on Aiden, and working things out with him.”
Before Bridget could respond, Millie continued, “I knew he had a daughter and that she was young, but I never expected this. It’s unbelievable that Sasha took the baby from you alive.”
Bridget swiped at the tears on her face. That was about all the movement she could handle right now. She probably had her entire face of makeup running down her cheeks and looked similar to a drowned raccoon, so it was a good thing she wasn’t meeting Sydney right now. She would think her mother was unhinged.
“No wonder she didn’t come back into the hospital room.” Millie shook her head. “I thought she was grieving like the rest of us. I knew staying with you was the right thing, so I let Sasha deal with the child. Or, her body, so I thought.”
Bridget shuddered.
“All this time, she’s been lying to us.”
“If I see her again…” Bridget didn’t want to finish. A hot, tight sensation curled low in her stomach. Rage. Pure, undiluted fury burned in the core of her being. If she ever saw Sasha again, she was liable to lash out and try to kill her.
There was no forgiveness for this.
No justification.
No coming back in the fold.
They were done.
Millie touched her shoulder. “All you need to do is keep Clarke from finding out about Sydney. Do what you need to do, but make sure you guys aren’t seen together outside. Lay low, somewhere Capeira can’t find you, and let me take care of both while you meet your family.”
The fire in her banked a little.
Sacrifice their safety, potentially. Put them in harm’s way. Make them upend their lives, just so she could meet her daughter. Finally.
Yes. Yes. She wanted to say it. To jump up, and run out the door—after she fixed her makeup, of course—and start her life. For real. But that could put a target on their backs. Aiden was a cop. He would want to protect them. She would be focused on Sydney. Bridget could wind up getting all of them killed. And then, everything she’d lost? It would be gone for good.
Forever.
Life had already taken everything she’d ever wanted. That hole in her where she’d grieved for her dead baby was empty. So empty. It could be filled to overflowing. If she was prepared to be selfish and go after what she wanted, at their expense.
But if she took out Clarke and took down Capeira? Then she would be free and they would be safe.
Just the thought of what Clarke—or any of them—might do to Sydney in order to hurt her?
No. No way.
Bridget scrambled to her feet and locked her knees so she didn’t fall back down. She was going to track them down and put the world to rights. Then, when it was done, she would fight harder than she ever had in her life to get back everything that should always have been hers.
Red hair. That leggy build. Jumping into her father’s arms.
Millie frowned up at her. “Where are you going?”
“Hunting.”
Twenty-two
“So her friend told you she was dead, and then told Bridget the baby was dead.” Jess shifted in her seat and sipped from a paper cup of coffee. “Is that what you’re saying?”
Aiden twisted his grasp on the steering wheel. “Yes.”
He also gritted his teeth. Of course, Jess immediately figured something was wrong the minute he’d shown up for his shift. Even talking to Eric for an hour while he made dinner, Sydney eating hers while she binged another show, didn’t help. Not to mention needing to put the kibosh on the whole binge watching—he’d deal with that soon. He wasn’t going to pretend it wasn’t helpful right now to have Sydney occupied as he was dealing with all this emotional distress.
There was a slim chance he’d be able to come up with answers now, talking to Jess. But like everything else, she didn’t drop it. Because she cared.
He needed to remember that.
“This is unbelievable.”
“I know.”
“I know.” She swung her coffee cup around the inside of the squad car. “This is Last Chance, and it’s been crazy. Like crazytown crazy. And I can say that because I was trapped in an underwater facility that was set to detonate, so I know what crazy is. Now this? It’s like super-spy stuff.”
Aiden took the turn for the house. “Let’s just focus on this call, and then we can figure out what on earth I’m going to do about telling Sydney the news. And what Bridget and