Page 5 of The Rebel King

Rage, frustration, fear—a toxic cocktail of emotions stirs inside me. I didn’t know you could actuallysee red, but it’s like someone poured a bucket of blood over my eyes. Bloodlust, murder, vengeance—those things are smeared red all over me.

“Who the fuck has her?”

Kimba’s eyes snap to mine, widening.

“He wears a mask, so we don’t know,” Vivienne says. “The guy on the video is wearing a mask.”

“There’s a video? I need it.” I stride to my open office door. My assistant is at her desk, poring over reports we were discussing before Kimba arrived.

“Jin Lei, get the CEO of—” I swivel my head back to Kimba. “What was the name of the company again? CamTech?”

“Uh, yeah,” Kimba says, blinking rapidly, still holding the phone.

“Get the CEO of CamTech on the phone right now,” I tell Jin Lei. “And Grim. Get me Grim. Wherever he is, whatever he’s doing, get his ass on a plane. He can call me from the air for an update, but tell him not to wait.”

“Got it.” Jin Lei nods and picks up her phone.

I cross back to Kimba and Vivienne, still on speaker.

“What else can you tell me?” I ask. “You said they contacted your parents, Viv. Do you know if they’ve contacted Mr. Hunter?”

“Um, yeah. I think so,” Vivienne replies. “He was talking to CamTech.”

“Shit.” I shake my head. “I need to get to him. I don’t want him dealing with those pharma parasites. They won’t level with him. My guess is that this is a K&R situation.”

“K&R?” Kimba asks faintly. “Like kidnap and ransom insurance?”

“They didn’t mention insurance,” Vivienne says uncertainly.

“They wouldn’t,” I tell them. “As soon as you advertise that you have K&R, it’s nullified. In most cases, employees don’t even know the company has a K&R policy on them. Otherwise, some might set up a hostage situation to collect the payout for themselves. High-value targets like CEOs have to have it. The company pays the ransom, and then the policy reimburses the payout. You can’t talk about it, but kidnappers know how it works.”

“Mr. Hunter’s gotta be freaking out.” Kimba gnaws on her bottom lip.

“Call him,” I say. “We need to know everything CamTech said and what they’ve told the kidnappers. And I need that video, Vivienne.”

“Uh, I don’t have it,” she says. “They told my parents not to share it with anyone, and they wanted to follow every instruction to a T. So I literally watched it through FaceTime with them.”

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’ll get it. I need to call Nix’s dad now, but keep us posted.”

“Okay,” Vivienne says, a tremor in her voice. “You really think we’ll get them back?”

“Damn right we will. And the son of a bitch who took them will be the one who pays.”

“Hang in there, girl.” Kimba says. “Love you.”

She disconnects the call with Vivienne and holds the phone to her chest for a second.

“God, I’m dreading this call,” Kimba says, her brown eyes solemn. “I can’t believe it’s happening to Mr. Hunter again. This is exactly what he’s dreaded since her mom disappeared.”

“Nothing is happening again.” I refuse to even consider that Mr. Hunter will never see Lennix again. ThatIwon’t. “Call him. I need as much information as quickly as I can get it.”

Kimba nods and dials, keeping it on speaker.

“Kimba?” Concern weights the man’s voice on the other end. “I was just about to call. Someone has Lennix.”

“Viv told us,” Kimba says, blinking at tears. “What do you know?”

“Not much. CamTech called to say they’d been contacted by a group in Costa Rica holding Wallace hostage, and they have Lennix, too.”

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