Chapter 41 Luke
Luke
“Another day, another adventure.” I think as I help prepare the salad for today’s dinner.
It’s a relief, there’s no doubt about it.
A bit like before and after an appointment at the dentist. We’d been waiting for some kind of action from Amanda’s husband, and we’d known it would probably not be pleasant.
Now it’s happened and we don’t have to wait any more.
It’s done. Sure, it’s not over, but Amanda has moved on, and the police raid that was presumably arranged by this Barnes asshole has happened.
On my way from the kitchen to the dining room to make sure the table is laid and everything is ready for our first sitting at seven, I spot Reid turning the corner and I cannot help smirking.
Caught you, you dirty scoundrel!
I know exactly where he’s going. Off to have some fun with Sierra, without including anyone else, such as yours truly.
Sierra mentioned she’d like to have a Reiki session today, and I know where that might lead if Reid has anything to do with it. Well, sorry to spoil your plans, Reid, but if you two are going to have some fun together, you’ll have to include me in your games.
I wipe my hands on the apron I am wearing and untie it from around my waist. Discarding it on a side table, and planning to pick it up again later, I follow him as he heads down the corridor, making for Sierra’s bedroom, which of course confirms exactly what I had suspected. He’s going at quite a pace, too.
“What’s the hurry, lover boy?” I smile, muttering the words under my breath. “Desperate for your oats, eh?”
I reach Sierra’s doorway, a smirk planted, ready on my face, fully expecting to see Reid and Sierra in a clinch, but then I stop.
Something is wrong.
Reid is there, standing by Sierra’s bed.
But there’s no Sierra. What’s more, Reid’s whole posture is wrong.
Tensed up, his back as rigid as a board, every muscle locked tight, like he’s holding himself together by sheer force.
It’s not just physical—it’s something darker.
Something coiled and dangerous, barely contained.
He’s gripping a piece of paper in one hand, and his phone is pressed to his ear.
He seems to be listening to whatever the person at the other end of the line is saying, and although I cannot see his face, I can tell Reid’s not happy with what he’s hearing.
Just as I clear my throat to let Reid know I’m there, the person at the other end appears to finish whatever they have been saying, because now it’s Reid’s turn to talk.
As he does, he half turns, and I see the tightness of his neck muscles, the set of his jawline, and most of all the flash of fire in his eyes.
“You listen to me, you cock-sucking piece of shit,” he spits into the phone. “If you touch a single hair on her head, I will kill you. Do you understand? Even if you hide, I will scour the earth for you, and I will not stop until I find you and kill you.”
A cold knot tightens in my gut as I step into the room, my gaze flicking to the messed-up bed, then back to the paper in Reid’s hand.
What the hell is going on?
I stay quiet, not wanting to break Reid’s focus, but every second stretches tighter than the last. Who did he just threaten to kill, and why?
More importantly… where’s Sierra?
“Hello?” Reid barks. “Barnes? You still there? Damn it!”
He curses, hurling the phone onto the bed.
“Reid.” I move closer now. “What’s going on?”
He looks up, his eyes blank for a moment, like it’s taking him a moment or two to work out who I am, then he comes to himself.
“He’s taken her.”
For a split second, everything inside me goes still.
Then my pulse slams back in, hard and fast, a surge of heat flooding my chest.
“Barnes—Amanda’s husband. He’s snatched Sierra. Kidnapped her.”
The words have my world collapsing in on itself.
A tingling whine turns into a scream in my ear. Sierra’s scream.
I imagine Sierra in pain, being beaten by that bastard.
No. My chest fills with acid. Please, no.
I don’t panic. I can’t. Panicking won’t help her.
“Why? How? When?” My voice is a quiet rasp, aching with the horror I’m feeling. I lower myself, touching the warm bed, my stomach twisting in knots.
“I don’t fucking know how.” He runs his hand over his face. “But he must have found out about Sierra… that we’re in a relationship, I mean, and decided she was a soft target. He’s using her as a weapon against me. He wants Amanda’s location. Says he’ll trade.”
I shake my head, hating that there’s a small part of me that even considers it. “We can’t.”
“Agreed. Anyway, even if we did, there’s no guarantee we’d get her back.” He runs his hand over his hair, gripping it like he wants to tear it out. “Fuck. Fuck!”
“Easy,” I say, because he looks like he’s either on the verge of a very bad panic attack or he’s going to turn this room upside down.
Neither of which will be helpful.
“What the fuck were the security team doing during this, huh?” His blazing eyes turn to me. “How did this bastard get through them?”
“Surveillance should show us,” I say, and Reid is already tearing out ahead of me to his office, where we can access the footage uploaded to the cloud.
I stand tense behind him as he scrubs through the footage, searching every corner, until he sees it.
A man, emerging from a storage closet, is heading inside her room.
“This happened recently,” I note. “She was hanging out with me outside until lunch.”
“How did he get here?” he mutters, his eyes rooted to the footage.
“Maybe he snuck in during the raid,” I say. “In the confusion, it would be easy for him to hide there and have no one the wiser. We stupidly didn’t run any checks to make sure the place was secure. We just assumed they all left.”
“We’re fucking idiots,” he bites out.
“They couldn’t have gotten far,” I say. “Her bed was still warm, I deliberately felt inside it, just in case it was important.
“I still don’t understand how he could get in and out without our knowledge.”
“I don’t know either,” I reply. “Maybe he has an inside man—someone on our team might have accepted a bribe, even with all we pay them. But I don’t care about that right now.
Let’s just find her. In the meantime, Reid, you call this Mayor Barnes asshole back and keep him on the phone for as long as possible.
I’ll call the FBI and have them try to track him. ”
“Wait,” he says, glaring at the figure on the screen carrying Sierra through the back door. “Before that, let’s call Talon.”