Page 75 of Keeping Eveline

“Ox!”

It took everything in him to move his head toward the sound of Angel’s voice. Growler and Irish stood behind him. They were talking, too, but Ox struggled to make anything out.

“Eveline. Missing.”

Dammit, when would he be able to say more than one word at a time?

“On it.” Growler pulled his phone from his pocket.

Having his team nearby calmed him a little. Ox should’ve known the moment the car had been hit; Cass would’ve received notification. All their cars were fitted with devices that alerted Alliez when they’d been involved in an accident.

“Sir. Can you please tell me your name? Are you in any pain?” This time the paramedic’s voice held an edge of impatience.

“Kyle. Matthews.” He paused. “Been. Drugged. Dead. Limbs.”

“Right. We’ll get you to the hospital.” She raced off.

Ox stayed where he was, a useless lump while Eveline was fuck knew where. In danger. He couldn’t help.

He could hear Growler talking to Cass.

Was Eveline still wearing the tracker he’d given her when she’d gone back to work?

Ox couldn’t recall if she’d been wearing the necklace. The earrings they’d given her had been returned.

A spark of hope ignited that Cass would be able to trace her, and he could find whoever had taken her and make them fucking pay for it.

The next few minutes passed in a blur of activity, as he was lifted from the car and onto a gurney, then put into the back of an ambulance.

Irish climbed in the back, and if the paramedic was going to say anything about his presence, she clearly had a change of heart at the look Irish sent her.

“Growler and Angel are heading back to the office to work with Cass,” his friend said quietly.

“Thanks.”

Ox wanted to say more. Demand Irish tell him if Cass had a lock on Eveline’s position, but whatever had been pumped through his system was still affecting him and he drifted off to sleep as the ambulance took off.

Fear clawed through Eveline. A bag had been thrown over her head after the masked bandit pierced Kyle’s neck with a long needle.

God, Kyle. Was he okay?

Had whatever they’d injected into him harmed him?

He’d collapsed against the side of the car, and immediately the needle had slid away from his flesh.

Was he even alive?

Her heart clenched at the thought of not hearing his voice again.

Her screams when she’d been taken had been muffled by the bag covering her head, along with a large hand over her mouth. Her arms and legs had been bound before they’d dumped her in the back of a vehicle that shot off, tires squealing.

Panic threatened to overwhelm her, but she needed to control it. As much as she wanted to embrace the panic, it wouldn’t help her. Somehow, someway, she had to find a way to get away from whoever took her. Remain strong.

She couldn’t gauge how long they’d been traveling. All sense of time and place had been stolen from her.

Eveline shifted, and the ties around her ankles tightened. She bit back a moan. No way was she going to let whoever had taken her know she was in pain. It gave her a tiny bit of control over her fate.

Her mind whirled with possibilities of who’d taken her.

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