Page 79 of Too Lethal to Love

The sound of splintering wood revved his impatience. “You can be my best man if you tell me whereBeth is.”

“No. I want to throw rose petals and walk down the aisle and wear a tiara. Are you here to play the game with Miss Beth?”

“Yes.”Forever. After I kill whoever took her.

“I’m in,” Hudson yelled.

Kane ran into the office and sprang to the shattered door. Leaping over the remnants, he started down a dimly lit stairwell.

“Wait for intel, Kane.”

He spun to Chris. Fuck, he was right. He looked at Scarlett. “Where does this lead?”

Madalynn bounded into the room. “That’s the basement where we play hide-and-seek. Miss Beth is down there playing with some new friends and wouldn’t let me join this time, but she let me hold her necklace. She said it’s so sparkly that it could lead someone to her in the dark.” Madalynn slapped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t tell her I told you all that. It’s a secret.”

Pride and hope skittered along his bunched muscles. Damn, his sugarplum was smart. She’d known he’d need help to find her and left a clue with a pint-sized blabbermouth.

He ran down the stairs with Chris on his heels. Behind him, Scarlett yelled to Gage to get her laptop out of the car so she could find the other Chavez. The flashlight built into Kane’s comms unit illuminated streaks of blood on the stairs. It had to be Beth’s. The mass had just started when he’d arrived. She’d fight anyone who made her miss it.

Kane’s own blood boiled. When he found Chavez, he’d strangle him with his bare hands for snatching Beth out from under everyone’s, including God’s nose, and ruining her holiday.

Chris laid a hand on his shoulder as they hit the landing. “We’ll get her.”

They’d fucking better. He’d survived losing a leg. Hedidn’t want to find out if he’d survive losing Beth. Finally, he understood a fraction of the anguish his mother must have felt when his father died.

His steel leg hummed along with the fear-fueled energy coursing through his flesh and bones as he rushed into the basement. No, he’d never fully understand because Beth wasn’t dying tonight.

“Status?”Scarlett asked over the mind comms.

“Clear except for blood on the stairs.”

Scarlett cursed under her breath.“The main church and the perimeter are secure. Local and satellite surveillance have been scrambled by a hacker. According to Madalynn, there’s a boarded-up tunnel, but I can’t find anything about it in the city’s plans.”

Kane ran faster through several dark rooms. Sure enough, the flashlight illuminated a doorway at the rear of the last one. A pile of boards and crumbled sheetrock lay over the threshold. “Found the tunnel. Where does it lead?”

“To an old house across the street, according to Madalynn.”

Ryan joined the conversation and rattled off the address.

“We’re two minutes out,”Linc said.

Kane tore through the dark, musty-smelling passageway. The distance felt like a mile instead of the width of a two-lane street. At the end, he found another smashed door. Forcing himself to slow down, he breathed through his wrath and nodded to Chris.

Silently, their movements as coordinated as the last time they tangled with the Diablos, they entered the basement. The scent of lilacs lingered in the air as if calling to him like a siren’s song.

“The house has been abandoned for a couple of decades, according to city records,”Ryan said.

“Roger that.”Kane prayed he’d find Beth unharmed but knew in his churning gut she wasn’t there. He’d find her.Somehow, he’d always find her. Protect her, just like he’d been doing for weeks.

He nodded to Chris again as they entered the kitchen at the top of the stairs. A sweep of the gloomy, dusty space revealed nothing. Kane’s leg jittered so violently it rattled the worn floorboards as they entered the living room. Where was she? He hadn’t been kidding when he said he should put a tracking chip in her.

Tonight was Christmas Eve, for fuck’s sake. The brightest night of the year with all the lights and candles, and the star of Bethlehem, and all that other festive crap. Why couldn’t a heavenly beacon help him find Beth? Or why couldn’t she still be wearing her necklace that was so sparkly it could lead someone to her in the dark? He could use an advantage, divine or not, to counter whatever method Chavez used to track Beth like a covert hide-and-seek game.

He froze.Covert hide-and-seek game. He concentrated on slowing his breathing and recalling where he’d heard that phrase. A few breaths later, last night’s conversation with Evangeline about Christmas Eve mass pushed to the front of his brain.

“We used to play a covert hide-and-seek game in the church that was so much fun.”

The part of the exchange about Beth’s necklace jockeyed for attention.

---