“I think I fucked up,” she whispered.
“Where are you?” I asked, forcing myself not to tell heryes, you fucking have.
“I’m at the se—”
I heard her scream, a grunt of pain, and then silence.
“Angel?” I asked, but Cooper raised his finger for quiet and pointed to the display. She was still connected.
We were so close to the office. My software was in range, and as I connected, I searched for her phone. It pinged, and I showed it to Coop, whose eyebrows rose. Charlie kept driving, and when we were parked, we stayed in the car for a moment. Charlie pressed mute on the display, and I waited for Cooper.
“Is it done?”
“Blank feed showing for the last minute,” he confirmed.
“Let’s go.”
“Wait!” Cooper grabbed my arm. “You don’t know what you’re walking into. Let’s take a moment. She’s minutes in front of us, she’s fine.” When I went to protest that she wasn’t fine, he tightened his grip. “She’sfine, Onyx.” His steely stare settled me.
“She’s fine,” I repeated. “I’m fine. Can we go?”
“Be smart,” Cooper cautioned me as we got out of the car, and I gave him a curt nod. “Onyx, I mean it, use your head.”
“Take the stairs,” I instructed, and the three of us halted when the elevator opened.
“Where the fuck have you been?” Owen asked as he stepped out. “I’ve been here for ten minutes, waiting for you in the foyer.”
“Have you seen Angel?”
“She’s here?” he asked as he looked between us. He held up his baseball bat. “Let’s go get our vampire, shall we?”
I’d designed the basement layout myself. When the building had been purchased, it had been a normal space of storage, some rooms, nothing much. I’d put security down here, and their office was right at the entrance to the basement. Along with it was a conference room, a few showers, and then the rest of the rooms were locked.
For good reason.
My comms room was down here, and I did not need IT snooping. Cooper also worked out of here, and as a PI, he had a lot of confidential stuff in his office. Charlie also liked to work down here because his work and Cooper’s usually overlapped.
I was a very good sports agent. But athletes were only human. And humans were disgusting creatures. The shit some of these “stars” thought they could do made my job a hard one. Angel had lost one client through a bad reputation, but I had let go plenty.
She was right to question if I had been the target all along, because it made sense. But we were meticulous in our clean-up, and none of the fuckers were stupid enough to mess with me a second time.
But her? She was toogoodfor her own good.
“Where’s security?” Owen asked as he checked the door.
“Lunch,” Cooper told him quietly. “Indefinitely.”
“Split up,” I commanded. “Coop?”
“I’m with you,” he said with a nod. “Be ready to drop that bat,” he told Owen as we went one way and they went the other.
We checked each door, and when I heard the muffled struggles, my feet picked up the pace. Cooper slowed me down with his hand on my hoodie, holding me back. Frustration ate at me, but I knew better. Rash meant stupid.
Cooper stepped in front of me and gave me a look, one I knew well — he was going first. I nodded curtly, and he slowly pushed the door open.
She was tied to a chair, a blindfold over her eyes, and a cloth lodged in her mouth. Her hair was loose and covered her like a curtain. She was struggling in vain against the cuffs, and Cooper darted across the room to her as I followed and checked everything in the room.
“Shh, it’s me,” Cooper whispered, and I saw her still. Quickly, he took out his lockpicking kit, and I watched the door as he uncuffed her and pulled the gag free and blindfold down from her eyes.
