Col: His Destined Mate

by Georgette St. Clair

  “Twins missing?” Simon sat up straight. Saw he had missed a text from Rika. Yup, need to take more breaks from the computer screen. And check a much smaller one.

  Puma continued in a neutral tone. Come to think of it, Simon couldn’t recall ever hearing his head of Ops freaked out, or losing his shit. “They were reported gone from the Staff Childcare Center after TraceyAnn had returned from picking up her lunch at the Staff Cafe. I’ve notified all the staff to be on the lookout, and now we’re going to call the police.”

  “Good thinking.” Aside from Ops being additional eyes and ears on the situation, they could also make sure that potential dangers were minimized, like where there might be heavy machinery being deployed.

  A note of doubt crept into Puma’s voice. “Since you had made it clear that she and the five men have special access, I handed the keys over to her. But I’m letting you know anyway.”

  “That’s exactly the right thing to do, Puma. Thank you. Anything else?”

  Puma cleared his throat. “Just to follow up. Yesterday Jordy was knocked down to grunt work, and taken off active duty for the day. But she didn’t show up for shift today, and she’s not in her room.”

  Simon’s blood chilled. The photos of him and the boys from the security footage found in that rental house. Col’s insistence that the man who kidnapped him was at the lingerie store, where Lily had reported a man fitting that description had talked about abducting her. A man who somehow knew that Lily would be there.

  Somehow, Jordy was involved with all of this. The pieces were lining up too well. “Puma, get me all the information you have on Jordy. Or have Rika send it to me. In the meantime, I’m going to track that car.”

  “On it.” Puma said, and clicked off.

  Simon tapped on his keyboard to begin accessing the tracking system for the car that Lily had taken. She wouldn’t have done that, unless it had something to do with the kids.

  Or last night. Or both.

  He had a bad feeling about this.

  Of all the Bredhren, it was ironic that Barric possessed the most skill at sending and receiving mind-messages in wolf form. Col was reminded of this, when Barric’s message crashed into his mind, displacing the loop of self-castigation that had been running all night.

  And all day, once he woke up from the restless slumber that had finally overtaken him, still in wolf form.

  That’s right. He had had the bright idea to return within the perimeter of Simon’s house on all fur and fours, and this was why. To have Barric blast into his brain like a commercial during one of those infernal shows that Aylwyn insisted on watching. Apparently his self-castigation had progressed into outright punishment.

  She is missing,

  Barric’s mind-message was as loud as his preferred volume setting.

  Who is? Col shot back.

  Your female. Barric growled.

  Shit. He was not going to have this discussion in wolf form. It was all moot anyway.

  She has probably left after the events of last night. Col should have been relieved she was gone. But as with all things concerning Katie Cooper— if that was even her name — he didn’t do or feel anything that he should have.

  Now would be a good time to start.

  Negative. The two children have been reported missing. She took off in one of the cars on display after she was told. We are all readying a War-Pack to retrieve her, once a location has been found.

  Retrieve. The word that Barric used had connotations that sent a jolt through Col. It didn’t necessarily mean finding Katie Cooper alive.

  He hadn’t been able to reconcile with the idea of her loss. He would find it unendurable to have to deal with her death.

  He raised a huge auburn furred head towards the sky, and howled.

  Simon was tapping furiously on his keyboard, Tybalt, Aylwyn and Merek hovering over his shoulder, Barric in wolf form on all fours with his head high enough to look over Simon’s desk. Miller was in the doorway, ready to spring into action.

  Thankfully, the Lamborghini was equipped with an anti-theft tracking system. “Based on the direction the car is going and speed, there’s a quarry on that route that could be the destination.” Simon stabbed at the monitor. “Beyond there there’s an abandoned mine, away from any of the main roads. That’s the best extrapolation for where she could be.” He turned to Miller. “ I’m plugging that into the Range Rover right now.”

  “I’m going to start the car right now, and be ready to go when you are.” Miller turned and left.

  “We can’t wait for Col, if he’s not already downstairs” Simon said. “Can Barric send this route to him, and maybe he can meet us there?”

  Barric emitted a low growl. Tybalt shook his head. “We would be unable to describe what we see of your wizardry for mind-messaging.”

  Simon swore softly and finished tapping out a few more keystrokes. “The vehicle’s slowing down. I’ll keep following it in the car, but we should get going now.”

  He watched as the computer completed his command.

  And prayed that they wouldn’t be too late.

  WE ARE LEAVING NOW. Barric fairly shouted in Col’s mind. The auburn wolf winced but his ears perked up.

  In wolf form, he was fifteen minutes from the house. He would not delay them.

  Where is she? Col mind-messaged back.

  Silence.

  WHERE? Col shouted back.

  Simon’s wizardry—I cannot understand it well enough to send to you. Barric sounded uncharacteristically apologetic. Simon has mentioned a quarry on the route, and an abandoned mine.

  Great. That was only a step better than saying “There’s a lot of trees. And a rock or two on the route.”

  Col would have cursed if he were in human form.

  He had to find her. But without the help of his Bredhren. Without Simon’s Technowizardry. There was only one way, and pray to She Who Grants Abundance that it would work.

  If Katie Cooper was truly meant to be his Destine, his wolf instinct would lead him to her, even though he had not completed the mate-bonding process.

  He had to try.

  And in that moment, with the possibility that she could truly be lost to him forever, Col realized that he would still do anything for her. He always would.

  He ripped apart all the scar tissue that had been building up since his heart broke last night, and lay himself bare once more.

  To trust.

  To love.

  To his Destine.

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  She still couldn’t believe it when her former roommate first came into view. How could Jordy be involved with the disappearance of Brady and Clover? It wasn’t a trick of the eyes — the short, freckled girl with a sly look on her face was just a few yards away from her, kicking up gravel with her Doc Martens knockoffs. Lily had never before noticed how much the girl’s lips resembled a fish mouth, with its downturned corners. Even when the corner of one lip was curled up in a sneer, as it was now.

  TraceyAnn had been right about her. Underwear and underhanded roommates. Great. TraceyAnn was going two for two. What would she give to be back at the Staff Childcare Center right now, listening to more of TraceyAnn’s pontifications, with the twins happily up to their latest mischief?

  Instead, they were on the front porch of a ramshackle prefab building, at the edges of a sun-drenched quarry.

  As she scrambled out of the car, she’d been greeted by Jordy, and a scruffy guy in his twenties, and the man from the lingerie shop. Jordy had pointed a gun at her midriff and told her to raise her hands in the air.

  Lily had recognized Phoebe Buffay’s tormenter right away. He was apparently the one in charge. Of course, one clue was that Jordy kept calling him “Boss”. Not to mention her uncharacteristic obsequiousness towards him. What happened to Jordy’s pride in her promotion at the Faire? Lily wondered. It didn’t make sense. Not that any of this made sense.

  Just like the previous day, the man looked like he ste
pped out of some style magazine for older men. Maybe a photo spread on proper, bespoke attire for Gentleman Psycho Killers, in planning a day out in the Quarry.

  Except today he sported a huge shiner over his left eye, most likely from last night. Good. Lily hoped it hurt. She wasn’t going to say it out loud, though. The man had done something worse to Rey. She hoped she wouldn’t find out exactly what he had done firsthand.

  The third of the trio, who was as different from the two as they were from each other, was assigned the task of tying rope around Lily to a rickety wooden chair. But of course now Lily was a pro at this, wasn’t she? How many other people could claim to being tied up by an abductor’s accomplice twice within the space of two days? She fidgeted as much as she could, kept taking deep breaths and holding it, to make it difficult for him. And to maybe buy herself some wiggle room when he finished.

  It wasn’t hard to hold her breath. He didn’t exactly have even a passing acquaintance with soap. Or laundry detergent.

  Her eyes kept going back to Jordy, anyway, as if there had to be mistake. But no, it was still Jordy standing there in a Bruce Campbell t-shirt, denim cutoffs and knockoff DMs, not an evil twin. And it was the same person had so nicely offered to take Lily to Undercover Frills the day before. It suddenly clicked.

  “You’re the reason he knew where to find me yesterday, aren’t you?” Lily’s voice was filled with hurt.

  Jordy just smirked, which was all the confirmation Lily needed. Not that she was going to be able to do anything with that information. Jordy had also probably given the man her cell phone number; she would have had access to it, being part of the Ops team.

  The man neared Lily menacingly, and she instinctively shrank into her chair, which creaked with the movement.

  “We may as well get properly acquainted.” The man’s voice was silky, with undertones of evil. His pupils were practically pure black. “I am Cadmus. And you are—?”

  “You obviously know who I am, if you’ve been trying to get at me twice.” Lily said.

  Cadmus smiled. And then his arm swung out, the back of his hand snapping hard against Lily’s cheek. Tears sprung to Lily’s eyes. Not enough to blur Jordy’s Cheshire Cat grin in the background, though.

  “How I deplore the loss of manners in today’s society.” Cadmus said. It was similar to what he had said in the store yesterday. Obviously this dude had an Emily Post hangup.

  “Shall we try again, perhaps with a question that is of actual interest to me?”

  He towered over her, and seemed to expect an answer. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Or to keep from spitting at him. Except —

  “Please, you promised to show me the kids were ok, if I turned myself over to your goon.” Lily indicated the biohazard in overalls who was still working on tying her fidgeting arms. She swallowed. Please let them be ok.

  “Ah yes, I did.” His voice was like a snake, slithering through her mind, and she shivered. “Besides keeping my word, their presence can be used to provide an additional…enticement, shall we say?” He snapped at Jordy. “Bring them out!”

  The girl threw one more spiteful look at Lily, and scurried to one of the parked vehicles sitting outside in the hot sun, the gravel crunching underneath every step of her knockoff DMs. Lily was horrified. Were the twins being kept inside of a locked car? In the heat?

  She watched in dismay as Jordy opened the door to the back seat. And then took out a knife.

  Lily’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to scream, as Jordy leaned into the back seat, the knife disappearing into the dark interior.

  The scream caught in her throat, as Jordy yanked two familiar forms out of the back seat. A silent prayer of thanks came out of her mouth instead, thanks to any deity listening that Brady and Clover were both alive and conscious, as they tumbled out onto the gravel, their little legs scrambling for purchase as Jordy gripped the fabric of their tee-shirts forcefully. The remains of duct tape fluttered around their ankles. Apparently Jordy had just cut loose the bonds around their ankles, but not their arms. A piece of duct tape had been placed over their mouths, and the two were obviously crying, their little shoulders shaking.

  Clover was the first to regain her balance while still being in Jordy’s death grip, scrabbling on the noisy gravel. She managed to spin her body and with one well-aimed kick, nail the girl in the shins. Jordy’s howl echoed in the Quarry.

  Brady, emboldened, kicked her other shin and that was enough for Jordy to release her grip on both.

  “Brady, Clover, run!” Lily yelled. And her head snapped back with another backhand from Cadmus. She tasted the tang of copper in her mouth.

  “One should never encourage bad behavior.” Cadmus said. “Really, that is most likely a contributing factor to the dearth of manners in our society. And as you can see, quite futile in any case.”

  The smelly one they called Billy Bob came shuffling into view, his every step displacing bursts of gravel. His hands were half pulling, half dragging one twin in each.

  “I tol’ them I’m not shy about hittin’ them if they kick me.” Billy Bob grinned. Jordy trailed behind him. Her fish mouthed face was bright pink from either anger or exposure to the sun. Or both. And two dark marks were blooming on her shins, right above the top of the knockoff DMs.

  “Please don’t hurt them.” Lily begged. Maybe being polite would work on Cadmus. Both twins’ heads jerked up at the sound of Lily’s voice. Her gut twisted, they were still crying underneath the duct tape over their mouths.

  She kept her voice carefully modulated, in hopes that might help calm them down. “Please…remove the duct tape from their mouths. I am worried that they can’t breathe.”

  “Oh, I’m happy to do that.” Jordy stomped up, and with a cruel smirk, viciously yanked the duct tape off of Clover’s face. And the girl promptly bit down, hard, on Jordy’s arm.

  Jordy screeched, and lunged at the little girl, but Billy Bob blocked her, moving himself in front of the little girl. Maybe there was a shred of decency underneath the odor after all.

  “Remove the boy’s gag, and perhaps if you are gentle about it, you might avoid being bitten.” Cadmus’ tone was impatient, as if he was anxious to get to the main event. “Can you manage that?”

  “Yes, boss,” Jordy said sullenly. But she peeled back the tape from Brady’s mouth with considerably more care than she had Clover’s.

  “Katie!” Brady wailed. Clover chimed in, and Cadmus winced. He addressed them directly.

  “Silence at once! Or the tape will be put back on both of you!”

  The twins immediately went quiet, their eyes wide with fear.

  “So, is it Katie? Or Lily?” Cadmus arched an eyebrow.

  Lily said nothing, as her fingers worked frantically behind her, feeling for the knots that Billy Bob had tied.

  “Ask her why she has an ID with another name on it.” Her head snapped up at Jordy’s high pitched voice. How did she — so Jordy had searched through her belongings, and found Lucie’s ID. She was painfully aware of the two little kids nearby, otherwise she had a few choice things to say to Jordy.

  Cadmus lifted one eyebrow —the one that wasn’t over the black eye— staring intently at Lily. “Does the ID have anything to do with the large men that you were seen with?”

  So he was interested in the boys. But at least she could answer this question honestly.

  “No, that’s my best friend’s license.” She glared at Jordy. “That has nothing to do with anything.”

  “Tell me about them.” Cadmus said, his voice filled with menace. Lily’s eyes flicked nervously at Jordy. She didn’t know what that little shit had already found out.

  “What do you want to know?” Lily said. “They’re new arrivals to this country, so I was hired to help them smooth over their rough edges, in terms of how they interact with people.” She prayed that this was consistent with what Jordy had told him.

  “Arrivals, eh?” Cadmus’ eyes narrowed. “Are they mag
ickal in any way? Can they turn into animals?” Jordy’s head now jerked towards Cadmus. So that was news to her.

  But before Lily could figure out how to answer, she didn’t have to.

  “Doggies!” One of the twins blurted out. The other one repeated it.

  Cadmus bared his teeth in a soul-chilling smile. “Doggies the size of bears, perhaps?

  “They see a lot of cartoons,” Lily said frantically, her fingers behind her back scrabbling, trying to dig into a knot that she had found. She prayed that Billy Bob’s ability to tie knots tightly was the same as his propensity for taking showers: minimal.

  “At that age, they have vivid imaginations, and can’t tell between make-believe and real.”

  “Nice try,” Cadmus said. And the back of his hand came slashing across, striking Lily’s face. The twins shrieked and started crying. “Did I mention that what I abhor more than poor manners, is being lied to?”

  His hand swooped up and squeezed her jaw. Lily’s eyes filled with tears as his fingers dug into her. “Care to try again?”

  She couldn’t give them up. She wouldn’t give them up. She had endured far worse from Rey. And still her hands kept working at that knot, feeling progress as one of the strands gave way, allowing her to loop in a finger, wiggle and loosen it a tiny bit more.

  “Or should I make the children suffer instead? I know that Jordy in particular would be pleased to exact a vengeance on the girl child.”

  “No!” Lily’s cry was filled with anguish. The choice was clear now. “Please, let them go, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” Too late, she remembered she needed to keep her voice calm—

  The two twins were now wailing in earnest, their cries a cacophony that echoed throughout the quarry. Cadmus looked at them with irritation. “Get them to shut up!” He barked at Billy Bob and Jordy. But that only made the two start screaming even louder. Lily was terrified of what Cadmus would do. What Jordy wanted to do.

  And then it was Lily’s turn to scream, as Jordy produced a syringe. She ran over to the shrieking Clover, grabbing her arm and keeping well away from kicking distance, before jabbing the little girl in the upper arm. Cadmus watched impassively, as Billy Bob yanked Clover back, and pushed Brady towards Jordy.