Page 99 of Stolen Faith

But the focus had shifted to protecting the society rather than finding Juliette and Devon.

The last update they’d gotten from the acting Grand Master was that she’d activated a society-wide alert, warning everyone to be on guard against attack. There hadn’t been any details in the alert, no mention of kidnappings, but hopefully if everyone knew there was some kind of danger, the heightened awareness would prevent anyone else from being taken.

Before the alert, they’d done a roll call, using a complicated check-in procedure. A few members hadn’t checked in right away, and again Lachlan had deployed people to go and check on them.

Hopefully, they’d just missed the check-in messages. If even more people were missing…

A cell phone rang.

Franco sat up, looking at the bedroom door where Sebastian had gone to get a few hours of sleep. Hopefully that was Lachlan calling Sebastian with an update.

“It’s your phone.” Colum handed Franco his cell.

His phone?

The number on the display wasn’t one he recognized. Where was the 770 area code?

It was probably a spam call. Franco’s finger hovered over the decline button. If he had to listen to someone say something stupid about car insurance while his heart was breaking, and panic choked him…he might lose it.

“Want me to answer?” Colum held out his hand.

“No. I’ve got it.” Franco answered, putting his phone to his ear. “Hello?”

“Franco.”

He froze, afraid to breathe, afraid he was asleep and this was a dream. “Juliette?” The word, the name of the woman he loved more than life itself, was a mere breath of sound.

“Hi, honey.” She let out a soft, watery laugh that was almost a sob.

“Juliette…” He couldn’t go on.

Colum jumped to his feet and raced across the living room of the suite, bursting into the room where Sebastian was sleeping.

“Devon?” Franco asked, pulling himself together.

“Right here.”

The sound of his husband’s voice, sure and calm, had Franco doubling over, the hand not holding the phone pressed to his face. The relief at hearing their voices was so acute it was almost pain.

Franco wanted to ask a million different questions: What happened? Are you hurt? Who took you? But he knew what question had to come first.

“Are you safe?”

“For the moment,” Devon answered.

“Where are you?”

“In a megachurch outside Atlanta.”

Franco blinked. Fuck. Maybe this was a dream.

“Put it on speaker.” Sebastian, wearing nothing but boxers, skidded to a halt by Franco. When Franco didn’t move fast enough, Sebastian grabbed the phone, hit the speaker button, and set the phone on the table.

“Where are you and what do you need?” Sebastian demanded.

“Hi, Bastian,” Juliette said, using the nickname he hated.

“I should hang up on you,” Sebastian said, his voice light, but his face was stark with relief. The use of the nickname also acted as a sort of code. If she was in active distress, she would have called him Seb or Sebastian. Franco hadn’t even thought of trying something like that.

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