Page 44 of His Captor

“Somebody was clearly looking for something,” Hayden said, stepping forward to join me. “Or else they were really, really drunk or high.”

Colin wasn’t looking for anything. Or, at least, that hadn’t been his primary motivation. He might have tried to make it look like he was searching for either information or prototypes of my security tech, but really, he was trying to scare me.

“They weren’t high or drunk,” I said, picking my way over to the kitchen area, which was just as much of a mess, with ripped open cereal boxes, coffee grounds everywhere, and the fridge hanging open with its contents spilled out. “They were sending a message.”

“And what message was that?” Hayden asked following me as I kicked aside debris and made a path for us. “That they really, really hate you?”

I paused and turned back to him, knowing I looked stern and alpha-scary. “Yeah, that’s more or less what it is.”

Hayden’s expression registered surprise. “I was just joking, but clearly you’re not,” he said.

I nodded grimly, looking around at the trashed space. “My ex business partner wasn’t happy about me dissolving our previous company and setting out on my own.”

“So he did this to show you how pissed off he is?” Hayden said, picking up a half-smashed coffee cup by its handle where it sat in a puddle of damp sugar from the container that had been knocked over.

I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face, the initial shock of witnessing Colin’s revenge starting to subside. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket. “It’s more complicated than that,” I said, tapping to activate my phone and dialing 9-1-1.

“What, were you two lovers or something?” Hayden asked warily.

Emergency Services answered immediately, so all I could do was shake my head at Hayden before I had to launch into an explanation of the nature of my emergency. Unfortunately, I had to say some pretty unnerving things in front of Hayden.

“I have reason to believe that it isn’t an ordinary break-in,” I told the dispatcher. “I’ve been in the process of separating from a former business partner, and his new associates, I believe, are involved in mafia activity. This could be more serious than a couple of cat burglars.”

“Understood, sir,” the dispatcher said. “I’ll make certain the proper departments are notified.”

As soon as I hung up, Hayden blurted, “So the mob did this? You’re involved with the mob? My bestie, Ari, accidentally got involved with the mob a while back, and it was terrifying.”

Hearing Hayden more or less say he had experience with the mafia, well, sort of, was not what I expected.

“You need to get out of here,” I told him, shuffling across the messed up floor and grabbing his arm, intending to march him out of my apartment. “Whatever is going on here, I don’t want you involved.”

“Ouch,” Hayden said, his pinched face. “And after we had such a lovely day together.”

I huffed out a breath and slowed my steps halfway to the door. “No, that’s not what I mean,” I said, insides roiling for about fifty different reasons. “This is a crime scene. I’ve got someone out to get me. You’re a very pregnant omega. You don’t need this kind of stress right now.”

“Do I look stressed?” Hayden said, throwing his arms out to the sides.

Actually, he looked about as chill as it was possible to be in the middle of a crime scene.

Which only meant that he didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation.

But if I knew anything about Hayden, it was that he was stubborn as fuck, and even if I carried him back down to his own apartment, he would probably end up in my penthouse againbefore I did. It was probably better to keep him where I could see him, at least for now.

“Okay,” I sighed. “You can stay. But don’t touch anything. This is a crime scene.”

“I feel like I should say that the biggest crime is the generic way you’ve decorated the place, but now doesn’t seem like the time,” Hayden said, glancing to the one wall that still held artwork.

I smiled unexpectedly. It really was the wrong time for jokes, but having Hayden with me, even though every instinct I had was to shelter and protect him from Colin and his friends, made me feel more at ease. It made me feel like I could handle the escalation of the feud between me and Colin much better.

The cops arrived with surprising speed, which was a point in Barrington’s favor to me. They were knocking on the apartment door within fifteen minutes. They’d brought Mr. Granger, the building manager with them.

“I heard there was a break-in,” Mr. Granger said as he stepped into the room, his face going white as he saw the destruction, “but this is next level.”

“Have you been able to determine how the burglars entered the apartment, Mr. Canton?” the young, beta officer who was the clear leader of the small team of cops now prowling over my apartment asked.

I hadn’t had enough brain cells to think about it.

“There are no signs of a forced entry,” Hayden answered without hesitation, sounding so unusually serious that I was certain he was pretending he was part of a TV crime drama. “There aren’t many ways to get into a penthouse apartment either. I think whoever it was came through the door.”

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