She shook her head. “I’m not.”
“They won’t kill him, Kit. They will want to know how much he’s told the FBI. They’ll question him…”
“So, it’s supposed to make me feel better that my mate is out there somewhere being tortured right at this very minute?”
“No, it isn’t. But better that than the alternative.”
“It’s my fault, I should have—”
“Don’t,” Flint said, the word rebounding around the room like the crack of a whip. “Let’s not play the blame game. You weretwoagents against three cars full of armed men. There was nothing more you could have done.”
He drew in a deep breath. “Besides, if you’re looking for someone to blame, blame me.”
Eve frowned. “But you were held up by a traffic accident, you couldn’t have foreseen that.”
“No, I couldn’t, but I could have ensured we left earlier so we were at the courthouse in plenty of time. I could have asked Ice to write his report after we got back, not asked him to have it on my desk before we left. I could have called for additional backup at the courthouse from the offset, but I thought our team could handle the threat. If we’d been there, we could have. It was a bad judgement call. And that’s on me. So if you need someone to blame, you can blame.”
“I don’t…” Eve started, shaking her head. “I would never…”
“There are a hundred different chain of event strings that could have yielded a different result,” Flint said softly, “But you’ll drive yourself crazy if you try to pick through them all in your mind. And it won’t change that fact that Liam was taken. Nothing changes that. All we can do now is try our hardest to get him back. Okay?”
A lump rose in Eve’s throat, and she nodded. She wasn’t going through this alone.
“Good. Now tell me, 2hat’s he like?”
Flint had already been filled in on the specifics of Liam being unaware of his shifter status and that they were mates—she was pretty surethatbit of news had spread like wildfire after she and Liam had sent Hawk into a panic absconding to the park. God, it seemed like a lifetime ago when they’d lain together, totally at peace, lost in the joy of their union.
Now that was all gone.
“He’s sweet, kind, self-deprecating,” Eve said. “Andhonest. He’s a good man. He just made some bad choices.”
Flint nodded. “He was misguided.”
“Yes.”
Flint leaned forward in his seat and held Eve’s gaze with the utmost of ease. “I will do everything in my power to get him back to you.”
The lump in Even’s throat grew impossibly large and she struggled to swallow it down.
Eve nodded. “I know. I—”
Her words were cut off by a loud bang on the office door then it opened, and Ice stuck his head into the room.
“We’re moving out,” he said. “Nash just heard back from one of his informants. He said there’s been a lot of activity around one of the warehouses that the Vipers sometimes use. We haven’t had any confirmation that Liam is inside, but it looks promising.”
“I’m coming,” Eve said, getting to her feet.
Flint stood, too. “We’reallgoing,” he said. “Let’s go bring your mate home.”
They all filed out of the office, heading downstairs to the vehicles that were kept in the underground parking lot. Eve had been hoping for confirmation that someone had seen Liam alive, some sort of sign that he was safe if not unharmed, but the premise that no news was good news was the only thing keeping her going. She could only hope and pray that if he was being held at the warehouse, that they made it to him in time. Liam’s life depended on it.
Chapter Twelve
Liam
The pounding in the back of his skull welcomed Liam back to consciousness, and he reluctantly cracked open his eyes.
His head was throbbing not only from the blow to the back of the head that he’d taken at the courthouse, but also from punch he’d got to his temple the first time he came around. He didn’t think Owen had been intending to knock him out, but he’d always been a bit heavy-handed, and at least being passed out was a break from the beating that Liam had endured for the best part of an hour so that was some small consolation. Not much of one, but he’d take what he could get right now.
