Page 26 of Finding Lord Landry

Silas’s forehead creased in concern. “We can’t get in touch with Kenji.”

“Oh.” My heart gave a little jolt, but I reminded myself I’d spoken to him less than twenty-four hours before. He’d been fine then—pricklier than a cactus, sexier than any three men put together, and saying utterly infuriating things about where he fit in our lives, but otherwisefine—and he’d assured me he was safe. “He’s keeping his phone turned off because of the retreat,” I reminded them. “I’m sure he’ll?—”

“Landry,” Way interrupted. Silas’s husband’s face was so serious my lungs squeezed immediately. “San Cordova’s under martial law.”

“But…” I shook my head. “Kenji’s at a luxury resort.”

Even as I spoke the words, I knew how foolish and flimsy they were. Money and privilege could only protect you from so much.

The members of the Brotherhood, their various partners, and Foster, who happened to be the local sheriff, were all arranged around the large kitchen table at Dev and Tully’s place, and they’d set up the webcam at the end so I could see everyone. We’d done this kind of thing many times before… but I’d never felt nauseous in one of these impromptu meetings before now.

“You’re in Europe, right? I don’t know if you’ve been following the news,” Silas began, “but there’s a copper mine?—”

“Yes, Jesus. I know,” I snapped, texting Kenji when a call wouldn’t go through. “The miners are protesting unsafe working conditions.”

Are you okay?

I closed my eyes and sent another one.

Text me if you can.

Unsurprisingly, he didn’t immediately write back. The messages didn’t even say Delivered.

“He can’t reply, Landry,” Silas called, immediately realizing what I was doing. “They’ve shut down all nonessential communication.”

“Fuck.” I threw my phone down on the cushion beside me and raked my hands through my hair before looking back to the laptop. “What’s the latest? Tell me everything.”

Way leaned in and rested his elbows on the table so I could see him clearly on the camera. “The protests turned violent overnight with the murder of the labor secretary in his home. The president panicked and declared martial law, but then his personal security team decided to move him to an undisclosed location on the island. It’s a little unclear if they’re with him or against him.”

He continued. “Meanwhile, their military leaders are apparently a mix of government loyalists and islanders whose families work in those mines or live close enough to be impacted by the toxins. So it’s hard to say what side everyone’s going to come down on. Right now, it’s very up in the air with the possibility of more violence, a coup, you name it.”

My head swam with the thought of Kenji in danger. “What do we do? How do we get him out? What’s the State Department saying?”

Silas sounded more unsure than I’d ever heard him, which ratcheted up my fear by a thousand. “I don’t know, Landry. This is usually when we’d all ask Kenji how to handle a situation.”

“We need to call our attorneys,” I said helplessly. “We need to find someone in the State Department.”

Silas nodded. “Does anyone have any contacts?—?”

Bash narrowed his eyes in thought. “I have an acquaintance. He might be able to?—”

“Wait!” I blurted, pacing back and forth in my bedroom. “Wait, wait. We all have kidnap and ransom insurance! Let’s use that. They cover stuff like this. The company will go in and extract Kenji?—”

“He hasn’t been kidnapped.” Dev’s voice was a deep, worried rumble. “You said yourself, he’s at a luxury resort. That’s still the case… as far as we know.”

“Also… Kenji doesn’t have that kind of coverage, Landry.” Silas winced and shrugged. “It never occurred to anyone he’d need it. He’s not a high-value target.”

“Fuck off!” I snapped, not thinking rationally. Everyone’s eyes widened in shock, but I didn’t have time to manage their reactions. “This is Kenji we’re talking about. The center ofevery-fucking-thing for every person on this call. He’s high-value. He’s thehighestvalue!” My voice cracked a little, but I couldn’t bring myself to care about that either.

I forced myself to blow out a breath, to think about the situation logically. “We need to get him home safely as soon as fucking possible. What are our options? Can we hire the same kind of company to go in? Don’t they just need a boat or something?”

All eyes turned to Ryan since Zane’s bodyguard and boyfriend had the most experience with personal security, but he shook his head. “It’s not as easy as they make it sound on TV. We don’t have a relationship with any of those companies, and we don’t know if Kenji’s actually in danger…” He glanced at Zane, who was watching him with pleading brown eyes, and broke. “But I can make some phone calls,” he agreed before giving Zane a kiss and walking out.

Bash stood up and pulled out his phone. “I’ll reach out to the guy at the State Department.”

Foster leaned forward, a coffee mug held between his hands on the table. His sheriff’s uniform gave him an air of commanding competence. I vaguely remembered he had excessive training in search and rescue, so I focused on him, eager for his input.

“I know it’s stressful, but let’s try and keep a level head. I think contacting the State Department is a good idea. I can’t imagine the US has an embassy there, but they’ll have other US citizens in San Cordova to be concerned about, too. We need to make sure Kenji’s name is on that list so he’s involved in anything they do.”

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