Page 74 of Rebel

“I’m in and it looks like he took her.”

“What the fuck do you mean itlookslike he took her?”

“She’s not here and all the stuff has been shoved off her desk. There are half-empty food containers in the trash can. Her phone’s on the floor. The back door is hanging open, but your property cut is still on the coat rack.”

While Renegade was speaking on Storm’s phone, I got out mine and texted Hacker asking him to check the security feed for the office and see if he could get a location on Edward fucking Edwards.

“Right, I’ve locked up, you want me to take her phone to Hacker?” Renegade asked.

Storm answered for me, “Hell yeah, that’s a fucking outstanding idea.”

“Will do. Let me know if you need anything else.”

I stopped texting Hacker long enough to tell him, “Thanks brother. I owe you one.”

“Great, I’ll remember that,” he said brightly.

Storm chimed in, “You have my thanks as well, Renegade. Tell Piper I said hello.”

“You got it. Stay safe and call me if you need anything at all.”

Storm ended the call and then held his phone out to us to show the same address that Hacker had just sent me. Our club IT genius was on the ball already, “Looks like we’re heading to LA.”

“Let’s get moving,” I told him. “Hacker managed to track his van to the interstate. They got a head start of two hours and I don’t want him having any more time alone with her than absolutely necessary.”

“I’ll see that the fecker doesn’t,” Celt murmured. He started texting someone, his fingers flying across the screen.

Storm shoved his helmet down and grinned at me. “I keep forgetting we have a prospect in Los Angeles.”

I had already put on my helmet and responded as I snapped it into place, “Dusty’s boyfriend, Corey, right?”

Celt frowned as he shoved his phone into his pocket. “Yeah, and that pain in the ass is finally gonna prove his worth today.”

Chapter 26

Lacey

Edward had driven me all the way to his house, right into his garage, and closed the door before hauling me out of the van. I opened my mouth to scream, and he was ready for me. Before I realized what was happening, he stuffed something into my mouth and began dragging me into his house and down to the basement.

By the time he threw me into his home gym, I had managed to get whatever rag he’d stuffed in my mouth free.

He ended up shoving me down onto a sofa and handcuffing me to an old radiator. Trying to look on the bright side, I told myself that at least it wasn’t a warm radiator. Thank goodness for that small mercy.

“Much as I’d like to be the perfect host and entertain you, I’ve got places to be.” He then grabbed the handcuffs and gave them a nice hard yank. It really hurt, but I didn’t let him know it. Turning to me he said, “These are solid steel. No matter how hard you try, you’re not getting out of these until I use my key to get you out. Do you understand?”

I nodded, realizing it was pointless to object. “Yeah, I understand.”

Motioning around the room he said with a grin, “Yell as loud and long as you like. I built this as a rumpus room for my kids when they were young. It’s soundproof. Even those little windows along the top of the room are double-pane glass. Theydon’t open and as you can see, I made sure no one could look in on me by adding a dark protective coating.”

Great, I was for all intents and purposes in a dungeon.

Coming to his feet, he stared down at me. “The bottom line is you can’t get out, so don’t hurt yourself trying. I wasn’t planning on treating you so harshly. But then again, you being a belligerent bitch wasn’t on my bingo card for today either. You always used to do what I asked. We’ll hash this all out when I get back in an hour or so.”

“I don’t want to be with you. Please just let me go.” I said the words although it was pretty clear he didn’t care that I didn’t want him. To him, I was an object, a pretty trinket to wear on his arm and help him run his business. My thoughts, feelings, and desires didn’t matter one little bit to him.

“Like I just said, we’ll talk about this when I get back.”

I watched him stomp off back up the steps. Then he stopped and came back. I held my breath wondering what he was going to do. But instead of touching me he went to a minifridge and took out a bottle of water. Unscrewing the cap he set it down on the table beside me, and said, “Never let it be said I don’t know how to treat my house guests.”