Page 136 of Forgotten Promise

Lost in them, in their arms, in this trinity.

And that was when he realized he’d done it.

Found his family.

At last.

Epilogue

Boston

Twenty-four hours since the kidnapping

* * *

Franco stared at the now empty-feeling suite. Rose and Lachlan were in the air, on their way to Honolulu. The acting Grand Master, whichever of the keyholders it was, would need one of the counselors there to help explain what was going on, and what to do.

Sebastian and Rose had a rather spectacular fight before Rose left. If Juliette were here, she wouldn’t have allowed it. She would have shut them both down and had them working together. Without her…

Franco rose to pace, unable to sit still.

It had been a full day since they were taken, and as far as Franco could tell, they were no closer to finding Juliette and Devon.

The teams of investigators Lachlan had dispatched had uncovered lots of information. They now knew exactly how Juliette and Devon had been smuggled out of the library. They’d been loaded into a truck, and someone had tracked the truck through the city, following its trail from camera to camera. But then the trail went cold, the truck disappearing off any security camera Bennett’s people were able to get footage from. The truck itself belonged to a moving company and had been reported stolen three days ago.

The investigation into Izabel, Rowan, and Brennon’s kidnapping had hit similar dead ends.

Lachlan had, before he left, promised that there were still leads, that the best people the Trinity Masters had were working on this. But the fact remained that Lachlan had made a strategic decision to go to Honolulu. The fact that other members had been kidnapped, plus the arson on Oahu, was an indicator that the keyholders might be in danger, and right now…right now, the society needed a leader.

If Juliette was here, she would have made the same call. Would have sent Lachlan to Hawaii, but Franco wanted to scream at everyone. To demand that no one do anything else, that they all focus only on finding Juliette and Devon.

“Elle says there haven’t been any calls to your house.” Sebastian came up behind him, placing a hand on Franco’s shoulder.

Lachlan had also treated this as a possible kidnapping for ransom. Last night, after they’d initiated the keyholder protocol by calling Kailani Iona, Sebastian had called his husband Grant, and wife Elle, and sent them over to Franco’s house. They, along with a K&R tech, were waiting to see if any calls came in. Franco’s cell phone was being monitored by Bennett security for the same reason.

Other people with similar experience in K&R had gone to the Serra and Reyes families, as both Izabel and Brennon were legacies. Rowan’s family didn’t know anything about the Trinity Masters and didn’t have any money anyway. Lachlan had tapped their phones in case they did got a call and sent someone to watch and protect them.

So far, there had been no ransom call.

“You sure you don’t want to go home?” Sebastian asked.

Franco shook his head. He couldn’t be in his house, their house, without Juliette and Devon.

“Okay, then you have to eat something,” Sebastian insisted.

Colum walked up on Franco’s other side, handing him a cup of milky tea. “I’m a hostage who makes tea.”

“You’re not our hostage,” Sebastian said wearily. “You told the Fleet Admiral that, right?”

“Sure enough. He says it’s grand. Drink your tea,” Colum said.

Franco took a sip.

“Did you talk about it? What the keyholder covenant says?” Colum asked after a moment.

Franco’s stomach sank.

“I’m still pissed off that you had a copy of this keyholder thing when I didn’t even know about it,” Sebastian said to the Irishman.