Myles squirms. “I don’t like having her out of my sight either, but I get it. If it wasn’t for the trackers, I don’t think I’d ever sleep again. But I just got a flare of shock and excitement from her not too long ago. I know firsthand how much it sabotages our line of work when people pop in when we’re at that stage of something finally clicking, so I really don’t want to bother her when it isn’t the end of the world if she skips breakfast this one time.”
Ledger isn’t as convinced. “I don’t have to interrupt her. I can just slide the food next to her and leave. Won’t say a word.”
I tug at my collar. “If I confess something, do you guys promise not to lose your shit?”
A chorus of resoundingnos have me grimacing.
“Okay, yeah, that was a stupid question. Just remember that we’realla little obsessedwhen it comes to our mate.”
Arson snorts. “Obviously.”
Pulling out my phone, I bring up my camera feeds, scrolling until I get to the one I want. “I maaaaaaay have slippedacamerainherglasses,” I admit in one long breath.
Arson nods solemnly like it makes perfect sense, and even Myles seems delighted. Ledger side-eyes me a bit, silently scolding and judging me, but after watching her on the house cameras with me before, knows he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Turning my chair, I angle my phone so we can all see.
And immediately frown as a strange man fills the screen.
“Who the fuck is that?” Ledger snarls, trying to snatch my phone out of my hands, but I jerk it out of his reach.
“Where is she?” Arson asks, eyes narrowed on the screen.
“The audio doesn’t work, it’s video only. Hold on.” Quickly rewinding the footage, my stomach sinks the longer I go back. Three and a half hours earlier, we finally see it; Dane’s face and the blur of a fist in the corner of the screen before Ever collapses and Bennet hauls her into his arms, leaving us staring at the ceiling.
Hands braced on the tabletop, Ledger’s nails tear through the linen tablecloth, gouging the wood beneath. "I'm going to kill him."
A flicker of shadow draws my eye to Arson pausing mid-step out of the shadow realm. "Oh shit, we were waiting on that? Oops." He tucks the bloody knife in his hand behind his back.
Myles snatches my phone, fast forwarding back to the moment the stranger appears. The color drains from his face and his hand trembles. “There’s no way.”
“Wait, you know this guy?” Ledger demands.
“Skylar,” he breathes. “But… Iwatchedhim die. There’s no way anyone could have survived that.”
“Unless he wasn’t human.”
Arson disappears and reappears a second later. “Okay, we’ll deal with Myles’s zombie boyfriend in a minute. Where thefuckis our mate?” He tosses her necklace and phone onto the table, jaw clenched.
“Split up,” Ledger commands, looking between us all. “Bellamy, keep searching for anything on the video that shows where they took her. Myles, you take the second floor, Arson, you do the main and the basement.”
“What about Dane?”
He cracks his knuckles. “He’smine.”
Myles doesn’t make it halfway to the door before he stumbles. Three steps later, he collapses.
“Shit, are you okay!? What happened?” I jump to my feet, getting a wicked head rush and fall back into my seat. Taking a few deep breaths to stop the spinning, I get back up, stumbling over to check on Myles. I drop to my knees, rolling him onto his back and feeling for a pulse when mine skips a beat, and I start to go down next to him. As my head hits the floor, I see the blurry shape of Ledger’s body sprawled out on the opposite side of the room.
Nausea hits next, but it’s the spinning in my head that really fucks with me. Thoughts are harder and harder to connect, my blinks lasting a little longer each time as darkness threatens to drag me under. If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone drugged-
The food.
Fuck.
Chapter 30
Ever
The door opens, Dane standing there with a controller in hand. He doesn’t say a word as he strides right in without a trace of fear. I track his gaze as it slides down to Skylar’s wrist, a small frown forming before his eyes quickly flick to the tray of food and away.
