Siren in Bloom

Chapter Nineteen

Leo sat back, looking around the bar, feeling a sense of contentment he hadn’t felt in a long time, perhaps ever. Wolf was talking to Logan, the deputy nursing his beer and looking a bit more settled than before.

Logan was staying. Logan was dedicated to getting better.

Wolf was staying. Wolf was dedicated to Shelley. Oh, he had to grovel and make Shelley accept that he was a dumbass, but a dumbass who loves her. It would be kind of fun to watch and even more fun to spank Shelley’s ass when she inevitably took the argument way too far and turned that bratty mouth on him. He hadn’t forgotten that she’d told him to shut up. He was just mentally adding it to her punishment list. There was a whole lot of gingerroot in that girl’s future.

Ben walked into the bar. He looked completely out of place. He was in sweats and a T-shirt, his dark hair ruffled. There was a stack of papers in his hands. He glanced around the bar and then made his way to the table Leo shared with Julian, Logan, and Wolf.

“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.”

Wolf’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.

“I don’t know if I could run. I feel terrible.”

“Probably ketamine,” Chase explained. He was taped down in a similar fashion. The big Dom looked worse for the wear. His left eye was swollen shut, and he had a fat lip. Silvery tape wrapped around his torso, holding him upright. “It’s a tranquilizer. Veterinary. Easier to get than the human stuff, but it works.”

“It made me sick.”

“Again, it is supposed to be used on horses. And I wouldn’t mind a little of it right about now. I think one of those fuckers didn’t expect much of a fight. Holder seemed pissed as shit that I was damaged goods.”

Her brain was still a foggy mess. She tried to clear it. Holder was the man who had helped her with the robber, and then he’d shown up at Leo’s office with the pictures of Ada. Shelley put two and two together and came up with the fact that Holder was an asshole. “He arranged for my laptop to be stolen. Jerk. What does he want?”

There was an echo of footsteps. Shelley forced her head to turn.

“I want a certain tape that your husband made.” Holder frowned down at her. Any vestige of charm was gone. Holder was dressed in black, the stark color a contrast to his silver-white hair. Icy-gray eyes pinned her. “You can tell me where that tape is and make it easy on yourself, or we can do this the hard way. I’m prepared for either.”

He flicked a hand and another man in black walked up, carrying a small metal tray.

“Is that what I think it is?” Chase asked.

“It’s sodium amytal.” He picked up the hypodermic needle.

“I don’t know anything,” she said. They could give her all the drugs in the world, and she wouldn’t be able to help them.

“God, Shelley, just tell them. The jig is up, sweetheart. Holder knows.” Chase’s voice was gravely. “Time isn’t on our side here, sweetheart.”

He emphasized the word “time.”

He wanted her to stall. God. She had to buy them some time. If Holder decided that she didn’t know anything, there would be zero reason to keep them alive.

“Tell me something, Holder,” Chase was saying. “Why did you kill Ada? Don’t pretend you didn’t. You wouldn’t have had those pictures if you didn’t. I assume you’re planning to pin this whole thing on me.”

A cold smile curved up Holder’s lips. “You’ve been out of the game too long, Ben. You should never have revealed that emotional shit to a roomful of people. I was worried about how I would handle getting rid of Miss McNamara here. I thought I might have to cover it all up, but this is so much easier.”

“You won’t be able to cover anything up,” Shelley said. “Leo and Wolf will look for me. They’ll find me.”

Her stomach rumbled again. The charm. By now, Kitten would have finished up her count and gone to find Leo and Wolf. They would turn on the GPS, and they would come for her.

Despite the fact that she was pissed at Wolf, she knew he would come in with guns blazing. She just needed to give him time.

Holder seemed willing to talk for a little while. “And now, thanks to Ben here, they can find a corpse because Ben has an axe to grind with your pervert boyfriend, Leo. Leo was fucking his girl. Leo was the one she wanted. It’s funny how plans come together, isn’t it? I tried to pin Ada’s murder on Leo. I even studied that damn Shibari crap so the bondage would look right. I’ve been very careful and though I didn’t pin it on Leo back then, I can sure as hell pin this on you now.” Holder got close to Ben.

“So I get pissed off after all these years and decide to take it out on Leo’s sub?” Chase asked. “Why now?”

Holder shrugged as if it didn’t really matter to him. “Maybe you just like brunettes. Maybe you waited until Meyer found one he really loved. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. After the cops hear about all the weird shit you guys pull on women, they won’t be so surprised you decided to rape this one and kill her and then yourself.”

Rape? She felt her strength return on a tidal wave of anger. “I’m not telling you anything. I hope that file gets out.”

She had no idea what file he was talking about, but she bet it was criminal and could cost whoever was on it some jail time.

Holder was perfectly calm as though the outcome had already been decided. “You will talk. You’ll talk, and then you’re going to make this all look good for the papers. Meyer will be caught in a shit storm after Ben here writes a long letter detailing how Meyer was involved in a drug-running deal that little Ada caught wind of. Ben will say he found out about how Meyer paid to have his little bondage girl killed.”

“An interesting story,” Chase said with a little uptick of his lips. “But I do see a few problems with it. First of all, how are you going to get me to do anything with only you and the Hulk there? It took four of your assholes to take me down the first time. And a Taser.”

Holder squeezed the syringe until a bit of the drug squirted out. “I don’t need all my men now that I have you two properly secured. Besides, I needed them back at that club. I got them in as body guards. I think Lodge might notice if the senator’s body guards disappeared.”

“I don’t think I’ll cooperate, Holder,” Chase said.

Holder laughed, the sound grating on Shelley’s nerves. “Your cooperation isn’t necessary. My teammate here will simply use your dead hand to fire a bullet from the gun that will take Miss McNamara’s life, and then you’ll be covered in gunpowder residue. Don’t worry too much about it, Ben. I’m very good at covering up my crimes. I don’t make mistakes.”

He pulled up the sleeve of Shelley’s T-shirt, the needle in his hand. Shelley shrank back as much as she could. She was terrified of that needle. She was still shaky from the last drug he’d pumped through her body. She wasn’t focused. How would she handle something else? Would her heart simply slow and stop? Would she die without ever seeing them again?

She wished she’d never walked off that stage. She should have stayed and fought it out with Wolf.

She braced herself for the strike, but Chase’s voice stopped Holder’s hand.

“You made a huge mistake, Holder. I’m not Ben.”

Holder’s eyes went wide, and he turned to the big guy standing next to him.

“Don’t look at me, boss, I wasn’t there.” The big guy got on his phone.

Holder took a step back. “You’re lying.”

Chase grinned. “Why don’t you pump me full of that shit, and we’ll see who’s lying? I’m Chase, not Ben, dumbass. I never met Ada. I wasn’t even in the same country as she was killing in. I was in Iraq. And I have zero reason to hate Leo Meyer. Good luck with that.”

Holder’s face got red, and Shelley worried that Chase had made a horrible mistake. And then Chase nodded, turning his chin up, and she saw him. A shadowy figure moved across the window. Chase started to shout at Holder, giving the man on the fire escape the ability to step up. He went to one knee, a rifle in his hand.

Leo or Wolf? It didn’t matter. They were here. They had come for her. She loved them so much. If they all survived, she wasn’t going to be apart from them again.

Holder sneered down at Chase, waving at him dismissively. “Joe, kill this asshole. If he isn’t Ben Dawson, then he’s useless to me. We’ll have to figure something out, but we can’t let him live.”

Joe pulled his handgun and, with a smile on his face, started toward Chase.

“No,” Shelley yelled, trying to move.

Holder turned back to Shelley. He pulled at her hair, jerking her head to one side. “You’re going to tell me what I want to know. I want those files or I swear to god whatever those perverts did to you will seem like heaven. You’ll beg me to let you die. Do I make myself clear?”

She winced, her scalp stinging. She tried to pull away, but there was nowhere to go. She turned her eyes to Chase, who had tried so hard to keep them both alive. He’d bought them time. He couldn’t die now.

Joe held up his gun, but Chase merely smiled at the man.

There was a loud crack, the sound ringing through the air. The shot hadn’t come from the man on the outside, but from her left. Joe’s body jerked, and the gun fell from his hand, clattering to the floor. She heard Holder gasp behind her. Joe spun around, and before he could hit the floor, Shelley saw the neat hole in his forehead. His eyes were dead and glassy as he fell.

“Drop it, Holder. Move away from her.” Leo stalked into the room, his feet moving silently across the floor. Wolf was next to him. They moved in perfect time as though they had been partners all their lives.

They were the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen.

Holder tightened his hands around her and quickly shoved the needle in her neck. Shelley screamed at the pain. She could feel the burn.

Holder stood behind her, only paying attention to the men walking toward him. He used her body as a shield. “One step closer and I pump this whole fucking syringe through her system. It’s too much. She won’t be able to handle it.”

“Yes, I can. I’ll be fine,” Shelley said. God, she didn’t want him to push that plunger down. She wasn’t sure what it would do, but she knew if Leo and Wolf dropped their guard that Holder could have a gun in his hand really fast.

“It’s a barbiturate. I already pumped her full of ketamine. Do you want to see how she’ll handle an overdose of this shit, too?” Holder asked.

“The cops are on their way,” Wolf said. His eyes found hers. “Baby, it’s going to be okay.”

“Don’t you drop those guns,” she replied. “I’ll be fine.”

“She won’t,” Holder said. “I already killed one of your bitches, Meyer. Do I need to kill another one?”

“Ben, that’s a confession. You’re good to go,” Leo said. Shelley noticed the small device in his ear. Ben was the man on the ledge. Ben was the sniper, and he had his command.

“What the?” It was all Holder got out before Shelley felt something whiz by her head and then Holder’s hands softened, and he fell behind her. The needle stuck in her neck, but Leo was at her side in a second, gently pulling it out and tossing it aside. She wanted to get her arms around him. She’d almost died. She’d almost lost everything.

There was another loud report, jarring Shelley.

“Hey, he was already dead, Wolf,” Leo said, his hand on her skin.

“He stuck a fucking needle in her neck. He can’t be dead enough for me.” Wolf paced the floor, but his eyes didn’t catch hers.

Tears streamed down Shelley’s face. Her neck hurt, but it didn’t matter.

Leo used a knife on the tape, and she was free in a moment. He pulled her into his arms. “Baby, baby, I was so scared.”

She wrapped her arms around him.

Ben ran in the warehouse as the sirens wailed.

“How the hell did you get here so fast?” Chase asked.

“Kitten made Shelley swallow her GPS,” Leo explained.

Chase smiled. “Kitten’s getting a reward spanking. Oh, yeah.”

Shelley held on to Leo like he was a lifeline, but her eyes trailed to Wolf. He glanced at her, but didn’t move to hold her.

“I’m going to wait for the cops.” Wolf nodded and walked out.

“Don’t worry, baby,” Leo said.

But she couldn’t help but worry. Half her heart had just walked out the door.