Page 18 of Crave Me

My first instinct was to tell Caspian right away.

But he was already chasing down so many leads, many of which hadn’t panned out.

I couldn’t risk giving him more false hope.

No, I needed something concrete first rather than me just putting the pieces together without actual proof.

And being who this bastard was, there was only one way for me to get it.

I snatched up my phone and typed in a number I’d memorized years ago as a child as a precaution, an absolute last resort.

Well, it was certainly the time for last resorts now.

Even contacting said person risked putting them in danger if anyone got wind of it, of it exposing them. But at least Caspian was no longer having my communications monitored, so that danger would be muted if my hunch didn’t pan out. But if it did it could mean the in we needed to finally bringing the boys back to us.

I fired off a text.

Skylar: Need immediate contact. Critical status.

I put my phone down on the command center desk in what I’d come to term The Jackals Lair, as I continued going through the intel that was constantly being gathered and uploaded to the King Manor server in order to identify patterns and leads. It was how Caspian had known which areas to send his teams out to search. He’d found an intersect point between the two kidnappings and he’d had them fan out from there over an area that covered over five-hundred miles.

My phone buzzed and I got a surprise when I snatched it up to see that a response had come in a lot faster than I’d anticipated. I’d expected at least a couple of hours. I mean, they worked incredibly efficiently and quickly, but they were also always on the move and busy beyond belief—a highly-valued commodity.

Riley: Underground.

Skylar: Excavate.

Riley: Wilco.

Relief rolled through me at my contact’s response and confirmation that she’d get on it.

When Riley Hutchins set out on a task, nothing could stop her. She was like a fucking machine, honestly. She never failed. No matter what she was up against, she came out on top. It was exactly what was needed now.

I deleted the messages as a precaution, then forced myself to step away from the command center monitors. I’d already been at it for the last six hours non-stop. Not just today either. And, honestly, it was driving me crazy, both watching as the teams covered more ground with nothing turning up over and over, and then me working to analyze all the data but so far coming up empty.

I wouldn’t stop, though.

I couldn’t.

I just needed to step away for a half hour, eat something and take a break. I needed my mind sharp and clear. Well, as clear as it could actually be with Bastian and Caleb in Elijah Bane’s hands.

Stop. Don’t go there.

It would just make it harder to focus and keep my shit together if I went down that path.

I made my way out of the lair and headed through the manor, intending to grab a quick bite from some of the leftovers in the kitchen when two loud thuds caught my attention, reverberating through the house from the force of them.

I hurried along, following the sounds to the entrance doors.

Raised voices rang out and I looked to see Caspian storming on through with Dante at his back.

I moved into one of the small alcoves and watched as Dante shoved a hand through his dark brown hair, then shouted at Caspian in a way I’d never heard anybody outside of Caleb and Bastian do. “It was so far over the line!”

“That was merely the beginning,” Caspian grunted over his shoulder, not breaking his stride.

“Absolutely not. That will be the end of it, of you stooping to anything like that again!”

“Double standards.”

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