Chapter 32

My phone was in my hand before my eyes were fully open. I sat up, swinging my feet to the floor as I pulled up Eden's message. A short video loaded.

Eden stared unsmiling into the camera in a dark room, eyes big in her face. "We want Twilight. You'll be contacted telling you where and when. And Talon? Bring her yourself, and do not tell anyone. That means Brien and Cain, too." She took a jagged breath. "We—we'll be watching."

Her gaze moved off-camera. Then the phone was taken from her and the video cut off.

My blood pounded in my ears, slow and heavy. For a second—but only a second—I wondered if she'd betrayed me. Again.

But it didn't ring true. I replayed the video, this time focusing on nuances.

"We want Twilight." Someone had made Eden say that.

Her tone had been so flat, not like her at all. I didn't believe for a second that she was involved in a plot to kidnap or stake Twilight.

Eden loved me. I hadn't needed Cain to tell me. She'd made herself vulnerable to me, over and over again. Every time we were together, her love had radiated from her, bathing me in its warmth. I'd told myself it was only the afterglow from good sex, but that was me lying to myself. So, yeah, I'd known she loved me even before she'd left the first time, but I'd pretended I didn't because then I'd have to deal with it. Gods, I was a coward.

Eden would never have left like this, which meant she'd been forced to make that video. Her kidnapper or kidnappers wanted me to believe that she was involved.

A muscle worked in my jaw. The only conclusion was that someone on the inside was part of this. Someone who'd known Eden had betrayed the syndicate once.

Hell, they'd told me that straight out.

"We'll be watching."

A second message popped up, also from Eden's phone. A crude map of a small, unnamed island about ten kilometers northwest, accompanied by additional instructions.

Leave T on the shore. You have until dawn or else your woman and spawn will be forfeited.

An X marked a narrow inlet on the island's west side.

Fear clawed at my chest. I stared at the cracked screen for long seconds after it went black, torn between my loyalty to Brien and the need to rescue Eden whatever the cost.

As a lieutenant and a made man in the Maritime Syndicate, I should go straight to Brien, show him the video and the map. But what if he decided it was too dicey?

Twilight was his mate. How could I ask him to risk her?

But if I didn't, I'd lose Eden…and our son.

Phone forgotten in my hand, I dug the heels of my palms into my eye sockets. For the first time ever, I considered lying to Brien.

My friend and primus.

The man who, while still a teenager himself, had befriended an angry, moody twenty-year-old and by believing in me—by trusting me—had taught me to believe and trust in myself.

Think, damn it.

One thing was clear. I'd do whatever it took to save Eden—and not because she carried my spawn, but because if I lost Eden, my world would go dark.

She was my priority. Compared to her safety, nothing else mattered.

Not my honor.

Not my position in the syndicate hierarchy.

Not even my long friendship with Brien.

Nothing.

Bringing my hands down, I eyed my phone. Maybe I could ask Cain to try again to track Eden's phone? They might have forgotten to power it off after sending the texts.

Or would they know if we tried to track her? That might piss them off and make things worse. Plus, Cain would wonder why I was asking. If he got suspicious, he might go to Brien.

I couldn't fuck this up. Eden's life depended on it.

I tapped out a return text. Eden comes with me or no deal.

The message was marked as sent, but not delivered. So her phone was off.

The SOBs weren't even giving me the chance to negotiate.

The claws dug deeper into my chest, squeezing the oxygen from my lungs. They'd already had Eden for over twenty-four hours. Were they keeping her in some musty, airless cell? Was she allowed to move freely, or had she been restrained?

Had they fed her? I recalled how she'd fainted that night in New York. Worse, had they fed from her despite the danger to her and the baby?

My fangs elongated. I growled and surged to my feet, angrily pacing the bedroom floor.

I grabbed my head.

Focus, damn it. If you lose it, you'll just make things worse.

But if they'd fed from Eden, I wouldn't just stake the bastards. I'd rip their goddamned limbs off and feed their bleeding remains to the sharks.

My phone buzzed. My heart leapt, but it was Cain, texting me to meet him and Brien in the war room ASAP.

I pulled on some clothes—a long-sleeved Henley, tactical pants, combat boots—and chugged a half-bottle of blood-wine. Nourishment to keep me going until I could spare the time to feed. The last thing I did before leaving my apartment was to slide a switchblade into my back pocket. My favorite dagger went into a pocket on the side of my thigh.

The war room was empty except for Brien's PA. I eyed him, frowning. A thirty-something dhampir who'd been recommended to the syndicate by Brien's friend Zoe Tremblay, Smythe didn't have clearance to be the war room.

One look at my face, and he jumped to his feet. "Lieutenant."

"What're you doing here?" I demanded.

"I—" Smythe scraped a hand over his longish dark hair, his narrow face anxious. "The primus cleared me to be here. I'm taking over some of Adrian's duties while he's on the mainland. I—"

His words tasted of truth.

"All right," I interrupted. "Any updates? Has Adrian found her?"

"No, sir. Sorry, sir. Adrian says that…" He kept talking, but I listened with only half an ear. The bottom line was that Eden was still missing and we had no clue as to her whereabouts.

Brien and Cain entered the war room in time to hear Smythe's report. Brien took me by the shoulder, waiting until I met his eyes.

"You have to have faith, bro. We'll find her, I promise."

"Yeah," I said and even managed a thanks, even though we both knew he couldn't promise that.

We filed into Cain's office and waited while he contacted the island's chief of police to see if there was any news. Cain put the chief on speaker phone, and I forced myself to pay attention as he ran down what the islanders learned that day, which again, was nothing helpful.

Whoever had kidnapped Eden knew what they were doing. But then, I'd already surmised that.

The phone call over, Brien propped a hip against his desk and looked at us. Cain was already on his feet, and I hadn't sat in the first place, choosing instead to hover near Cain as he spoke to the chief.

During the conversation, though, I'd come to a decision. I'd talk things over with Cain first, see what he thought. Then, if he agreed, I'd go to Brien.

"She'll turn up," Brien said now. "They'll make a mistake, and we'll have them."

I grunted, Eden's video burning in my brain, uneasily aware I was lying to my primus by omission.

"You're sure your mom hasn't seen Esposito?" Cain asked.

"Yes," I said. "I asked her flat out when she arrived to help search, and she swore she hadn't."

In fact, she'd broken down crying when I'd threatened to cut her off permanently from her grandson. She'd even offered to call Esposito in front of me to prove he wasn't involved. When he hadn't answered, she'd stubbornly insisted he'd call her back. "And then you'll see," she'd told me.

I'd left her then, because if I hadn't, I might have done something I regretted.

"All right." Brien opened Cain's door. "I'll be in my office. Keep me updated."

"Will do," said Cain.

Hanging back, I caught Cain's eyes and jerked my head in the direction of my own office, letting him know I wanted to talk privately. I didn't know Smythe well, and Nathan was now in the war room next to him. Until Eden was safely back in the castle, I wasn't trusting anyone but Cain with that video.

As soon as I was safely in my office behind a closed door, I scribbled a note to Cain and waited for him to come to me.

Five minutes passed, five minutes that felt like an eternity, while I stared at what I'd written, paralyzed by uncertainty. Was I doing the right thing, bringing another person into this?

If I fucked up, Eden was dead. They'd either kill her outright or leave her to starve to death in whatever dark place they'd concealed her in. That's if they didn't sell her and the baby as blood slaves.

I even toyed with the idea of kidnapping Twilight. So what if Brien staked me when he found out? At least Eden and the baby would live.

The door opened and Cain stuck his head inside. "You free?"

At my nod, he closed the door and took the chair across from me.

With a heavy sigh I pushed the note across my desk. "Maybe you're right. Maybe the bitch ran again." They'd expect me to say something like that, and for all I knew, my office could be bugged. At this point, I trusted no one except Cain, Brien and possibly Twilight.

Cain scanned the note and slid it into his pocket, frowning. I'd told him that Eden had been kidnapped, that the kidnappers wanted Twilight in exchange.

"I told you she couldn't be trusted." The words were contemptuous, but his steady gaze told me he was playing along.

"Yeah."

"What d'you want me to do?" His mouth firmed, and I knew that whatever he thought about Eden personally, he'd go to the wall to help me get her back.

I shook my head, pretending frustration when what I really felt was a killing fury. When I spoke, my voice was rough with anger.

"Just keep doing what you're doing." I pointed at the ceiling and waited for Cain's nod. "I'll be in my apartment if you need me. I want to follow up a few leads from there."

We'd done this before. Cain would meet me in the west tower, away from the video cams and any hidden watchers. A tunnel connected to the west tower led from a hall near our apartments. A tunnel which everyone but me, Cain and Brien seemed to have forgotten existed.

When I reached my apartment, I stepped inside long enough to enter the shadows out of sight of the nearest camera, then left, slipping around the corner to the tunnel. I dropped out of the shadows long enough to open the door, then slipped through, leaving it ajar for Cain.

I remained in the physical world, waiting in the unlit tunnel until he joined me a few minutes later. We both faded back into the shadows until we reached the tower's top floor. We had to leave the shadows to speak, of course.

By unspoken agreement, we moved to the tower's dark side, avoiding the moonbeam slanting through a narrow window.

"Talk," Cain demanded, his voice barely above a whisper. "The kidnappers contacted you?"

I nodded grimly. "Through Eden. They made her record a video."

I had him watch the video, then showed him the map and the accompanying instructions.

When Cain got angry, he went still. Now he went so motionless he was like a dead man standing. "Those motherfuckers. Are you going to tell Brien?"

I appreciated that he asked rather than demanding. As Brien's other lieutenant, I wouldn't blame him if he insisted on going straight to Brien.

"I don't know." I returned the phone to my pocket. "One part of me thinks he can help. The other part is afraid it's too risky. If I do something and Eden gets hurt..." I shook my head, throat tight.

Cain glanced at the moonbeam, sliding his lips to the side. I waited, giving him time to think.

"I think you should go to him," he said after a few seconds. "They want you to keep this from Brien, to come alone with Twilight, which means they plan to overpower you and either kidnap or stake Twilight. At that point Eden might be expendable."

"That's my guess, too. But I can't risk Eden. And let's face it, she's…" My voice faltered. "She's expendable either way. If I come with Twilight or if I don't."

"Not if I come, too."

"You'd do that?"

A pissed-off snarl. "You have to ask? Of course, I'll come."

I briefly closed my eyes. "Thanks, man."

"Hey. Together, right?" He raised his fist.

I bumped mine against it. "Together," I said past the obstruction in my windpipe.

"We'll get Eden back or go to our final graves trying. But if you want some advice—?"

"Please. I can't think straight. I keep picturing her with some SOB who thinks of her as a pawn, not a person." I dragged in a breath. "And she's pregnant."

"I know, bro. I know." Cain pulled me into a one-armed hug. An awkward man-hug. But I felt the love and it choked me up even more.

"You know why she left?" I asked gruffly. "She heard us talking. Heard me say she was only a thrall. I keep thinking about that, how hurt she must've been. She loves me—you said it yourself. And I didn't want to know. Didn't want her to complicate things. Gods, I'm an ass."

"Stop that. We'll get her back, and you can make it up to her—understand?" He slapped my back and released me. "Okay, then. So we tell Brien—"

"Yeah."

"Maybe Twilight doesn't have to come," he said. "One of us can assume a glamour."

"But they'll know it's not her as soon as we say something." A glamour didn't change your voice, only your outer covering.

"So we won't say anything. Now, how do you want to do this? Do you want me to send Brien up here so you can tell him?"

I met his eyes. "I'm not going to tell him. You are."

"Ah." Comprehension flickered across his face. "So you think they really do have someone watching you?"

"Yeah. Think about it—they know too much. Like how did they know Eden would be visiting her parents yesterday afternoon? And why are they trying to make me think she's on their side?"

Cain nodded thoughtfully.

"So, you talk to Brien, and I'll arrange the boat. It's less than twelve hours until dawn. We have to move." I was already fading into the shadows. "Not the Cove marina," I added. "They could be watching it, too. The cavern under the castle."

Brien kept a speedboat in the cavern that only we knew about. Might as well keep them guessing as to whether I was coming or not.

"Got it," Cain said and followed me into the shadows.