by Amy Patrick
She stormed off in a clatter of heels on hardwood flooring, feeling quite victorious, no doubt.
And I smiled. Because what she didn’t know was I wasn’t worried about my next meal. And I hadn’t actually been searching her purse for keys. I’d been looking for this.
Pulling a cell phone from inside the neck of my shirt, where I’d tucked it when my back had been turned to the kidnapper, I dialed one of the few phone numbers I knew by heart. Mine.
My hope was that someone had found my phone wherever I’d lost it and turned it in to the police. The voice that answered belonged to someone even better than a police detective. It sounded like literal music to me.
Lad.
“Hello?” He sounded breathless. “Who’s calling?”
My nose and throat clogged with tears, choking my voice. “Lad, it’s me.”
A hoarse noise like a cross between a sob and a laugh came through the phone. “Ryann. Oh, thank God. Where are you, baby? Are you okay?”
I nodded rapidly, though of course he couldn’t see me. “I’m okay. I’m not hurt. Lad, I’m afraid. Linnea wasn’t who we thought she was. She was only pretending to be a healer. She took me. And now she’s holding me prisoner in a penthouse apartment in a big city somewhere.”
“I know. We figured that out—it’s Falene, Culley’s mother.”
“Falene?” I repeated, in shock. “The leader of the Dark Court in Australia?” Now her remarks about her “heir” made more sense as did her appearance-morphing glamour.
Lad’s words were filled with passion and determination. “Yes, and now that we know that, we know where to look for you. I’m coming to get you. We’re on our way to the airport now. We’ll be in Sydney in twenty-four hours—less if we can manage it.”
“Sydney? Lad wait—I don’t think I’m in Australia.”
Hearing the sound of footsteps nearby, I pulled the phone away from my ear for a moment to listen more closely. They faded, and I brought the phone back to my ear in time to hear Lad firing questions at a frantic pace.
“Not in Sydney? How do you know? Where are you, Ryann?”
I kept my voice low. “I don’t have much time. Falene could come in at any minute when she realizes her phone is missing. I don’t know where I am, but it’s summer right now in Sydney. I can see out the window here, and it’s snowing.”
“What else do you see? Any landmarks?” he asked.
I studied the city scape. “I don’t recognize anything. Something about the view looks kind of familiar, but I don’t know… ”
I heard the footsteps again. This time they sounded much closer, and they were moving quickly, growing louder by the second.
“Lad, she’s coming. I have to go. I’m going to take a picture and send it to you. I love you. No matter what happens, remember that.”
I pulled the phone away from my face again and hit the end-call button. Just before the home screen came up I heard Lad’s response.
“Ryann—I love you, too.”
Fingers shaking so hard it was difficult to accomplish anything, I lined the phone’s camera up with the window and snapped a shot of the exterior view. Then I selected the message option and the number I’d just called—mine. The door opened just as I hit send.
Falene stood in the doorway. Her eyes went to my hands—more specifically to the phone in my hands. Her phone. Fury transformed her face into a horrible mask.
“How did you get that?”
She rushed to me, snatching the phone away and staring at it. Then she let out an enraged shriek and threw it against the wall next to my head. It fell to the floor, shattered.
“Who did you call? Who did you send that photo to?” she demanded, pointing down at the screen, which was now dead-black spiderwebbed with cracks.
I simply stared at her, defiant and silent. Unless she also possessed the glamour of mind-reading, she couldn’t make me tell her. I only hoped the photo had gone through before the phone was destroyed.
Lad probably wouldn’t recognize the city view, but maybe one of our friends would. It would give them a starting point at least. One of them—a Dark Elf—could even put it up on social media and ask if the view looked familiar to anyone.
“Well, no matter,” Falene said, grabbing my arm and hauling me to my feet. “Even if whoever it was can decipher your pathetic little clue, it will do them and you no good. We’re leaving.”
“Where are we going?”
She let out a haughty sounding Ha! “As if I’d tell you. Let it suffice to say you’re in for a long journey. And it’ll be somewhere none of your little ‘allies’ in the Light Court will ever find us.”
“Australia?” I guessed.
“No. That’s the first place they’ll look if they ever figure out who I am. We’ll keep it a surprise, shall we? First, though, I need to make a quick stop and right another wrong that was done to me. Which means I’ll require you…” She whipped a long, thin cloth around my head and forced it against my lips until they opened. “… to be quiet for a while.”
I swallowed hard, gagging at the foreign feel of fabric against my tongue. Then everything went dark as she pulled something over my head—a pillowcase maybe?
I could only make garbled noises of protest as she bound my hands behind me and then pushed me forward, forcing me to stumble along with her or fall. I didn’t want that. A fall could hurt the baby, so I did my best to keep up.
As we moved through the apartment, I imagined Lad arriving here in a few hours, only to find it empty. I knew he was doing everything in his power to get to me. If only I had thought to leave him a note—or something to let him know I’d been here so he’d at least know he was on the right track. I actually wished Falene had slapped me and bloodied my nose—that would be irrefutable evidence I’d been here.
My fingers were already going numb from being bound so tightly behind my back. I wiggled them, feeling my ring finger swelling like a sausage.
My ring.
That was it. With the fingers of my right hand I worked the diamond ring with its beautiful Elven inscription to the end of my left ring finger. Then, coughing to hide the sound, I dropped it onto the floor.
“Oh, stop being dramatic,” Falene said and jerked my arm again. “You can breathe just fine.”
There were sounds of a door opening then closing after we passed through it. I recognized the faint ding of an elevator. My hopes rose slightly. Maybe someone would be on it and see what was happening? Maybe there would finally be a witness who could call police.
Apparently not. We took a few steps forward then I heard the elevator door closing and felt the slight lurch as the car began to descend. When the doors opened again I smelled fuel. And something musty. Our footsteps echoed as we walked, making me suspect we were in an underground parking garage.
An electronic beep was followed by the sound of a car door opening. I’d been right. Falene had taken me to her car. So… either we were setting out for a long road trip—or we were going to the airport.
I really hoped it was the road trip—that would give Lad and the others more time to get to me. And there was a good chance that would be our mode of travel—it would be a little difficult for Falene to get me on board a plane gagged, blindfolded, and bound at the wrists. TSA might have a word or two to say about that. Maybe some other traveler would spot me through the car window and make a call to authorities. She couldn’t sway everyone we passed on the highway.
“All right, little mummy, in you go,” Falene snarled.
Instead of pushing down on my shoulder to guide me into one of the car’s seats, she shoved me forward, and I fell—but not far. The surface beneath me was hard, though it was covered with a rubber mat.
I tried to protest, realizing where I was—it wasn’t the first time I’d been forced into a trunk. There was a piercing pain in my thigh. A needle! She’d injected me with something. My first thought was for the baby.
I shouted, “What was that? What did you put in
me?” But with the gag on it was just an unintelligible series of frantic sounds.
“Don’t worry,” Falene said. “It’s the same sedative I used on you before—completely fetus-safe. I wouldn’t risk the life of my new heir. It will help you sleep. That way you’ll use less oxygen and be more comfortable in here.”
She pulled off my hood, and I blinked up at her just before the trunk lid slammed closed over my head, plunging me into total darkness. I immediately began using more oxygen as my heart rate rocketed. Not good.
Stay calm, Ryann. Breathe slowly.
Fear and claustrophobia kept trying to drive my lungs to hyperventilate. But the faster I used up my oxygen, the more jeopardy my baby would be in. Falene had said we were going to make a stop before the long trip, right? Maybe we were changing vehicles. Maybe I’d only be in here a few minutes.
I focused on Lad, and imagined our room in Altum, imagined myself in our large, comfortable bed. Every bump in the road and the surrounding traffic noise, honking horns, revving engines, all tried to force me out of my meditation, but I couldn’t let them. I couldn’t afford to panic. The baby’s life hung in the balance.
After a while—I couldn’t say how long—the car stopped, and the engine turned off. I felt the driver’s door open and shut. Falene must have gotten out of the car to run whatever vengeful errand she’d been talking about. This was my chance.
Waiting another minute to give her time to get away from the car, I started kicking the trunk’s interior. Hopefully the noise would draw the attention of a passerby, and someone would stop to investigate. No one did. Either they couldn’t hear me or were too busy to stop and investigate a faint thumping noise.
I kept it up until I felt the reverberations of the car door opening and closing once again. Almost immediately, the car began moving, erratically jerking out into traffic and then picking up speed.
Oh no.
We hadn’t changed vehicles. She hadn’t even opened the trunk to check on me. How long would I have to survive in here, jolting along and sliding around? How long could my air possibly last?
I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness, the sedative kicking in. Knowing there was no way he could hear me, I sent a message to Lad anyway.
I don’t know where I am anymore love, or where I’m going. I only know I love you more than I can say, and I will fight. I’ll do everything in my power to protect our baby… and come home to you.
13
Chapter Thirteen
LAD
I stared at the phone in my hand, aching to hear Ryann’s voice again.
We’d only been able to exchange a few words before she’d ended the call in order to send me this picture. This picture of… what?
A city, obviously, but which one? I’d only been to Washington, D.C. briefly and to Los Angeles. I’d visited several places in Europe, but the tall buildings in this photo didn’t look like the ones I’d seen in any of those places.
With my limited perspective, I was the wrong person to try to figure out this one clue we had. Besides, my brain was still in a whirl, and my hands were shaking. I gave the phone to Nox.
“Does this look familiar to you at all?”
He squinted at it. “I’m not sure. Looks like New York to me. But maybe it’s Sydney. Culley? What do you think? Look like home?”
He walked over and took the phone. His head swung back and forth in a slow, tight arc. “Unbelievable.”
“What? What is it?” I asked.
“It is New York. I recognize these buildings. And I’ve seen them from that angle before. I know that view. I’ve been in the apartment where this picture was taken.” He looked up at us. “It’s my father’s penthouse.”
“So Falene didn’t take Ryann to her property in Australia. She took her to her property in New York.”
Nox clapped his hands. “Well, okay then. This is good news, right? New York City is a helluva lot closer than Sydney. We can be there in a few hours.”
I nodded, my head swimming from the abrupt turnabout and my heart racing with fresh hope. “Yeah. Let’s go bring my family home.”
“Someone should go find Wes so he can pass along the change in destination to Alessia and the tracker,” Culley said.
“Good thinking. He can tell them to head for New York instead and meet us there.”
I stepped back into the tunnel and told the guard to relay the message to Alessia’s bond-mate. Asher drove as we discussed our plan of attack on the way to the Oxford airport.
“You said the call was from Australia,” Nox said. “I’m guessing Ryann got a hold of your mom’s phone somehow.”
“That’s what I think,” Culley said. “Let’s hope she was clever enough to hide it from Mum. I don’t know why I didn’t think of New York before. I guess I still think of the Manhattan penthouse as my father’s place. It makes perfect sense, though. I wasn’t sure how she’d managed to board an international flight with a pregnant kidnapping victim in tow, navigating customs and security, not to mention the crowds of passengers. Even she can’t glamour that many people at once.”
“Just in case she’s still planning to head for Australia, we should ask Ryann’s father to notify the airport authorities and the police. He can tell them he took the call—that she told him she was in New York. It’ll give us a lot more eyes participating in the search,” I said.
“I’ll do it,” Nox said, lifting his phone and hitting a button.
“Good idea,” Asher said. “That way if Falene does find out Ryann made a call for help and suddenly decides to get her out of the country, the airports will be on the lookout. Mississippi law enforcement can pass along the picture to them, too. Speaking of calls, we should get someone tracking that cell phone’s location.”
“Well, let’s hope Mum doesn’t find out. New York is a bloody big city,” Culley said, sounding dire. “It’ll be much harder to find them if they’re on the move.”
Finished with his phone call, Nox looked over at me. “Want the good news or the bad news?”
“Good first, I guess.”
“Michael talked to his sheriff friend. They’re going to send the information to the New York authorities. And he said they’ll get right on tracking that phone number.”
“Great. What’s the bad news?”
“When I hung up with him, I gave Alessia a call and got no answer, so I called Wes.”
He paused, frowning. “Alessia and Stefano moved fast when they got the news about Falene’s involvement—a little too fast, unfortunately. They swayed the airline to let them on a flight that was just about to pull out of the gate, heading non-stop for Sydney. They’re already in the air and on their way. Which means they won’t be making it to New York anytime soon. Even if they immediately turn around and fly back after landing, it’s twenty-one hours each way.”
I exhaled on a defeated sigh. “That is bad news. So we have no tracker—not for a couple of days anyway.”
“The good news is we do have a destination,” Culley reminded us. “We’re not just wandering around blind anymore. We’ll head directly to the apartment from the airport. We’ll catch Falene completely by surprise. I know the keypad code—we can go right in.”
We made great time from the private airfield to Manhattan, presumably because we were traveling through the city in the dead of night. The cab stopped in front of a sleek high-rise with a deep red awning overhanging the front doors.
I leapt from the car while Nox paid. Culley exchanged friendly banter with the doorman, who clearly recognized him and let us right into the lobby. It was a good thing he had—for the man’s sake. I was more than willing to go right through him and anyone else I had to.
We were so close now—nothing was going to stop me from getting to my mate. I thought my heart might explode during the elevator ride.
“It would have to be the top floor,” I grumbled, pacing the small compartment. “Why do rich people always want to live so far off the ground?”
Culley put a hand on my shoulder. “Easy, mate. We’ll get there.”
Finally reaching the penthouse floor, the elevator car stopped, and the doors opened. Culley entered the code into the keypad and opened the apartment door as quietly as possible. Nox stopped me from charging inside.
Careful, he cautioned me silently. There are four of us, but Falene could be armed. A bullet would put a serious dent in this happy reunion.
I nodded and forced myself to move slowly into the luxurious penthouse. Floor to ceiling windows provided an expansive view of the city lights. Our shoes echoed off of polished wood floors and pristine white walls. Communicating with each other mind-to-mind, we split up and moved from room to room. I sent out a message to Ryann.
Sweetheart, I’m here. Can you hear me?
There was no answer, which made my already-fast pulse race faster. She’s okay, I told myself. She’s alive. Maybe Falene is keeping her sedated.
After a few minutes, we’d checked every room and found no one. Could Culley have been wrong about the location? Was there another apartment in this building with a similar view? Maybe we were one floor too high or something.
Asher called out to us all. “Guys—I think you should see this.”
My heart was in my throat as Nox and I both ran down the hall, skidding into the room where Asher stood. Following his gaze, I saw what had him so dismayed.
Food was splattered across the floor. An empty glass lay on its side, surrounded by silverware and a china plate that had cracked in half. But my gaze focused just beyond that where pieces of a shattered cell phone lay on the floor near a window. I crossed the room toward it, registering the view outside, which was identical to the one in the photo Ryann had sent.
Bending to gather the scattered electronic parts, I muttered, “I guess the phone tracking’s not going to work.”
Nox rubbed his forehead. “Falene must have found out about the distress call. And it looks like they left in a hurry, since she didn’t take time to clean up the evidence.”