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I nodded and forced myself to fill my lungs with air. If Blade had been trying to placate me, to tell me he was probably nearly back to our meeting place already or some bullshit, I would never have listened, but he wasn’t. He was telling me my best shot, and he was right. “I’ll try.”
“Okay, let’s widen the area we’re searching and look for any clues.”
There was nothing near the back exit, but once we neared the spot where Ahmed’s SUV had been parked, something glinted on the ground. I reached down to pick it up. “Oh God.”
“What is it?”
“It’s Darren’s ring.”
“Is there anything else, footprints or anything?” We began a thorough search. I almost missed it even with my flashlight on, but when I looked closer, I knew I was right. “Blood.”
Blade was instantly by my side. He pulled gloves, a piece of gauze, and a ziplock bag from his pants pocket. In seconds, he had soaked up a sample of blood from the pavement and packed it away for analysis.
I didn’t need a lab to tell me the blood was Darren’s. “Ahmed took him. They left in the SUV.” I had no way to be sure, but my gut told me it was true. Ahmed had him, and we had no idea where they’d gone.
“We’ve got all X’s resources and the best team we could put together. We’re going to find him.”
I believed that, but would we find him alive?
Blade let Devil know to meet back where Carlo and Rhys were waiting.
“Did you find him?” Devil asked.
“No, but we found evidence he’d been in the parking lot.”
“You think Ahmed has him?”
“We do.”
30
DARREN
“Come on. Wake up. I didn’t give you that much.”
I blinked and tried to remember where I was. My head was pounding like the worst hangover I’d ever had, but I hadn’t been drinking, had I?
I tried to stretch and realized my hands and ankles were cuffed. Fuck. It came back to me. Ahmed and his men. I’d left the building, and then I’d been captured. Had they taken out everyone else? “Fox. Where’s Fox?”
“I’m sure he’ll be here soon enough, and once he watches the life slowly drain out of you, I’ll kill him, very, very slowly.” Shit. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. I had to get it together.
“Do you know who I am?”
I thought I did. He was Ahmed. How the hell had he gotten away? “I’m sorry,” I said. My voice was so scratchy I paused and tried to clear my throat, ignoring the pain that caused. “I haven’t had the pleasure.”
“I’m Ahmed. Fox has surely told you all about me and all about how he killed my brother.”
“He has.” I saw no reason to deny it. The last thing I was going to do was let Ahmed think I was afraid of him.
“Then you understand why you both need to die.”
“Not really. I haven’t done a thing to you. I’d never even heard of you until a few days ago.”
He fisted his hand into my shirt, dragged me up onto my knees, and slapped me hard enough that I tasted blood. “You are his friend. It will hurt him if he sees you die.”
“I’m his lover actually.”
That earned me another slap.
I expected him to keep beating me, but he took a step back and answered his phone. “Yes… They are… Perfect.”
“Don’t go anywhere.” He said, laughing as he locked me into whatever small room he’d dumped me in. There was no furniture in it except a metal chair. I wasn’t sure if it was a bedroom or a closet, but there was a window. Sadly, it was covered with bars.
31
FOX
The next hours were the longest of my life, even worse than the lead up to rescuing Blade. At least then I’d been able to be in constant motion.
Finally, X’s boyfriend came through for us with an address where Ahmed had been seen parking the SUV. I was in the car, ready to head out as soon as we got the intel. The others raced to catch up.
“Don’t you dare step out of this vehicle until we talk through a plan,” Rhys said as I accelerated out of our hotel parking space.
“If you want to plan, start talking.”
Blade brought the GPS up on the screen so I was able to end the call with X and navigate without oral directions.
“We need to keep our distance and try to verify Darren is there from as far away as possible.”
“Fine.” I would have agreed to anything as long as it meant making progress toward saving Darren.
“If he’s there, we have to strategize the best way to get him out alive.”
“Ahmed dies. That’s nonnegotiable.”
“Agreed,” Rhys said. “But you have to promise not to run in blind.”
My heart thundered in my ears. “I… Fuck, I don’t know if I can.”
