“Call him. Tell him our entire system is destroyed and to be careful. Something has spooked Charlotte.” He rubs his black hair out of his face, running his fingertips over his wound and looking at me like I’ve grown three heads.
I remove his hand from the gash on his forehead. “Who knocked you out? Did Charlotte do this?”
He shakes his head and winces. “I was using my little warrior’s mouth as a urinal. She was into it, Ayres, and I believe her want for it scared her. When the lights flickered and went out, she pushed me hard as hell. I hit my head against the towel bar and went down.”
“Fuck me. If she’s out in the woods, she could get hurt.”
Hypnos tries to stand and falls back to the bed. “Exactly, Ayres. Call Kronos. We have to get to her.”
I get Hypnos settled into the king-sized bed and still; he makes it look small. He winces as he lays down. Kronos doesn’t answer his phone. This makes me pace back and forth. I’m itching to kill someone. To hear my bat thwack against the skin of my victim. Maybe if I’m killing someone, I won’t have to deal with feelings. Fucking feelings make me clammy.
It’s not three minutes before Kronos walks in. He’s pissed, and before we can ask what’s wrong, he tells us.
“Our guards are dead, and someone tampered with the fence.”
Hypnos sits up too quickly and winces. He’s quick to defend Charlotte. “Our little pet had nothing to do with the fence or the things going on in the house, Kronos.” We watch him take a deep breath, trying to steady himself. I bite my lip to keep from laughing. Damn my self-defense mechanism for being laughter.
Kronos laughs without humor and walks over to Hypnos. He touches him, pushing his hair from his face. What the fuck is this gentle shit? And why do I want him to touchmelike that? “I know that. There are multiple sets of footprints so I can’t follow them. It’s like this person—or maybepersons—knew how to cover their tracks. Charlotte didn’t have time to organize something like this. Relax. I’m worried someone took her.”
This seems to make Hypnos happy for the moment. Until he realizes what Kronos says. “Wait. Seriously?” My hand itches to grab my baseball bat and knock something down. I watch as Kronos leans closer to Hypnos and my body stirs. No. Now’s not the time to be thinking with my dick.
“I’ve called Doc,” I speak up. Distracting myself from getting hard. We watch as Hypnos falls back onto the bed, holding his head. “I’ll get you some meds. But as soon as the Doc gets here, we need to move. This place is unstable.” I throw it out there, hoping that Kronos will agree with me. He usually doesn’t.
Before Kronos can say anything, his phone rings.
“Speak.” Kronos puts his phone on speaker so we can hear the conversation.
“Boss, a girl is running around the docks. She’s causing quite a stir. I’ve got her in the office tied to a chair.”
Everyone quiets down when Donovan speaks. Kronos growls into the phone. “And what does this girl look like Donovan?”
Donovan is hesitant to talk. You can hear it in his voice. “Well, she’s no bigger than five feet. Long, wavy black hair and some of the most beautiful green eyes I’ve ever had the pleasure of looking at. She’s a tiny thing, that’s for sure. I’d say she’s no older than twenty-one or so.”
My entire body shakes with pent up rage. I don’t understand the way I’m feeling in this moment. She’s just our pet, and I’m ready to go bat shit crazy. Kronos holds his hand up to keep me quiet.The need to speak makes me pace back and forth, but I keep quiet.
“Why did you have to tie her down?” Kronos asks, but I see the anger in his face. Yeah, that was my thought too.Why the fuck are they touching her?
“I swear to all that is holy, if someone touches her, I will kill them.” Kronos looks at me with irritation. Oh, I just said that out loud. I didn’t mean to do that. With a chuckle, I go back into the bathroom to get medicine for Hypnos.
“Had to tie her down. Boss, she tried to sneak out while I was trying to get the boys back to work.”
“No one fucking touches her,” Kronos spits out through gritted teeth as I hand Hypnos his medicine.
“You got it, Boss.”
“I’ll be down in ten minutes to get her.”
“No problem, Boss.”
Kronos hangs up and clenches his phone for a moment. Hypnos swallows the pills without water and shakes his head.
“She trusted the docks over the woods.” His words are in awe. I’m in awe too. I would have run to the woods.
“Little kitten is smart to seize the opportunity to run. Too bad she trusted the dock over the woods.”
Hypnos snorts. “She’s looking at a butt busting as soon as Kronos gets to her.”
I look at him as Kronos stands. “Let Doc clear you of any damage and you’ll get your time with Charlotte. For now, you two stay safe. I need to get to the docks.”
