Then he sucked in breath through his nose and walked into the kitchen to blend a shake.

Five days later...

His cell ringing woke him up.

He rolled, tagged it off the nightstand, looked at the display and it said, "Unknown caller".

Considering his business and the ball Julius got rolling, it could be anyone.

His eyes slid to his alarm clock.

Anyone, even at one thirty in the fucking morning.

He sat up, flipped his phone open, put it to his ear and growled, "What?"

"She's with Shift right now," he heard a woman say and he knew that woman.

It was Bessie.

But he couldn't think of Bessie because he'd stopped breathing.

Bessie kept talking.

"Motherfucker finds out shit, found out she was home, was all over her. And now, way she is, no job, no money, no schoolin', no fight left in her, no nothin', that asshole is gonna be all over her. But you knew that, didn't you? You just didn't fuckin' care."

She didn't wait for him to respond. She got finished saying what she had to say and gave him dead air.

But Walker was still fighting for breath.

When he got enough in, he shifted to sitting on the side of the bed and stared at his display in the dark as his thumb moved over the keypad, finding Lexie's number.

He hit go and put it to his ear.

Two rings then, "We're sorry. This number is no longer in service..."

"Fuck!" Walker snarled as he shot out of bed.

He flipped the phone closed then back open as he turned on the light and then prowled to the closet. He found the number he needed and put the phone to his ear as he turned on the closet light and headed to his bag.

Three rings then Tate saying, "Ty, this better be good."

"I need you to fire up your computer right now. I need addresses for Ella Rodriguez, Bessie Rodriguez and Duane Martinez."

Silence then, "What?"

He tagged his bag and started back to the bedroom. "Bess called. Shift's got Lexie."

"Shift?"

"Martinez."

He dropped his bag on the bed and moved to the dresser.

"Fuck," Tate whispered.

"Tate, don't got a lot of time."

"Ty, you are not allowed to leave the state."

"That's why I don't got a lot of time. I need you to give me those addresses so I can get there, get shit done and get home without anyone knowin'."

"Ty, you fuck up "

Walker stopped dead and barked into the phone, "Quit wastin' my fuckin' time! You gonna get me those addresses or you gonna fuck me?"

"Let me go after her."

"No."

"Ty, I'll get the addresses, leave tonight."

"No."

"Why no?"

"She isn't your wife, Tate, she's mine."

Silence.

"You're wastin' my time," Walker warned.

"You bringin' her back?" Jackson sounded disbelieving.

"Yeah," Walker replied instantly.

"Brother " Tate started.

"Did you not fuckin' hear me? Martinez has got her." Walker's voice was low and tight with anger and impatience.

"I get you. I get what you're feelin' but you gotta listen to me a second, Ty. You did not see her. She stayed with Dominic but I saw her, Laurie saw her. The state you left her in, you cannot waltz into Dallas and bring that woman home."

That thing pierced his chest again but the feeling was different. Savage. Brutal. Inflicting damage.

He powered through it.

"I'll deal when I get there."

"Let me go and talk to her. I'll leave Jonas with Pop, take Laurie with me."

"This isn't junior high, Tate."

"You do not know what you're dealin' with, Ty."

"This is wastin' my fuckin' time," he said low.

Silence then, "I'll get the addresses, I'll come over and I'll go with you."

"Suit yourself. But be here soon. You got half an hour. You aren't here, brother, I'll head to Dallas and find her myself."

"Fuck, Ty, it takes twenty minutes just to drive to your place."

"Then you better drive fast."

Then Ty flipped his phone shut, tossed it on the bed and turned back to the dresser.

Tate Jackson drove fast.

Seventeen hours later...

"Do you get me?" Walker asked and Shift, prone on the floor in front of him spit out a mouthful of blood.

"Yeah," he grunted.

"Just to be sure," Walker went on. "You lose her number, you lose her fuckin' memory, you don't, your next visit will be from Julius Champion. Now, let's confirm. Do you get me?"

"Yeah!" Shift snapped, sliding angry eyes up high to Walker.

"Good," Walker muttered, his eyes moved to Tate who was staring with distaste at the floor.

Tate felt his gaze; he looked to Walker, tipped up his chin and followed Walker out, both of them stepping over one of the two prone enforcers that Walker laid out before he turned to Shift.

An hour later...

The door to the tidy but tiny house opened the minute Walker and Jackson hit the end of the front walk. The screen door opened after it. The house door closed instantly and the screen door banged behind Ella Rodriguez who stood on her front stoop, arms crossed on her chest, eyes glaring down at the advancing men.

"You are not here," she announced when they were four feet away.

Walker kept moving and stopped at the bottom of the two steps of her stoop.

"She's in there, Ella, I advise you let me by," Walker said quietly.

"She's gone."

"She was with Shift not twenty-four hours ago," Walker returned.

"She was, Bessie got her; they're gone."

"Where?"

Her eyebrows shot to her hairline and her voice pitched four octaves higher when she asked, "Boy, you think I'm gonna tell you that?"

"I need to talk to her."

"Yeah," she nodded her head once. "I see that. But what you really needed to do was take her Momma's advice those weeks ago when she laid it all out for you."

"Ella "

Her eyes narrowed, her face twisted, she leaned forward and the shutters flew up on her eyes, exposing her pain.

"Told you," she said quietly, her voice trembling, "you had her in your hands and I told you, you weren't careful, you'd destroy her. I'm not wrong often and again, I... was... not... wrong."

There it was again. That thing piercing his chest. More pain. More damage.

Ty Walker stood at the bottom of a stoop of a tiny, tidy house in a not great, not bad area of Dallas and engaged in a stare down with a protective, loyal, loving black woman, a stare down he had no hope in fuck of winning.

"Ty, let's go," Jackson said quietly from his side.

"You do her no favors, keepin' me from her," Walker said softly.

"Way I see it, ain't no single body on this earth ever did Alexa Berry no favors," Ella returned.

"Walker," Walker corrected and Ella's back shot straight.

"Not anymore," she aimed and fired her kill shot, it penetrated its target, leaving devastation in its wake then she turned and slammed into her house without looking back.

Walker turned on his boot and prowled down the walk to Tate's SUV. Tate bleeped the locks before he made it and he didn't hesitate to swing in.

Tate swung behind the wheel. Then he turned to Walker.

"What now?" he asked.

"We find a place to sleep, we sleep, we go home," Walker answered the windshield.

"Home?" The word was low, angry and unbelieving and, slowly, Walker turned his eyes to his friend.

"Home. Where your computer is. Where your database is. Where you start to do what you do. They'll leave a trail or they'll surface, you'll find them, you'll tell me where the fuck they are and then I'll fucking go get my fucking wife."

Tate stared at him a second.

Then he grinned.

Then he turned to face forward, switched the ignition and guided the SUV to the nearest hotel.