Especially now that he knew she and Tamsin might become mates in the near future. “After all,” Badger added, “it’s not unusual for Peyton to be outta touch for a couple of days while over there.”
“But not under these circumstances!” Trent argued. “Trevor saw them take Peyton with his own two eyes! Don’t you think I have to tell Gillian and Dewi, at least?”
“With Gillian upset at him,” Duncan noted, “she might assume he’s giving her space. If he returns on his own, he might prefer that she doesn’t know what happened until after he gets home. If at all.”
“An’ ye honestly think ye wanna have that showdown with Dewi?” Badger asked. “’Cause I sure don’t.”
Trent slumped back in his chair and took another sip of coffee. “We don’t tell either of them yet,” he finally said. “But I’ll need you and Da to do something about Gillian and Dewi. Maybe quietly give them Prime orders about not asking questions. Because both of them will sense something’s wrong with me.” He looked at them. “And I need a story to explain why I look like I got kicked in the balls because while I can ask Asia not to ask me about what’s going on, and she’ll back off, that won’t fly with Gillian and Dewi. Not without Peyton there to handle it.”
“Agreed,” Badger said, looking to Duncan. “You handle Gillian, and I’ll handle Dewi. She’s used to me asking her to keep her snoot to herself about family and Pack Alpha business. Although I haven’t needed to do that in years.”
Duncan nodded. “Okay, then. Sounds like we have a plan. How long do we wait before we tell them?”
Trent looked at Badger, expectantly, obviously awaiting further guidance.
“I’d say forty-eight hours,” Badger suggested. “Unless circumstances change before then, warranting us tellin’ ’em. Because we’ll need to call in Enforcers to swear to the new Pack Alpha, should we have to declare one.”
“And Ken?” Trent asked. “Do we tell him? Peyton obviously has plans that include him.”
“Not yet,” Badger said. “Let’s wait a couple of hours an’ confer with Trevor. See if anything develops. But when we do break the news, we tell Ken before we tell Gillian an’ Dewi.”
“Why?” Duncan asked.
Trent snorted. “Because he might be the only chance we have to keep Dewi in check.”
“The poor bastard,” Badger added.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Peyton
What in the actual fuck?
Peyton’s head didn’t just pound; it felt like someone was using a jackhammer against the inside of his skull. His mouth felt dry, like he’d licked a disgusting old carpet left to rot in a junkyard.
His eyes didn’t want to open at first, so he took a deep breath and listened instead. He lay on his side, and it felt like there were metal manacles around his wrists, which were chained in front of him. In the distance, he heard muffled voices that weren’t speaking English, but he was aware enough to know whatever they spoke bore an Eastern European accent.
Also, from the acoustics, they were in a large structure of some sort. One with a high ceiling and few interior walls, based on the way the distant voices echoed and bounced.
Barely cracking one eye open, he saw he was in a dark, windowless room, the only illumination a dim light oozing in from under a closed door.
Abducted.
He had jumbled memories of his attackers tranqing him, maybe a helicopter ride, being roughly thrown into the back of a truck or van before being tranqued again at some point, and now…
Here.
Wherever here was.
Taking a long, slow breath, he smelled dirty concrete, traces of gasoline and motor oil, and from outside the room, mud, and gun oil.
Now knowing he was alone in the room, as his wits returned he fought the urge to move and shift because he didn’t know if there were any cameras in the room monitoring him.
Slowly, he opened both eyes and carefully rolled onto his back. The room was smaller than he’d thought, and from a disintegrating corkboard nailed to one wall and what he could make of the few things stapled and pinned to it—none of them in English—this had likely been an office of some sort at one time.
But no LEDs or other telltale signs of cameras.
He cautiously sat up, wincing at aches and pains. His ankles were also manacled and he was so thirsty he felt like he could drink an entire jug of water in one swallow.
