by Nowlan,Anya
Stone rushed to meet her in the living room, hoping she had any news or ideas on how to find Selina. By now, he was in full-blown panic mode, his military instincts battling with those of a concerned mate.
“Have you learned something?” was the first thing she asked.
“No,” he answered, his lion pacing anxiously, waiting to maul someone for taking his mate away.
“Someone let her in the weapons room,” Stone added, trying to hold it together.
If anything happens to her…
“Okay, try to stay calm,” Kate said, giving him a stern look that was surprisingly effective.
She really had a handle on that cold bucket of water to the face kind of glare that some women of her caliber perfected over the years.
“I’ll talk to the team outside, someone had to have seen something,” Kate said, hurrying back outside.
Stone paced in the living room until he couldn’t take it anymore. Scouring through Kate’s security feeds was next on his list, but he knew she had them locked down behind endless crypto walls.
Instead, he picked up Selina’s scent once again, trying to distinguish fresh from old. The trail from the weapons room seemed to head towards the garage. He followed it, checking the inside of each car in the process. With a frown, he noticed one of the spots was empty.
Kate stepped into the garage, eyes tight.
“The Ford is missing,” Stone informed her, pointing at a vacant space.
Did she really leave on her own? Was she already with Parker? How could he get in here?
A thousand thoughts flitted through Stone’s head, each more unpleasant than the last. They were getting too close to beating Parker for this to happen.
If this has anything to do with me calling her mine, I’m going to rip Tom to shreds with my bare hands.
“I know. The guards outside saw Richard leave in it about thirty minutes ago,” Kate responded.
“So Selina didn’t take it? Where would she hope to get on foot?” he asked, confused, refusing to believe what his rational mind was telling him.
“I checked the logs,” she said, mouth thinning into a harsh line.
“Richard was also the last one to access the weapons room.”
Son of a bitch. I’ll tear him to shreds instead.
Twenty-Three
Selina
Fighting through the fog in her brain, Selina slowly realized she was in the backseat of a car. She tried to move, but her hands and legs were bound. Craning her neck, she saw that the front seat was empty. Through the windshield, she could see Richard talking on a payphone.
It took a few tries for her hazy mind to pinpoint that it was Richard. The little sliver of her brain that was still hoping for a happy outcome kept imagining Stone standing there instead.
Those things still exist? she wondered idly. So not important right now, she reminded herself.
She tried to wriggle out of her restraints to no avail. Kate wouldn’t make someone with subpar knot skills her head of security, clearly.
I am getting really tired of being kidnapped. And being shoved in the back of cars.
Richard hung up the phone and Selina ducked her head back down. Maybe if she pretended to be unconscious, he’d let his guard down and she’d have a shot at escaping.
The man got back in the car and she could hear him shift in his seat. She tried her best to remain completely still.
“I can tell from your breathing that you’re awake,” he said, his voice deathly calm.
Selina opened her eyes, annoyed. So that plan didn’t work. No problem, she would just have to come up with a new one.
“Yeah, well, fuck you, too,” she replied, her words slurring.
Richard didn’t grace her with a response.
He drove them to a small motel, not that different from the one she had stayed at with Stone. He parked in the back and disappeared for a while. All the while, Selina kept trying to force herself to focus, to fight against the effects of the admittedly weakening drug in her system. Nausea swirled in her stomach, probably another side effect of whatever Richard had used to knock her out.
Returning, he untied her feet and got her out of the car and into the building through a staff entrance. He shoved a gag in her mouth for safekeeping before yanking her out of the car, though, so she couldn’t scream.
He unlocked one of the rooms and gently pushed her inside. She sat down on the grimy-looking bed, hoping she wouldn’t catch scabies or something. He locked the door, checking the outside through a slit in the curtains before crossing over to Selina.
For a moment, she thought he would hit her, or do something worse. Instinctively, she shied away from his hand, but he only pulled the rag out of her mouth.
That too was becoming too commonplace for her to really look upon kindly these days.
Everything about the situation felt unreal. Why would Richard of all people kidnap her? He had rambled something about keeping Kate safe, but Selina hadn’t really been paying attention.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked, gathering her thoughts.
“I have nothing against you, you seem like a nice person,” he started. “But Parker isn’t stupid. I had to make the tough call. Kate has gone too soft and I have to protect her.”
The way Richard talked about Kate had Selina guessing she was more than just an employer to him. The look in his eyes seemed to confirm that. Still, being in love didn’t give him the right to make decisions over Selina’s life and disobey Kate’s orders. She shook her head at him, hoping her eyes made her disdain evident.
Kate would gut him like a fish for making decisions like that for her, Selina wagered.
Not that it’ll help me much.
Selina didn’t really know Parker all that well, but what she had seen didn’t give her much hope he was a man who would honor his word. Whatever deal Richard had made with Parker, she was almost certain it was going to blow up in his face. Selina briefly considered screaming again, but decided against it.
Looking around the room, with its barely-holding-together furniture and what looked like bullet holes in the walls, she had a feeling no one would come running. Even if someone did rush in to rescue her, the gun attached to Richard’s belt told her it would not end well for that person. She wasn’t going to put anyone’s life in danger.
“Whatever Parker promised you, you can’t believe him,” she said, trying to appeal to Richard’s reasonable side instead.
The man didn’t seem very inclined to listen to her.
“He just wants you back,” he mused out loud, remaining where he was standing by the window. “Stone’s death is a close second on the wish list, but Kate is irrelevant to him. Sure, she lied, but she didn’t actively go against him. Once I hand you over, she’ll be forgiven,” he explained.
“You can’t possibly believe it’s that easy. My family didn’t pay Parker’s goons and his response was to kill me. Kate hid his potential mate and aided his new number one enemy and you think he’s just going to let her walk away? Love has made you stupid,” Selina spat out, hoping the words connected.
“You’re just trying to make me let you go,” Richard replied dully, but he seemed a little less confident in his plan than before.
“All you’ve done is implicate her. Parker probably didn’t even know she was involved until you struck your little bargain,” Selina continued, voice rising, hoping to rattle Richard.
“Oh, he was a lot more suspicious than you think. When Kate was meeting with him and we waited in the lobby, one of Parker’s guards approached me. He offered me a lot of money to keep an eye on Kate and inform him if I saw her with Stone. I declined, of course, but it gave me the idea for a better arrangement.”
Could Richard really be this stupid?
“He was fishing! You served Kate up to them on a silver platter, you moron! God, I bet Linda would be a better head of security than you.”
If Selina’s hands weren’t bound, she would probably be throttling the man. Eve
n she knew enough to see through that harebrained plan, and her spy career had lasted all but a few days now.
“That’s enough,” Richard said, running a frustrated hand down the back of his neck.
Selina kept at it, reiterating reason after reason why Richard’s little scheme wasn’t going to work. Richard kept quiet, but she could tell she was getting to him.
“I can’t think like this!” he finally exclaimed, rushing over to her and shoving the gag back in her mouth mid-objection.
Richard grabbed some rope and started re-tying her feet together. Selina kept her knees pressed together, angling them towards Richard’s line of sight and hiding the fact that she was holding her ankles slightly apart.
When he was done, Richard ran out, locking the door after him.
Selina immediately shot up and started hopping around the room, spluttering out the gag after a couple of failed tries.
There has to be something in here I can use to cut this rope.
If the payphone call Richard had made earlier was to set up a meet, her time was limited. She had to act fast. Stone might not have even realized she was missing yet and even if he did, Richard probably didn’t leave a lot of clues behind. She couldn’t count on another daring rescue, but she could count on herself.
She started by twisting her wrists, that were luckily bound in front of her and not behind her back, trying to stretch and loosen the rope. That gave her enough slack after a while that she could move her fingers around more freely.
Scanning the room, nothing jumped out at her. She even looked around on the floor, seeing if maybe someone had dropped something sharp there. In the process, she glanced at her feet and something her brother had once told her sparked in her mind.
I’ll have to get my feet free first, though.
Sitting back on the bed, she managed to shrug off her sneakers. That gave her a little wiggle room and she rubbed her ankles together, twisting and pulling, ignoring the pain of the rope burning against her bare skin. With one good final yank, she finally managed to slip her foot out.
Yes!
She sat down on the floor and removed a lace from her sneakers, tying two knots on either side of the string. It was an arduously slow process, but she got it done.
Next, she slipped one knotted end around her left foot and tucked the middle part of the string through the gap between her bound wrists, before looping the other knot around her right foot. Leaning on her lower back, she adjusted herself so that the lace was pulled taut against the rope holding her hands together.
I hope you weren’t just messing with me, Joe, and this actually works.
Hesitantly at first, she started moving her legs in a bicycling motion, the string from her shoes sawing against the rope around her wrists. Slowly but surely, the lace started to eat through the bindings.
Tears of relief sprang to her eyes as she noted the progress.
She took small breaks to listen for sounds from the hallway, not wanting Richard to catch her in the middle of an escape attempt.
Just as she was halfway through the restraints, the shoelace snapped in half.
No! she yelled in her mind, desperation creeping in.
But she couldn’t give in to hopelessness. She quickly unlaced her other sneaker and repeated the process.
The rope frayed, turning to ragged strands. A small yelp escaped Selina as her bindings fell away, releasing her hands moments before the other shoelace would have given in as well.
What now? she wondered, rubbing her wrists to get some blood back into them.
The windows all had bars on them and Richard had locked the door. That left her with only one option, and not one she particularly liked.
I’ll just have to wait until he opens the door for me, Selina thought, steeling herself. Fuck, I wish Stone was here right now.
But she couldn’t be a damsel in need of saving this time. No, she had to figure this one out on her own.
So far, so good.
She grabbed a filthy lamp from the bedside table and stood next to the door, ready to strike. As her hands started to shake, she forced herself to grip even harder, knuckles turning white.
When she heard footsteps nearing the door, her heart leapt to her throat.
This is it, do or die.
There was a jingle, then a sound of a key being slid into the lock. The door flew open. Richard looked at the bed, eyes widening. Before he could do anything else, Selina swung the lamp with all the strength she could muster, slamming it against Richard’s forehead. He stumbled and hit the wall, but didn’t go down.
With a frenzied cry, Selina struck again.
This time, Richard slumped to the ground, falling like a sack of flour.
He won’t be out for long, Selina thought, shaking herself out of her shocked stillness, dropping the lamp.
She quickly rummaged through Richard’s pockets, grabbing his car keys. Still only in her socks, she made a mad dash to the parking lot and jumped in the car.
I have to warn Stone and Kate, was all she could think as she sped off, her hands shaking on the wheel and her whole body pumping from the rush of adrenaline.
Twenty-Four
Stone
“Why would Richard take Selina?” Stone shouted, feeling like he was losing his mind.
“I don’t know!” Kate snarled back, eyes shiny with unshed tears.
Stone had never seen Kate come anywhere close to tears. The sudden rush of guilt only made his reactions more visceral.
“He’s your head of security,” Stone countered, struggling to lower his voice as his lion was threatening to jump out of his skin.
His animal side was in full-on ‘someone needs to die’ mode, and he was having trouble pushing it down or distinguishing likely targets. Thinking rationally, he knew what happened wasn’t Kate’s fault. She had helped them so much and didn’t deserve his ire.
“Okay. Let’s try and think about this calmly,” he muttered, more to himself than to Kate.
He found it difficult to concentrate on what she was saying. All that was going through his mind was I have to find her.
“Richard has been with me for five years now. He is the most loyal employee I have ever had,” Kate said, exasperated.
Stone paced back and forth, trying to make sense of the situation. It wouldn’t do anyone good if he fell apart now. Selina’s smile danced in his mind’s eye, and he was determined to see it again.
“We have to assume Parker is involved. He must have been more suspicious of you than we thought. Could he have blackmailed Richard somehow?”
“You know how thoroughly I screen my men. I don’t see how that’s possible,” Kate answered, pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger.
A cold feeling swept through Stone’s gut.
“If Richard took Selina to give her to Parker, then Parker knows you’re involved.”
“I’ve already told my team to be on high alert,” Kate replied, seconds before gunfire erupted outside.
Stone and Kate exchanged a look before running to the armory. They both grabbed guns and plenty of extra magazines, Stone opting for the biggest damn rifle he could find. Kate stopped to rummage in a nearby drawer, pulling out two bulletproof vests. She threw one to Stone and they rushed to the front door.
Men’s shouts mingled with roars and gunfire outside. It sounded like an all-out war.
If I have to fight through an army of shifters to get to Selina, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do, Stone thought with grim determination.
Stone knew their best bet was to flank the entrance and take down anyone who got through. If Parker’s men came through the door, they would be bottlenecked in the hallway, giving him and Kate the advantage.
Suddenly, the basement door opened and James stepped into the room.
“What’s going on here?” he asked, looking at their drawn guns.
The roaring and gunfire from outside must have answered his question, as he got out his
own weapon and joined them.
Stone glanced at the basement. His whole plan for Parker hinged on the element of surprise. If Tom and Will got rescued, it all fell through.
“Stay here with Kate, I have to get the prisoners,” Stone told James, beginning to regret that he hadn’t killed the two twerps when he had the chance.
He ran down the steps to the cellar, eager to get back up as soon as possible.
Will was pressed against a wall, looking around wildly. Tom on the other hand was grinning.
“Time to face the music,” he jeered, sounds of the battle drifting in to the room through the open door behind Stone.
He dragged both men to their feet and up the stairs, shoving them to the floor when he arrived. Neither one was in any state to put up a fight against him, not when he was this obviously pissed off and just looking to take someone’s head off.
“What are you doing? They’re only going to slow us down,” Kate hissed, barely audible over the racket outside.
She was right, of course, but there was no other way.
“We can’t leave them behind, they know too much.”
Kate rolled her eyes as the huge door before them started to shake. The hinges popped and it crashed to the floor with a massive thud.
Men rushed through first, tigers lingering behind. Stone, Kate and James were tucked behind the walls of the hallway, laying out as much fire as they could without putting themselves in the gunmen’s line of sight.
A short, stocky man managed to barrel through the hail of bullets and into Stone, knocking him to the ground. His rifle fell out of his hand and went sliding on the floor.
“Hey, cut me loose!” Stone could hear Tom shout, as he struggled beneath the intruder.
The man’s form started to ripple, the shift beginning to take over. Stone would be stuck under a 400-pound beast with sharp claws and even sharper teeth if he didn’t act fast. Stone started mercilessly punching the man in the face, over and over, feeling his own animal fight to get to the surface.
The tiger shifter became disoriented enough for the shift to pull back, the choice between self-preservation and the desire to shift being a hard one to make. With one final blow, Stone struck the guy’s temple and he went limp. Stone rolled the man off of him, scanning the floor for his weapon.
