Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
VIDAR
The executive floor was a graveyard of ambition.
I had cleared the halls, sending the human staff scurrying home with a barked command that left the air vibrating.
The wolves had taken one look at me and known to make themselves scarce.
Now, only the family remained. The glass walls, once a symbol of our transparency and power, felt like a cage.
My father stood at the head of the mahogany conference table, his presence anchoring the room. He didn't need to shout; the mere weight of his scent demanded total focus. My eyes tracked Magnus and Gunnar as they worked the perimeter.
I stood by the window, my hands clenched so tight that I broke skin. I didn't care if she had run or if she had been taken. The distinction was a luxury I couldn't afford. I just wanted her back.
The shame was a cold stone in my gut. I had failed.
I had looked my father in the eye and accepted the responsibility of this merger—of this woman—and in less than a week, I’d lost her.
I should have kept her on lockdown. I should have worked harder to make her fall for me, to weave a web of such intense devotion that the very thought of the elevator doors would make her recoil.
But I had enjoyed the chase. I had liked the way she’d run from me the first time, her head high and her eyes sparking with defiance. I was a predator; the hunt was in my blood. This time, when I had no clue where she was and there was no trace, the hunt felt like a slow-motion car crash.
"We have the feed," Gunnar called out, his voice sharp with focus.
Elias was hunched over the terminal next to him, his face pale as he watched the grainy security footage.
We saw her—Addie, draped in a scarf that I had no memory of taking from her apartment or buying for her and placing in her closet at the penthouse.
She ducked behind a group of developers to bypass the enforcers.
She looked like a pro. She looked as if she was leaving us in the rearview mirror.
"She ran." Magnus rubbed his jaw with an unreadable look in his eyes. "She took the first gap we gave her, and she ran."
"No," Elias snapped. "She wouldn't have left without me." He froze, a wince crossing his face as if he’d just admitted to a secret escape plan they’d been whispering about on that private server.
Gunnar didn't comment. He just scrubbed the footage forward to the street view.
Elias had not only gotten into our security cameras, but other buildings as well.
We watched as Addie reached the corner, her hand raised for a cab.
Then, a black SUV blurred into the frame.
The door swung open, a cloth was placed over her face, and she was hauled inside.
"That wasn't a Vane pickup," I growled, my wolf snapping at the bit. "None of those men are her father's."
Fenrir leaned in, his eyes narrowing on the freeze-frame as he studied the man who had shoved her into the car. "I know that face. That’s a Lupetto enforcer. Old guard. A scavenger named Silvio."
Magnus tapped the screen and set his cell phone in the center of the table. It rang once. Twice. A third time—long enough that it felt intentional.
"Blackwood."
Valentino Lupetto’s voice slid through the speaker, touched with a faint Italian lilt that was manufactured. The man had been born and raised in the Bronx.
"Adolpha Blackwood, do you have her?" Magnus asked.
A beat.
"I haven’t seen Addie Vane in years. Not since she ran from our arranged marriage."
I rocked back on my heels. Magnus watched me from the corner of his eye. "You were engaged?"
There was a pause, a beat that sounded like a decision was being made. Trust between packs was a fragile thing. Magnus had started reaching out to heirs his age. It looked like the strategy was paying off as Valentino decided to keep talking.
"That was the arrangement. Our fathers decided it. Neither of us wanted it. On the day we went to finalize it, make it official, she was sneaking out the gate. She saw me. I saw her. I turned away and pretended I hadn't. That was the last time I laid eyes on her."
Across from me, my father leaned forward. "Valentino?"
Another beat, and then; "Yes, sir?"
It never ceased to amaze me the respect my father held amongst the packs. When I was young, the other pups would whisper stories about him. Fenrir Blackwood was a legend in so many eyes.
"How is your father?" Fenrir's voice was calm, conversational.
Valentino didn’t answer immediately. When he did, the accent slipped. Barely concealed disgust permeated his slang. "Wouldn't know. Ain't spoken to him in years."
"Why is that?" Fenrir asked.
"Because he tried to marry my baby sister off to a pack that breaks what it buys.”
"Thank you, son."
"Yes, sir, Mr. Blackwood."
The line cut off, and I turned to Elias. "Spill," I growled.
"Addie was promised to Valentino Lupetto when she was eighteen. I was a kid at the time, but I know my father was depending on the Lupettos as allies. When it didn't come through, and Addie ran, that's when things started to get bad."
"Dante Lupetto doesn't believe in dead deals," Fenrir said.
Which meant he had her. I couldn't stand it anymore. I turned away from the window, the impotence of the room suffocating me.
"Sit down, Vidar," Fenrir commanded. It wasn't a suggestion. "In times like these, we lean on the pack. We depend on family. Magnus call the Lupetto boy back and get more intel on his father and that pack. Gunnar, you track him down."
"Yes, sir," they said in unison.
I looked at my father, the old wound opening up in my chest. I remembered seeing my father betrayed by a brother ten years ago—an ally who had promised us a deal and delivered us a massacre instead. My father had survived because he trusted his blood over his allies.
Magnus put a hand on my shoulder. "Too many people owe us favors. They won't get away with this."
Gunnar grabbed his jacket, his eyes already shifting to a hunter’s gold. "I have her scent, bro. I'll find her for you."
"Go," Fenrir ordered Magnus and Gunnar. "Bring our girl home."