27. Rescue
27
RESCUE
Duke glanced at his phone again. Nat was taking a long time to reply.
Sure, Nat had said he was going down to Shipping for an errand. But he usually returned to their floor a lot sooner than this.
Even if he had gotten sidetracked, Nat would have messaged Duke to keep him updated.
Duke’s phone stayed horribly silent. He sent a text.
Duke
Nat?
Just wanted to say that this meeting is really boring without you to brighten things up.
He waited another ten minutes, barely hearing what his employees had to say. His unease ballooned into a Bad Feeling.
And it would solve nothing if he continued to sit in a meeting he didn’t care about.
“Enough,” Duke said, standing up.
Everyone else froze, staring at him in bewilderment.
“Table this for another time. I have to attend to something urgent.”
He didn’t wait for an answer. Duke grabbed his phone and strode out of the meeting room, taking the stairwell instead of the elevator to save time.
When he burst out of the stairwell, he found a set of elevator doors closing.
Nat was nowhere to be found. Duke stalked closer, checking Wanda’s playpen.
Wanda was missing, too.
Come to think of it, who had been in that elevator? Because it sure as Hell wasn’t Nat.
In a heartbeat, Duke had his phone to his ear, dialing the receptionist. Xannon answered quickly. “Mr. B, sir?”
“Put the entire building on lockdown.”
“Yessir, I’m on it.”
Moments later, the lights around the windows and elevators flashed red, before returning to normal.
No one was getting out of the building. But whoever had taken Wanda, they still had her.
Wanda was so very vulnerable right now.
Duke suppressed his panic and called an elevator with his staff ID. “Xannon?”
Xannon was still on the line. “Yessir?”
“Watch all the elevator lobbies. Tell me when someone exits, and which floor.”
“I’m watching all the lobbies now.”
“Good.” Duke clenched his fists, his phone creaking as the elevator numbers ticked slowly up until they reached him.
Xannon gasped.
“What is it?” Duke’s gut squeezed.
“They’re here.”
“On the ground floor?”
“Yes,” Xannon squeaked. “Is that Wanda? ”
“Who has her?” Duke demanded, stepping in when an elevator finally reached him. He jammed his finger against the ground floor button, so hard that the metal dented.
“Kylie.”
“Fuck!” How had she gotten into the building?
How the Hell had she gotten to Duke’s floor?
Not many people had access to that floor, for good reason. Nat was one of those people.
And where the fuck was he?
Duke’s bad feeling swelled until it suffocated him. “Distract her.”
“Okay,” Xannon whispered. More loudly, “Hey! Hi, Kylie!”
He was carefully not mentioning the elephant—raccoon cub—in the room.
“What?” Kylie snapped. “Why did the lights flash red?”
“Oh, um, the front doors jammed shut,” Xannon said apologetically. “No, stop! You can’t just kick down the doors!”
Duke’s ancestors had spelled those doors so they were break-proof. Except—
“If I kick them hard enough, they’ll open,” Kylie said.
Duke panicked. Those doors weren’t just spelled to resist violent forces; they were also spelled to keep out attackers.
If Kylie kicked the doors hard enough, they would blast her aside.
Along with Wanda.
“Don’t,” Duke said urgently, jamming his finger against the ground floor button even though it wouldn’t make the elevator move faster. Why the fuck was it moving so slow?
There was a pause. Then Kylie asked in a dangerously sweet voice, “Are you on a call with Mr. Brimstone?”
“I, um.” Xannon sounded panicked. “I was asking him about the weather!”
“Lie,” Kylie said flatly. She sounded closer now.
“Get away from her,” Duke said, at the same time the elevator doors slid open.
Duke strode toward the receptionist’s desk, where Kylie had backed Xannon up against the wall. “Hand Wanda over, Kylie.”
Kylie tightened her hold on Wanda; Wanda scrunched up her face and began to cry.
Fury roared through Duke. He suppressed his instincts to rip Wanda out of Kylie’s arms; he couldn’t risk hurting her.
Kylie looked at Wanda with barely concealed disgust. “Ugh! Why would you even want this ugly thing?”
“Where were you planning to take her?” Duke asked quietly. Calmly.
Even though he felt anything but.
Kylie shrugged, glancing around shiftily. “Just out on a walk.”
Duke slowed down, still moving closer. “So you won’t mind handing her back to me. I’m capable of taking her on a walk.”
Kylie’s eyes flashed. “She’s not yours.”
“She isn’t yours either,” Duke growled. “Now, Kylie.”
Wanda reached for Duke with both her arms, wanting him to carry her.
“She’s better off elsewhere. Far away,” Kylie muttered. “What do you see in Nat, anyway? He’s fat and ugly. He isn’t worth your time. He’s just using this baby to get to you, but I found a buyer for her—”
Duke was on her even before she’d finished that sentence. He scooped Wanda out of Kylie’s arms.
Then he brought his fist up to boiling temperatures, and smashed it through Kylie’s skull.
Kylie was dead before she hit the floor.
“That was for kidnapping Wanda,” Duke snarled. “And for saying what you did about her and Nat. What are the chances that you made him disappear, too?”
She didn’t answer, but Duke was shaking too much to care.
“Um, Mr. B?” Xannon asked, his face pale.
Duke had a brief moment of regret; that might have been the first time Xannon had witnessed a death. He turned to the wide-eyed omega. “I’ll call someone about the body. Have you seen Nat?”
Xannon shrank back. Only then did it occur to Duke that he might look terrifying, with his glamour gone, his eyes glowing, his fangs extended.
He didn’t care about that, either.
Xannon’s gaze dropped to Wanda, whose skin had turned navy blue. Wanda’s eyes were glowing white, too, and her horns were tiny nubs on her forehead.
“I-I don’t know about Nat,” Xannon stammered. “Kylie was in here earlier, yelling at me. But I thought I saw her coming in with a man. An alpha.”
An alpha? Like Giblin Turkeyson?
Slowly, Duke asked, “What did that alpha look like?”
“Like a normal alpha, but angry.” Xannon shuddered. “Like he would do bad things. I would’ve called someone for help, but he disappeared right before Kylie came to yell at me. I don’t know where he went.”
Duke’s stomach squeezed. “Fuck!”
Wanda began to whimper; Duke was holding her too hard. He hurriedly relaxed his arms.
“Are you her dad?” Xannon asked. “She looks like you.”
Gods, Duke wanted to be her dad.
“Now isn’t the time,” he growled, yanking out his phone. “I need to make sure Nat is alive. ”
Xannon paled.
Sending a text wasn’t something Duke wanted to do. He wanted to get out there, pound the pavements and hunt down Nat’s kidnapper. But he needed help.
Duke
Someone kidnapped Nat. I need a scent tracker. Starting point is BI office, I’m there right now
Sure, he had a number of wolf shifters on his staff. But he needed someone to watch Wanda while he rescued Nat, someone who could protect her. And as much as he appreciated his staff, they weren’t fighters.
Crush
I’m without my car over by Beacon he was so worried about what Giblin Turkeyson could be doing to Nat right now. “No, lift it. I don’t think there’s anyone else in here that shouldn’t be.”
Turkeyson would take Nat to a place where he would have true control over him. The thought alone made Duke’s blood boil.
Xannon reversed the lockdown procedure. Then he stared at Kylie’s body. “Should we call the police?”
“I’ll do it.” Duke took a deep breath and dialed Blade—one of the dragons in his group of friends. Ace and Raptor’s brother. Blade was a police officer fairly high up in the chain of command. His mate, Joey, had stolen a baby from some kidnappers.
Blade answered after a few rings. “Duke? I saw your message.”
“Yeah, it’s related to that. One of my ex-employees tried to kidnap my mate’s baby. I’ve neutralized her, but that also means I have a body on my hands.”
“Damn it. Hold tight, I’ll be there in a few to take your statement. Don’t leave to rescue Nat yet. Last thing we need is a body with no explanation.”
Duke snarled, “ Hurry. ”
“I’ll put on the lights,” Blade promised. The sirens were wailing in the background even before he had ended the call.
Duke paced, trying to make faces at Wanda except it was difficult. His mate was out there somewhere, suffering.
There were scars on Nat’s body that they didn’t talk about. Small silvery things that Duke pretended not to notice because he didn’t want to make Nat relive those times by bringing attention to them.
But they were there along with Nat’s missing fingers, proof that someone had hurt Nat in terrible ways.
Knowing that Nat was with the slime stain who had given him those scars... Duke wanted to tear the world apart.
Nat knew that Duke was coming for him, right?
Duke cradled Wanda closer to himself, pressing kisses to her soft hair. This was his first time holding her, and yet all he felt was an intense knot of worry.
Nat was strong. He had survived Giblin Turkeyson and one kidnapping; he could survive another.
He had to. Duke didn’t know what he would do if Nat didn’t; it made him sick to imagine it.
Nat was a joy all by himself. He made Duke laugh without even trying; he was so sweet, cuddly and kind. Duke had forgotten what it felt like to wake up in bed alone; his heart skipped whenever he opened his eyes to find Nat snug in his arms, sleeping peacefully.
If he lost Nat, if he never got to see Nat smile again...
Duke swallowed hard, his instincts raging.
Blade stepped into the lobby before Duke could punch something. Blade was an alpha, broad-shouldered with chestnut hair and reddish-brown eyes. He was in his police uniform. “Duke.”
Duke nodded at Kylie’s crumpled body on the floor. “I’ll tell you what I know.”
Blade pulled out his tablet. “Ready when you are.”
Crush and Raptor jogged in when Duke was close to done. Like Duke and Blade, they were alphas, tall and muscular in a way that sent Xannon scampering behind the receptionist’s desk. The newcomers were too busy scanning for threats to notice, though.
Raptor whistled when he spotted Kylie’s body on the floor. “What’s going on here?”
“She tried to kidnap Wanda,” Duke growled.
Raptor sobered up real fast. He had black hair and golden eyes, and he wasn’t usually this serious. “Damn it. More baby kidnappers?”
“No, this was a grudge kidnapping.” Duke wanted to rip out Kylie’s throat and kill her again. “She wanted me and was jealous of Nat. So she had Nat’s ex kidnap him, and she snatched his baby while he was gone.”
Raptor rolled his eyes. “Obviously, the way to your intended’s heart is to dispose of their mate and kidnap their baby.”
“And try to sell her,” Duke growled.
The other alphas scowled.
“Yeah, no,” Crush muttered. “I’m glad you neutralized her.”
Crush was the only wolf shifter amongst them. He even looked wolfish, with longer canines and a nose that twitched as he sniffed. “Give me something of Nat’s so I can start on the scent trail.”
Duke handed him a cushion that Shelby had retrieved from Nat’s nest. Crush took a few good sniffs. Then he handed it back and headed for the elevator.
“He was here not too long ago,” Crush said thoughtfully, looking around. “Smells panicked.”
Duke wanted to kill Kylie a third time, and also Giblin Turkeyson. In fact, he wanted to kill Turkeyson several times for daring to hurt Nat. “Where did they go?”
Crush’s nose took them out of the building.
“Right, I think I’ve got most of your statement,” Blade said, tapping on his tablet. “Stop by the station to finish up the rest of it.”
Duke nodded tersely. “And the body?”
“I’ll make sure it’s gone,” Blade replied.
“Thanks.”
“Will it leave stains?” Raptor asked with some distaste. “I liked your black marble floors. Very classy.”
“I don’t know,” Blade said. “Having your enemies’ blood on your territory gives it a certain kind of charm. A blessing and a warning rolled into one.”
“I’m not about to build a temple around it,” Duke muttered. “If the tiles end up stained... We’ll see. I’ll ask Nat what he thinks.”
Because they were going to get Nat back. Any number of terrible things could be happening to him right now.
Duke shoved down the surging anxiety in his stomach.
Blade nodded at him. “Catch you tomorrow. Call me if you need police help.”
He hurried off. This left Duke jogging next to Raptor, Crush leading the way.
They were a block away from the office now, Crush turning them down one street, then another.
Wanda was watching Raptor warily.
“Do you have a baby carrier?” Raptor asked Duke. “You could have her strapped to your back while you fight off the bad guys. That would be fucking adorable.”
“I would if I could be sure she was safe.” Not that Duke wanted to bring her into a dangerous situation. But right now, he didn’t have much of a choice. “Are you volunteering to watch her while I rescue Nat?”
“Isn’t that why you called Crush here?” Raptor retorted without any real objection.
“You could’ve gone back to your restaurant after you dropped me off, but you insisted on sticking around,” Crush said distractedly. He sniffed around, then went down a back alley.
Raptor huffed. “If I help, I expect to be named her godfather.”
“Me too,” Crush said.
“Wanda isn’t mine,” Duke said dryly. “But you can be the new baby’s godfathers.”
Both of them whipped their heads around to stare at him. “New baby?”
“You knocked Nat up?” Raptor asked incredulously.
“You’re his boss,” Crush said.
Duke sighed. “How did you not hear about this? Nat told his friends a few days ago.”
“And you didn’t tell us?” Raptor squawked.
“I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. At least, until he’s showing.” Duke’s anxiety eased a little. It was comforting to have someone to talk to, so he wasn’t drowning in his fury.
“You knocked up your employee,” Raptor said, awed and horrified at the same time. “You’re my hero.”
“What the Hell, Raptor,” Crush said.
“Focus on the scent trail,” Duke snapped.
Crush rolled his eyes. “What do you think I’m doing?”
“Being envious of our dear friend,” Raptor said helpfully. “Everyone knows you want babies.”
Crush looked away, his nostrils flaring. “Well, so do you.”
Raptor flipped him off.
Duke didn’t want to point out that he could still lose that baby, if Turkeyson had hurt Nat too severely.
He clenched his fists and crowded closer to Crush, only calming down when Crush slowed in front of an abandoned warehouse.
“I hear something in there,” Crush said quietly. “Two people.”