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We moved from building to building, stairwell to stairwell, until the Commander called. The decrepit cabins on the fair side of the island were empty, and his men were doing a sweep through the thickets and the blackberry brush on their way back to the Institute’s grounds.
I hung up the phone as the weight of that hit me. I didn’t know whether to be relieved with the news or not. Something inside told me this wasn’t like Baldeon’s murder…this was different. If it was, we’d find a body, somewhere obvious—a shudder tore through me—somewhere close enough to do what they needed to do…and be done.
My phone rang and I snatched it up before the second ring.Commandersplayed across the screen as I barked. “Yeah?”
“Surveillance has picked up something,” he barked, the pounding of his footsteps audible in the background. “I’m heading to the control room now.”
“I’m on my way,” I replied, drawing Bernardi’s focus, then Davies's.
I hung up the phone. “They think they found something.”
“Oh, thank fucking God,” Xael groaned with relief.
“I’m heading to the control room.” I headed toward the doors, punching in the number for Logan.
I relayed the information to my bodyguard, listening to a door slam against a wall in the background as he carved through building after building searching for her.
“I’m on my way,” Logan responded, and hung up.
I raced out of the foyer and across the Institute’s grounds, heading for building one. By the time I charged through the doorway, Logan and Freddy were waiting for me. Bruno and Xael were right behind me, puffing and panting as we slowed.
I sucked in harsh breaths, my thighs heavy and hard as I strode toward the CCTV control room. The Commander was waiting, standing outside the door as I neared. “I wanted to wait for you,” he stated.
But I didn’t care about words, I cared about action. I cared about knowing what they'd found. I shoved the door open as soon as he'd placed his finger in the scanner and strode in, making my way toward the bank of monitors against the wall.
The control room guard shoved up from his seat as I charged in, Logan and the others at my back.
“What is it?” I growled, my gaze shifting to the monitor in front of him, the one with a dark blur in the middle of the screen.
“I think it’s a boat,” he answered, making the image bigger.
But the more it grew, the more blurred it became. “Pan out,” I snapped.
My gaze was riveted on that fucking blur, my pulse pounding in my ears. I needed it to be a boat…needed to see her alive. But the more he scrolled out and the smaller those pixels became, I saw it wasn’t her at all.
“Two men by the looks of it,” Logan observed beside me. “That’s a special forces dinghy, fast and quiet, used for covert operations. Where was this taken?” He asked the guard.
“Off the east coast at one-fifteen today,” he answered.
One-fifteen.
Logan just looked at me. I knew without him speaking…knew in that fucking look. My gut clenched.No…don’t you dare fucking say it…don’t you dare fucking say it.
I tore my gaze from his and fixed on that blur on the screen, the image of two men sitting on the sides of the dinghy as it raced from the beach of the island and toward Mauritius. But there was no Kat...
I clenched my fist…until my knuckles popped with the strain. I wanted to punch something…no, Ineededto punch something.
A phone rang as I ground my teeth and breathed through my nose.
“Sebastian VanHalen” the Commander murmured.
I wrenched my gaze to Mateo as a flare of panic crossed his face. “I see, there’s been a ransom. Please, send me the recording…”
The air seemed to leave my lungs.
And for a second, none replaced it.
I existed in nothing.
