“Nadia gave Harper her sweater, sat with her on the bed, and offered her water. She barely spoke. Ares came in and told us that men were outside the hotel, probably keeping watch over the escort they sent in, so Ian and I brought her out through the kitchens, and I took her home that night, determined to protect her.” Xander’s voice was thick with raw emotion.
“So, she was an underage escort? Why?” Gabe asked.
“Because her aunt and uncle ran a human trafficking ring and were fed up with Harper’s mothernotselling the girls they brought over to her. So, they torched her dance studio on Vancouver Island, took Harper, kept her tied up for hours at a time and told her she was going to have to work in the family business. The first night they sent her out, was in Zetra’s.”
The closed hard expressions of every man in that room matched how he felt. “Thank Christ you were there,” Logan said. His anger at Xander ebbed away. The man had done his best to keep Harper safe.
“Didn’t her aunt and uncle come looking for her?” Nick asked.
“Yes,” Xander said. “They looked, but we were on guard. Her aunt was dealt with shortly after that and it’s thought that her uncle was taken out by other members of her crime family.”
“Where’s her family from?” Gabe asked.
“Blakvasitaikn. The Ralizphe mob.”
Logan grabbed the nearest chair, suddenly feeling wobbly. He couldn’t wrap his head around this. His beautiful, sweet Kitten came from a crime family that had terrorized the small country of Blakvasitaikn for decades and had started to make their way across to North America.
“Great, we have enough backstory. Now,” Quinn said, “let’s get to work. Nick, see if you can get footage from a nearby business. Everyone down that stretch has cameras. Gabe, get a canvass going and see if anyone reported a blue panel van speeding through the streets. Xander, I bet Carli got the plate number, text her and ask her what it is.”
“I’m going to find a number for the dance people and track down the group she was with last to see if they noticed anything about the men who took her,” Logan said.
Quinn was already shaking his head. “Nope, you’re going to sit here with Xander and Ares and follow up any leads. You’re going to get the tech people in, and see if they can locate Harper’s phone.”
“Tech people are on their way,” Ares said.
“Like hell, I’m sitting this out, Quinn,” Logan snarled.
His best friend turned his icy blues on him. “Yes, you are. You are way too emotionally involved to think this through.”
“We got this, Logan.” Gabe clapped him on the back.
“Yep, we’re good,” Nick added.
Logan paced around the room, feeling like a caged tiger, but there was no way he was going to win this one and he knew it.
He pointed his finger at Quinn. “Find her.”
The Bandit Brothers filed out of the room, along with Ares and Xander. “How could you put anewteam on her?” he bit out.
“I hire the best,” Xander said. “I didn’t think they were this green. You can either point the finger at me or we can be productive with our time.”
Logan paced, heart, thumping into his ears. If anything happened to Harper that would be the end of him. “And you say you care about her,” he sneered.
“Fuck you, Marrock,” Xander said. “Just because I don’t wear my colourful emotions on my sleeve, just because I am not yelling and cursing about this, does not mean that my fuckin’ heart isn’t breaking. I love Harper.”
“Yeah? Then why couldn’t you tell her that?”
“Because me loving her isn’t good for her,” Xander snapped.
“Why not? You’re a freakin’ billionaire, you could give her everything,” Logan pressed. He couldn’t give her much in comparison.
“And in the end, I couldn’t keep her safe. And if she’s with me, I’ll destroy her,” Xander said, his tone of voice so hollow it made Logan reel in his anger.
“You can’t destroy someone, Xander.”
“I destroyed Olivia,” Xander said softly, staring at his hands.
Logan paced over to the wall of windows, turned, and faced his boss. “And how did you do that?”
