Page 75 of Lacey's Fight

There had been no woman here when she was small. The only people she had ever met in her life before being rescued by Prey, were The Master, Opal, Pearl, and Ivory.

That was it.

No one else.

The Master’s hand closed around one of her breasts, fondling it like they were lovers. “She’d be so hurt to know you’ve forgotten all about you. She loved you, you know. She loved all of my beautiful girls, but I think she loved you the most because you were the one.”

“What one?” His hand on her body repulsed her but was nothing new, her mind on the other hand was reeling from his revelation. There had been a woman at the compound in Alaska? How had she never known that? And where was that woman now?

“She knew how your body responded to mine, that it made me happy to know what effect I had on you. The others were to be sent off to fulfill my plans but you, you were always going to be mine.”

“Yours?”

“My wife. The mother of my children.”

She was going to be what now?

His wife?

The mother of his children?

No way in hell.

* * *

August 14th

8:36 P.M.

Ben had come to the conclusion that the world was too big with too many places to hide.

Lacey, where are you?

If only she could answer his unasked questions.

Hours had passed since Lacey had disappeared off the face of the earth. Her sisters had gone down to the beach where she usually went and found her beach bag and towel lying discarded at the side of the parking lot. They were sitting there like someone had placed them there, not like they’d been tossed or dropped.

But why would she carefully place her belongings on the sidewalk and then disappear?

None of this made sense.

Lacey wasn’t the kind of person who would just disappear without a trace. Even though she’d been through a rough time with the mission to the estate in England, and coming face to face with The Master again, he knew she would never bail.

His brave sunflower didn’t have it in her.

She worried too much about the people in her life and whether or not they’d be okay. Hiding behind a smile and pretending she was fine, that he could have bought. But his girl was even too brave for that. She’d come right back home and faced her demons, deciding she needed some help to fight them, and sought it.

Bailing would never have entered her mind.

“Anything?” he asked, for probably the hundredth time in the last hour.

The look Olivia Oswald shot him was infinitely patient. Not once had Eagle’s wife complained when he leaned over her shoulder as she tapped away at her keyboard or interrupted her to ask if she’d found any information on Lacey. She hadn’t lost her temper a single time, and even when he knew that every other person in the room—including Eagle, Lacey’s sisters, their partners, and a Delta Team who had volunteered to help as soon as they learned Lacey was missing—had all about reached the end of their rope when it came to him.

“Not yet. Hang in there though. Believe it or not, we all understand what you’re going through,” Olivia told him. Her long blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, and the lavender sundress she wore showed off a small baby bump, but it was the empathy in her blue eyes that held him back when he wanted to snap at her to work faster.

How much time did they think Lacey had?

His gut was telling him he knew exactly who had taken her, the problem was he had no idea why.

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