CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“ H e’ll be fine. He’s a vampire. He’s not going to die,” Ari said, and Oliver nearly laughed as he began to wake up.

“Don’t be mean, he still had a fright.” Sage spoke from close beside him and then he felt her rubbing his arm. “Car accidents are scary.”

A smirk hit his lips.

“See. He’s fucking fine,” Ari said pointedly. “Move away from him.”

Ah, the insanity of a mated male.

“Plus, we need to find Piper.”

Piper! Oliver sat up suddenly and Sage let out a little squeal.

“Told you to move.” Ari laughed.

“Where is she?” he growled, and Ari shook his head.

The fuck?

He jumped to his feet, but Ari held out his hand.

Is she dead? he asked telepathically, so as not to freak Sage out.

“We were hoping you could tell us. What happened?”

Kurt?

He’s fine. Ari glanced across the room and Oli followed his gaze to where Kurt lay on another single bed.

“We were ambushed. By fucking humans.” Oliver pushed his fingers through his blonde hair. “How long have we been out?”

“About six hours,” Ari said. “What do you know? Any idea where they’ve taken her?”

Oliver cursed.

“No fucking idea. Same tattoos on the neck. I saw a couple.”

“Shit,” Ari said.

“Oh, my God,” Sage said, her hand flying to her mouth.

Clearly, she’d been hoping he’d have some information to help them find Piper when he woke.

“This is all my fault,” she cried, turning into Ari’s chest. His eyes shot to Ari’s face, and he could see the anguish as he comforted his mate.

Oliver cleared his throat. “It’s not your fault, Sage. This is mine.”

Ari looked up and Sage turned in his arms.

“I have been unsuccessful in wiping her memory many times and I should have told someone. I have been keeping an eye on her—”

“What does that mean? Keeping an eye on her. Where?” Sage asked.

“Just...” Shit. “At home, and places.”

“Places?” Ari asked.

“Mostly at her home,” Oliver confessed.

“You’ve been visiting her?” Sage asked accusingly.

Technically, no.

“Well, not by invitation,” he answered, feeling sheepish.

Sage narrowed her eyes. “You were watching her? Did she know?”

Oliver ran a hand over his face and glanced at Ari.

“Sage, mia stellina , how about you try to get some rest? It’s been a long day. The team are out there tracking Piper, but Oliver obviously doesn’t know anything that can help us, or he would have said.”

Of course, he fucking would have. Right now, his body was vibrating with the need to have Piper back in his arms.

Sage’s eyes met his in question.

“Sage, I haven’t hurt her. I swear. I will do everything in my power to get your sister back,” he promised. “Every fucking thing.”

“You care about her.”

He nodded.

“Are you... did you?”

Oliver wasn’t going to lie or betray Piper. What she wanted to share with her sister was over to her, and he wouldn’t cross that boundary.

But it wasn’t that.

Sage was asking for herself. What the three of them had shared was not uncommon for vampires, but for Sage it had been a sexual awakening of sorts.

They all knew that.

He was special to her. As she was to him.

It was one of the reasons he’d been fighting his feelings for Piper. He knew Sage would see it as a type of betrayal —especially after what Piper had done to her in college.

He knew.

He’d seen her memories.

“Yes.”

As the single word slipped from his lips, Oliver found that his loyalties had shifted. He cared about Sage, and he still hoped like hell that his job hadn’t been compromised because of his choices and actions, but Piper was important to him.

She was his priority.

“We’ll find her,” Ari said, pulling Sage against his chest and lowering his lips to her forehead.

Sage glanced at Oli, emotion rich in her eyes, as she left the room.

Fuck.

When Sage left, Ari turned to him.

“Before we go further into all that...” Oliver said, and Ari raised his brows. “We need to get blood samples. Right now. They injected us. Whatever they used, it must be the same shit they’ve been using to kidnap the other vampires around the world.”

Ari stared at him.

“Look, I’m sorry about all this, but Ari, come on. I don’t know how long this stuff will stay in our systems.”

“Matteo is on his way with a kit,” Ari said.

Oh right, Ari must have been telepathing with Matteo, his assistant, not glaring at him.

So hard to tell with Ari.

Then the director did stare at him.

“You’re important to Sage,” Ari finally said.

“She’s important to me. It’s not because of... you know,” Oliver replied, and then realized that was a lie.

It was because of that.

Ari let out a grunt.

The truth was it had bonded them. Not as mates, but in friendship. Sage had been a big-hearted, affectionate human, and it wasn’t going to disappear now she was a vampire. He and Ari had shared a moment in Sage’s life that would always be momentous to her.

Sage didn’t fuck. She made love. And in her mind, she’d made love to him. He’d felt it. Especially the second time. Though he would never, ever, fucking ever , tell Ari.

It wasn’t necessary.

Sage was Ari’s mate, and he was happy for them.

Oliver might not be her mate, but he had a tiny slice of Sage’s heart, and he knew finding out about Piper would hurt her.

What Piper would think was another thing.

But as his mind returned to his mouthy dark-haired beauty, all he cared about was getting her safely home and then he would deal with everyone’s damn emotions.

Fuck knows what those assholes were doing to her—if she was even still alive.

“We need to talk about Piper,” Ari said.

“Yes. What’s the situation? You haven’t tracked her? What about the registration I gave you? Cameras? Fuck, we must have something?”

Ari plugged his hands into his pockets.

“Cameras were blacked out. Registration is a fake. Travis is working with Darren and the team. Logan and Elijah are tracking.”

He was pleased to hear the other two senior assassins were back in town and able to help out. But the rest was not good news. Oliver felt himself pale and a sick feeling sunk deep into his belly.

Shit.

Knowing two of his team were on the ground made him feel better but it wasn’t enough. He had to get out there.

“But that’s not what I meant,” Ari said, his eyes darting to Kurt then back to him. “Let’s go for a walk.”

A few minutes later they were heading down the hall to Ari’s office. He pushed the door open, and they walked inside.

“Look, I know I’ve fucked up. I shouldn’t have outright—”

“Oli.” Ari pointed to a chair.

Fuck.

Was he going to lose his job? Did he care? Piper needed him. He had to find her.

“You’ve worked for me for a long damn time,” Ari started.

“Yup,” he nodded.

“I told you I selected you for this role because you’re the best at what you do. You use your brain, common sense and all your skills,” he said. “You were more than ready for this job.”

He stared at Ari. “And now?”

“Now I need you to do your fucking job and stop doubting yourself.”

Oliver stood.

Ari pointed to the chair again.

He sat.

“I have a question for you,” Ari said. “One you may not have an answer for.”

Oliver frowned. “What do you mean?”

His knee was bouncing, needing to get into action.

“First, for clarity. Are you fucking Piper?”

“Yes.”

Ari nodded slowly.

“Kurt join in?”

His eyes widened. “No. No ! Why?” He asked, then realized his mistake.

Ari wiped away the barest hint of a smile. “She your mate?”

Oliver stood and began to pace. “No.”

“You sure?”

“No,” he answered quickly. “Yes. Fuck. Maybe. I don’t know.”

Ari leaned back in his chair and swiveled, lifting his foot onto his ankle. “So if I was to say that Alex fucked her a few weeks back...”

Oliver turned, his body tensing and his fangs slipping out. “Did he?”

Ari stood and slapped him on the back despite, well, his enormous power and state, which was primed to kill someone. “No. But I think you should prepare yourself to be mated in the coming days.”

Mated with Piper?

He stared at the floor, wondering if it was possible, when a knock at the door interrupted them.

“Come in, Matteo.”

“I’ve just taken Kurt’s blood, so if this is a convenient time, Master Oliver, I will take yours?”

He nodded and the old vampire came over and pulled out his medical equipment. Oliver sat down and held out his arm.

“Is Kurt awake, Matteo?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” he replied. “And not in a good mood.”

Oliver grunted out a laugh. He could only imagine how Kurt was feeling. Humans getting the jump on a Senior Lieutenant Commander of the Moretti royal army didn’t happen every day.

Nor the head assassin from The Institute.

His eyes found Ari’s. “They need to die.”

The director nodded. “Yes.”

ELIJAH AND LOGAN CAME banging through the doors of the training room and went straight to the fridge for a pouch of plasma.

Oliver waited for them to suck it down and then cross to join him and Ari.

“Sorry, man.” Logan shoved his hands on hips and shook his head.

They both looked fucked off.

“Not a scent.”

“They’re pros. Aside from the debris from the accident and a few tire marks when they took off, there’s nothing,” Elijah said.

Travis walked in and the door banged closed behind him. “Darren said they’ve wiped out cameras for miles. All of them.”

Oliver glanced at Ari. “That’s some access they’ve got. Are we talking about government involvement here?”

Ari crossed his arms, those biceps outdoing all of them. The large vampire stared through them as his sharp mind ran scenarios.

“Nothing from her mobile?” Logan asked.

“Genuis over here destroyed it,” Travis replied.

“That’s head genius to you,” Oliver said, giving him the bird. “And I destroyed it because Piper was being tracked by Tomassi.”

Then he froze as an idea struck him.

He glanced at Ari quickly, then turned to Elijah. “Did you go through the Maserati?”

My poor fucking car.

Elijah gave him a quick shake of his head. “Didn’t touch a thing. You said they pulled her out and put her in the SUV, so we followed the direction the vehicles went in and then did a five hundy mile radius search.”

“Oli—”

“Back in a minute.” Before he could ‘port away, he heard Ari’s voice. Fuck’s sake, wait.

Oliver landed beside his Maserati and shook his head at the damage. He wouldn’t think twice about exchanging it for Piper, but it still broke his damn heart. He loved that car.

“Oliver.” He wasn’t surprised Ari had followed him. “Talk to me.”

Oliver gripped the door handle and yanked it as the steel groaned and croaked like it was the sound effects for the damn Titanic sinking.

Nothing.

He grinned.

“You want to tell me what’s going on?” Ari demanded.

He turned and smiled at the ancient vampire. “They took her handbag and laptop with her. Darren will find her.”

He knew it was a long shot, but their tech team was the best in the world. If there was a way of tracking her laptop and finding her, they would.

“You’re assuming a lot,” Ari said, then smiled. “But I think you might be right. Let’s go.”

Oliver grinned.

He would find her if it was the last thing he did. Hopefully, before she took her last breath.