Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
CHANCE
If I could have one power in the world, it would be to freeze time. Because honestly, forty-eight hours should not have moved as quickly as it did.
Tank and I had spent our stolen moments together doing everything we normally couldn’t. We ate and laughed and chatted like we weren’t hours away from having to part again.
It was a game of pretend. One where neither of us wanted to pull out of the dream to talk about reality.
But when I woke up the morning he would be leaving, I knew I couldn’t allow myself to be delusional to think it wasn’t going to hurt. Instead of waking him with my mouth around his cock, I took off downstairs to make some coffee and breakfast.
I knew enough to keep us fed outside of the dinners I had stored in the freezer. An easy omelet would do us both some good.
As I cracked eggs and whisked ingredients, I thought of how fucking exhausted I was at just the thought of going back to how things were. I’d never felt this worn down from the political race.
Was I burnt out?
Or had my priorities shifted?
To be fair, it was likely both. I had been on the hamster wheel of chasing down my father’s legacy for far longer than I wanted to think about. I knew years and years of trying to be better than him had taken a toll.
And to top it all off, I never expected to fall in love. My parents were married in an arrangement to fit both extended families. She was the perfect woman to stand at his side in pictures, and with the promise of an heir, it made sense.
I’d thought my life would be the same.
Until I met Tank.
He’d become so much to me in such a small amount of time. In the years since, I found myself wanting more pieces of him. I stole every moment, every memory away to hoard for when I couldn’t have him around.
Yet now it didn’t seem to be enough.
These stolen days and meetings weren’t holding me over.
But what could I do? Being an out gay man wasn’t going to fit with my political plans.
You mean the same plans you just admitted to being tired of?
The voice in my head was sarcastic enough to make me laugh out loud. I pondered more over what I wanted to do as I finished our food.
Tank still wasn’t downstairs yet, so I plated everything and placed it on a tray to carry it up. It was slow going to make sure I didn’t drop anything.
It turned out to be a pointless endeavor because the minute I walked into the bedroom, everything went crashing to the ground.
Blood.
So much blood.
It covered the bed and the walls in slashing marks.
This had to be some sick joke. Maybe we were going to play one of those mystery games or something. Tank had a weird sense of humor sometimes. Yeah, it usually leaned towards sexual innuendos instead of him scaring the shit out of me, but maybe he wanted to switch it up.
I carefully made my way around the edge of the room to see if I could find him. When I took a look in the bathroom and the closet, I found nothing. It was as if nothing was disturbed. He hadn’t even gone in here.
The bedroom was the only area that was a mess.
As I stared at the space, I noticed the way the blankets rustled. The wind was blowing them in a way I hadn’t noticed before.
We’d gone to bed with everything closed up tight.
Which meant…
Shuffling over to the window took time. When I finally made it there, I noticed how the blood seemed to move over the edge of the open frame too. Whatever happened, this was the entry point. Or maybe the exit.
Would he hurt himself like this, then try to leave?
Worse yet, someone else hurt him and left? Did they take him too?
Fuck.
I needed to check the security feeds. Maybe one of them caught something.
Running through the house, I went to my office as I shouted for Tank. There was no reply, but even without looking I knew there wouldn’t be.
Something was very wrong.
As I powered up my computer, I sent prayers out to the universe that I was wrong. Hopefully, the footage would show Tank sneaking around with the grin I loved as he tried to pull a fast one on me.
But that was far from what I found.
I saw Tank, sure. Instead of a smile, his face was blank. And instead of sneaking around, he was thrown over some goon’s shoulder as another man waited with a gun drawn to watch for anyone trying to interfere.
They took off on foot until they hit the street. Then the distance was too far to catch anything besides the blurry shape of their car.
“FUCK!” I cried as I slammed my palm on the desk.
Sadly, we did have protocol for this type of situation. When Tank first told me about it, I called him an idiot for thinking we’d ever need it. As a man whose life’s work was security, he assured me we needed it just in case.
I hated how he was right.
Pulling out a flash drive, I gathered footage for the last few days around my place as I went to the bedroom. Taking pictures of everything, I put them in a secure file that was passcode protected, then changed into something a touch more presentable.
Cameras would likely pickup my arrival at NightShade. No need to give them more to talk about by it being me in my pajamas.
Once I was in my suit, I gathered the drive and my keys. I was out the door and driving to the office as if nothing were amiss. My calm remained as I stepped into the building. I told security I had a meeting with NightShade and gave a codeword Tank had told me would grant me instant access.
While people stared at me in confusion, none of them stopped me. Even as I entered the floor for the NightShade team, a place I’d never been before, not a single person told me I couldn’t be there.
It was a bit astounding, really. How my power could get me into situations I desperately wanted, though not for the reasons I craved.
I wanted to be there because I belonged to Tank, and he belonged to me. Not because they thought I was around for business.
When I walked into the war room, I was met with a sea of faces I knew but had never formally met.
“Councilman Sheppard. How may I help you? I’m afraid Tank isn’t here if you have a meeting with him,” Ronan, the largest of the bunch said to me.
I turned, closing the door behind me. When I looked back at them, I found alarm in their features.
“Tank isn’t here because he was with me. And at some point this morning between waking up beside him and me making breakfast, someone infiltrated my home and took him.” I tossed the drive in Memphis’s direction, the man I knew to be a computer genius. “Check the footage on this. I went back a few days to ensure you had what you needed. I can log in to get you more if that’s not enough.”
“Hold the fucking phone.” That came from Cohen, the joker of the group. “You can’t expect us to skip over the waking up in bed together portion of this.”
I shook my head. “Then get it out of your fucking head quickly please because my bed and walls are covered in his blood right now, and we have no FUCKING idea where he is. Are you going to get hung up on shit that was never any of your business before today or are you going to help me find him?”
The room was silent. I’m not even sure if anyone was breathing anymore.
Or maybe it was just me who couldn’t breathe anymore?
Takeshi started signing after he snapped to get people’s attention. Tank had taught me some things, but not enough to keep up. When he was done, the rest of the team nodded.
I was waved to take a seat, then I got to see what my boyfriend’s life was like in real time. The group began discussing who it could be and why. They went over all the information they could gather, carefully considering each option while also having a sense of urgency I appreciated.
“Did he say anything to you before last night? Maybe about a meeting he had today? Or do you have any enemies we need to know about?”
Snorting a laugh, I shook my head. “I’m running for mayor, not the presidency.”
“Yet,” muttered one of the men.
“As I was saying, I don’t have a ton of enemies. We hadn’t been talking about work while he was there. It was meant to be an escape from reality for a couple of days. The last work-related thing we spoke of was the Diestro money stuff. He was upset, though he never got back with me on what to do. I’ve had the payment on hold instead of transferring the files like we normally would have done.”
Orion, or Mr. Good Looking, as Tank once described him much to my chagrin, spoke up then. “What do you mean on hold? You can’t just pause a payment.”
“Not usually, but I have an in at the bank. I told them to hold everything until I could get in touch. If anything, it would get deposited to a nest account first, then moved to the main one for use. I had them hold off completely since Tank made it seem like accepting anything would be incriminating.”
Godric, Cohen’s other half and one of the big muscle guys in the bunch, drummed his fingers on the table. “Could be Lune then. Maybe he realized we’d made the connection to his donation after the money didn’t leave his account. He decided to take the opportunity to get Chance and instead got Tank.”
“That makes no sense. What would taking me do?” I asked the group. “I’m not involved in this.”
Takeshi’s hands exploded in movement. The man beside him seemed to try to calm him down by signing back, though it looked more like they were arguing than anything.
“My husband thinks that maybe you were meant to hurt us. If they knew your relationship to Tank, then they’d find taking you to be beneficial. Maybe Tank being there was more opportunity than anything.”
“I’d say so,” Memphis piped in. He nodded towards the big wall behind them, where the footage from outside my house came into view. This time, when it played, there was audio to go with it.
“What a fucking steal! Got the bastard when we were going for the golden carrot, eh?” The man with the gun said cheerily.
The other one grunted. “Yeah, but you’re not the one who had to fight him. He got me good a few times before I knocked him out. There’s blood everywhere.”
“No worries. We’re gonna be long gone before he even realizes. Idiot is still in the kitchen cooking.”
“Fuck him. I can’t hold this pig forever.”
The video cut out, leaving the room in a sea of fury. I stood slowly, my hands moving to the desk as I tried to take deep breaths.
“Whoever they are, I want them found. I don’t care what you need to use, do it. I will pay through the nose. But find them. Alive preferably.”
I’m not sure if it was the menace in my voice or the look in my eyes that gave away how serious I was. No matter the reason, the team looked at me as if I were an alien.
“What?!” I asked when no one moved.
Ronan scrubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just… you don’t seem like the type to be this way. The whole burn down the world thing is our stuff. You’re a politician with plans on running for the senate, right?”
“I could give a fuck less about my position or this goddamn country right now, Ronan. My only focus is on getting back the man I love and treating the people who took him to a taste of their own medicine. Are you going to be able to help me with this, or will we need to have group therapy to discuss everything before one of you gets to work?”
It was silent for a second before Memphis let out a booming laugh. “No wonder Tank loves him. They’re perfect together.”
The rest of the men gave nods to agree, then they dove into their plans. Memphis worked on clearing up the footage to get a make and model of the car. From there, he said he would check street cameras to find out where they went.
Ronan and the others discussed Lune and his whereabouts. They didn’t have anything concrete, though there were several places they thought he might be.
“We can’t go to all of them. Time is of the essence,” I pleaded when it seemed like we were going in circles.
Archie stood. He came around the table to be at my side. “I understand you’re scared right now. It’s normal to feel that way when someone you care for is in danger. But these guys are the best of the best. They’ve saved plenty of people in their day, and since this is one of their own, you can bet they’re going to do everything they can to get him.”
“Yeah, ok,” I replied, since I wasn’t sure what else I could tell them.
“Why don’t you and I go get something to eat? I don’t think you managed breakfast, did you?”
My stomach growled, answering him before I could. Still, I added in, “It’s on the floor of my bedroom right now. I dropped the tray when I realized things were a mess.”
The visual of the blood and my messed-up sheets came to mind. It was then I remembered I’d taken photos of it.
“Oh, shit. Here!” I handed the phone to Ronan. “Pictures of the room. You might want to see them. I can take you there too if you want.”
He opened the camera, cursing as he scrolled the images. I didn’t think to tell him how many there were, which is why his brows rose when he started to reach the more personal photos in the file.
“Um,” he said, and when I looked, I saw a photo of me and Tank a few years ago. “This is — shit, this is a really old picture, Councilman Sheppard.”
“Please, call me Chance. And yeah, it is old. What’s your point?”
He looked around the room at the other men who were clearly eavesdropping, though none had anything to add.
I sighed as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “If you all need to know, then I’ll give you the basics. I won’t elaborate past this, understood?”
“Yep!”
“Yes!”
And many more enthusiastic retorts chanted back to me.
“Tank and I have been together for years. More than any of you can imagine. I knew him back when NightShade was merely a dream. In fact, I was the first person he told about it. We’ve been secretly dating since then.”
Memphis whistled. “So he’s basically your husband, then?”
“This state doesn’t recognize common law,” I replied.
“Either way, I’d say it’s pretty fucking close. Can’t believe that asshole kept this from us. After all these years and secrets. Who knew he had it in him?”
Takeshi and Archie raised their hands. Ronan wobbled his palm as if to say it was possible, but he hadn’t considered it. Godric, Orion, and Cohen all appeared to be locked in a heated whisper battle rather than caring about the vote at all.
“Doesn’t matter what you all think. I told you the facts. Now let’s focus on getting him back. I’m not willing to let him go without a fight.”
The men stared me down as if to question whether or not I could protect myself. While I wasn’t proficient like they were, I could definitely put a bullet in a man if it meant getting Tank back.
I’d do anything for him.