Siren in Bloom

  “Has anyone seen Chase?” Ben asked.

  “I sent him upstairs with Shelley about an hour ago. Why? What’s up?” Leo asked.

  “I need Chase to run through some things, but I found something a little disturbing. Chase pulled up a bunch of info on Holder’s company, White Acres. Some of his financials are a bit odd. And Chase managed to find several large transfers to his accounts during the time he was on the Teams. How the hell did he manage to make a million dollars while he was active duty?”

  Leo felt the room go cold.

  “Investments, perhaps?” Julian asked.

  “He wasn’t a trust-fund kid,” Leo replied. Holder had been one of the guys. He’d talked about his rough-and-tumble childhood. He’d grown up the hard way. There was no way he’d had the type of money he would have needed to make it to a million dollars.

  Wolf’s face went dark. “There was a rumor a couple of years back that someone was aiding drug runners in Kabul. No one believed it.”

  “No one wanted to believe it.” Ben frowned. “Most of Holder’s squad now works for White Acres.”

  A whole unit involved in something criminal? God, the thought turned Leo’s stomach. “Ada had some sort of meeting that afternoon she died. She mentioned it to me.”

  “She was meeting with her CO,” Ben said. “Ada spent a lot of time talking to locals. If anyone would have heard something, it would have been her. The translators often found things out the soldiers couldn’t.”

  “But why now? If Holder killed Ada, why would he bring it up now? He’s gotten away with it for a very long time. Why would he deliberately reopen old wounds?” Wolf asked.

  Julian sat forward. “Leo, would you have made plans to see this man?”

  “Probably not. We weren’t close at all, and I deeply dislike his business. He preys on former special ops, turning them into mercenaries, and from what I’ve heard not particularly scrupulous ones. White Acres provides ground security for some of the world’s worst dictators. They train their armies.”

  Julian shuffled through the papers Ben had brought down. “He wanted to talk to you. He needed to either see you specifically, Leo, or he wanted access to the building. He tried to call. You didn’t return it. He forced the issue with the only thing he knew would get you talking. Ada.”

  Wolf paled. “Someone tried to kill Shelley the night before he showed up.”

  “Tried to kill or wanted to take her?” Julian asked.

  Wolf’s head shook. “No idea. Maybe. If they were trying to take her, they damn straight changed their mind. Why would anyone want to kill Shelley? The feds cleared her. Do you think this is someone her husband screwed? Do you think Holder’s become an assassin?”

  Julian’s eyes closed briefly, but not before Leo saw a flare of guilt.

  “Julian, what did you do?” Leo’s mind flared with possibilities, catching on one. His boss had a brutally wicked brain, and there was nothing the man liked more than information. “I called you the minute I found out about Bryce.”

  “Trev called me sooner,” Julian admitted. “Ben and Chase were already on their way to Deer Run by the time you called.”

  “The minute we found out about the blackmail op Bryce Hughes was running, we knew we had to make sure nothing could be traced back to Shelley,” Ben explained.

  “But nothing was found on her computer. Nothing in her office.” She’d been perfectly clean despite the fact that her husband had used her business to get his dirt.

  Ben frowned. “Nothing was found at all after Chase got through.”

  Leo felt his blood pressure jump. “Fuck, Julian. You didn’t bother to tell me?”

  Julian held his hands up in apology. “You were in a bad place at the time. You didn’t even want to talk about her. You simply gave Finn a ridiculously large check and told him to handle it. You went to a dark place. I was rather worried you would take it poorly.”

  It took him a second for those words to sink in. Wolf understood before Leo did.

  “I don’t care what was on that computer,” Wolf said. “Shelley didn’t know. She would never do anything like that. If she had known what was going on, she would have told someone. Leo, you can’t think she had anything to do with this.”

  Shelley? Truly involved in Bryce’s schemes? Fuck no. She was sweet and honest. She had a deeply bratty mouth and a soft heart. She would never be able to sit around while her husband was hurting people. “I know that, Wolf. But I will admit at the time I was very upset with her. I think Julian was worried that I would take it as evidence against her.”

  Julian looked tired all of the sudden. How much had his boss tried to shield him from? How much did Julian think he was risking? Leo could fix that last question right away. He wasn’t mad at Julian. Julian had done what he thought was right for both him and Shelley. Julian was a manipulative bastard, but he gave a damn.

  “Julian, I am deeply grateful for everything you’ve done for all of us, but the time to protect me is over. What did you find?”

  Ben sighed. “A bunch of stuff. There were hours of footage buried in her system. Her asshole husband had set it up for her to take the fall if anyone found out. Luckily, Chase turned all of that around. We managed to load some of the information on to Bryce’s system. Enough to make the feds happy they had the right guy. The rest of the stuff we downloaded to a hard drive.”

  Oh, there was a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Where is this hard drive?”

  “In one of my many safe places,” Julian admitted. “I didn’t look at it. I have to admit, I didn’t have the stomach for it at the time. Kitten had just shown up on our doorstep. You were in a depression. Danielle was trying to get pregnant. It kind of slipped away, and then it seemed like a bad idea to get into it.”

  Wolf stood. “We need to look at those files. We need to figure out who’s after Shelley. This is about her, and Holder is involved.”

  “If I find out he’s the one who killed Ada…” Ben began.

  “Do what you need to do,” Julian said. “Just be smart and let me know what the alibi is. I’ll make sure it holds water.”

  That was Julian. He was a law in and of himself.

  “I want to talk to Shelley,” Wolf said. There was a deep crease between his brows. Leo understood what was going on in his brain. He wanted to find her, hold her, make sure she was safe.

  Leo wanted it, too. “She’s in complete lockdown. She doesn’t go outside of this building.” He pulled out his cell to call Chase.

  No signal.

  What the hell?

  “Wolf? You have your cell?”

  One of the bouncers called out for Julian as Wolf pulled his cell. He held it up as though trying to find a signal. Julian waved the bouncer over.

  “I have nothing,” Wolf said.

  Ben was the same.

  “Mr. Lodge, we’re having a problem in security. Everything went black. Harry is working on it, but the cameras went out ten minutes ago, and we can’t get them back on. We tried to call you, but the cells don’t work.”

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Leo got to his feet, adrenaline pumping through his system. This was how he’d felt when he was going into a mission. “Someone is jamming the whole building.”

  Wolf was right behind him. “Shelley.”

  Julian began barking orders. “Get everyone you can here now. Find that goddamn jammer and turn it off. I want to know where everyone is. I mean everyone. Every member, every employee, every guest.”

  Leo ran, praying the elevators still worked. He was in luck. Ben followed Wolf. Not a one of them had a gun. They weren’t allowed in the dungeon. Wolf’s SIG was in his locker. Wolf reached into his boot and came up with a wicked-looking pitch-black knife. Leo had a similar one in his own boot. He felt naked without some form of weapon on him.

  He prayed it would be enough.

  The doors opened to the sixteenth floor, and Leo saw it. The door to the condo was wide open. Chase would have secured the door.

/>   “Fuck,” Ben breathed. “They’ve got Chase. I didn’t feel it. How could I not feel that? We’re connected. How could he be gone?”

  Chase wouldn’t have hidden. If someone had come for Shelley, they would have had to get through Chase. Though it gave Leo a sick feeling, he had to agree that something very bad had happened to Chase Dawson.

  Wolf moved forward, sinking into a standard stance. He kept near the wall, moving with a silent, deadly grace. For the first time, he had to admit that he was willing to follow his brother’s lead. Leo had joined up because he’d wanted out of Colorado, and he’d wanted to help out his mother.

  Wolf had joined up because he truly believed. Wolf was a soldier, deep down to his soul. Leo followed him, though his first real instinct was to run screaming into the room. Wolf was right. Leo had been out of the game for far too long.

  Wolf entered the condo, his face completely blank. It was only after he realized no one was there that he broke down. The living room was in shambles. The couch had been knocked over, and there was a streak of blood on the coffee table. Two of his lamps had been broken.

  “She’s gone.” Leo felt his fists clench. Helpless. He was totally helpless. Shelley was gone. She was out there somewhere. He didn’t know if she was dead or alive or being hurt. His heart clenched.

  He’d wasted time. He’d wasted so much fucking time. He loved her. He’d never loved another woman the way he loved Shelley McNamara. She was in his heart, and if she was dead, it wouldn’t matter if his body walked the earth, he would bury himself with her.

  “Leo,” Wolf’s calm voice cut through Leo’s panic. “They took her. They want her for something or we would have found a body. Chase, too.”

  Ben had made a sweep of the whole condo. “I can’t find any of them. Kitten isn’t here. The living room is the only place that shows signs of a struggle. They took Chase down in here.”

  Wolf pointed to a bloody handprint about halfway up the door frame. The fingers trailed as though someone was pulled out of the doorway. “They carried Chase out.”

  Leo walked to the master bedroom. He had some guns in a case in his closet. Having his SIG Sauer in his hand might make him feel less helpless. He needed to think. He had to get into those files that Ben and Chase had taken off her computer. The key was buried somewhere in there. Holder had her. With his connections, Holder could get out of the country and disappear very quickly. He could change identities and never miss a paycheck.

  But Holder obviously wanted something, and Leo would bet his life that whatever he wanted or his client wanted was in those files.

  Bet his life? Fuck all. He was being forced to bet hers.

  Wolf walked in, a grim look on his face. He held his spare gun, the one Shelley had stolen earlier in the day. It looked like the third time had been the charm for those bastards.

  “Come on, we’re not going to get anything here. We need to track Holder down.” Wolf checked his piece and slid it into the holster he’d put on.

  Finding Holder was their only shot. She was out there in the city somewhere.

  “All right.” Leo went to open the closet door, and he heard a soft sound.

  Wolf went silent.

  “Seventy-two. Seventy-three. Seventy-four.” The sound was so quiet he’d almost missed it, but it was soft and feminine. And not Shelley. He opened the door and found Kitten, her arms wrapped around her knees. She held herself in a tight ball, her eyes closed and her mouth moving in her almost silent count.

  “Kitten?” Leo felt Wolf move in behind him. Felt his deep disappointment that she wasn’t Shelley. But if Kitten had survived, she might be able to tell them something, anything.

  Her eyes flew open, and her lips trembled. “You made Kitten lose count.”

  Oh, god. Kitten could be fragile at the best of times. “It’s all right. You don’t have to count.”

  Tears squeezed from her eyes. “Shelley told Kitten to. Shelley saved Kitten, and Kitten will do as Shelley said. She told Kitten to count to one hundred after the bad men were gone. But Kitten lost count. Three times. Kitten was never good at math.”

  Leo got to one knee in front of her. “Bad men? Do you know how many there were?” Any information would help.

  She sniffled. “I think there were four.”

  It was the first time since he’d known her that she’d referred to herself in anything but the third person.

  “I heard steps, lots of steps, but only four voices. They were cool. They weren’t angry. They had Tasers. They Tasered Kitten’s keeper.” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She was so young, and Leo knew how hard this must be for her, yet she was trying.

  Wolf got to one knee, his deep voice gentle. “Kitten’s keeper is in danger. Shelley is in danger. Is there anything else you can remember, sweetheart, anything at all? You would make everyone so happy if you could recall even the smallest detail.”

  “Did they say anything?” Leo asked, holding his hand out.

  Kitten sniffled again and took it. “They told Shelley they would kill Kitten’s keeper if she didn’t show herself. But they were not smart. They thought Master Chase was Master Ben. How could they make that mistake? Master Chase is much different than Master Ben.”

  Not physically he wasn’t. It was interesting.

  “Shelley asked them not to kill him, and then she was silent. One of the bad men told another that he had both targets and to fall back to the meeting point.”

  Targets. They were organized. Most likely they were all White Acres employees. But both targets?

  “Why would they want Ben?” Wolf asked.

  Leo shook his head, and then it hit him. “Fucker. Ben is the perfect patsy. He had a relationship with Ada. Holder didn’t know about it. The Navy didn’t know about it. I’m sure somewhere out there Holder has a hacker making sure those photographs look as though Ben had them stashed somewhere. That way if all goes bad, he sets up Ben to be the killer.”

  Wolf growled a little. “And then Ben would either kill himself or have a convenient accident. Son of a bitch. We handed that to him. We have to find her. They think she has those files. When they realize she doesn’t, they’ll kill her.”

  Kitten nodded, her hand going to her collar. “Yes, find Shelley.”

  Leo squeezed her hand in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. “Let’s get you to Finn. You can stay with Finn and Dani tonight. You did very well, Kitten. If you think of anything else, let Finn know, and he’ll tell us.”

  “You’ll find Shelley?” Kitten asked.

  “I’m going to find her. I’m going to bring her home.” He had to. There was no other acceptable outcome.

  Kitten smiled. “Good. Because Kitten’s collar is naked without its charm.”

  Leo’s eyes flew to the ring where one of the staff attached a leash on Kitten the nights she was in the dungeon. His heart nearly stopped. Two months before, she’d wandered off while Dane was dealing with a scene gone bad. She’d gotten lost and nearly allowed herself to be taken home by a man she didn’t know. Finn had been deeply worried. Kitten didn’t have limits. It was one of the things they were working on with her. If a true sadist with bad intentions picked her up, it could go very poorly. Her past proved what trouble she could get into.

  So Chase had fitted her collar with a GPS tracking system.

  Kitten was far smarter than anyone gave her credit for, and in that moment, Leo vowed to figure the young woman out. He would work with Janine. He would find a way to give Kitten the life she deserved. Because if he was right, Kitten had saved his life. He couldn’t live without Shelley.

  “Does Shelley have the charm?”

  “What’s the charm got to do with anything?” Wolf asked. “We’re wasting time.”

  “Kitten made Shelley swallow the charm so the bad men wouldn’t know she had it.” Kitten smiled.

  Leo turned to his brother. “The charm is a GPS tracker. We just have to put in the code and we’ll know where she is.”

  Wo
lf’s jaw dropped. He pulled Kitten into a bear hug. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

  Kitten was blushing as he put her back on the floor. Her eyes slid away, and she sounded more stable than Leo had ever heard her. “I know the difference between BDSM and real pain, Master Leo. I’m not as crazy as I sound. She was willing to save me. I couldn’t do any less for her.”

  “I am very certain Master Julian will have a very nice reward for you.”

  “Kitten has been eyeing an overly large anal plug,” she said, following them as they strode out of the closet.

  Leo got them to the elevator.

  “We’ll find her,” he promised Wolf.

  Wolf nodded. They would find her. And then they would never let her go.

  * * * *

  Shelley’s head was pounding as she came to consciousness. She tried to move her hands, to ease the ache in her temples, but her wrists held fast. She felt heavy and groggy. Had she overslept? What had happened? Where was Leo? Why wasn’t Wolf close to her? She was cold, and she shouldn’t be cold in between her men.

  She forced her eyes to open. She wasn’t in bed. She could make out low florescent lights.

  “Welcome to our nightmare, princess,” a deeply sarcastic voice said quietly.

  Chase. She remembered. Chase had been taken with her. Where were they? Her eyes wouldn’t seem to focus.

  “If you want to pretend to be out for a little while longer, I think we can put off the moment when they decide to cut my balls off and stuff them down my throat.”

  “Where are we?” Shelley asked, keeping her voice as quiet as possible. It still seemed like she was screaming.

  “Hell,” Chase replied. “Either that or it’s a warehouse somewhere downtown. That would be my guess. I would say we’re roughly three miles from The Club. I was a little out of it, but I think we went north and then west. If by some miracle you get a chance to run, run toward the freeway. Someone will see you. They can’t take you back if there are witnesses.”

  Her stomach rolled. She seemed to be duct-taped to a chair. She tried to move her feet. At least she could kick if she had to. She glanced around the large room. She didn’t see anyone but Chase. They were in a huge, industrial-looking space. She tried to find the exits. There were several large windows overhead, but she couldn’t see a door.