Page 38 of Kinknapped

Yeah, these men weren't prepared to hear that word, and they knew it wasn't the biological version.

Chapter 25

Leopold

When I entered, the smoke alarms were going off and smoke literally filled the whole house. I began coughing through the haze and stormed into the kitchen before yelling at the guys. “I’ve been gone for less than two hours, and you're already trying to burn the house down?”

My hands quickly turned the exhaust fan on in the kitchen before shutting off the oven completely and pulling out the baking sheet inside. Whatever appetizers they were cooking were chunks of charcoal now. I moved to the windows and began opening them to air everything out before storming into the living room where the smoke had also traveled.

Odd.The TV was running, but they were no longer on the couch. I went to their rooms next to see if maybe they went to one of them for some fun. It would make me insanely jealous because I couldn't do anything for two weeks, but our girl had needs. The doctor said the surgery went well, and my new healing was doing what it needed to do. It didn't take the pain away from my groin, but I kept trying to mask it to not hurt Vicki's feelings.

“Guys?” I began to grow curious as to where they could’ve gone. I went back into the living room to see a beer that had been freshly opened but not drank. Kage would never waste a beer, so I headed back into the kitchen.

Now that some of the fumes cleared, I could see a little bit more in my view, including half cooked bacon spread across the floor with its grease. Blood joined the oddly placed bacon by the entry, and it splattered like someone had been shot.

My eyes quickly darted around to see what I had missed initially. The smoke made me blind to it because I didn't know to look for it immediately, but someone intruded into our home. Someone fired bullets, and I could see the holes in the sheetrock around me. I looked to the oven that I had first stopped by, seeing that I completely missed. White powder all over the countertop and the floor.

In the white powder, a clear handwriting met my gaze. It said:

LEO

HELP

CARNEL

Somehow, one of them found a way to write me a message. One of my family members believed I could rescue them, and I would once I deciphered what they left me.

"Carnel?" I questioned it out loud. My guess was that Vicki wrote it because it didn't match the guys' script. Even then, I knew they could all spell carnal the right way. Vicki read dark romance. That word always appeared, and I knew this from the two I picked up this week to see what she liked. Carnal hunger and rage came up often. I'd have to figure out why she spelt it wrong, but I knew I couldn't do it alone. Not something this severe. With all of them taken, I needed to call in a reinforcement, only having one at my disposal that knew about our arrangement.

I ran for the burner phone and called the number instantly. It rang only a few times before she answered. “Vic, I'm about to walk into an orgy, so this better be important. In T minus five, Iwon't be able to make any words or sounds from having every orifice stuffed. If you weren’t having your holes filled, I’d invite you.”

“It's Leo,” I started, hating that she was my only avenue for help. “Vicky's been kidnapped.”

“Um, duh! You're the one who kidnapped her.”

“Someone else has taken her with Talon and Kage. Shots were fired, and someone was shot.” My hands studied the blood, seeing the bullet had exited and hit the wall with the splatter.

“And who the hell would do that?”

“Talon’s other job isn't quite as law worthy as the officers you've been seeing,” I remarked in a subtle way.

“Sonofa…” She stopped talking for a minute and gathered her thoughts. “You're all just lucky I love her so much I’d give up an orgy for her. I'm on my way.”

While she drove, I sat down to think of any theory that might help me. Carnel kept repeating in my mind. My eyes moved to the bullets next, seeing the holes and blood. The bacon suggested a struggle, so who would actually kidnap for harm rather than money? Then it dawned on me like I mentioned on the phone. Talon's secret job. Oy, my brain fog from meds was already trying to hinder me.

I leapt from mychair, feeling the sudden onset of pain in my groin. Right. I couldn't dash around like this situation called for. Grunts left my mouth as I hobbled through the living room to reach my stuff. My laptop would help me undercover everything because Talon had a secret dash cam on his van to help him in possible problems that could arise. We turned it off the day we took Vicki, but he wouldn't leave it off. He needed to make sure no one ever broke into it to find his ties to organized crime.

It hurt to try to hurry, but I knew every second mattered to find out who did this. If they came to collect, it meant something with his last job didn't go off without a hitch. Well, that was my assumption. Sitting back at the table, my fingers ran over the keyboard. I typed to find new arrests that would've happened in the last few days. Even through the happy pills I was on, I knew it would've taken them a day or two to figure out Talon's identity.

A list of local arrests came up in my search, but one stood out as a possible murder suspect. "Dante Carnelli. Carnel... Vicki didn't have enough time to write the full name!"

I pumped my fist toward the ceiling. That's when a voice caught me off guard. "Do you celebrate everything?"

My gaze turnedto see Luce in the entry after she let herself in. She must've drove like a bat out of hell to get here in that amount of time, but I didn't care. Actually, I appreciated it.

"If you must know, I found who took them, so it wasn't a little feat." I fixed my glasses before gesturing for her to take a chair. Her eyes took in the chaos that ensued, seeing what I did when the smoke settled. I hadn't cleaned anything, so the bacon still sat all over the floor. Missy came out of hiding now that we were here and began eating the smoky meat with a purr. Her eyes focused on the cat.

"Vic loves bacon. She never lets herself eat it because she doesn't want to get fat." Luce had a few unshed tears in her eyes. She marched to the neighboring chair within her reach and plopped down. "Whoever took her better be ready for my vengeance."

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