Page 10 of Stolen Salvation

Val wandered in with her two shadows on her heels. Monty, the younger one was an Australian sheepdog. Scout, a German Shepherd, was a few years older and the more chill of the two. Both were exceedingly well trained. He’d be happy for either animal to have his back and yet they were still gentle with Fleur, Snow’s niece and adopted daughter, which was weird but worked for her and Sebastian.

“Hey, Monty.” The dog sniffed his hand, as he slumped beside his chair. Bishop buried his face in the dog’s soft coat as Bás began.

“Bishop brought a case to me tonight that might have a lead to Project Cradle. At this point, the link is tenuous at best. It seems his ex-wife Charlie needs our help.”

Bishop listened as Bás outlined the details as he’d given them, only speaking a few times to confirm a few details.

Bás looked around the room, his gaze stopping for the briefest second on Val before moving on. “We need to vote. As per the usual format, Bishop will sit this one out. I must stress that we have no concrete evidence that there’s a link. At this point, it is purely conjecture.”

Bás nodded and Bishop stood to leave the room. If there was a compromised party, they always left the room so anyone voting against the proposal would feel free to do so without judgement or repercussions. Nine times out of ten, the vote was discussed and anyone voting against had told the person why with no fallout.

He knew there was a very real chance the group would be against this. The link, like Bás had said, was weak and this was only personal for him because it was Charlie.

The thought made his lip curl in disgust at his own weakness. He wished he could hate her internally as much as he vocalised, it would make his life so much easier.

Pacing the hallway, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, it felt like a lifetime, but in reality, it was only a few minutes before Hurricane popped his head out.

“We’re done.” His grin made the knot in Bishop’s belly loosen. The team had voted with him. Now he just had to work with Charlie without losing his mind.

Chapter 4

Her foot bounced in a nervous rhythm so unlike her that it drew Noah’s attention from across the room. Stilling her foot, Charlie glanced toward the front where Bás speaking, hardly able to look at Noah without wanting him and not just because of the sexy way his t-shirt was stretched around his muscular frame.

When he’d called to say the team had decided to help, she’d felt giddy with relief. Her body almost sagged with the acknowledged exhaustion she was fighting. Since she’d gotten back from Prague, she’d only slept about six hours and that was four days ago. Those six hours had been filled with nightmares, leaving her groggier than before.

Glancing around the room, it was difficult to believe they were underground, but even with the cloth bag over her head, she’d been able to tell they were descending. Where abouts on the Welsh mountain they were though she had no clue. The set-up here was far sleeker and more elaborate than she’d ever imagined. It must have cost an absolute fortune, so the backer, whoever that was, had some serious money behind them.

Her mind drifted to her friend Jack, and she tried to picture him funding this. As far as she knew his brother Will was the one with more money than God, but perhaps she was wrong. Either way, Shadow had some serious funding. Not like the outfit she worked for which was basically a private investigator firm that was more ambulance chaser than anything else.

Not that she had that job now. She’d quit when they wouldn’t give her time off to look for her sister. She didn’t regret it, but it meant when she found her sister and finished this she’d need a new job. One thing was for sure, she wouldn’t touch the money Noah put into her bank account every month as part of their divorce settlement.

She’d tried to refuse, but his lawyer had insisted he wouldn’t sign the papers without her agreement, and she needed him to be free of her and what she’d done.

“Tell me again about your sister.”

Duchess was leaning against the desk as she spoke with her arms folded and her ankles crossed as she watched her warily. The women here were fierce, and she’d already had a cool response from Lotus, who was the scariest of them all.

Charlie lifted her chin, steeling her spine. She was no slouch, and she couldn’t allow these people who didn’t know her to affect her. They had no idea why she’d done what she had, what had driven her, but a bigger part of her wanted to hug these people for having Noah’s back. Nobody had done that for him before her, not truly. After she’d left, her biggest worry was that he’d blame himself and go off the deep end. Thank God he had these people to stabilise him and make sure he knew he was important.

“Yes, of course. Andrea is my half-sister. We share a father. She’s studying Fashion Design at Manchester University and called me a few weeks back to say she was pregnant. She was very upset. I was on a job in Prague and promised to come and see her and help her figure it out when I got home. When I arrived, her roommate said she’d gone to some clinic and never came back. A man she didn’t know had collected her things and she’d dropped out of Uni.”

“Could she have gone off with the father?”

Charlie shrugged. “Honestly, I can’t say for sure because I have no idea who the father is. Neither did the roommate, but I’ve looked for her everywhere. Every lead goes back to the clinic, and I still have no idea about the father of her child just that he’s older than her and perhaps has money.”

“Was she working?”

Charlie rested her jittery hands between her thighs. “Yes, at a bar.”

“And they haven’t seen her either?”

Hurricane was addressing her now, and she felt less hostility from him. He was a tall, black man, who was very muscular and handsome with a smile that transformed him from frightening to adorable. Not that she’d ever tell him that.

“No, she quit her job the same day she left Uni.” Charlie wasn’t sure whether she should add that her quitting had been the only good to come from this because the bar in question was known to be a strip club of dubious background.

“Name of the clinic?”

Watchdog leaned back on the two legs of his chair to speak to her, and Charlie wondered if it would collapse under his weight. He, too, was a big man, with solid strength and visible muscles under his Henley shirt. “Harmony Valley Medical. They’re in Leeds but have a facility in London and Birmingham too.”