Page 29 of Toy

“Uh-huh.”

“Right. Thanks.”

I met Beck in her office fifteen minutes later. My heartbeat felt sluggish, and my fingers were numb. All I could think about was Jolie, bleeding and terrified, tied up in a dark van somewhere. Used and abused. The more I thought about it, the more awful scenarios appeared in my mind, conjured up by the darkest parts of my brain.

“Mason, calm down. Deep breaths,” Beck told me after I gave her a hurried run-down of the situation.

“Don’t give me that bullshit. Jolie’s fucking gone,” I growled.

She held her palms up. “I know. But you can’t lose your shit now. She needs you to stay calm so we can find her.”

I slumped into a chair and scrubbed my hands over my face. I knew she was right, but it was far easier said than done. “How the fuck are we supposed to find her?” I muttered.

Beck took a seat across from me and pulled out a notepad from the desk drawer. “You said something about a tracking device?”

I nodded. “I had one on her, but the guy who took her found it and destroyed it.”

“What sort of tracker was it?” Beck asked, brows furrowing. “And why did you have it on her?”

“It was a phone one,” I said evasively. “I put it on her so I’d always know where she was. To keep her safe.”

“Right. And it’s definitely offline?”

“Yes. I already checked.” I put my head in my hands and puffed out a deep, frustrated breath.

“These guys are even better than I thought.” She shook her head and sighed. “You said they overpowered the security team you had stationed around the apartment building?”

“Yeah. I guess they’ve had eight years to learn and practice all this shit, huh?” I said. Before she could respond, I held up my right hand. “Look, I can’t prove it was the cult, but I know it was them.”

Beck’s lips tightened. “Don’t worry, I agree. I’m inclined to think they sent Tom Anderson to grab her, thinking it would be easy, but when that failed, they sent someone better. It might not even be one of their members. They hired some guys from the mafia to kill your family eight years ago, right?”

Something twisted in my guts. “Yeah.”

“So for all we know, they still have mafia connections here. They could’ve hired some guys to take Jolie for them. Professionals.”

My heart sank. I hadn’t even considered that. If there was anyone out there as bad as the cult—or worse—it was the fucking mafia. “Christ…”

“I can put some feelers out. See if we have anyone undercover who can find out if any mob-associated guys were hired to kidnap a girl recently. It might take a while, but it’s a start.”

“What if it wasn’t the mafia, though?” I said. Something else had suddenly occurred to me. “Jolie told me that when I was beating Tom’s face into a pulp a few weeks ago, he said it didn’t matter if I killed him. He said the cult would just keep sending guys. So I’m pretty sure that’s what they did—sent another member.”

Beck’s shoulders slumped. “Right. Well, I’ll put the feelers out to our mafia connections anyway. We need to explore every angle just in case.”

As she made a note about it, I slammed my fist down on the other side of the desk. “I let this happen,” I said through gritted teeth. “I fucking let this happen.”

Beck’s forehead wrinkled. “Mason, seriously, you need to calm—”

I held up a hand, cutting her off. “No,listen. I left her for less than an hour. That was allit took for them to get her. I should’ve known they were that dedicated, but instead I got comfortable with the security team and thought it would be safe. How fucking stupid is that?” I shook my head, cheeks aflame with rage at myself. “I shouldn’t have let her go home alone, even for such a short amount of time. But I did.”

Beck rolled her eyes. “Okay, you need to listen to me now. Whoever took Jolie knew what the hell he or she was doing. If they managed to sneak around and take down six big guys whose literal job is security and protection, then they probably would’ve gotten the drop on you too. You might love Jolie, but that doesn’t make you invincible. A tranq gun would affect you just as much as any of the other guys.”

“This isn’t fucking Hollywood. Tranquilizers don’t kick in right away,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “They take several minutes. Sometimes even half an hour or more. So I could’ve fought the guy off somehow, even if I was all fucked up and weak from the dart.”

She sighed at my stubborn attitude. “Maybe, maybe not,” she said, clasping her hands together on the desk. “But this line of thinking isn’t productive, is it? What’s the point in sitting here blaming yourself?”

My face softened slightly. She was right. The longer I sat here berating myself, the further away Jolie got with her abductor. My guilt could eat me alive, and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference.

I took a deep breath. “You’re right,” I muttered. “I just don’t know what the fuck to do.”

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