Page 77 of Too Lethal to Love

“This is Gage. What’s wrong?”

Kane relayed what he’d learned from Dr. Sable. “Find Beth.”

“I’m heading to the office now.”

Kane’s heart hammered his rib cage. Dammit, he was the one who was supposed to be in danger of dying, not her. He knew apprehending Chavez had been too easy. He should have locked her down at headquarters, but he wanted to make his sugarplum happy on Christmas Eve. Instead, he’d gotten her…

“Fuck.” Failure tasted like blood on his tongue as he thought about the unacceptable possibilities.

Gage cursed over the line agonizing seconds later. “She’s not there.”

Hudson clicked into the call. “There’s a door to the basement in the office. It was locked from the office side when she went in there. I checked. Now it’s barred from the basement side. We found her purse and phone on the floor. And blood.”

Kane slammed his palm onto his steel leg. He felt the impact in every fiber of his flesh-and-bone being. A lot of good his superpowers did Beth if she was missing. He connected with Nic and Linc through his mind comms.“Beth’s been taken.”

Linc cursed. “So has the Chavez we captured. Minutes after he woke up, a team of mercenaries busted him out of the hospital before he could be questioned. Nic is pulling up satellite feeds but isn’t having any luck.We’re fifteen minutes out from the church.”

“We’re one minute out,”Chris said.

Hang on, sugarplum. I’m coming for you.And when he found her, he wasn’t letting her go. Ever.

The cold muzzle of a gun jammed into Beth’s temple. Biceps nudged her with his free hand down the wide stone stairs lit by a single dim bulb. “You know the way.”

Evangeline stumbled next to Beth and sobbed. “I’m sorry.”

Beth’s dislike for Evangeline grew to hatred as dark as the basement. “For what? For putting a tracker on me or helping a cartel plan my kidnapping through a secret passage?”

The tunnel had been built before it was mandatory to submit building plans to city hall. Most of the parish members didn’t even know it existed. Evangeline must have told the Diablos to break into the old residence across the street and bust through the boarded-up passageway. Last time she’d been down here, all looked secure, but nothing was impenetrable.

Not like Kane. He was impenetrable. She needed his strength, his speed, everything extraordinary about him, but she couldn’t wait for her super soldier to ride in and save her.Biceps might not be threatening to kill her, but they wouldn’t let her live once she’d served her purpose.

She paused midstep and teetered in heels. If she got herself out of this alive, she’d strangle the last of her irrational fears and start living.

And tell Kane she loved him.

Focus, Beth.She didn’t have her gun, but she’d learned to defend herself in other ways. To do that, she needed to stay calm and alert so she could attack when the opportunity arose.

Biceps growled behind her. “Move it, or I’ll shove you down.”

Evangeline’s sobs grew louder.

“Shut up.” Beth hissed as she counted the steps to keep her panic contained.

Nine.

Ten.

The counting didn’t help. The dank smell that never bothered her before clogged her nostrils. How long would Hudson wait for her to chat with her parents? The service didn’t start for another few minutes. And what if Madalynn kept a secret for once and didn’t tell anyone about the necklace? Beth’s impromptu plan hinged on it getting back to Scarlett so it could be reverse tracked.

“Hurry up.” Biceps jammed the gun into her lower back.

She bit her tongue to keep from crying out and stepped down again.

Eleven.

She needed to take a chance. If Biceps got them through the tunnel and into a vehicle it would be so much harder to find her.

Twelve

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