“No problemo,” Kieran replied.
“I’ll send Ian in,” Logan said before leaving the bedroom.
Kieran placed his hands on Dakota’s leg and, as they heated up, he drew out the worry and fear he found in him and replaced it with love. When he was finished, Kieran’s hands cooled and he removed them from Dakota.
“Thank you, Kieran,” Dakota whispered.
~/~/~/~/~
When the room service staff arrived with lunch, Dylon sat at the end of the table in the dining room, surreptitiously taking pictures of each person who brought up the food—and one, in particular. After theyleft, he sent the photos off to Zane along with a request to compare them to the unknown third man. He had a strong hunch, but needed to confirm he was correct. Within ten minutes he knew they had found their man—and the person responsible for the bugs.
Looking at the information Zane sent him, Dylon began planning how they’d take the man down. The last thing he wanted to do was to tip off the men holding Slate that their partner had been captured.
~/~/~/~/~
Slate woke up when the cold water hit his face. Shaking his head, trying to get wet hair out of his eyes, he could sense there was more than one person in his cell and since neither spoke, he concentrated on footsteps, hoping those would give him an exact number. He guessed two, probably the two who kidnapped him. Saying nothing, he waited to find out what they wanted from him.
Suddenly, he heard the crack of a whip followed by searing pain that spread across his back. Before he could catch his breath, another crack, and then another and another until Slate’s back was covered with razor thin cuts dripping blood. Unable to stop himself, he cried out at each whiplash, as his tears fell. The pain was so intense, he was sure he’d pass out if the torture didn’t stop soon.
“Enough!” Approaching Slate, someone grabbed his hair and used it to lift his head. “Where is Fionn’s hoard?”
Fionn’s hoard?Slate couldn’t think past the pain to form an answer.
“Do you need more to loosen your tongue?”
“No more,” Slate whispered. “No more, please.”
“Then tell me where is Fionn’s hoard?”
“I don’t know,” Slate mumbled his back now on fire.
“Give him ten more.”
Frantic at the thought of more pain, Slate cried out, “I’m telling you the truth…I don’t know…I don’t know…I don’t know.”
“He’s telling the truth.”
“Yeah, I know. Let’s go, I gotta call the boss.”
When the man let go of his hair, Slate’s head fell back down; he was too weak to hold it upright. Gasping from his ordeal, he never heard the cell door slam shut, but the air currents it created triggered a fresh wave of pain as they flowed across the bloody cuts on his back.
Chapter 41
Dakota sat at the table in Dakota and Slate’s suite which was bug-free. Dylon read what Zane sent him about the third man—a human—mixed up with shifters. He wasn’t sure how this guy had escaped the notice of the High Council for so long, but according to the info Zane had dug up, he was for hire by any shifter who could pay his price. When the suite’s door opened, Dylon looked up and saw his mate, Cody, ushering in Colton, Dakota, Logan and Kieran before closing and locking the door.
“Please have a seat,” Dylon said to the group. “We have a lot to discuss.” When everyone was settled, he began. “The two men who attacked Fionn are mercenaries who, I believe, were hired by Artur MacDùghlas, Fionn’s father. Their original job was to steal Fionn’s hoard, but it was moved out of Scotland and therefore…”
“If I don’t give them the hoard, they’ll kill my mate!” interrupted Dakota.
Placing his hand on Dakota’s leg, Kieran murmured, “Let’s hear the rest of what Dylon has to tell us.”
“Please hear me out, Dakota,” said Dylon. “As I was saying, since the hoard is no longer in Scotland, the mercenaries couldn’t abscond with it. So MacDùghlas’ next plan was to kidnap Fionn and, most likely, torture him until he gave the location of his hoard and then kill him. It was this attempt that led me to believe Logan’s suite was bugged since the two mercenaries went to TheMeat Locker…they had prior knowledge Fionn would be there.”
“We talked about it at breakfast,” Kieran said.
“Uh-huh, that’s how they knew where you were going,” said Dylon. “After that attempt failed, they learned Fionnwas heavily guarded and was scheduled to leave Scotland. A new plan was needed, quickly, so when they learned Dakota and Slate were going out to dinner, they seized the opportunity and grabbed Slate.”
“But Slate didn’t say where we were going to go to dinner when we were in Logan’s suite,” Dakota said.
