Page 11 of Dominion

Karen watched him emerge with interest. He supposed the sound of his laughter would be completely foreign to her.

Ashley slipped outof her dripping swimsuit and dried off in the YMCA locker room. Before she became Ben’s assistant she swam in the mornings before work. Now she got to work so early that she had to go in the evenings, sometimes quite late.

Not that she minded. Her first week had already given her the most exciting work of her life. Only working for the president of the United States could be more interesting and thrilling than working for Ben Stone. Hell, he exuded as much power as she imagined the head of state did, maybe more.

Her cell phone buzzed and she dived for it. She’d been trying to get ahold of Melissa for the entire day and it was odd for her sister not to at least text her back. She smiled when she saw the screen. It was Melissa.

“Hey, where have you been?”

An electronically disguised male voice spoke into her ear. “We have your sister.”

She caught the phone as it fell from her fingers. “W-what?”

“You will find a laptop on your kitchen table. Replace Ben Stone’s with that one. Meet us in the northwest corner of the third floor of the parking garage at 7 p.m. tomorrow night and bring Stone’s computer. If you tell anyone, your sister’s dead.”

“Ashley, I’m all—!” her sister’s voice, calling out from a distance to the phone, cut off.

“What have you done to my sister?” she snarled, rage taking over her initial shock.

“Shut up. If you want to see your sister alive you will do everything we tell you to do.”

The phone line went dead. She jabbed the buttons, calling back, but of course it went straight to voicemail, as it had all day. Damn.

She threw her clothes on, her entire body trembling. What in the hell was going on? What did they want with Ben’s laptop? And where did they have her sister? Did they mean they would trade her sister for the laptop?

She yanked her phone back out of her bag and texted:I will not give the laptop until you release my sister.

She stared at the screen after hitting send, but of course, no answer appeared. Without bothering to blow-dry her hair, she picked up her gym bag and jogged out to her car. They said the laptop was on her kitchen table. That meant they’d been in her house.

Should she call the police?

If you tell anyone, your sister’s dead.

She wanted to call Ben Stone. It seemed like he would know what to do, and besides, this seemed to involve him. But they were probably monitoring her phone calls.

Melissa.The thought of her sister being hurt or scared made her chest tighten painfully. No wonder she’d been worried all day. Her twin intuition had been going off.

She drove home, speeding the entire way. When she arrived, she jumped out of her car. No sign of break-in at her front door. She put the key in and turned it.

Everything looked normal. She walked into the kitchen and turned on the light. There, on the table, sat the laptop. She sucked in her breath, the hairs on her arms standing on end. Was someone in the house right now? Were they watching her? She looked around, training her ears for any sounds. Slowly, she walked toward the table and opened the laptop. It did look just like her boss’. But how would she ever swap them out? He always had his with him. He took it home at night and brought it with him to meetings, even to lunch. Probably the only time he didn’t have it was when he went to the bathroom. And it wasn’t like she could just run in and swap it out in front of Karen.

Hell.

Her belly twisted into tight knots just thinking about it.

Why did they want her to replace his laptop? Were they stealing company secrets? Or sabotaging something? Maybe inserting bad code into the security system or something? Getting his thumbprint swipe to unlock things?

She put the laptop in her satchel and sat at the table, too upset to eat anything. She chewed on her thumbnail. Well, she had all day to make the swap. She would think of something. But what if he didn’t come into work for some reason? Or was in meetings all day with it?

She stood up and paced, imagining every possible scenario she could come up with. None of them were great. Midnight came and went. She couldn’t even think about sleeping.

He knewsomething was wrong the moment he woke up that morning. Shifter instincts are always spot on; the trouble is, he didn’t always know how to decipher them. Like the night he’d met Ashley.

The sense grew stronger as he got off the elevator.

“Good morning, Mr. Stone,” Karen said.

“Morning, Karen.”

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