“Don’t leave her alone!” I shout. The words spilling out of me just before it all goes dark.
67
A CAT?
KOEN
Who the fuckis she talking about?
I stare down at Briar in my arms. I caught her before she fell, passed out cold. Her mouth is still tight and pressed down into a frown as though, even now, she still fights the sedative I gave her.
I swing her up into my arms, carrying her out of the apartment, down several flights of stairs and toward the back exit.
Aidan is waiting at the back door of the apartment building and holds it open for me as I pass, making my way to the SUV concealed in the dark alley next door.
The trunk opens, and I lay Briar down inside, not bothering to tie her up. The drugs I gave her will keep her unconscious for a few hours yet. Long enough to get where we’re going.
I brush the hair out of her face with a frown.Don’t leave her alone.
Don’t leavewhoalone?
Lily already left—Mac and Alex are out tracking her down. After my meeting with Ronan, I was forced to call back my crew from New York. They made good time, too, arriving just in time to help clean up the mess down at the docks.
But a nagging feeling settles over me, and I glance back up at Briar’s window, quickly running over what I remember about her apartment.She doesn’t have a dog, but maybe a cat?Though I’m pretty sure I would’ve seen it sitting in the window or on the sofa at some point...
I shut the trunk, halfway to the passenger seat before I shake my head, cursing under my breath before turning around, and heading back into the decrepit brick building. Something about what she said—andthe desperate look on her facewhen she said it. I just?—
“Rí.”
I stop. My head snaps up in Liam’s direction. He’s behind the wheel, twisted around in his seat, watching me through the open window with narrowed eyes. “What are you doing? Let’s go.” He scans the street as he talks, seeing as how we’re in the middle of a kidnapping.
I turn back to look up at the apartment again, making my decision. “I’ll be right back.”
“What the fuck? Where is he going?” I hear Aidan ask Liam as I stalk back into Briar’s building, before taking the stairs two at a time until I reach her door again. Cursing for the hundredth time their lack of an elevator.
The apartment is as I left it—empty. And eerily quiet without Briar.
I spot her phone on the counter and pick it up, tucking it into my back pocket. I move through the space, keeping my eye out for a laptop or other electronic device I can have Liam scan. Who knows what other information she’s passed on to the Italians, or whatever else she may have sold us out on?
Moving slowly down the hall, there’s no sign of movement, andno sign of a fucking cat,in either the kitchen or the living room.
My eyes scan Briar’s room from the hall. There’s not much inside. Her pathetic excuse for a mattress is on the floor, no closet, and it looks like she’s already torn through her bureau. The drawers sit half askew, clothes everywhere, with one drawer pulled out entirely, sitting overturned on the floor.
I take a quick inventory of Lily’s room next door.
Also empty.
Lily’s room is a direct contrast to Briar’s. The color pink dominates the space. Soft and feminine. Nothing jumps out at me, and seeing as I have no beef with Lily, I leave her room alone, prowling back out into the hall.
That leaves only the bathroom, and the closet across the hall from Briar’s room.
Something doesn’t feel right about this situation and I take out my gun, clearing the bathroom before moving in on the closet. Silently, I twist the nob, nudging the door open with my foot, before peering inside. I enter slowly, surprised to find it’s not a closet at all… but actuallya third bedroom.
The floor is a landmine of toys, so I stay in the doorway, my eyes scanning the small space.
Colorful drawings and paintings are taped rather haphazardly to the walls. A pink tutu and a hockey stick lie abandoned on the floor in front of a small wooden bed.
A small wooden bed containing a tiny sleepingchild.
