Page 129 of Hidden

"Miles called. Said home, then…" He stops and swallows. "Nothing."

Before he can even finish what he’s saying, I’m up and down the stairs. I look over at Lincoln, and without a word, he’s moving over to me, with his keys in hand.

We get to the car, it’ll still take us eleven minutes to get there, Mason’s on the phone to his dad or Hayden, I don’t know which. I drive through the traffic, and I'm happy that there’s no one out this late at night.

We get to the house, and I run in, taking the front door off its hinges. I follow Mason upstairs, but then I bump into him, because he’s just standing there.

Miles is on the bedroom floor, he’s not moving. The carpet is covered in blood, and one hand is still pressed to the wound below his collarbone; his body is covered in blood. I push Mason out of the way, and I'm across the room and on my knees beside him. Now, I’m used to being on the dangerous side of what we do, I do everything to make sure these boys don’t have to be. I know I fucked up and should have known this was going to go bad. I should have protected him.

"Miles."

No response. I press two fingers to his throat. There’s a pulse, it’s present, but barely, and a cold shiver moves through me.

I should have stepped in the first time he got attacked.

"Doc." I don't raise my voice. I don't need to.

“Called him in the car, should be here any minute.” Lincoln looks at me, and he knows I want these people dead.

Mason comes up behind me. Then he stops. I hear the breath he takes.

"Sadie." His voice is different, and for the first time I hear fear in his tone. "Cain, Sadie isn't here."

They took her.

I look at Miles on the floor.

"We’ll find her, but first Miles needs us," I say.

For the first time I don't know what to say to make this situation any better, because the longer my fingers are at his pulse, the less I’m feeling it.

I look around the room, Lincoln comes over to Miles, and I look at the blood on the carpet. I stand in the middle, looking at the direction of the blood. I look back to Miles, and retrace his movements to where I’m standing, then follow the blood to the bathroom. Opening the door, I smile.

“Where did they take her?’ I ask the man. Mason stands next to me.

“Fuck you.” He spits out, which only makes me smile.

“Mason, welcome back to the job. Have some fun.” I pat his back, and get back to Miles, and I hear Mason shout towards Declan to help him take the asshole to the basement.

***

The doctor arrives in five minutes, which is something I need to talk about, he needs to be quicker.

I stand back and let him work, which is the hardest thing I've done in a long time. I’ve looked after these boys, and now I can’t do anything.

Mason is sitting at the desk looking through things, he isn’t anywhere close to how good Miles is, but I know he can do the basics if needed.

"Can you get into it?" I ask.

"No." He doesn't take his eyes off the screen. "Miles built it, nobody gets in without Miles."

I cross to the desk. The screens are dark; I pat Mason to move out of the way. Everything Miles knows, I taught him, but I know Miles, and there are things he’s done without us knowing, and he’s good at what he does.

Moving through the parts which I can get through, I see a feed. Okay, it isn’t live, because you can always tell the difference between live and an old live feed.

I look through the recorded feed, it’s an empty room, there’s a metal ring on the wall with some rope through it. Whoever was there isn’t there anymore.

"Lincoln." He walks over. "The feed on the right monitor. Can you trace it?"