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Chapter 833:

Crawford dragged him out of the car by the collar. He pressed a boot to the man’s chest, took the gun from Rhodes’s holster, and held it to his forehead. “Who sent you p>

The man, shaking, managed, “A woman — on the dark web. We don’t know who she is p>

Crawford lowered the gun slowly to the man’s knee. “I’ll ask once more.” A shot rang out, followed by a shriek.

He handed the gun back to Rhodes. “Break both their legs,” he said, without looking up. “Leave them alive for Cole’s people to find p>

He turned and carefully lifted June from the wreckage. As her weight settled into his arms, the violence drained out of him, replaced by something quieter and far more possessive. He removed his overcoat and wrapped it around her, then carried her toward the Escalade as though she were something irreplaceable.

Crawford’s Cadillac moved smoothly along the BQE, its warm, quiet interior a world removed from the bloody scene at the pier. Crawford sat in the back with June held close, looking down at her pale face, gently smoothing the crease between her brows with his thumb. This was the first time he had held her so completely. The feeling was difficult to name.

His private doctor was on standby. Crawford had rejected the idea of a hospital, ordering the doctor to bring a full medical suite to his penthouse. He wanted no public record of her presence, no one else in the room.

Rhodes reported from the front seat. “Sir, Cole Compton’s people are mobilizing across the city. It appears they also received an alert p>

Crawford’s eyes went cold. “Let them search.” He pulled his coat more tightly around June, as though sealing her off from the world outside.

Meanwhile, three black Chevrolet Suburbans screeched to a halt at the abandoned pier. Cole Compton was the first one out. He took in the wreckage in a single sweep — the bloodstains, the shell casings, the crumpled Lincoln still smoking against the containers. His security team secured the scene and dragged the two kidnappers, both with broken legs, in front of him.

Cole’s eyes were crimson. He grabbed one of the men by the collar. “Where is she p>

𝗟a𝘁eѕ𝘵 𝘤𝗵𝖺𝗽𝘵𝘦r𝗌 о𝗇 𝗴𝗮𝗅𝗇o𝗏е𝗹ѕ.𝖼o𝗆

The man, shaking, managed, “She was rescued. A tall man — in a GMC p>

The words hit Cole like a fist to the sternum. Rescued. By whom?

One of his men emerged from the wreck. “Sir. We found Ms. Erickson’s phone p>

Cole seized it. The screen was shattered, but the body was still warm from her hand. She had been here. And now she was gone. A wave of panic crashed over him — rawer and more absolute than anything he had felt that morning in the conference room, worse even than the moment he had learned the truth about the substitution. He had lost her. In a city full of dangers he had failed to anticipate, he had lost her.