Page 120 of Freeing Lark

“Lock down the house.” His voice had gone flat. “Lark’s gone.”

Silence. Then Flint’s voice sharpened. “Say again.”

“Lark and Wren. They’ve been taken.”

Cormac stepped into the hallway, eyes scanning every exit. Fuck. Someone had gotten close enough to Lark to learn her movements. Someone had known exactly where she would be. Someone had been watching. And he’d missed it.

His jaw clenched. “Halestorm. Cameras,” he barked. “Find me every person who entered this hallway in the last ten minutes.”

She didn’t hesitate. “Already on it.”

Cormac looked toward the ballroom. Calloway was nowhere in sight. Neither was Bradley. His stomach tightened.

For the first time that evening, the party no longer felt like an operation. It felt like a trap. And Lark was already inside it. The party was no longer a social event. It was now a crime scene.

He moved quickly, but not blindly. Panic could come later. Right now, he needed answers.

“Lock down every exit,” he ordered into his comm. “Nobody leaves until we know how they got out.”

Flint’s voice came through immediately. “Already happening.”

Hoot reached the restroom corridor again. Jeeves and Voodoo appeared from opposite ends of the hallway, both moving fast.

“Nothing on the front cameras,” Jeeves reported. “We’ve got eyes on the main entrance.”

“Rear exit?”

“Covered.”

Hoot looked toward the service corridor. “Then they didn’t leave through either.”

Haley’s voice crackled into his earpiece. “I’m watching the security videos.”

“Tell me you have them.”

“I have something better. I have a problem.”

Hoot’s jaw tightened. “Talk.”

“There are ninety-three cameras covering this property.”

“That’s a lot of cameras.”

“Exactly. Which makes the two-minute gap in the footage really interesting.”

Hoot stopped. “Two minutes?”

“Three minutes and seventeen seconds, actually. Cameras covering the east service hallway, loading entrance, and adjacent courtyard all went offline simultaneously.”

“Technical failure?”

“No.” Her answer came instantly. “Someone deliberately looped the feed.”

Hoot’s stomach dropped. “How?”

“I don’t know yet. Whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing.”

Flint joined them. “Can you recover the footage?”