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His logic was sound.

“Quickly,” he said, as another man in plain clothes joined us. “This is Detective Peck, who works with me and Wade. Who’re these two?”

I gave the detective a nod, and he smiled back before I pointed at the street. “That’s their SUV. The one behind me on the steps is dead. I shot him with this,” I said, passing the assault rifle to Peck. “It’s a lot of gun for a simple abduction, which this was supposed to be, but I didn’t go quietly. The other guy should be out cold, but he went down kind of hard.”

“Got it.”

“I need to go now.”

“Yep,” Avery said, giving Peck a quick pat on the arm before he was racing with me to a very high-end Mercedes sedan.

In the car, he advised me to buckle up, flipped on his lights and siren, and we were off.

“Awfully nice police car,” I informed him.

“Well, when you’re married to the only cyne in the state, there are perks. Plus, it has a great safety rating, and Graeme is all about that.”

I nodded.

After a moment of us driving in silence, he spoke. “You’re awfully calm.”

I took a breath. “If I think about him being alone with a woman who wants something that may, or may not, be where she left it in the vault at the auction house, and is willing to kill to get it, I will lose my mind, which will do absolutely nothing for my mate.”

“Still, the calm is helpful.”

“We’ll see how calm I stay if you don’t drive faster,” I warned him. “And if he’s in real danger when we get there, I might shift and rip this woman apart.”

Avery punched the gas pedal, making me very pleased that no part of his omega training had anything to do with being careful. I understood that his mother, who’d birthed two alphas before him, had raised all three of her children exactly the same, allowing her youngest to grow up and become the homicide detective he was today.

I was a fan. I was certain all omegas would be better served by having mothers who told them they could do, and be, anything. Omegas who drove like I did when I was playing a video game, with all the same abandon, were also amazing.

It was early Sunday morning, so we got downtown quicker than usual, and I was surprised to find Wade already there with four uniformed officers.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked on my way by him to the front door.

“I’m his partner. I go where he goes, plus I called Mr. Calvert, who just parked and is coming around—there he is—to let us in the building.”

Mr. Calvert was running, and I appreciated the hustle, as he skidded to a stop, punched in numbers on the outside of the panel, and then held open the door. Once we were inside, Mr. Calvert explained that the vault was on the second floor, down the hall past the break room and the offices on the left.

We took the stairs, and the second the first police officer opened the heavy steel door and stepped into the open air, shots were fired.

Wade crouched and gestured for me to hang back. I shot him a look before following the third officer, darting to the right and hiding behind a file cabinet. Wade started running the standard “lay down your weapons and come out” protocol as Avery gestured for me to not move.

I was so going to move.

Breathing in deeply, I sniffed the air and was not surprised to find Sasha’s scent, but I was surprised to smell fear. In all the time I’d known him, in all the different situations he’d found himself in, he’d never been scared. But now, suddenly, something had changed.

More shots were fired, and the police returned fire. I scanned the scene, and two things became immediately clear. We couldn’t push any farther into the area, and they were pinned down. If anyone came out from behind their barricade, they’d be shot. Both sides were in the exact same predicament, but I wasn’t about to wait and see who acted first.

Getting up, I bolted toward the hall where I knew the break room was. I would remember for the rest of my life where the break room was in this building. A bullet grazed my left bicep, and no matter what it looks like in movies, it hurt like hell. But nothing hit my head or my back, so I counted it as a win. I could hear Avery yelling, and I was certain Sunday night dinner—if we all made it there in one piece—was going to be more of him yelling at me about this.

I careened around the corner, my legs almost sliding out from under me, but I got my balance and saw the door farther down with a keypad on the right.

There was no one else in the hallway. I checked right and left, listened, breathed in deeply, but no. Nothing. I called Avery.

“Even if you make it out of here in one piece, you’re a dead man, because I’m gonna kill you myself,” he roared at me.

“Listen, what would you do if Graeme was in a vault? Or one of your kids?”