25. Teresa

Teresa

I looked up from my computer, realizing that Flora had been gone for a while. I couldn’t imagine what was taking her so long in the restroom. It wasn’t uncommon for people to stop her in the hallway and ask her a question, but usually she’d be back by now. Hopefully she didn’t have food poisoning or something.

Closing my computer, I stuck my head out of the doorway of the office.

“Hey Amy, did you see where Flora went?”

“She had to use the ladies, but the one on this floor is closed, so she headed down to the next floor.” Amy frowned. “Seems like she’s been gone a long time though.”

“Which way did she go?” I asked, suddenly having a really bad feeling about this.

“She took the stairs.” Amy pointed to the metal door at the end of the hallway.

I thumbed a message to Lois, then pushed through the door. I stopped on the landing, closing my eyes and drawing in all my senses. Vampires didn’t have the same scent tracking ability as the shifters did, but our senses were enhanced enough that if someone had been around recently, we could generally get an idea of where they’d gone.

I caught the scent of Flora as well as a faint musky scent of a human male. It could be someone who just came through, but my gut was telling me the male scent was somehow related to Flora.

Then I saw the roll of duct tape on the floor of the landing and my heart lurched. My instinct was right: my mate was in trouble.

I went down a few flights, stopping every few steps to try to smell my mate. Then I saw it: Flora’s shoe on the landing. I picked it up, looking around, then seeing its match a few stairs down. They’d clearly been heading downstairs.

Crap, where had they taken her?

Just then my phone rang. I saw Lois’s name flash on my screen.

“Taylor, Wanda picked them up on the video feed. Your mate was grabbed in the stairwell and taken to a room in the basement. There’s one male, evidence of a knife but we couldn’t tell if there are other weapons.”

I started racing down the stairs as Lois continued, “Wait for back up when you get to the basement, Taylor. Repeat, wait for back-up. You are not thinking clearly enough to keep your mate safe.”

“I’m thinking fine,” I snarled, even though I was out of my mind with worry.

“Stand by. That’s an order.”

Lois infused all her alpha energy into the command and while I wasn’t a wolf, I also wasn’t immune from wanting to comply. My boss’s voice softened as she added, “Don’t do anything stupid. We are less than five minutes out.”

When I got to the basement I paced around, trying to get a bead on where the man had taken my mate. Between the HVAC scent and the musty smell, it was impossible for me to pick anything up. True to her word, Lois and the team arrived in less than five minutes, creeping into the basement to avoid alerting anyone to their presence.

“They went this way,” Lois said as she sniffed the air. “Taylor, you’re with me. Diaz and Henderson, watch this area in case they loop around, and be prepared to provide backup if needed.”

“Copy,” Angie responded.

As we started down the hallway Lois gave me a hard look, “Don’t kill him. We don’t need the paperwork.”

“No promises,” I said.

Lois sighed, but I knew she understood the blood rage coursing through my body right now. Her own mate had been attacked years ago and Lois had wolfed out on the guys who hurt her. Rumor had it there was nothing but bones left by the time she was done with them.

Lois tapped my arm. “Here,” she mouthed, pointing to an unmarked door. As a wolf, her sense of smell was much better than mine.

We pressed our ears against the door, listening.

“I don’t understand how killing me helps you get the money, Jake,” Flora said, her voice remarkably calm. “You know how wills work, right? Your dad has to die for you to get the money.”

“Yeah but after his perfect almost-daughter is out of the picture, the old man will have no choice but to let me back into his good graces. And once the will is changed and I’m named as his sole beneficiary, well, Dad’s got a bad heart. Things happen.”

Flora gasped. “You’d kill your own father? Henry has been a devoted father to you.”

“Shut up, cunt. You don’t know anything about it.”

“I know this,” my mate said stubbornly. “There’s no one to blame for your criminal record and your debt other than yourself. You had every chance in life, and you threw it all away. Don’t blame the rest of us for not doing the same.”

My fangs descended as I heard the sound of a slap, followed by Flora crying out.

Lois moved in front of the door, motioning for me to back her up, then counted down from three on her fingers. When she got to zero, she lifted one of her ‘shit kicking boots’ as we all called them and plowed her heel into the door right below the handle.

The door flew open with a bang and we headed inside, weapons drawn.

With a surprising swiftness, Jacob Shapiro unsheathed a knife and pressed the tip to my mate’s throat. For someone less than an inch away from getting a knife in the jugular my mate was pretty calm.

“Stay back or I slit her throat,” he yelled.

I rolled my eyes. “Try it and I’ll rip out your entrails and feed them to my wolf.”

Jacob’s eyes widened as his gaze landed on my fangs. When I let my inner vampire out my lips turned blood red and my body seemed to grow and emanate power. This guy was confused by what was happening, but smart enough to be scared.

Lois growled loudly, going into a half shift. Most shifters didn’t have enough control over their animals to do that, but Lois had such ironclad control that even her wolf didn’t dare cross her. Her arms turned furry, claws extending from her fingertips, and her face elongated as her own fangs appeared. She snarled menacingly.

Jacob made a choking noise, staring at my boss.

“What’s wrong with you freaks?” he cried in a high voice.

While he was distracted, Flora threw herself to the side, landing on the floor with the chair between her and Jacob. I leapt forward, knocking him onto his back, and straddled his waist, punching him in the face repeatedly while he whined like a baby. He didn’t even try to fight back, much to my annoyance.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lois help Flora to her feet, moving behind her and using her claw to cut the duct tape from her wrists. The bruise on Flora’s cheek made me see red.

“Are you all right?” Lois asked while I continued to sit on Jacob, vibrating with barely suppressed violence.

When he tried to scratch me I gave him another hard punch that made blood come pouring out of his nose. My fangs ached with the desire to rip out his throat.

“Don’t kill him,” Lois reminded me.

She grabbed her phone, calling the rest of the team to join us before calling her contact at the police. Diaz and I rolled Jacob over to his belly, zip tying his hands behind him, then I went to my mate. Well, after giving him a sharp kick in the ribs that made him scream in pain.

Like it was my fault he had such fragile ribs.

“Quit whining you big baby,” I snarled. “Those broken ribs will heal while you’re in jail. You’re lucky I didn’t kill you for hurting my mate.”

I took Flora in my arms, giving her a hug. “Are you okay baby?”

She nodded. “Apparently Henry made me the beneficiary of his will,” she explained. “I had no idea.”

“Your boy Jacob has a gambling problem,” Angie told us. “He owes a lot of money to the wrong people.”

Jacob just groaned.

“Don’t worry Jacob,” Lois told him. “Those guys will find you in jail, then your ribs will be the least of your worries.”