Page 91 of One Last Stand

Fraser frowned. “Missing?”

York held up his hand, but Shep was tired of the games. “Yes. And frankly?—”

“She’s not missing,” York said, giving Shep a glare. “She just evacuated with the others.”

Shep blinked at him, his mouth tightening. What was his game?

“We’re about to leave too.” Fraser raised an arm and gestured to Pippa, beckoning her over.

York had grabbed his phone, texting.

Hello,did no one get it? London. Was. Missing. With an assassin on her tail and?—

York’s hand grabbed his arm. He held up his phone. Shep read the text.

Coco

I got the GPS on her phone. We’re tracking her.

Shep stared at him and a terrible realization gripped him, brought him back to a conversation he’d had months ago with Colt Kingston, the man who had tasked Shep to watch London.

“You want someone to find her.”

“No. But we do want someone to make a move. We’ve been trying to figure out who might be behind some events that happened globally. And she’s the key to that.”

Now he turned cold as he looked at York. “Youplannedthis?”

York’s mouth opened, then closed. “Let’s talk outside.”

Shep clamped his hand on York’s wrist, tightened his grip, then pried York’s hand from his arm. “I’m done with this.”

He turned and pushed through the crowd as the music started up again, probably an attempt to return the world to some semblance of calm and order.

Like the ensemble playing on the deck of the Titanic as it sank into the sea.

“Shep!” York’s voice, but he ignored it.

He spotted Prince Luka heading his direction through the crowd, but he was done with the bowing and theYour Highnesses and the posturing.

He wanted London. Now.

Finding himself in the grand reception hall, Shep strode through it to the doors.

“Mr. Watson.”

He slowed, turned.

“Is everything all right?” Luka came closer, frowned. “Where is Delaney?”

“Good question,” Shep said as York pushed through the doors to the room, and behind him, his friend Fraser. “My girlfriend went missing in the chaos. I’m trying to find her.”

Prince Luka seemed genuinely concerned, his brow tightening, his chest rising and falling. “You think something . . . untoward happened?”

“Untoward—yes, I think somethinguntowardhappened. I think she was kidnapped.” He glared at York then, coming up to them.

“Let me get my security to look into this?—”

“We’ll find her, Your Highness,” said York. Behind him, Pippa came in, along with a woman in a ballgown and a tall tuxedoed man with dark hair. The woman wore a small tiara in her black curly hair.

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