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She batted my hand away and straightened. “If I promise to let someone check me out when we get clear, can we go?”
That she wasn’t arguing about getting checked out in the first place had me whipping around to Matteo, who’d already turned around to look at her. She gave him an aggrieved expression and raised her right hand. “I swear I’m fine, apart from the fact that I feel like I was hit by a bus, am still a little tingly in my extremities, and stabbed myself in the hand with a rusty nail. I’m pretty sure I’m up to date on my tetanus shot, but I’m betting because it’s not in my file—since I needed it because of a personal incident that I didn’t want to disclose—and I can’t provide documentation since everything I own is back in Texas, the medic is going to jab me with a needle.” She pouted. “As if I need another hole in my body today.”
“Cry me a river,” Matteo quipped, still watching her as she crossed the room. I did the same, making sure she looked steady on her feet.
“I almost did when I realized they were going to kidnap me before I could finish my ice cream.” She followed him, letting me take up the rear as we made our way back the way we came.
“I’ll buy you a new one when we get home,” I promised.
“Brown-noser,” Matteo grumbled as Alessia hummed with delight and gave me a carefree grin that never failed to make my heart tighten.
Our way back to the jet was anticlimactic. We were able to sneak out the same way we’d entered, rendering the C-4 that Matteo had rigged if we needed an exit strategy no longer required, much to my disappointment. The whole rescue had been, if I was honest, anticlimactic. I’d been gung ho about a rescue when, in reality, Lessia had needed a locksmith more than us. Apparently, we’d missed out on the exciting fight, though Alessia hadn’t filled in the details yet.
The rescue team was disembarking their plane when we arrived, looking more than a bit disgruntled that Matteo and I had stolen their thunder. They apparently knew Alessia and Matteo well, exchanging hugs in her case and handshakes in Matteo’s. It was clear they didn’t know Alessia’s real identity—the glasses kept her trademark eyes hidden, and they used a codename when they greeted her. Their medic checked Alessia out, even hooking her up to a heart monitor to ensure her rhythms were correct before giving her the dreaded tetanus shot and bandaging her hand. It amused us all that she stoically withstood the cleaning and bandaging of her hand while she cursed up a storm when he pricked her with the needle, even letting me hold her good hand—which she had in a death grip—while he poked her.
Although she was okay, or maybe because of it, I had an overwhelming urge to hustle her ass onto the jet and into the back bedroom so that I could inspect every inch of her. I knew that wouldn’t be possible until we were airborne and Matteo debriefed her. Fortunately for me, Matteo and Alessia were in as much of a rush to get out of Germany as I was, though for more practical reasons.
Chapter 25
Keene
Ishouldhaveknownit was going to be a shit day when my assistant called out to work that morning, leaving me without my requisite cup of coffee on my desk when I came into my office. The intern had tried his best, but somehow, the brew looked like swamp water, and it tasted just as appealing.
I winced as I tried to gulp the liquid, not wanting to hurt the feelings of the man looking at me with hope-filled eyes. He reminded me of a puppy, all good-natured and eager to please. “Thanks,” I somehow managed to get out without wheezing.
“You’re quite welcome, Mr. Keene.” He practically bounced on his toes with excitement. “Please let me know if you need another cup made.”
I’d given up having him drop the “mister” after the hundredth correction. I just didn’t have the energy to waste on banging my head on that particular wall. The man had barely left the room when Boone came barreling in with such momentum that he slammed the door into the wall.
I’d already lurched to my feet in surprise before he could speak. “Alessia’s missing,” Boone said, clearly panicked.
“What do you mean she’s missing?” I came around my desk, not sure what to do, but not able to just stand there.
“I tried to stop by her place last night,” he admitted, even though we’d decided as a unit to leave her and Brody to themselves last night. It had been clear the two of them had hooked up and even clearer that they had some sort of issue to work out. “Her car was gone, and when she didn’t answer her phone, I just assumed she went with Brody.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Unlikely. His apartment could charitably be called a landing pad, and it’s not exactly a close jaunt from here.”
He nodded. “I thought the same but couldn’t think of anything else that made sense. But when she still wasn’t answering her phone or at home this morning, I called a friend at the police department and asked if they had seen her car or any suspicious activity.”
He paused as Gideon came rushing in, followed by Royce. “Have you heard?” my oldest brother asked. Clearly, I was the last to know.
“Just that they found her car by that ice cream place she likes, her purse by one of the tires,” Boone said.
Gideon shook his head. “I tried calling in a favor to get this looked into. Since she’s an adult, she officially needs to be missing for twenty-four hours, but someone higher up won’t allow them to investigate, despite the suspicious circumstances.”
Royce looked down at his phone. “I called the stores up and down that street, offering a reward for any video anyone might have of her or the car. A few are emailing us what they have from around the time the store owner said she came in last night.”
We moved as one into the conference room, the group of us too big to fit into anyone’s office comfortably. Royce queued up the big screen on the far wall, pulling up his email as it flashed to life.
We watched as one as the ice cream parlor footage came into view, showing her in the lobby, narrowly avoiding some small children running around unsupervised before practically falling into the counter. She exchanged some pleasantries with the woman at the counter, paid for her purchase, and left. No one immediately followed her, nor did it look like anyone in the place paid her any attention among the small crowd of people.
The second email was from a business that must have been next to the parlor because it did nothing more than show her walking past the windows, then returning a few minutes later, a large insulated cup in her hand before she passed out of view again.
We hit pay dirt on the third video. Alessia’s face was clear as she walked past, eating a bite off her spoon before depositing it back into the cup. She reached into her purse, clearly looking for keys, when someone jumped out behind her, having been hiding off-screen. Unfortunately, they both walked off the screen at that moment, showing nothing other than a person in black pants and a dark hoodie appearing out of nowhere before they disappeared again.
“Jesus,” Boone whispered. Royce pulled up a few more emailed video clips from other storefronts, but we didn’t get any more shots of Alessia, her car, or the mysterious men who’d materialized out of the shadows of the alleyway.
Without thought, I pulled my phone up and dialed Brody. Where the hell had he been when my sister was kidnapped? He was supposed to be watching her, for fuck’s sake. Yes, the stalker issue had been taken care of, but based on the looks the two of them were throwing at each other, I’d thought he would have stuck around. When his phone went unanswered, I looked at Gideon, all of us with identical looks of dread, fear, confusion, and denial.
