Page 31 of Forbidden Bond

Breathing out, she went inside. Nothing out of place. No hint of movement in the air. Empty? By all outward appearances.

She pointed to the hallway. “Guest rooms are down there. Whisper might be here; I don’t know where Play’s staying either. Here or at the club, I guess.”

“I’ll check it out.”

Strat disappeared, taking her hint that the big task lay on her. She didn’t check the kitchen. A glance told her the place was in order, no clutter or evidence of habitation. Ignoring the room, though there was more of it, she ascended the stairs to the bedroom.

That was the real test… and the last hope.

No whisper of sound, no breathing, no movement. At the top of the stairs, she hesitated. If he was in there, she could crawl into bed beside him, and they’d finish their night the right way. Pretend none of this happened.

Somehow, even before going inside, she knew he wasn’t there. The sense in the air didn’t feel right. Something about the aura was off.

It smelled of him. Of them. When she passed through the bedroom into the closet, their essence was there. Yet it was fractured. The bathroom was empty too. How many times had they stood in there together, naked, exposed, alone, in love?

Laying both hands on the glass of the shower screen, her forehead found a cool space between them.

He wasn’t there.

“Scamp!”

Strat’s call forced her to return the way she’d come, to the open landing at the head of the stairs overlooking the living room.

“Anything?” she asked.

“No sign anyone’s here or been around recently.”

They’d tried to call every number they had. Strat didn’t have Whisper’s number. She didn’t have a number for Raze, or Nicki.

“Nicki,” she said when it hit her.

“Scamp?”

“I have to stay here, I’m going to stay here…” Leaning back into the room, the hemisphere camera was out of its hidey-hole in the ceiling, though the red light wasn’t on to indicate anyone may be watching. If the cameras at Stag were motion activated, maybe theirs was the same. “Just in case he was waiting for me to show up.”

Could be she was kidding herself. But if they were both trying to find each other, one of them should stay put and give the other a chance to catch up.

“You think Nicole McDade knows something?” Strat asked.

“I think she’s in the Grand Hotel, room eight thirty-two.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I do,” she said. “Will you swing by, check it out?”

“Why would they tell Nicole—”

“I don’t care about Nicole; I care about the guys watching her. This is family. Niall commands the rotation. Doesn’t that mean he has to be in touch with them?”

Strat freed his phone from his pocket to dial. “Okay.”

“What are you doing?” she asked when he raised it to his ear.

“Calling my boy.”

“Why?”

“Because if I walk out that door, there’s no telling if you’ll let me back in.”

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