. When Eddie stopped the truck, Reed drove up farther, passing him, and made a U-turn. Maxim watched as Eddie sped down the hill, braked, and swerved, jumping out of the car as it went over and into the deserted ravine. The explosion was sublime.
    Once he was back in the driver’s seat of the town car, Eddie drove down the hill toward the main road that would lead them back to the freeway. Noticing how overcast the sky had become, Maxim realized how much of its vitality the day had lost.
    “What happens from here, sir?” Reed asked.
    They would return to the St. Regis, where he’d go back to his suite alone and meditate on the photo in his pocket until his team arrived. Then they would make plans to extract Sabrina and rain vengeance upon the person or persons who’d dared to take her.
    * * * *
    She felt so good.
    This is what peace feels like, she reminded herself. The few times she had experienced it, she’d had to name it. It is real, she thought as she snuggled deep. It was warm, and it was quiet, and it was as compelling as a rainforest coming alive with the first rays of morning’s light. It made her believe everything could be right with her, with the world. This feeling was so rare she wanted to hold on to it. Wanted to pretend her sister wasn’t dead, her infant niece