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Sheer terror hit him when Geoffrey went limp and fell back into the water. Had that fucker shot the smaller man with the same dose? Moving was like swimming in thick sludge, but Sven pushed through his whirling senses and reached for Geoffrey. He was losing strength fast, too fast to get them into the house. He yanked Geoffrey up and managed to push him higher onto the side of the pool.
“Feel sick,” Geoffrey murmured, his words sounding hollowed out and indistinct. He reached into the water like he planned to pull Sven out.
Sven shook his head…or thought he did. Holy hell, whatever this guy had hit him with was strong. He sank under the water and he could hear Geoffrey’s indistinct cries of panic, could see him trying to crawl back into the pool. Water filled his mouth and he fought harder to get to the surface. Geoffrey’s terrified and furious yells grew louder, then cut off.
He grabbed the edge of the pool just as someone dressed in black swept Geoffrey off the ground. A ski mask shrouded the man’s face. The stranger stopped and stared down at Sven as he fought to stay coherent enough to get out of the pool. To get to Geoffrey. Some part of Sven’s brain was screaming, panicked that he couldn’t reach Geoffrey in time, that the attacker was about to shoot him and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
Blinking once to clear his head, he opened his eyes to see the person disappearing around the side of the house with an unconscious Geoffrey over his shoulder.
His phone was close to the pool so he could hear any calls from the office. Crawling out of the water and slowly across the hard stone on his hands and knees, Sven had to try three times to wrap his fingers around the phone. His vision was going in and out, and the entire world seemed to shift every time he tried to focus. His brain was panicked, but his body was slowing down as the tranquilizer set in. Royce was on speed dial. He dropped the phone just as the man answered.
Unable to even hear at this point, Sven groaned. “Geoffrey taken. Drugged. Both of u…”
Everything went black.###
Once again, Sven awakened to a strange room. Only this time, he came up fighting and had no idea why. Overwhelming fear had his lungs in a grip of terror so constricting, he couldn’t breathe. He threw out a hand and something clattered into a wall.
“Shit, grab him!”
“You grab him! He’s swinging tree trunks!”
His next fist hit flesh and bone.
“Ow, shit! Whoa, Sven! Hey, you’re fine. We’ve got you.” The low voice was soothing and familiar, but it wasn’t registering in his brain just yet. “Dom, if we don’t calm him down, they’re gonna tie him to the bed.”
Someone leaned over him and pressed him down. “We could take bets on how long it would take him to break free. Could be a good show.”
He recognized Dominic’s deep voice in his ear and started to calm, only his heart still raced and his chest still ached—felt like something had been ripped from him. What the hell was wrong? He finally pulled in a breath and got a good whiff of his surroundings. Strong chemicals, antiseptic…
“A hospital? I’m in a fucking hospital?”
“Of course you are.” This voice belonged to Royce. “We found you on the ground, barely breathing. It took both of us to wrestle you into my damn car. Anything strong enough to take you down had to be dangerous. The nurse took your blood. We’re waiting to hear what it was.”
“Probably a fucking elephant tranq,” Dominic muttered.
It came back to him then. Getting hit in the pool. Drugs in his system. The struggle to get to…Geoffrey! Holy hell, Geoffrey! The noise he made then sounded like an animal in pain and he didn’t care.
“Yeah, buddy,” Dominic said softly. “We know. You’re right, Royce, he does care about the kid.”
Sven cleared his throat and when he tried to speak, his voice sounded like he’d rubbed it over a grater. “I think he hit Geoffrey with the same thing he used on me. Oh God.” He opened his eyes and had to blink a few times because they were gritty and the light hurt. But he caught Royce’s look of worry, and his bright red cheek.
“I hope not,” Royce said, voice low.
Sven grabbed his arm. “He was taken. Did you get the security footage?”
He nodded. “We got it all and sent it to Quinn already.” He leaned over Sven, his dark eyes probing. He still wore the black polo and slacks of the job.
Sven scrubbed his hands over his face, trying to push back the last of the sluggishness, but it still had him in a whirling grip. “How long?”
