“The nearest agents are only a couple of minutes away,” he said. “We just need to hold on until they get here.”
But before he’d finished the sentence, more shots rang out.
“Give us Liam Marshall and we’ll let you go!” a man shouted.
Eve’s lip curled in distaste. He didn’t have a hope in hell. She wouldnevergive up her mate. She hadn’t known Liam for very long and they’d got off to a rocky start, but he was beginning to mean everything to her. They would have to kill her before she handed him over.
The anguish on Liam’s face must have mirrored her own.
“They just want me,” Liam said, as more shots were fired. Most went wide, but the last ricocheted off the trunk right above her head and Liam yanked her back behind the tire, spinning her round to glare at her.
“They don’t care about you. If they get me, they’ll leave.”
Eve frowned. “Liam, what are you talking about?”
“I can’t put you in danger like this,” he said before grabbing her shoulders and pulling her in for a kiss.
“Liam, what—”
“Stay safe.” Then he pushed her toward Hawk and got to his feet with his hands in the air, and walked around the trunk of the car.
“Liam, no!” Eve shouted, but it was too late.
One of the Vipers had grabbed Liam and was pulling him along the road to one of their abandoned vehicles. Eve tried to get to her feet to run after him, but Hawk grabbed her and pulled her back.
“No, Eve, it’s too dangerous.”
She didn’t care.
A sob caught in her throat as one of the thugs smashed the butt of his gun against the back of Liam’s head. Her mate fell to the ground, unconscious, and the thug grabbed hold of his coat and dragged him the rest of the way to the vehicle. Two more Vipers got out and bundled him inside the back of the car and then it took off, tires squealing in their bid to get away. The other cars peeled away after it, and Eve stared after them in shock, her heart clawing a hole in her chest.
Gone. He was gone. She was under no illusions. They would kill Liam before he could testify against Silas. They would…torture him, as an example to anyone else who would try to stand up to their leader. And then they would kill him.
Her breaths burst through her in ragged gasps. Her mate would be dead before morning.
When they’d first met, she hadn’t wanted anything to do with him, let alone to claim him as her mate. But she hadn’t known him then, and she did now, and she didn’t want to live in a world without Liam Marshall.
***
Only minutes after her mate was taken from her, the rest of Eve’s SWAT team arrived, coming from the opposite direction. Too late. They were too late, and Liam was gone.
Eve was bereft—inconsolable, and though the team asked her a myriad of questions before they made their way back to head office, her answers were robotic. Eventually, Hawk had pulled the team aside and spoken to them quietly and she’d had to turn away from the pity in their eyes. At first, she thought they pitied her because she was mated to a Viper, but when they’d all come up to her and offered their support, she realized that wasn’t the case—it was because her mate was in danger.
“We’ll get him back, Kit,” Gray had said vehemently.
“Yeah, we’ll find him,” Ice added.
Flint had clapped her on the back and Ted had squeezed her upper arm comfortingly. She felt her panther stirring inside her chest. Yes. Theywouldget him back. Because no Viper scum was going to take her mate from her.
As soon as they made it back to the office, it was all hands on deck. Their other assignments were temporarily forgotten and finding Liam became their number one priority. They called every informant they had to try to get information about where Liam could have been taken, but no one knew anything. As each minute ticked on, Eve grew more and more anxious.
When Flint called her into his office, her heart began to pound out an erratic beat, and hope swelled in her chest, but her hopes were dashed the moment she caught the expression on her team leader’s face.
“Take a seat,” Flint said.
Eve did as was requested of her, wringing her hands in her lap as she sat.
“How are you holding up?” he asked.
