“Nah, haven’t heard anything. Won’t be long though. We were careful with the dosage.”
The first man snorted. “Jareth should’ve kept a better leash on his pet. The Hounds snatched her right out from under him.”
“We’ve got her now,” the second replied. “He marked her, didn’t he? Wanted everyone to know she was his.”
My stomach churned during a beat of silence.
“We’ll carve that mark right off her,” the man continued. “Can’t claim what you can’t keep.”
A shaky breath ripped from my lungs before I could swallow it.
“And send it where it’ll hurt the most,” the first guy added.
The laughter that followed was cruel. These men didn’t see me as a person. I was only a pawn in whatever game they were playing with Jareth. It didn’t matter to them that he’d betrayed me, only that they could use me against him.
I squeezed my eyes shut and forced air into my lungs. Hopefully, Reeve would find me before they started cutting into my leg. And if he didn’t, I’d just have to figure out how to stay alive long enough for him to rescue me. Because I needed the chance to tell him I loved him.
16
ONYX
We tracked her fast. The second Stella called from the spa, Wizard was on it.
I was already dressed and down in the armory with Kevlar and King, shoving weapons into my gear bag when Wizard shouted from the back hall, “Video on your phone.”
Before I had a chance to retrieve my cell, Blaze stalked in, staring at the screen of his with a grim expression. “They carried her out.”
My head snapped up. “She was unconscious?”
Blaze nodded and passed me his phone. When the prospect we sent with them had confirmed Elena never came out the front entrance, Wizard tapped into the security footage.
Rage boiled inside me as I watched two men follow her into the bathroom, then come back out with her lying limply in one of their arms. They headed toward the back exit, then nothing.
“No fucking camera on the back door?” I seethed, my blood roaring in my ears.
“He’ll find her.”
King made it sound like a fact, not a guess or hope. That should have brought me a sliver of comfort, but I was too caughtup in my fear and anger. My knuckles cracked as I curled the fingers of one hand into a tight fist. They’d taken her. Probably iInjected her with something. Bound her wrists. Thrown her in a van like she was nothing.
I was going to make them fucking bleed.
Several other enforcers joined us, and Kevlar got them outfitted with anything they needed.
Finally, Wizard appeared at the door with his tablet, his fingers moving quickly over the screen. “Pinged her cell. The dumbfucks didn’t remove the SIM card.”
King asked, “Address?”
“Narrowed it to a three-block radius. Near the shipping yard off Ellsworth. Close to the edge of the third block. Last signal was ten minutes ago.”
Ten fucking minutes.
King slammed a magazine into his pistol and shoved the gun into a holster on his hip. “Let’s move.”
I didn’t say a damn word.
I was already moving.
“Cross and Ash went to the spa,” Blaze informed me as we mounted our bikes. “They found two witnesses who saw a black van pull away in the right window of time. One of the spa attendants recognized one of the guys as ‘someone who gave her the creeps’ last week but hadn’t said anything.”
