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Shan cursed, pulling his phone up to his ear and pushing through the crowd toward the exit where he could hear the person on the other end. Caspian’s jaw dropped, and he reached out to hold my hand. “You’re not going back there.”
“I can’t have you guys protecting me forever, and it’s my home. I’ll let you clear it for me, but I won’t abandon my life because some crazy asshole is obsessed with me.”
“If they’ve found where you live, you’re in danger.”
“They already know where I work, have for months. I’m in no more danger than I was before. I think they’re still hoping I’ll go willingly.”
Going willingly had never been on my agenda, but they’d done the one thing that would force me to give myself up. All I needed to do was ditch Cas and Shan long enough to make arrangements. Caspian let out a cute little growl, running his hands through his hair. He was worried about me, and it was the sweetest thing. I wished I could enjoy being cared for and worried about, instead of continuing to lie like this.
I wasn’t one to be saved by men, but some help would be fucking nice in this situation. If they knew everything about me, maybe they would let me go in and face Kylan on my own, but it was too late for that. Explaining would take too much time, proving my capabilities even more so, which was something that Mabel may not have. Every second she was in Jitara’s clutches, something horrible could happen to her.
“This is so fucked up. I think Shan is calling Em to see if he can come back into the field, and when he’s here, we’ll have a better chance. And be able to tell you everything.”
“Can you check?”
He nodded, pushing off into the crowd and leaving me behind the bar. I didn’t bother asking Loretta to cover my section, ignoring customers in favour of exiting the bar and heading to the employee area. Mattie would figure out something was happening soon enough and come down to help. Alone in the lounge, I dialled the number that had been on Jude’s business card.
“Jude Provenko.”
“I want video proof that my cousin is alive before I fucking talk to you. You have five minutes or I tell my investigator friends all about this. After I know she’s fine, we can negotiate.”
Without waiting for a response, I hung up. Then I dialled Clara’s number, breathing a sigh of relief when she picked up the phone. She was notorious for leaving her phone face down and on silent while she was engrossed in work. “Is this about Mabel?” she asked.
In the background I heard crying, getting further away as she walked to a more private area. “Yes. I know who has her and I’m getting them to send me proof of life. I’m so sorry. There are men after me, and I didn’t realize how desperately they wanted me in time to warn you guys. She’ll be back before the night's up.”
“They took her while she was on shift at Hex Sisters, and no one noticed she was gone until her tables started getting antsy. These people are highly skilled. Do you need help?”
“No, I won’t bring you any further into this. I’ll give you information on where you need to pick her up once I’ve gotten everything worked out.”
“Worked out? Do you plan on making a deal with these lunatics? Have Caspian help you, Freya. You can’t do this alone.”
Cringing, I glanced at the door to the lounge. It wouldn’t be long before one or both of them were bursting in here, terrified that I’d been taken. Their help would save me, not Mabel. She wouldn’t be left for dead on my watch. “I haven’t told you a lot of what’s going on, Aunt Clara. I’m sorry. My situation is more complicated than it might seem.”
“Freya,” she said, her voice breaking. “You’re going to trade yourself for Mabel, aren’t you? At least tell me who will have you so we can save you. We can’t have you ending up in the same situation as Maisie.”
Not that I knew the specifics of what my sister was going through, but I had to assume that Kylan was worse than her Alpha mate. He couldn’t run a criminal enterprise that operated right under the nose of the Next Life Company without connections and brutality. “Caspian and Shan will know who has me. They’ll do what they can. I won’t tell you so you can put your life at risk, too. I have to go. I don’t have much time.”
My phone dinged with an incoming message, and I checked it was from Jude. A pixelated view of my cousin’s sweat-drenched, muddy face popped up, but she looked uninjured. “I got my proof of life, Clara. I love you. Tell Elodie that I love her too, and Mabel, when you see her. Goodbye.”
The goodbye was especially final, and I couldn’t wait for my aunt to return it. My resolve might waver if she asked me not to do this, but I had to. Clicking open the video, it played automatically. The background was nondescript, a plain cement wall without any indication of where it was. There was very little light, so I had to guess they were in a basement. The floor was dirty, a thick layer of grime covering every inch. Likely not a residential basement.
As if that narrowed down the location much.
In the forefront, the video showed Jude standing beside Mabel and being filmed by a third party. “You’re acting like you hold all the cards right now, Freya,” he said, his voice distorted. “You don’t. Here’s your cousin, alive and well.”
He reached out to stroke her cheek, and she cringed back, trying to squirm away. She didn’t move far, being tied to the chair she was sitting in. Even her neck had a rope around it, keeping her range of movement tiny. Mabel wasn’t strong enough to cast spells beyond the simplest ones without doing the movements, so they’d effectively crippled her ability to save herself. A gag stopped her from speaking, but she looked at the camera and the terror in her eyes was as good as her voice begging me.
I needed to get to her.
Pacing back and forth, I kept shooting glances at the door. I was pushing it by staying back here, but I needed to make a deal before they found me. My finger jabbed the button to call Jude again, and he picked up without a word. “You’re a vile bastard,” I spat. “I’ll come with you, but my cousin goes free and you don’t touch any member of my fucking family again.”
“Want to add your little lovers into the deal too?” he asked tauntingly. “We’ll have to tear you away from their arms, I know that. They’ll get hurt trying to save you.”
“I’ll handle it. You send people to escort me and I’ll slip away with them. I won’t be able to slip their attention without a distraction.”
“I don’t know,” he said, laughing. “Those guys have killed plenty of our men by now. I doubt Mr. Jitara wants to lose any more while coming after you.”
“Send the expendable ones. All I need is a proper distraction and an escort to wherever the fuck you’re keeping Mabel.”
