As she continued to dance, I caught a glimpse of Elio’s bond mark on her neck and briefly wondered, if I ever got the chance, where I’d put such a bite on her. Then I immediately shook the thought away, scolding my inner-alpha who seemed to be relishing in the time it got to spend with the woman who smelled so damned good.
Over the past two hours since Elio and Nico had left the house on Amante’s errand, we had been posted up in the living roomtogether. It was the most one-on-one time I think I had ever gotten with Cini and I was more at a loss for words than usual.
‘Another round?’Cini signed, her blue eyes dancing as she started to reshuffle the cards.
‘Yes, but I need to check on Ranieri first,’I told her, waiting for her to nod before I got up from the couch.
The alpha hadn’t shown his face in two hours, too busy in the back bedroom monitoring the guy’s wires and keeping an eye on their location.
Ranieri was still sitting at his makeshift operations station when I entered the bedroom.
“Are you going to sit here all night?” I asked, making the other man jump with surprise.
Then I saw his worried face.
“I lost them a couple of minutes ago,” he told me before scrubbing a hand roughly through his dark blonde hair.
The teasing mood I’d been in shifted immediately into work mode.
“How?” I asked, staring at the two flat-lined audio streams that would usually be jumping even if it was just ambient noise around the wires that were strapped to our pack mate’s chests.
“I don’t know. I can still pick up on their cell phones, but the wires are useless,” Ranieri explained as he typed on his computer before showing me the glowing dot that was their location. They were about a mile away and not moving.
I cursed under my breath.
“I sent them a text to call me ASAP but they must still be talking to Amante’s potential business partner,” Ranieri continued. “But I don’t like this, Dante. It’s giving me a bad feeling.”
That was all the other alpha needed to say before I was pulling the gun case out of the closet. I had learned early on to trust gut feelings, especially Ranieri’s.
“Let me know as soon as you hear back from them—” I was cut off by the sound of glass shattering somewhere in the house.
Ranieri’s green eyes widened as they met mine.
Something was very, very wrong.
“Cini’s by herself in the living room,” I said, my words monotone despite the internal jolt of panic coursing through my veins.
“The bodyguards are in the house,” Ranieri pointed out as he hurried to pull a shoulder holster on.
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” I told him as I tucked a pistol into my waist band. “Keep your eyes peeled and unless it’s me or Cini, shoot first and ask questions later.”
As I spoke, the power was shut off, sending us into darkness.
With a growl I dug through the case until I found the night vision glasses.
They weren’t as good as the full goggles, but they did what they needed to. I turned to Ranieri. “Remember—”
“Keep your eyes peeled. Don’t shoot at you or Cini. Got it,” the man said as he held the pistol up and stepped into the pitch black hallway.
The sounds of a struggle could be heard somewhere toward the front of the house along with harsh whispers.
“Get that damn cover over her head,” the familiar voice of one of the bodyguards floated down to us.
“I’m trying, but she’s not making it easy. Isn’t she supposed to be sickly and weak?”
A growl rose in my throat as the implications of their words settled in. They were trying to kidnap Cini.
“Ouch! The bitch bit me.”
