Thirty eight minutes.
She had the keys in hand. And she was already racing to the sports car that was going to take her to the kids.
At over 200 mph.
She only prayed that would be fast enough. And no matter how fast it went, it still wouldn’t take away the fear that she might never see Col once more, never get the chance to explain.
Never feel his arms wrapped around her ever again.
Even with all the traumatic events that had gone down in the lingerie shop the night before, Lily had never felt so scared.
Or so alone.
* * *
“Puma’s calling for you, Simon,” Jemima Danes’ voice came over the speakers. Puma and Rika were the two calls that always got put through, because if they were calling, it wasn’t to chat about what they had just chained on Netflix.
“Hey Puma.” Simon leaned back in his ergonomic chair, lifting his glasses in one hand and rubbing his eyes with the other. He really should take more breaks from staring at the computer screen, he thought to himself. Maybe he’d program Jemima Danes to prompt him more frequently.
“Thought you’d want to know. I was on my way to Staff Childcare to talk to Rika about the twins going missing. I saw Katie, and she asked for the keys to a racing car, so I gave her the yellow Lamborghini. Wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to do, but she seemed really frantic.”
“Twins missing?” Simon sat up straight. Saw he had missed a text from Rika. Yup, need to take more breaks from the computer screen. And check a much smaller one.
Puma continued in a neutral tone. Come to think of it, Simon couldn’t recall ever hearing his head of Ops freaked out, or losing his shit. “They were reported gone from the Staff Childcare Center after TraceyAnn had returned from picking up her lunch at the Staff Cafe. I’ve notified all the staff to be on the lookout, and now we’re going to call the police.”
“Good thinking.” Aside from Ops being additional eyes and ears on the situation, they could also make sure that potential dangers were minimized, like where there might be heavy machinery being deployed.
A note of doubt crept into Puma’s voice. “Since you had made it clear that she and the five men have special access, I handed the keys over to her. But I’m letting you know anyway.”
“That’s exactly the right thing to do, Puma. Thank you. Anything else?”
Puma cleared his throat. “Just to follow up. Yesterday Jordy was knocked down to grunt work, and taken off active duty for the day. But she didn’t show up for shift today, and she’s not in her room.”
Simon’s blood chilled. The photos of him and the boys from the security footage found in that rental house. Col’s insistence that the man who kidnapped him was at the lingerie store, where Lily had reported a man fitting that description had talked about abducting her. A man who somehow knew that Lily would be there.
Somehow, Jordy was involved with all of this. The pieces were lining up too well. “Puma, get me all the information you have on Jordy. Or have Rika send it to me. In the meantime, I’m going to track that car.”
“On it.” Puma said, and clicked off.
Simon tapped on his keyboard to begin accessing the tracking system for the car that Lily had taken. She wouldn’t have done that, unless it had something to do with the kids.
Or last night. Or both.
He had a bad feeling about this.
* * *
Of all theBredhren, it was ironic that Barric possessed the most skill at sending and receiving mind-messages in wolf form. Col was reminded of this, when Barric’s message crashed into his mind, displacing the loop of self-castigation that had been running all night.
And all day, once he woke up from the restless slumber that had finally overtaken him, still in wolf form.
That’s right. He had had the bright idea to return within the perimeter of Simon’s house on all fur and fours, and this was why. To have Barric blast into his brain like a commercial during one of those infernal shows that Aylwyn insisted on watching. Apparently his self-castigation had progressed into outright punishment.
She is missing,
Barric’s mind-message was as loud as his preferred volume setting.
Who is?Col shot back.
