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"You fell asleep." Luca chuckled and gave his shoulder another shake. "Did you find anything?"
Rubbing at his eyes, Jason straightened in the chair. "I don't know. I had a few programs running, and I must have dozed off." Pushing his glasses back on, he blinked up at Luca. "What time is it?"
"Little after two. I thought I heard something, so I came down to check it out and saw you. Must have heard your hard head hitting the table."
"Shut up, DeLuca."
"Now, Jason," Luca scolded mockingly. "I thought we didn't allow that phrase in this house?"
Rolling his eyes, Jason ignored the jab and leaned in to study the computer screen. Warning bells rang in the back of his mind. "Something's wrong."
"What?" Any trace of humor had fled Luca's voice. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know. Everything is moved around. Wait, what's this?" Leaning in, he scanned the messages on the screen, the feeling of dread growing heavier with each word. "Fuck. Evelyn!"
Calling for her, he shoved away from the table and raced up the stairs to her room. Empty. Whirling around, he checked his room, but found it equally as empty and dark. "Goddammit!"
"What's going on, Jay?" Luca joined him in the hallway, worry etched into his normally calm features.
"Evie's not here. I think she left."
"Explain."
The snapped order had the desired effect. Jason fell easily into his role as the information man. "The program I was running pulled some texts from her father's phone, between him and an unknown number. Probably a burner, if I had to guess. The messages asked about Evie and suggested that the unknown number was willing to hurt her and her parents to get what he or she wanted."
"Fuck. I'll get Octavius up; you go see if there's anything else in those messages we need to know."
"What's going on?"
The pair turned at the sound of Teagan's voice. She was standing in the middle of the hallways, wearing nothing but one of Luca's t-shirts which just barely came to the tops of her thighs.
"Go back to bed, darlin'."
Something in Luca's voice must have alerted her. In an instant, the sleepy little girl disappeared and she was all cop. "What is it? Is it Evie? Did Montgomery find her?"
"Jesus," Luca mumbled, moving toward her. "Keep your voice down. We don't know what's going on yet. Go back to bed."
"No." Teagan deftly avoided his grasp. "Tell me what happened."
"Did you just tell me 'no', darlin'?"
A door further down the hall opened, and Ro came running out, naked as a jaybird. "What happened? Is Evie hurt?"
"Goddammit, not you, too." Luca pointed down the hall. "Back to bed, both of you!"
"Wait!" Pushing past Luca and Teagan, Jason grabbed Ro by the shoulders and gave her a little shake. "Why did you ask if she's hurt?"
"I don't feel right. I can't explain it, but I just feel wrong. Scared, maybe?" Eyes wide and glittering with tears, she shook her head. "But I don't know why."
"I feel it, too." Teagan stepped up and laid a hand on his arm. "God, I feel like an idiot saying this, but I feel it, too. My heart is racing, and I feel like I want to throw up. She's scared. Where is she?"
"We don't know," Luca said. "Shit. Ro, get your man up and put some clothes on. Teagan, Jason, with me."
Releasing Ro, Jason spun on his heel and followed Luca back down the stairs with Teagan right behind them. Luca went straight to the coffee pot while Jason pulled up the program with the texts he now had to assume Evie had seen.
"Are you two going to tell me what the hell is going on?" Leaning on the kitchen table, Teagan pinned him with a glare. In that moment, he realized how good she really was at her job. If he'd been a criminal, he might have cracked just from that look alone.
Luca's growled warning cut off Jason's response. "You'll find out in a minute, once the others join us. And unless you want me to take one of these rubber spatulas to your bare bottom, you will watch the language and speak respectfully. I've had to remind you of that far too often the past few days, darlin'."
