by Lia Davis
Her soft moans set him even more ablaze. He kissed each nipple, then watched the flesh pebble. His dragon thrashed.
Hurry!
“Please, now.” She stretched her neck out and let her legs fall away, opening her sex to him.
He didn’t have to be asked three times. He ran his fingertips down her belly to her clit, gave it a gentle stroke, then held his cock at her sex and pushed in.
He wasn’t sure who moaned louder, Nadia or his dragon. She rose to meet him, taking his full length, and his vision blurred.
Oh gods… His mate was perfect. He wanted to take it slow and enjoy every second, but his dragon pushed him faster. Nadia clung to him, her hips moving as he thrust. He wasn’t going to last long—not with the way she held him, the way her warm wetness enveloped his cock, and especially the way she bit her lip and met his thrusts equally.
She stilled, and he watched her face as pleasure took over desire. He pushed again and again as she came, and soon, he followed, falling into the abyss of pleasure they had created.
Lying beside her, holding her, he was happier than he could remember being. His dragon was curled up asleep and satiated for the moment, even though he hadn’t fully claimed his mate. The night insects buzzed, and he could faintly hear the water slapping the dock in the distance.
So perfect.
Making love had never felt so right. He’d poured part of his soul into his mate, and he’d never get that back. She snuggled against him, the light blanket from the back of the couch their only covering. She’d pulled her clothes back on, but he lay naked, hoping for a longer lovemaking session soon.
She giggled. “I feel like a teenager, sneaking away to be with my boyfriend.”
“Am I your boyfriend now?” His heart thudded.
“It was just a phrase.”
“It’s a good phrase.” He tugged her tighter.
A long, piercing ring sounded from the table.
“What’s that?” He scowled. What is it and how do I crush it?
Nadia hopped up, her hair tousled and her gait a bit unsteady as she made her way to the table. “I need to answer it. It might be Sage.”
She glanced at the phone. “It’s Stephanie. Hold on a second.”
He straightened on the couch, reaching for his clothing. Why was Stephanie calling and not Sage? His dragon perked up as he sensed the unease rolling off Nadia.
“What? What do you mean she’s gone? What happened?” Nadia’s voice held panic. “What man? She doesn’t know any men around here! Oh my God!”
Sickness rose in Owen’s gut, and he fought not to retch.
Oh fuck. Huff.
5
Nadia’s hand shook as she held the phone to her ear. Anger, fear, and panic brewed inside her like a monster storm waiting to tear her apart.
Sage couldn’t be gone.
She’d seen her not three hours ago. Stephanie and Sage must be playing a trick on her. This couldn’t be real. But Stephanie didn’t sound like she was joking.
“What man?” Nadia repeated.
Stephanie sobbed and her voice shook as she spoke. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before.”
“Where did they go? Did he force Sage to go with him?”
More sobs came over the line. Nadia wanted to shake the answers out of her phone. Or break the thing. A warm hand settled on her shoulder. Through blurred vision, she looked up at Owen as he took the phone from her and pushed the speaker. He’d gotten dressed in record time.
“Can you describe the man?” Owen’s deep voice rang out.
He pulled her to him and she lay her head against him, waiting to hear the details.
“He was blond I think. About a head taller than Sage. They were several yards from us. He had ahold of her arm. I don’t think she wanted to go. I tried to catch up with them, but they were too far ahead of me.” Stephanie dissolved into her tears, making it hard to understand her.
Nadia lost it. She sank to the floor. Sage had been kidnapped.
Owen knelt beside her and scooped her up into his arms. Numbness and emptiness filled her. She knew how to keep kids safe on the Internet and go after predators who left a cyber trail. She didn’t know a thing about how to catch a kidnapper. While she’d been having wild sex with Owen, her sister had been taken. What kind of caregiver was she?
“Don’t tie up this line, Stephanie.” Owen spoke firmly. “We’ll let you know what to do. If you hear from Sage, call Nadia immediately.”
Stephanie mumbled an assent and hung up.
Nadia fought the nausea that overcame her.
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
“We’ll find her.” Owen squeezed her.
She nodded. They had to locate Sage. Where to start? There were hundreds of houses around the lake—all spread out in most places. It would take weeks to search them all. With no clues except Stephanie’s description, it wasn’t going to be easy.
Wait. Sage’s cell phone. The girl never went anywhere without it.
Nadia wiggled in Owen’s arms. “Set me down.”
He complied and she rushed into her bedroom and froze. Where’s my computer bag? Moving to her suitcase, she opened it. The laptop wasn’t there. Had she left it at home? Shit.
She ran back to the living room, then out the front door to the car. Footsteps behind her told her Owen had followed. She knew one thing about kidnapping—the longer someone was gone, the smaller the chance was of getting them back alive. Time was critical and there was no room for bullshit like losing a laptop.
“What are you looking for?”
“Computer. I always bring it in case my team needs me.” She jerked the back door open and frowned. Slamming it, she sank against the car. “I can’t believe I forgot it. Maybe Sage hid it. She was on my case not to spend this week working.”
Owen settled a hand on her back and rubbed. The touch was soothing and, for some odd reason, gave her strength. “Why do you need a computer?”
“To track Sage’s cell.” Nadia shook her head. “For once, my overprotectiveness works in my favor, and I left my damned computer home. I can’t believe it. What kind of sister am I? I let her get kidnapped!”
Sobs shook her all over.
“This is not your fault. We do need to act quickly, though.” Owen linked their fingers together and tugged her. “I have a computer at my house. Can you use that?”
“Maybe.” She rubbed her eyes. “We have to hurry. The first twenty-four hours are critical. If we don’t locate her within that time…”
Owen stopped and framed her face in his hands. His pale eyes darkened a little. “I know. We’ll find her. Trust me.”
God, she wished she had his confidence. She nodded because she needed to believe that Sage would be okay. Her ringtone went off, and she patted her shorts’ pockets. Where was her phone? Owen handed it to her. Oh. She’d forgotten he had it last, talking to Stephanie.
Nadia took the cell and answered. “Hello?”
Nothing. The last thing she needed was a wrong number. “Hello,” she repeated. Still nothing. She d was about to hang up when Owen took the phone from her. When she reached for it, he held up a hand.
Really? Then he lowered it, clicked speaker, and turned the volume up all the way. “Listen carefully.” He held his finger to his lips as he whispered.
She raised her brows at him but did as he asked. Then she heard it—breathing and rustling of…something. She couldn’t tell what it was. Then a soft groan that Nadia knew all too well. “Sage!”
The phone line crackled. Bad signal? Remote?
Owen pulled his cell from his pocket and opened a GPS tracking app. She needed to put one on her phone, but she’d never had a reason to, since her computer was always available. Till now.
He glanced at her, their eyes locked for a moment, then he handed over his phone. “You might be faster at that. I’ve not had the chance to use it yet.”
“Thanks.” She took it and entered in Sage’s numbe
r, then the address of the lake house. When the line started to ring, she went to work tracking the location of the cell. It was easier to follow a line when it was in use.
Sage knew that. That had to be why she’d called. Good girl.
Sage’s location flashed on the map. She wasn’t far from them. “She’s at the south end of the lake, about a mile from state highway sixty-two. I know that location. There aren’t many houses on that part of the water.”
“I’ll find her. I know the tracking isn’t super accurate, but it at least gives me an area to check.”
Sage’s phone disconnected. Nadia’s heart leapt to her throat. “Sage. Oh my God, Sage!”
“Stay here. I’ll go check out the location. If she’s there, I’ll bring her home.” Owen stuffed his phone into his pocket. “I won’t let anything happen to her. Call me if you hear anything.”
“Not a chance.” Nadia shook her head. “I’m going with you.”
“It’s safer if you don’t go. We don’t know what we’re facing.”
She crossed her arms and glared. He was not going to bully her into not searching for her sister. “I’m going. Sage is my sister. My responsibility. Mine to protect!”
“What if she comes back here?” His argument was futile.
“No. You can’t leave me here alone.” Tears streamed down her face, and she began to shake. Owen wrapped her in his arms and held her close, stroking her hair. She hugged him back, her tears wetting his shirt front. “I’m going with you.”
They won’t take Jo from me again. I’ll kill them if they try. She’s mine… Liam growled.
Owen’s mate was stubborn. But it was her words that broke him.
Mine to protect.
He had spoken those same words many times since losing Jo. He’d failed her. The ache in his chest tightened.
Yeah, he knew all too well the helpless feeling Nadia was going through. The need to run after the bastard who’d kidnapped her sister. The same psycho who’d taken his. He fisted his hands as anger rushed through him.
“We’ll go in my truck. It’s a four-wheel drive.” He’d rather fly there, his dragon vision scanning the area as he swooped over the location, but he couldn’t without revealing his dragon to Nadia. Being under the stress of searching for Sage, she’d call him a monster, for sure, or run away, terrified of him. No, he’d have to handle this in human form.
Nadia didn’t argue. She rushed around her car and headed toward his driveway. “Hurry!”
He followed on her heels, pulling his keys from his pocket before they got to the truck.
The ride over was filled with silence, except for Nadia nervously tapping her nails on the center console in the truck. The noise didn’t bother Owen. In fact, he drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel in time with the clicking of her nails. It oddly soothed his dragon, which was walking the line of turning lethal. It took every ounce of self-control to contain the beast.
His dragon knew his mate was upset, and it pissed him off. He’d rip Huff’s head completely free of his body when they found him. Gods, he looked forward to catching the bastard. His dragon spit fire in agreement.
He parked the truck in the area the GPS had shown as Sage’s location on the map. It was a small clearing, lakeside, though the darkness hid the water’s edge. No dwellings in sight—at least, no lights indicating a house was nearby. Nothing. Dread set in his gut like a Mac truck. Huff would have the upper hand, since he presumably knew the area. And if he was in dragon form, he’d have spotted them coming in the truck from a mile away.
When Owen exited the vehicle, he rushed around to Nadia’s side and helped her out, grabbing her hand to keep her close. He took in a deep breath, trying to scent Sage. If only he could shift, his senses would be more acute. But the risk of Nadia finding out about his dragon was too real. She couldn’t take that news on top of everything else going on.
“Where is she?” His mate’s voice trembled as she whispered the question. “I don’t see anything. There’s nothing here but grass and rocks and damn trees! Where’s my sister?”
He had a hunch that Huff had heard them over the phone and dropped it where Owen and Nadia now stood. Huff was getting sloppy. Or desperate. Or he was playing his sick game of torture.
He wouldn’t play it much longer.
With his dragon’s night vision, Owen scanned the area for the pink and silver phone. He spotted it a few feet from where they stood. The silver caught the moonlight and glinted in the grass. Nadia must have seen it at the same time because she rushed and picked it up.
“Sage’s phone!” She ran her fingers over the screen, unlocking it, then turned the screen toward him. “She took a picture of her kidnapper.”
Owen fought back a growl. “Smart girl.”
Icy realization shot through him as the pieces fell into place. Huff was psycho. And he probably thought Sage was JoAnna. Though Owen had assumed it was Huff that took Sage, he now had confirmation of his worst nightmare.
“Yes. She is.” Nadia thumbed through the menus. “She wrote notes. Says the guy keeps calling her Jo. And that her brother was going to pay for taking her from him. What the hell?”
Owen stared at the grainy, half-lit picture on Sage’s phone. No mistaking it now. Huff had Sage. Owen’s dragon clawed to be let out, and Owen pushed it back. Not yet.
“He’s a nutjob.” Owen held out his hand. “Sage isn’t here. Let’s go back to my house and figure out what’s next. There are some things I need to explain. You aren’t going to like it, but the information should help us find Sage.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “You know this guy, don’t you?”
Her distrust slammed into him. Her scent soured as fear rose up. “Please, I’ll explain at the house. I promise, everything is going to be okay.”
After a long moment, she slid Sage’s phone in her pocket and walked to the truck.
His dragon snarled at him, and he agreed with the beast. He’d screwed up by not telling her the truth to begin with. Now he was up shit creek with no time to screw up again.
He hoped it wasn’t too late to gain his mate’s trust.
They’ll never find us. And JoAnna will be mine forever.
6
Nadia followed Owen into his house and noted he had set up a lot more electronics around the rustic living room. A computer with dual monitors sat on the small desk pushed against the window overlooking the lake. Another screen sat on a table beside the computer, but that one had a collage of video feeds on it. She recognized them as surveillance.
“What’s all this?” She turned to face him. “What are you doing? Spying?”
At first, he didn’t look at her, just moved past her to the work station. She didn’t think he’d answer. What explanation could he give? He wasn’t at the lake on vacation, obviously. Something else was going on with him, and he needed to tell her what it was. Now.
She opened her mouth to repeat her question but closed it when he spoke. “I told you I did detective work. It was a half-truth. I’m actually part of a secret team that hunts down…very bad people. I’m here on a mission to track the man who kidnapped Sage. We’ve been after him for a while.”
“You knew this asshole was loose in the area, maybe even looking for victims, and you let me send Sage off with a friend so you could get me alone?” Rage clouded her vision, and angry tears stormed down her cheeks. “How could you?”
She crossed her arms. If they didn’t find Sage soon, unharmed, Owen was going to see a side of her not many ever saw. She knew she was blaming him for something that wasn’t his fault, but she needed him to feel her frustration.
I can’t lose Sage!
“I didn’t know he was here.” He moved to check the screen with cameras. “The team suspected he might be, but none of us were sure. I came here to see if our hunches were right.” He looked up at her, his eyes hollow. “It appears we were.”
“Is that all you have to say?” She tried to be angry with him, but the ange
r faded to fear. He was at the lake tracking a madman, and now that creep had Sage. This week of vacation was turning into a nightmare.
What if they didn’t find Sage? What would she do without her sister? She couldn’t handle another loss. Not after her parents. They would’ve been so disappointed that she’d let this happen to Sage. Tears started up again and she wiped them away. No time to feel sorry for herself. She needed to focus on the task at hand. Finding her sister.
He turned to her, his eyes pleading for understanding. “I’m sorry, Nadia. A lot of this is top secret information. I’ve barely had time to set up my equipment or check things out. I’d never put someone at risk intentionally. Not Sage, not you, not anyone.”
“Prove it. Find my sister.” She should have known he was too good to be true. None of this made much sense, but she knew one thing for sure. Sage was missing, and it was partly Owen’s fault. Her face flamed.
He looked at the security monitor. “At least we have technology to locate her. We’ll get the bastard. I won’t let him hurt anyone else.”
“He’s hurt other people?” Fear soured her stomach. Oh God, she was going to be sick.
This couldn’t be happening. It had to be a nightmare. Tomorrow, she’d wake up to sunshine and coffee and Sage’s bubbly smile.
Owen nodded but didn’t face her. “Yes, he’s murdered before. But we’ll get him before he does anything to endanger Sage.”
She noticed a change in his posture. He was upset. Tense.
“We have to find her. Now. I don’t care how, I just want Sage safe and back with me.”
“She will be.” The look he gave her made her almost believe. His mouth was set in a firm line, and he scowled. “We will get him before he even tries to harm her. He’s a sick bastard, but I know a lot about him—how he operates. And that knowledge is going to help me bag him.”
“We need to call the police.” She reached into her pocket for her cell, pulling out Sage’s instead. Deep breaths kept her from screaming. Sage was gone. She grabbed the phone from her other pocket.