Page 124 of Promised to the Alpha Prince

What was going on?

She let out a strangled half sob, shaking all over.

Then, slowly, she lowered the phone.

“Aurelie?”

She shook, blinking rapidly, worrying at her bottom lip with her teeth. I could see she was in shock.

“Omega,” I barked. It had been a long time since I’d used a bark on anyone. It was something I’d used in the service of Sector Unius, occasionally, but I’d left that sort of behavior behind.

Her gaze snapped up, color spreading back in her lips and features.

“Tell me what just happened,” I said.

“They have Corentin,” she breathed in a horrified voice.

“Who?”

“They didn’t say,” she said. “They had… accents, like… I don’t know.”

“Arenzan accents?” I said, putting this together too quickly. Oh, he’d told me he had wrenched the deciding stocks in his company back from that crime family, but I knew about the Bannino family. I’d had dealings with them before, and I knew they didn’t take well to having power wrested from them.

“Yes,” she said. “How did you know?”

“I looked into Corentin. He didn’t make all that money he has without getting his hands dirty.”

She considered. “He used to sell drugs.”

I chuckled darkly. “Is it a ransom request?”

She nodded.

I let out a breath. Why do that? If they wanted to retain their shares in the company, how did kidnapping serve them? Well, I’d puzzle over that later.

“I don’t have access to the kind of money they want,” she said. “They say Dmitri will pay it for me, but he won’t. And—”

“Oh, we’re not paying them,” I muttered. “I’ll take care of this, omega.” I was actually relishing the idea of that. Too much time in high walls, on cushy beds, playing games with spoiled princes. Something rose in me at the idea of a real challenge.

“How will you take care of it?”

“Don’t worry about that,” I said. “Just go and take a nice bath and try to relax, and I’ll deliver Corentin Sejour back to you safe and sound by dinner time.”

“You’re going to steal him back?”

I nodded.

“But I don’t even know where they have him.”

“I’ll find him,” I said.

“All right.” She drew in a breath. “Then, I’m coming with you.”

“No, you can’t.”

“Yes, I can,” she said, her voice growing stronger. “I can’t take a bath and distract myself from this. I need to do something.”

“Too dangerous.”

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