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“We have to convince Dane to keep this from the Council. He’s our best chance of finding her and keeping them from taking her from us.”

“How in the hell are you going to do that? Why would he take that risk?”

I rub my hands down my face. “I don’t fucking know. But I have to try. I’ll give him whatever he fucking wants.”

“Fuck, Dad. No. You’re not doing this.”

“Stay here.” I pull my son into a hug. This is the only way it’s going to fucking go. “If you don’t hear from me in an hour, find her and fucking run.”

The guards at the Sinclair gate take my gun. I let them because I don’t have a choice, and I have no idea how this is going to go. Dane doesn’t have any loyalty to me, but my only hope is to find a way to fucking convince him.

Dane’s man leads me through the house. My hands won’t stop shaking from the need to know that Laine’s safe. This could be a waste of time that gets me killed. I shove them in my pockets.

Dane is behind his desk. His green eyes lock onto mine as soon as I am brought into the room.

“This is an unexpected visit.”

He stands and extends his hand to me to shake, and I return a firm grip before taking the offered seat in front of his desk.

“I need a favor. And I need it to stay between us.” Might as well get right to it.

Dane chuckles. He pours two glasses of whiskey and pushes one across the desk to me before leaning back in his chair. “I assumed as much for you to come here at this hour. Now what is this secretive ask, and what do you have that I want?”

“Laine. She ran away tonight. I need you to help find her and not hand her over to the Council.”

He takes a drink. “She looked like she’d be a feisty one. Why should we let you keep her if you can’t handle her?”

“This won’t happen again. I assure you. I just need to speak with her.” I down the entire glass of whisky in a couple swallows.

Dane sets his glass down and leans forward assessing me. “You fell in love with the girl.”

I open my mouth to respond.

“Dane?” a female voice calls out. Then a pretty blonde, Whitney Sinclair, crosses the room and climbs onto his lap. It makes my heart ache for how bad I need to fucking find my girl. The giant diamond on her finger sparkles as she pats his chest. “Is something wrong?”

“Everything’s fine, kitten. Rhett here was just about to tell me how he’s fallen in love with his son’s fiancée.”

So much for keeping things between us. I grit my fucking teeth, wanting to beat the shit out of him if he’s messing with my fucking head.

“Harrison’s daughter?” Whitney asks, shifting her focus to me.

“He wants my help to find her. She’s run away.” Dane almost sounds amused.

I rise from my chair. “If you aren’t going to fucking agree to the deal.”

Whitney’s eyes grow wide, and then she pats her husband’s arm. “Help him, Dane.” She whispers something in his ear and then pulls back and just nods. I don’t know what the fuck that was about.

“Fine.” Dane kisses his wife’s brow, and then looks at me. “When I come to you, you will do what I need, no questions asked.”

“Deal.” I sit back down in the chair. “But I need something else too. I’m marrying Laine myself. Not Ryker. And I need you to get the Council to agree.”

Dane’s expression doesn’t change, but Whitney shifts on his lap and gives me a sympathetic smile. She knows what it means to be a woman in this world whose future gets decided by the men at that table. She’s married to one of the most powerful among them.

“The Council approved the match with Ryker for a reason.” Dane runs his thumb along Whitney’s thigh while he talks. The casual possessiveness of it makes me want to put my fist through a wall not knowing where Laine is. “The Lockwood bloodline needs to continue. They need an heir. That was the entire point of giving her to your family.”

“I will make sure there is an heir. The Bradley name still gets the seat and the Lockwood bloodline continues.”

“How are you going to manage that?” Dane holds my stare. “They know about the vasectomy, Rhett.”