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“They finally succeeded,” Jesse bit out.
No one said anything. They knew telling Jesse that this wasn’t his fault would fall on deaf ears. He’d taken Sam from the safehouse, had put him in the direct line of danger. Who else’s fault was it? If his client had been anyone other than his mate, Jesse wouldn’t have budged, no matter how much pleading Sam had done. But he let his heart override his brain. He’d felt for Sam and the unshed tears in his eyes and look what had happened.
Fuck, he was such an idiot. Not because he wanted to wipe that disheartened look from Sam’s face but for not following protocol. For breaking the rules that he knew he shouldn’t have broken.
Graham squeezed Jesse’s shoulder, just as Knox had done. “We’ll get your mate back. We haven’t lost a client yet.”
Jesse scrubbed his hands over his face and took a deep breath. He had to leash his wolf, or he wouldn’t be any good to his team. The only thing they could do right now was wait for contact. If Jesse had to, he’d empty out his own bank account to get Sam back, though he doubted he would have to. Malcolm might be a narcissistic prick, but Jesse had no doubt the man loved his children and would pay any price to ensure Sam’s safe return.
The room grew quiet at the sound of a chirp. Everyone checked their phones as Jesse raced to the bedroom to get his from the nightstand. He picked it up and saw he had a text message from an unknown number.
Jesse walked back to the living room as he unlocked his phone and pressed the number to read the text. There was a link with a message below it.
Since you went through so much trouble to protect Samuel, I thought maybe you would want to get in on the action.
Jesse’s heart lodged in his throat as he clicked on the link. He felt the color drain from his face and his canines lengthen.
“What is it?” Knox asked.
Jesse’s hand trembled as he stared at Sam in a video. Next to him was a countdown. Above the video was a dollar amount. Sam’s eyes were unfocused, as if he had been drugged, but there were tears there. He lay across a chaise wearing nothing but skimpy boy shorts, his dark hair styled so that strands fell over one eye, making him appear provocative.
“Fuck,” Graham said from behind him, clearly looking at what Jesse was seeing. “Sam is on a website being auctioned off. Right now the dollar amount is at five hundred thousand dollars. According to the countdown, we have six hours to find him before he’s sold to the highest bidder.”
Jesse couldn’t pull his eyes away and lost his shit when Graham grabbed his phone from him. Knox had to hold Jesse back as Graham took the phone to Fletch.
“Calm the fuck down,” Knox snarled. “Fletch is going to try and trace the IP address. You can get your phone back when he’s done doing his magic, but I don’t think you need to watch the auction.”
Jesse spun and slammed his fist into the wall. The sheetrock crumbled, leaving behind a large hole. He slammed his fist repeatedly until Graham and Knox yanked him away. His mate was being fucking sold as a sex slave to whoever bought him. No, Jesse wasn’t going to calm down. He was about to totally lose it.
“You’ll bring the fucking house down,” Graham said. “That’s a loadbearing wall. Pull your shit together if you want to help your mate, Jesse.”
He shoved Graham and Knox away from him and took in several deep breaths. “Call Ian.”
“Already on it,” Fletch said from the table.
Storming over, Jesse pressed his hands flat against the surface. “Tell me you can track where Sam is being held.”
Fletch gave him a grim stare. “They’re using a sophisticated VPN, and it’s bouncing their signal all over the world.”
“So you can’t trace it?” Jesse didn’t understand computer jargon, but he got the gist of what Fletch was saying. The men who’d taken Sam were hiding their location.
“I can, but it’s going to take time.” Fletch’s fingers flew across the keys.
“You have six fucking hours.” Jesse pushed away from the table. “After that, Sam will be gone.”
Chapter Nine
Sam wasn’t as out of it as his captors thought. In fact, he was more lucid than he cared to be since the drug had worn off. He was fully aware of what was going on. He’d heard the men talking when they thought he was passed out. He was being auctioned off. He’d even heard one of them laugh at the fact that Jesse had been sent the link to bid on Sam, though they doubted he had the money to compete.
Which meant Jesse was alive and watching. Sam would have been horrified at his state of undress under any other circumstance, but he needed to get a signal to his mate. He wasn’t sure what kind of signal, though. Sam had no idea where he was or who had taken him. He’d peeked at one point, only to find both men wore masks. That wasn’t going to help.
He wasn’t even sure how far they’d taken him since he’d been so doped up. Neither man sounded like Terry. Had Terry’s call been real and someone had just intercepted them when he and Jesse had arrived? Sam was frustrated that he couldn’t figure any of that out. He was also upset that he didn’t know where he was.
It wasn’t as if he could try to sneak away. There was a camcorder on a tripod pointed directly at him, probably livestreaming him if this was an auction. His eyes were open, because one of the men had kicked the shit out of his back when he refused to open them. But he kept them droopy, pretending to still be high from whatever they’d given him. Luckily the guy in the SUV had been right.
They hadn’t given him enough to keep him down for long.
Now Sam was trying to come up with a way to escape. Tears prickled his eyes as he thought of Jesse. His mate was probably going out of his mind right now. But the one thing that comforted him was the fact that Jesse was alive. He was alive. The captors had sent him a link. Which meant someone was watching Jesse in order to know he’d survived.
