Page 7 of Verses and Blooms
He was right… they had eyes everywhere. That little bit of hope was enough for me to cling to.
I needed Audrey safe.
“How long has he been gone?”
“I last had eyes on him when we walked out to get outfitted with gear. We came back in and spent maybe two hours searching that office,” I answered.
“Oh yeah, I heard the big guy was convinced she’s there,” Sanchez said absently. I fucking hated the pity in his voice.
“Don’t doubt a mated alpha,” I said, glaring at the asshole. “If he says she’s there, she is. Or was.”
His gray eyes locked onto mine. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m sorry your mate is gone, I’d be losing my head, too.”
“Right now, I need to find Malik and my omega,” Ares said, getting us back on track. “He has her.”
“As if I wasn’t multitasking already,” Sanchez scoffed. To his credit, his hands hadn’t stopped moving, eyes bouncing between us and the screens.
I had a feeling Vance was right, this guy was the right man for the job.
“Here he is in the lobby. His original guard was pulled away and Greer was put in his place.” He recounted each change in the screen as we watched. Noting the time stamps each time.
Sanchez tapped a few keys until that screen was enlarged enough to be the focal point of the big screen. It was like a switch had flipped the moment Malik’s old guard was swapped for Greer. The doctor went from slouched down and angry to perfectly calm, perking up and sitting a little straighter. It was all a fucking act. I don’t know that we’d ever truly seen the real Malik in all the years I’d been here.
The guard barely looked at him. He was surveying the room slowly but wasn’t as obvious as the doctor.
Sanches fast forwarded slowly, everyone on screen speeding up. My eyes were locked on the guard, tracking every movement.
Then I caught it. Greer had moved, his hand tapping at his thigh in a way that was anything but natural or boredom.
“Wait, right there,” I said quickly. Sanchez paused the screen and glanced up at me, waiting for me.
“Go back a bit. Watch what he does with his hands,” I pointed out. He reversed just before it happened, everyone leaning in for a closer look. I watched at regular speed, noting the three rounds of five taps.
Sanchez let out a chuckle. “Good eye, kid.”
“That was obviously a signal for someone,” Ares said with a growl. “Who the fuck is he talking to? Who is he working with?”
“Well, we know it’s not the fucking chief,” I said. “He wants his daughter back and is nowhere in that room.”
Sanchez blew out a breath. “Oh, I remember when she was taken. Sad story. That man was a wreck,” Sanchez said.
He shifted his attention back to his screen, tapping between feeds until he had four angles of the same room, adjusting the screens so the times were synced where he needed it.
My eyes locked on the screen and I barely breathed as he hit play. Bouncing from each angle and studying the crowd, looking for the receiving end of that hand signal.
At first, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Everyone was busy with their own groups and orders.
Until a guard in the back started moving slowly out of the hall, backing out of frame a step at a time. He glanced at his watch, then his foot shot out, tripping one of the nurses.
It was the perfect distraction. She was shouting at him, arms flailing as she laid into him. Now there was a full show, everyone’s eyes on the commotion as he held his hands up trying to calm her down.
He never looked behind him, but the other angles showed Malik and Greer taking advantage of the moment.
They were moving swiftly, not being subtle at all now as they hurried out of the room until they reached the hallway leading to the back of the building. They were slower now, the walk purposeful as the guard held his gun at Malik’s back, guiding him by his cuffs.
Between everybody herding the staff to the front of the building and the others keeping watch over the patients, no one noticed them slip out of the door by the greenhouse.
“Where the fuck are they going out there?” I said, even more confused now. “That literally just leads to grounds and you’ve got every exit blocked and the perimeter surrounded, right?” I questioned.
