Chapter Nine

Bella's suite in the Paris Hotel

Sunday, 9:00 PM

Quinn felt her arrival only a moment before Bella took form in the middle of the hotel room. He stood but didn't approach her.

She glanced his way only once before sweeping Madeline into an overly dramatic hug. "Maddie, my dear, I'm so sorry. Say you'll forgive me."

"No way. I'm absolutely still pissed at you." She pulled out of the embrace. "How could you leave home without even talking to me? I was so worried that I even thought Quinn might have kidnapped you."

"Quinn? He wouldn't do such a thing. It would be too much work and have no purpose."

"I know that now, but what was I supposed to think when you just disappeared?" She threw a gentle punch into Bella's shoulder. "And then when we finally catch up to you, you knock us both out and disappear again. What the hell, Bella? Of course I'm mad. I'm also unreasonably happy that you are finally awake." She pulled her into another hug.

Bella's voice was barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry. I really am."

He didn't dare to interfere with their reunion. His own greeting with his sister could wait a few more minutes.

Maddie dragged Bella over to the small sofa. "Sit down here and tell me what the heck you're up to?"

Sitting down in a quiet swish of silk, Bella patted Maddie's hand. "I had to find him. I couldn't wait any longer. My brother is out there, he's a mess and he needs me."

"I thought you might be looking for him. But that doesn't explain why you kept it a secret. I'm sure I could have helped you find him."

"It's not that simple. Even less so now that Quinn is involved."

"Bella." He stepped over beside them, resting one hand on Bella's shoulder. "You know something has to be done."

"I know, I know."

He wanted to reassure her as much as he could but until they had more information he wasn't going to make any promises. "We can work together to stop him and do what we can to help him."

"You say that, but your agency will only have one way to stop Georgie. I can't bear the thought of him being hurt worse than he is now."

"He's been hurt?"

"Poor Georgie… He's been suffering so much. I haven't been able to get through to him using dreams. That's why I came to find him in person. I know if I can talk to him face to face, I can help him."

He was surprised to hear that Georgie had been hurt but it seemed as if Bella was being intentionally vague about the situation.

"Please Quinn, let me talk to him first. Let me try to get through to him."

It was exactly the scenario that he'd been hoping for. So, why did it feel like a mistake to let her do it alone? Was he worried about Georgie hurting Bella? No matter how unstable he was, surely that wasn't a possibility. "I don't have a problem with you making first contact with your brother."

Maddie asked, "Does that mean you've found him already?"

"I know he's close by."

He pulled a chair around to face them. He'd felt Bella pushing a hint of power into her words. One look at her face confirmed his suspicion. She was hiding something. Most likely she knew exactly where her brother was. But if she was willing to use her powers on Maddie while knowing he would notice… Did she trust them so little?

Bella stood again. This time to put space between them.

He caught her hand in his. "Bella… We're on your side. We can help if you'll let us."

She pulled free. "I'm going to see him now. Alone. If you came, it could get more complicated than it needs to be." Before it could become a debate, Bella disappeared in a burst of tiny golden butterflies.

"She always did know how to make an exit." Maddie stood and moved to his side. "So… do we follow her?"

"We follow her." He looked down and met her grinning expression. It was the first time he'd noticed that she was much shorter than him. Her personality must make up for the height difference.

"Good, because I stuck a tracker on her."

He didn't bother to mention he'd done something similar by applying a layer of his magic to her shoulder. If one option failed, the other would act as back up.

"What do you expect to find?"

"Bella was putting on a lot of drama there but under it all, she was very worried. I suspect that she already found him or maybe even met with him and was discouraged by his condition. What exactly that will mean, is hard to tell." He hoped he was wrong, but judging by Bella being worried, he could only assume that Georgie was worse than he'd feared. After he'd intervened and saved Tessa from the soldier vamp, he'd begun to hope that his friend was still in control and still rational enough to be reasoned with.

Perhaps that had been too much to hope for.

Maddie's hand landed on his arm with a fierce grip. "Let's do this."

"Indeed."

* * *

Division Eight Headquarters

Sunday 9:30 PM

Tessa jumped out of the car almost before it came to a stop. Not that she was trying to get out of a conversation with her hubby, but yeah well… that was exactly the truth. Why was Deven so dead set on holding off on having children?

Not that she was against the idea. She wasn't. She'd just started teasing him by suggesting that it would be great if she could get preggers right away. Of course, she knew that Deven was still young. Their age hadn't stopped his twin brother from rejoicing about their babies.

"You have me."La'rin whispered into her mind.

Yes, yes, of course she had her sentient knife, and she was coming to see it had the personality of an overprotective child. That didn't change her interest in having babies with Deven. Someday. Mostly she just wanted to be able to enjoy the possibility. After all they'd done physically over the last week, there was at least a reasonable chance they'd already achieved that someday without ever considering if they should or not.

Her mate caught up to her at the back door. His arms slid around her waist, and he pulled her body back against his. "Don't be mad."

"I'm not." She pushed open the door.

"You are. But…" He turned her body and entered their home in front of her. One hand brushing over his pistol. "What is that smell? Is that a goat?" He moved to the nearest window and looked out into the dark backyard. "I'm not sure what I'm seeing… I think we have goats…"

"I forgot to mention it, Harley told me that Zeven bought a nanny goat to provide milk for the babies."

"You forgot to mention our home was turning into a farm?"

"Yeah, I was busy discussing our future children."

He chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. I already know that we'll do whatever you want, and I'll be happy about the path you choose. Sorry I took the return teasing too far." He brushed a kiss over her lips. "I'll take our things upstairs. Care to join me there for a long bath?"

"Oh… sure. Count me in." She stroked her fingers down his back as he turned away. All those muscles, naked and wet… It had been a very nice honeymoon in their hot tub suite and the result had been Deven learning to love playing in the water.

But first she'd grab some snacks to take up stairs. She started toward the kitchen but then noticed a light on in her office. Who would be in there? For some reason she'd assumed the cases would all be on hold until she and Deven returned. But people still did bad things. Lives still needed saved. Stopping one bad guy just simply wasn't enough to earn more than a couple days vacay.

She pushed her office door open. "Hey…" She'd expected Quinn since he sometimes wandered in to look through her reports. Or even Zeven looking through past cases as part of his training. But instead, Joseph was slouched in her gaming chair scrolling through her search pages.

He jumped. "Ah. Sorry. Didn't know you'd be back tonight."

She hadn't meant to scare him. "It's okay. What are you looking for?"

"Quinn asked me to find some information. Once I found it, I thought maybe… Maybe I could get him some more intel if I kept looking."

"Where is our boss man?"

Joseph switched through a couple more screens. "He's not here. We all thought he'd just gone out for, um... for a meal. But that wasn't it. I don't know where he is now."

"Then how did he ask for intel?"

"He called, but he hasn't been in contact since. When I noticed the car gone, I went back through the security cameras." The boy's voice was trembling but rushed.

Something had him upset. "Show me."

"This is what I found." The video that came up on the center screen was of the covered parking area, where Deven had just parked. But in the video the main agency car was still there. A truck pulled in behind it. A Black woman got out and then moved a body shaped tarp from the truck bed to the front passenger seat of the car. She disappeared for a moment while the truck moved out of the frame. Then she returned carrying several duffle bags which she tossed in the back seat.

"Do you know who she is?"

"Quinn didn't say."

"How would he know?" Before she got the question out another video came up. This time from the front door which they rarely used. It showed Quinn talking with the same woman and then collapsing. Then the woman loaded his body into the bed of the truck. Her heart slammed into overdrive. "Quinn was kidnapped?"

"I don't understand it. He called hours after being taken. The video time stamp from the front door was at 3:02 AM. But that is the same woman and the same truck at twelve hours later taking the car. It's just a guess but I think Quinn was wrapped inside the tarp."

Maybe it wasn't a kidnapping? "Do we know where he is now? Is he answering his phone?"

"He's not answering. I think he's probably in Las Vegas looking for a woman named Bella."

"Bella was the vampire in Malibu, the one he thinks of as a sister. Move over. If he has his phone, we can find him." She took over her chair and started shifting programs around to focus on her phone tracking options. It couldn't really be called hacking, but she had open access to cellular data. The information on her own team members was all just a few clicks away. She pulled it up and started running the program.

In seconds there were happy little chimes of success.

"Nice. Looks like he is in Vegas."

Deven stood in the doorway. He'd been there for a few minutes and probably heard enough to understand the situation. "What now?"

"We should go after him. Shouldn't we?" She held his worried gaze but already knew his answer would be yes. Some things they didn't need to argue over.