“Because hostage taking is such great business.”
The corners of Carmen’s eyes creased in a way that told Wade she was smirking at him. “It is for us.”
Wade tilted his head, phone still in hand and banking app still accessible. “How much to have Biyu hack any security cameras at the hotel to make them go dark when I get there?”
At that, Carmen did laugh. “You have grown if you’re thinking like Patrick.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t meant as one. We’ll go half a million this time.”
“Done.”
If it meant he could do some casual breaking and entering without being on camera, so much the better. Wade transferred the additional funds and gave his phone number to Carmen.
“Biyu will call you when the security cameras are down,” Carmen said.
Wade didn’t question how she’d know when he arrived and just nodded. “Where is the hotel?”
Carmen rattled off the address and flipped down her visor, and then Lucien drove off with a window-rattling roar of his motorcycle. Wade didn’t stick around, turning on his feet to run back to his car.
He still needed to find Saoirse’s skin, but rescuing Casey and Harper was also something he had to do. And if he could get the pair of them out of Niall’s clutches, then that was one less point of pressure for the supernatural and preternatural communities in Boston to worry about. It would also free up the Boston god pack to help the selkie clans fight against Niall.
So Wade made the choice to drive downtown rather than ransack Niall’s home, following the GPS directions to the waterfront hotel in question. He parked a couple blocks away in a garage so he wouldn’t have to worry about getting towed since he didn’t know what was about to go down. All he knew was that if Casey and Harper were inside, he wasn’t leaving without them.
He pulled on a baseball cap, stuck a pair of sunglasses on his nose, and started walking like he was a tourist out for a stroll. The hotel in question was easy enough to pick out once he got closer. The pier it sat on wasn’t fenced off in any way, which probably meant construction was finished. Wade didn’t see any heavy-duty equipment anywhere or construction workers, but the hotel was clearly not open yet. No taxis idled out front, no hotel workers manned the closed door, but the lights were on inside.
Wade clocked the numerous security cameras on the walk up. Before he could start to worry, his phone rang with an incoming call from an unknown number. He answered it, not slowing his stride. “Yeah?”
“The security cameras are down,” Carmen said.
“Awesome. Never call me again.”
Wade hung up, shoved his phone into his back pocket, and headed for the hotel’s front doors. He didn’t have a plan, exactly,other than to sniff out where Casey and Harper might be held inside. Magic was easy for him to detect, even if it didn’t do anything to him. Hotels were public property though, which meant no threshold would stick, so all he’d have to worry about is whatever spells and wards Niall had set up inside that might make getting Casey and Harper out difficult and anyone on guard duty with guns or other kinds of weapons.
All of which he knew he could handle, even without his pack there with him.
Wade paused in front of the double doors, squinting through the glass at the empty but brightly lit lobby. He gripped one of the long door handles, braced his other hand against the adjacent door, and used his supernatural strength to yank it open, breaking the lock in the process. The glass cracked along the edges from the force of the pull but didn’t shatter. Wade slipped inside, not sensing any magic yet in the immediate vicinity.
He breathed in deeply as he headed for the elevator bank, searching for the door that would lead to the stairwell people only ever really used in emergencies. His nostrils flared on his next breath, senses changing as he shifted mass ever so slightly. Everything becamemore—the lights were brighter, the colors more saturated, and the air smelled distinctly of the fae who had passed through, edged with that floral scent that spoke of magic.
And werecreatures.
“Bingo,” he muttered.
Wade found the stairwell, and he slipped inside, not needing to break any locks this time. The hotel looked like it was eight stories high, probably restricted from going higher by the pier it was built on and to not interfere with other buildings’ views. That still left eight floors that could contain any number of Niall’s people and hopefully Casey and Harper.
He’d sniff them out.
Wade expanded his senses, parsing out the ones that didn’t matter—bleach and cement and paint, ugh, so sharp—in favor of the almost floral scent that meant fae. It wasn’t that they smelled like perfume but that they had an underlying woodsy, floral hint that lingered around them. He didn’t know if it was because of their magic or what, but they were easy to pick out of a crowd, even without clocking their pointed ears and strange-colored hair and eyes. Almost as easy as the wet-fur smell of werecreatures.
Living in New York City, with its crush of people in Manhattan in particular, came with a plethora of scents. When Wade had first joined the pack, he’d gone for walks at Jono’s behest, senses open, learning to differentiate and pick out particular scents and follow them to their origin. Enhanced senses weren’t owned by one particular group, and dragons were very, very good at sniffing out magic and magical artifacts.
Like now.
No threshold would ever exist anywhere in the hotel’s foundation, but that didn’t mean someone couldn’t cast magic in the area. Magic lingered in the air on the third floor, making his nose twitch. He also smelled the scent of werecreatures and blood, which pissed him off. It was never a good situation when people were bleeding.
Wade eyed the door on the third-floor landing for a moment before shrugging to himself. “What would Patrick do?”
