AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’ll go to the house and find the girl,” I told him flatly. “Use absolutely no force with her—none. Is that clear?”
“Crystal clear, sir.”
“You will bring her to a secure location, where Rachel will meet you. If Barney Madison puts up any sort of fight, kill him… but not in front of Briar.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Go. Now.”
Draven pivoted on his heel and moved out of the office without any questions, and I got back to the matter of pacing around.
It was going to be a long wait from here again.
* * *
I resistedthe urge to call Draven after an hour, then two, but as the third hour approached without a word from him, I could take no more. Rachel also had not returned to the office with Royce, and I was completely left alone with my own thoughts, apprehension growing inside me like a whirlwind.
Where the hell is everyone?
Trying to talk myself down, to remind myself that they were all professionals who understood their tasks, I fought with myself about reaching out, but in the end, I grabbed for the phone, first to call Draven.
The phone merely rang, much to my chagrin.
Had something happened to him? He was a dragon shifter fully trained in military combat, just like all my security team, while Barney Madison was a nobody doctor. He was no fight against my men.
But if the doctor had seen him coming, could he have prepared an ambush?
A dozen more unbidden thoughts crossed my mind, and I started out of the office to find them when Rachel rushed back through the doors, breathless.
“Where the hell have you been?” I roared at her, my face flushed with relief and annoyance.
She held up a book, but when she started to speak, my cell rang, stopping her from explaining herself.
“Finally!” I snapped at Draven. “Do you have Briar? Is she secure?”
“No, sir. She’s not here.”
My shoulders deflated like a balloon, and I looked accusingly at Rachel, who could not hear Draven through the phone.
“What do you mean she’s not there?”
“It appears as though they were here, but they moved. Recently.”
“Any signs that they’re coming back?”
“I couldn’t say, sir, but I have found several empty vials of Caramine in what appears to be Briar’s room.”
“Caramine?”
Rachel gasped, and I eyed her. “What is it?”
“It’s a sedative, sir,” Draven explained. “I believe Briar has been drugged.”
Fury coursed through my veins at a speed I’d never known before, and I rushed toward the doorway as Rachel yelled after me to stop.
“There’s more, sir,” Draven told me, sounding distinctly uncomfortable.
“What? What else?”
