Page 89 of Her Wolf

Possible Suspect: Dreamy

“Hey, wake up!” Finn patted the side of Lars’s face with his hand. Lars’s head rolled to the side, his ear on his shoulder.

He was out cold.

Finn gritted his teeth, hoisted Lars to his feet, and swung his arm over his shoulders. He dragged Lars around the corner, flung open the kitchen door, and wrestled him through the bustling crowd. As soon as one of the waiter staff saw them, people began asking if they could help.

“We’re fine,” Finn snapped, turning around so he could back out the kitchen door.

Halfway up the ramp that led to the ground floor of the hotel, Bailey arrived at his side.

Finn stared past him, waiting for Cora to emerge from the corridor they were headed towards, but she never did.

When he turned furious eyes to Bailey, the man broke eye contact, deciding instead to grab Lars’s other arm and swing it over his shoulder.

“Where is she?” Finn craned to see past Lars’s bobbing head.

“She was dancing,” Bailey said, refusing to make eye contact, “and then she was gone.”

“Gone?” Finn climbed out under Lars’s arm. “Take him to the den,” he said, stabbing a finger down the corridor to where they’d met with the dealers earlier that night.

Bailey went without another word, but at a much slower pace than Finn had. It wasn’t that Lars was heavy, but the man was so tall that it was difficult to get him around corners.

Finn snatched his radio from his belt. “November, this is Mike, come in.”

He pressed the edge of the radio against his forehead, pacing two steps before spinning around and pacing back the other way. Eventually, a crackle of static came back with a hesitant, “Yeah, it’s Neo.”

Finn waited, but of course Neo didn’t know the first thing about call signs. “Where are you? Over.”

“In the ballroom. Why?”

“Can you see Cora anywhere?”

“Can I or have I?”

“Can. You.”

“Uh…” Static. “No. Not from where I’m standing. Should I be looking for her?”

Finn clenched his jaw, the radio creaking as he tightened his fingers around the plastic unit. “Yes,” he said. “Get word out; she’s gone missing.”

“You sure?” Neo gave a short laugh. “She could be in the pisser.”

No, Cora wasn’t powdering her fucking nose. She hadn’t slipped off to the bar. What he’d been dreading since the moment he’d walked into this fucking death trap had finally happened.

Someone had taken her.

“Tell you what,” came Neo’s voice over the radio. “I’ll radio up everyone and ask them to lock down. No one leaves until we’ve found her.”

It might already be too late, but it was better than nothing.

“Keep a look out for Ana, too. She was supposed to be with Cora.”

“Sure. I’ll let you know if I find something,” Neo said. And then added a grim, “Over.”

Finn let out a stale breath. He barged into the den, making Bailey flinch where he perched beside Lars’s motionless body on one of the leather sofas.

“Leave him. We have to find her.”