WYATT
“Can he pinpoint the location of the phone?” I asked, running towards the door. Earl shook his head.
“No, but he will ping it,” Earl said. “It should be making noise.”
I stepped out of the office and leaned over the railing. I could hear the noise of the phone pinging in the silence of the warriors.
“Where is it?” I growled. The warriors separated until one was standing in the middle of a circle, his face white but his back was straight.
“I have it, sire,” he said.
“Why do you have it?” I growled. He could have lied, and I expected it. But he didn’t.
“Sire, they took my sister. I got a call this morning from her and they will kill her if I do not do what they tell me to. I was told to go into the office that the queen was using and destroy all of her equipment. I did not, but I did
WYATTThe video abruptly ended. I frantically tapped on the screen, needing to see more, needing to see if Kacela was okay. Earl grabbed the phone from me and shouted over the railing.“Bob. Theo. I need you up here, now. Get the Queen’s phone.” The two warriors ran for the stairs, Bob catching the phone that another warrior tossed to him.“Someone get the Queen’s laptop and bring it up here. Who here is good with technology?” Several of the warriors raised their hands. “Good, get up here.”Earl surveyed the crowd. “The rest of you, divide up. Some of you go out and try to catch the queen’s scent. I want you spreading out over the city so when we figure out where she is we can deploy immediately.” He looked down at Julie’s brother, an odd look on his face.“Mack. Take Eli
KACELAI was barely conscious when they finally untied me from the hook they had hung my handcuffs on before they whipped me. The man that untied me slipped a little in my blood. He was kind, though, and caught me and wrapped me in a blanket when my legs gave way and I buckled.“I don’t know what you did to incur George’s wrath, but you need to stop,” he whispered to me. “He will kill you. I’ve seen him do it.”“Why do you work for him?” I mumbled, the effort of moving my mouth almost too much for me.“No choice,” he said. He didn’t expound and I didn’t ask. I was too hurt to care.He half dragged, half carried me to the elevator and pushed the button for the top floor. I moaned a little, trying to regain my feet. The man hushed me.“Shh. It’s okay. He’s not going to do anything rig
WYATTBob drove fast. He drove much faster than he should have but we all felt the same sense of urgency. I sat in the backseat, clasping my hands together and trying to control my temper.The voices around me all meshed together in a droning noise. I could pick out Earl calling in reinforcements and having the other warriors meet us at the Tower. Jarrett had pulled up a blueprint online of the towers and was delegating who was to search where. I just wanted to get into the building. I would tear it apart brick by brick if I had to. I wanted to find Kacela.We made it in ten minutes. I could hear a thumping noise and I craned my neck to see a helicopter taking off from the roof. I clenched my hands, praying that Kacela wasn’t on that helicopter.Our efforts were well coordinated. Someone had cut the power to the building, most likely George or whomever was in charge, trying to slow our prog
KACELA I woke up to the noise of something beeping. The smell of rubbing alcohol hit my nostrils and I hurt. I hurt all over. I opened my eyes and looked for the source of the beeping so that I could stop it. It was a monitor, hooked beeping with my heartbeats. I could stop that. I reached down, my arms feeling extraordinarily heavy, and pulled the pads that were attached to my chest off. The beeping changed to a shrill constant noise. “Dammit,” I muttered, trying to sit up. I heard another noise to my blind side and I tried to turn my head but before I could muster up the strength, I was enveloped in a hug. I reached up my arms and hugged Wyatt back. “Kacela, we almost lost you,” he said, his voice husky. “Aww, a little beating never killed anyone,” I said, smiling. He shook his head with a smile, and then reached over the top of me to the monitor, flipping a switch. The incess
WYATT Three days later I had Kacela back to the castle where she belonged. I knew that the doctors and nurses at the clinic were taking wonderful care of her, but I wanted her home where I could protect her. She had told me the whole story, including the part about her brother. I could tell she was hurt. I suggested that she call her mom and ask her if she had any information, but she didn’t want to until she knew the whole story. “It’s not fair to her,” Kacela argued with me. “She just lost her husband, however much of one he was to her. And now she’s going to lose her son.” “Not necessarily,” I said, trying to reason with her. I thought her mom might have more information about who Charlie was working with. “You know I’m right,” Kacela said sadly. “He will fight me, and I will have to kill him.” “What if he’s not involved?” I argued. She just looked at me and shook her
KACELAI took Wyatt’s hand and led him into the bedroom. I could hear his heart beating at the same rhythm as mine and I was getting hot and wet just thinking about him. I licked my lips and heard his quiet groan.“I need a shower,” he said, pulling away from me when we got into the bedroom.“No, after,” I whined, not wanting to wait.“I’ll be fast,” he promised, disappearing. I stamped my foot with frustration. That man was infuriating.I disappeared into my closet and started going through some of the clothing that Nellie had ordered for me. I remembered that there was an entire section with slinky negligee type nighties and I was pleased to see that I had the choice of several really good ones. I picked out a blood red top with a matching thong and garters that hung to my thighs. This was perfect.I slipped off my clothing and began buckling my
KACELAI rolled off the bed and slipped into sweats, after taking off the scratchy negligee. It was fun but impractical, I thought ruefully.I grabbed my laptop and sat on the bed, cross legged, while Wyatt sat behind me and idly drew circles on my back with his fingertip. He leaned over and watched me power up the app.“I don’t even know how to navigate that app,” he said, watching me.“It’s because you’re old and not cool,” I teased. “It’s only for young kids like me.”He playfully pinched me, and I giggled, pulling up Chad’s profile. I wasn’t interested in past posts and only pulled up the most recent.“Hmm,” I said, clicking on a selfie in front of the ocean. “Looks like he’s on a beach somewhere.”Wyatt sat up. “Can you tell where?” he asked. I shook my head.
WYATTWe all followed Kacela into the office.“I would bet that the videos are here, somewhere,” she said. “He would want to have a hard copy of them. Someone with a ton of money could pay a good hacker to come in and find the files if there wasn’t a hard copy. I would guess it would be on individual jump drives, though he might be old school and have them all on disc.” She looked around the room. “And it would be hidden. He seems like the kind of guy who would want them close. If we don’t find anything, we can go down a floor and search there.” She went over to the desk and started opening up drawers.I just looked at her with admiration and confusion. She was so calm. My insides were jumping around, just waiting for someone to rush in and demand an explanation. I didn’t understand how she wasn’t feeling some panic and I was.