Page 79 of Caged By the Ruthless Thief

We both reach for the door at the same time. Nico’s finger stabs the elevator button twice. Something doesn’t feel right about this. From Eros’s block being off to them being gone all day. With everything that has happened—the attack on the dome, the one on Alder, the animosity toward Nico from those who aren’t interested in mixing with the humans—this could be a larger issue than we ever thought. The governor’s official word on the attack on Glyden is that it was an accident and they are looking into it. I call rotten shrimp shells. They’re not looking into it. Nico and I have been looking into it. But as of yet, we haven’t found a single piece of evidence. And now Belle is out there with only Eros.

My heart is racing, and when we both try to get behind the wheel, I stop, my hand on the door handle. “I’m a better pilot than you.”

“You’re not.” But he rounds the Drakosomada, getting in the passenger side door.

I speed through the now clearing silt storm on the way to the shopping dome. When we pull into the space where theomadawas, it’s gone. “Damn it. We both jumped into the sinkhole feet first. We stopped watching the footage when they went in. We didn’t even consider that they could have gone to another location.”

Nico pulls out the camera we saw them going in on and there, thirty minutes later, Eros comes out by himself. Eros races to theomadaand leaves.

“She’s still in there!” Nico mutters through gritted teeth.

“How are we going to find her?”

“Systematically. It’s getting late. We first assume that nothing is wrong, and we do a quick pass of all the open stores, focusing on eating establishments. Damn thief.”

My inner voice wants to say something in defense of Eros, but at this point I can’t. You don’t do this when you’re mated. He has a family. A mother and fathers. They can’t have treated each other this way.

“Where did he go?” is all I can get out.

“Who the hell cares?”

I raise my eyebrows at him. “I’m guessing his mates do.”

“Not this one. I’ve had enough of him, and it’s only been a week.”

“Not even,” I say, remembering our promise to wait to air our dirty laundry until after we’ve had a chance to make this thing work. But that’s feeling like an impossibly fucking stupid idea right now.

“Catch.” Nico tosses me his tablet. He’s in full warrior mode. And while he doesn’t realize it, he’s still wincing when he runs. “You take the northern half of the shops. I’ll try the southern half, and we can meet in the middle. If you want to find him, have at it.”

I catch it and let it play all the way out, watching the direction he’s gone. I can’t search the cameras while I’m searching the shopping district.

Nico’s racing ahead of me when it occurs to me: Where would Eros put Belle if he wanted to keep her safe? He knew where we were at the military building. He couldn’t bring her there, not without clearance ahead of time. Especially someone like him—a former thief. I fucking hope he’s a former thief and not something worse.

The Zaffiros have several stores. Most of them are jewelry stores, but I try the first one near the tea shop he wanted to meet Belle at. I race in. There’s a younger male at the counter. I don’t know him. But he looks like Eros. Same cocky smirk. “Where’s Belle?”

“Belle?”

“Annabelle Portsmouth. Have you seen her?”

“Why are you asking?” Right, this podlet doesn’t know me.

I message Nico. “You know whose mate she is?”

“The return of Poseidon.”

“Yeah.”

The podlet swallows.

“So, I ask you again. Do you know anything about Annabelle Portsmouth?”

He nods. “Stay here.”

I narrow my eyes at the podlet.

He steps into the backroom and comes out holding a trident. “You need to get—”

I take the trident away from him, flip him on his back, and step on his chest. Not hard, but hard enough. He can’t move.

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