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“Look, I don’t want any trouble. I just did what I was paid to do, and I didn’t hurt her,” he told them.
Olcan shifted back into human form, stepping forward to speak to him. The man watched with a mixture of fascination and horror at what he’d just witnessed but didn’t question it. It told Olcan that he was aware of their kind, but not used to seeing it first-hand.
“Where is she?” Olcan asked.
“Gone,” the man said.
“What do you mean, she’s gone?”
“They just came and got her. Maybe thirty minutes before you arrived.”
“If that’s true, then why are you still here,” Olcan asked.
“I live here,” the man replied.
Olcan looked around. It was rudimentary but livable. It was possible he was telling the truth, and if so, they didn’t have time to waste.
“Search the place,” he barked at his people.
“Look, I’ll show you where she was,” the guy said, walking toward one of the large metal doors that surrounded the room they were in.
Olcan followed him. She had been there. He could smell her.
“Fuck,” he muttered, whirling around to face the guy again. “How much? How much did he pay you to abduct an innocent woman off the street?”
“Listen, I am just trying to make a living, man,” the guy protested, taking a few steps back. “I didn’t hurt her. I made sure she had food and water while she was here.”
“You put her in a dark room and held her there until a man who intends to brutalize her came to collect her,” Olcan growled.
“I can’t help what people do after my part is done,” the man said.
“You could have helped what became of people by not abducting them and handing them over to people wanting to hurt them,” Olcan replied from between clenched teeth.
“Man, I’m just trying to make a living. If it wasn’t me, it would have been someone else,” the man said, his hands flayed haplessly out to either side.
“Where’s your partner?” Olcan asked. “She said there were two of you.”
The man looked surprised, no doubt wondering how she had managed to get word out to them.
“She’s not here and she doesn’t know about this. She thinks I cage animals here. I ask her to drop off food and stuff while I’m at work, and she does it, sometimes sits for a while if I need to run an errand. She thinks I’m tending a rabid animal,” he replied, obviously knowing where this was going to lead. He knew when his time had come and was making a silent plea for her to be spared.
Olcan was done with him and he didn’t have time to waste on giving him the kind of punishment he deserved. Instead, he lunged forward, grabbing him and twisting his neck violently to one side. There was a loud crack, and Olcan let go, letting the man collapse onto the floor with a loud thud. He turned back to the guys with him.
“Let’s go. Everyone who came in naked, shift back into bear form in case there is any trouble on the way. Niall, get Carter on the phone and see if he can still trace that GPS signal. Maybe he can give us a heads up on which direction they’ve taken her.”
Olcan looked around, spotting the backpack he’d seen her carrying on the floor nearby. He picked it up and tossed it to one of the guys, adding “take this back with you” before shifting and heading out the door toward back toward their cars.CHAPTER TWENTY-ONENiamh
NIAMH DIDN’T KNOW WHERE she was. She had woken up to the door being opened and everything had happened quickly from there. Something sharp had been jammed into her hip and she’d felt the world slipping away. In those final seconds, she’d thought perhaps he’d just had her put down rather than dealing with her. She wasn’t sure that she was wrong when she’d finally come round to discover she was trapped in some sort of metal box. It was possibly a coffin. She was Schrödinger's shifter, neither alive nor dead in those waking seconds.
She banged on the top of the box. She raised her arm upward, banging on the top as best she could in the small confines. Small holes dotted it, letting her know she was probably alive and being given some air or, at least, that she’d been alive when put in there. There was no response.
She managed to bend her elbow, slipping her hand upward to see if the phone was still in her bra. It wasn’t. So much for getting any help before it was too late. If she was headed toward Sorley, then things were about to get a lot worse than being put in animal cages and coffins. She decided to save her breath. Even with the holes, it was hard to breathe. She ached, and her mouth felt like cotton.
