In their mid forties, the couple blended in seamlessly, just another earthy duo who shunned cow’s milk for oat milk and bought organic bed linens, Soren assumed. The man looped his elbow through his wife’s arm as they strolled. She slowed to examine a wooden chair. She had a kind and open face, which Soren supposed made befriending all those women easy.
“This one’s gonna feel a little more satisfying, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Soren hummed a light agreement, though he didn’t think he’d feel the success on a personal level the way Madigan would. But he’d get some satisfaction out of feeling like he’d helped balance the scales. He felt a pang of longing for Toby, knowing the doc would understand the sentiment in a way Madigan wouldn’t.
He pushed the thought aside when Madi inclined his chin and said, “Ready?”
They pulled down their masks and dropped the ten-foot distance from the roof into the alleyway below with minimal noise and then moved in tandem to snatch the couple just as they passed by. It worked out even nicer than Soren had imagined since he’d been prepared to have to actually go into the market and cause a scene. Fortunately, the couple had moved to the perimeter of the lane, and Madi and Soren had them incapacitated before they were aware of what was happening.
Minutes later, Soren and Madigan exited from separate alleys, mask free, and converged on the sidewalk outside a coffee shop. The couple’s bodies would either be discovered on trash day or take up space in a landfill somewhere. Either was fine with Soren.
He bumped knuckles with Madigan. “Just wire the funds to the usual place, yeah?”
“Sure thing.” Madigan grinned then thumbed toward the coffee shop. “Buy you a latte?”
“Az got you drinking lattes now? You going soft?”
Madi chuckled. “He’s got me doing all sorts of fancy food shit now, and I enjoy it. ‘Sides, you’re the one shacking up with some smarty pants. I guarantee you he’s got one of those fancy Nespresso machines.” He did, but Soren didn’t share that Glasses rarely used it. “How’s that little dog of his? Manny? Talk about seeing a man go feral. I’ve never known someone to be so damn protective of an animal before.”
“Mantis,” Soren corrected, scratching his jaw. “She’s good. A real sweetheart. Actually, not a sweetheart at all but entertaining as all get out, and yeah, he’s pretty fond of her.” He cocked his head as a smile bloomed at the thought of Mantis decapitating the squeaky rat toy he’d picked up for her the other day in all of five seconds. “Damn, I guess I’m kinda fond of her, too. Huh.”
Madi smirked. “So, about that latte?”
“Yeah, yeah. Why not?”
* * *
Toby hadn’t repliedto the texts Soren had sent on his way to the airport that afternoon, but Soren knew he had a busy schedule alongside what he’d determined to be an aversion to texting as a communication method in general.“Too easy to misconstrue,”Toby had said, to which Soren had responded by sending him a text telling him to unzip his pants and pull out his cock. Toby had rolled his eyes when Soren asked if he might possibly misconstrue that, but there was laughter in his eyes.
But when Toby hadn’t responded by the time Soren’s flight touched down in Boston that night, an unsettled feeling made a pit in his stomach and lingered. He picked up his rental car, operating on autopilot, and wove through traffic, breaking laws he was usually careful to avoid breaking in the interest of remaining below the radar.
He relaxed incrementally when he pulled into the drive and spied Toby’s car, but a discomfited prickle crawled up his spine again as he ran his hand over the hood in passing to the front door and found it cool to the touch. The feeling got worse when he stepped onto the porch, glanced up at the camera tucked into one corner of the ceiling, and discovered the power light was off.
After keying in the door code, he nudged it open, relieved to hear the sound of Mantis’s nails on the floor as she scrambled toward him, yipping excitedly.
Soren dropped to a crouch, scooping her up but frowning when he noticed she was shivering. He snuggled her close to his heartbeat and cooed at her softly as he listened, trying to detect any unusual noises. When nothing came, he stalked slowly toward the kitchen, Mantis tucked under one arm, gun gripped in his other hand.
Toby’s briefcase was next to the kitchen counter, and there, on top of the island, was his phone. Soren’s heart hammered in his chest as he moved through the rest of the house, disappointment thick in his blood as he pushed open the door to Toby’s rage room and encountered more emptiness.
He kicked one of Toby’s heavy bags and let out a growl of frustration before Mantis’s shivering increased in tempo, reminding him to calm the fuck down and take full stock of the situation.
Yanking the rage room door closed behind him, he stalked back to the kitchen to Toby’s briefcase, rubbing the burn searing behind his chest.
“Gonna set you down for just a minute, girl, so I can try to figure out what the fuck happened to your dad,” he assured her when she let out a pitiful whine and shifted from leg to leg. “Don’t worry, we’ll get him back. I’m good at this shit. Well, not recovery so much but—” He stopped mid-sentence.
Shit.He was explaining himself to a dog. And he was doing it because he was fucking nervous for the first time in years. Nervous that something bad had happened to Toby, nervous he’d never see him again. Soren realized at that moment that he was gone. Gone for the stubborn doc. In love, as the normies would call it. Goddamn. Normies? Where had that even come from? An ache bloomed in his chest as he realized none of this was stuff he could discuss with Toby at the moment.
“Fuck.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, then stood and swiped Toby’s phone from the counter. He stared at the dark screen for a second, trying to divine what the hell the password could be, then grabbed his own phone and swiped the contact info of the only tech guy he trusted.
Soren:Can you unlock a phone in under five minutes from across the world?
Caspian:What will you give me if I say yes?
Soren:My gratitude. Are you really hurting for money in that beachfront house in Belize? FFS.
Soren:Also, I need you to hack a security camera feed and let me know if you see anything. Better yet, just send it to me.
