Page 70 of Nico

I set my laptop down on Cooper's desk and opened the tracking dashboard.

"I think someone took Isaac."

Cooper's expression tightened, and I knew he was about to start asking questions. I swallowed hard and pushed through before he could.

"I put a tracker on his truck. I know I shouldn't have, but I set up a geofence around the areas he normally travels, and I got an alert when he left town. I tried calling him, but he didn't answer. Logan hasn't been able to reach him either."

I turned the laptop toward Cooper, trying to keep my hands from shaking as I pulled up the map.

"The truck kept moving toward the mountains. Now it's stopped." I pointed at the marker, which sat motionless on an isolated stretch of road. "That's where it is."

I couldn't bring myself to look at either of them. I focused on the map instead, trying to keep my breathing steady.

Then the photograph I'd shown Isaac that morning flashed through my mind. The same man who'd kept appearing in picture after picture around the set.

And that necklace. That gaudy gold necklace.

Cooper stared at the map for several seconds before his expression darkened. Then he looked at me. "How did this happen? Why wasn't I informed sooner?"

I flinched, opening my mouth before realizing I had no answer that wouldn't make things worse.

Tony stepped in. "We were going to update you as soon as we had something concrete. We didn't know the guy would get this desperate."

Cooper's gaze shifted to him, and Tony held it without backing down. I couldn't bring myself to look at either of them. Tony was covering for me, and somehow that only made the guilt twisting in my stomach even worse.

Cooper reached for his phone and made a call.

"Griffin, get the others ready. I want a team at the east gate, and bring anyone you trust to handle tracking and extraction. We don't know what we're walking into, so I want everyone prepared for anything."

Cooper ended the call and turned to Tony. "Gather everything we have on this. I want the location and the route to Isaac's truck. Meet me at the gate."

Tony nodded. "Understood."

"I can⁠—"

Cooper looked directly at me, and the room seemed to change. I felt it immediately. A sudden pressure settling over my skin that made my wolf lower its head in submission.

Every instinct told me to obey, but I couldn't let that stop me. "I need to go."

My wolf stirred violently at the thought of staying behind while everyone else went looking for Isaac. There was no way I could sit still and wait while they searched for him.

Cooper's eyes narrowed, and his alpha presence pressed harder against my wolf.

"You stay here."

My wolf immediately recoiled, every instinct screaming at me to obey. I opened my mouth again, but Cooper's expression hardened.

"That wasn't a request."

Tony caught my arm and pulled me toward the door. I barely had time to grab my laptop. When I glanced back, Cooper had already turned away, his attention returning to the preparations for the rescue. He didn't look at me again.

Tony didn't say a word during the drive home. I sat rigidly in the passenger seat, my hands clenched in my lap as the road blurred past the window. My thoughts wouldn't slow down.

I knew I was in trouble. I'd ignored Tony's warning, gone behind his back, and put a tracker on Isaac's truck without his knowledge. Worse, I'd kept it there even after I'd had the opportunity to remove it.

None of that mattered right now. Isaac was still out there.

The moment we reached the house, Tony headed straight for his office. "Send me everything you have."