Page 30 of A Very Titan Christmas (Titan #14)

Rachel followed the security officer through the winding, windowless passages of the service hallways.

The low ceilings and humming fluorescent lights always made her feel like she was lost in a maze.

Once, when she’d been in elementary school, she and a friend snuck into the service hallways and found themselves turned around.

They didn’t see anyone while searching for their way out, and once they got outside, they were nowhere close to where they had started.

“Why are we going this way?” Rachel paused as the officer turned down another corridor.

Dressed as an undercover agent, he had explained that her father wanted to speak with her again. She guessed that using this man to separate her from her mother was Dad’s way to assure they had a private conversation without having to deal with Eloise’s snark and sarcasm.

“This way.” The man gestured down the hall.

“No, my dad’s not down here—”

The undercover officer grabbed her arm. “Let’s go.”

Rachel yanked it back. “Excuse me.”

His grip tightened.

Dread surged in her stomach. “Hey, let go.”

He didn’t let go and dragged her forward. “Just following orders, ma’am.”

Orders? That wasn’t what he’d said. She leaned her weight back onto her heels. “No.”

If there were orders, Bryce—or anyone from Titan Group—would be the one to dish them out. If there was an issue, they would have brought Eloise along with Rachel. “I’m going to go back and ask—”

He shoved the business end of his service weapon against her temple. “Keep moving.”

All thoughts left her, replaced by cold fear at the realization that she’d fucked up. Rachel was lost in a maze of hallways where no one would hear her scream. “Whatever you want, my parents will give it to you.”

“I want you to keep moving.” He pressed harder on the gun, as if she missed the loaded weapon inches away from her brain. “Go, or I’ll make you.”

He wouldn’t take her just to shoot her. He needed her for something, and she had to figure out what because she would be dead if he got it.

She’d seen his face. White guy. Pale with a scar above his eyebrow.

Close-cropped brown hair. Hard-set jawline.

He didn’t wear a uniform, but by combining his looks with khaki pants, ass-kicking boots, and a generic jacket, he screamed undercover cop.

He’d blended in with the other undercover officers milling about, and she hadn’t thought twice about leaving with him.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. The mother of all fuckups.

His radio crackled. Official-sounding language, some of it in code, blared between them.

“Say a word, and I’ll put a bullet between your eyes.” His eyes narrowed, assessing her to determine if his threat had worked. A second later, he talked in code over his radio with what she guessed meant, “All’s good here.”

The radio chatter continued with more garbled, crackling code talk.

He kept the gun trained on her but offered a quick nod, as if they were on the same page. “Good. Now, let’s go.”

So, was he on the security detail?

His fingers dug into her elbow. Pain radiated down her arm. Her knees weakened. She couldn’t think straight. But she wasn’t fucking going anywhere. Rachel folded herself into deadweight.

“Get up.” He holstered his weapon and jerked her upright with a grip on each arm that felt tighter than before. “Stand up.”

They heard voices simultaneously. He froze.

“Help—”

His hand clamped over her mouth. She thrashed and kicked. He wrapped an arm around her throat. Rachel fought for breath. Her legs and arms felt too heavy to raise. She couldn’t move. Gray clouds appeared in her peripheral vision. She fought to keep her eyes open, but all went dark.

*

Members of Titan Group surrounded the makeshift war room table.

The windows overlooked the snow-covered woods, and all Bryce could think about was how he’d fucked up.

He hadn’t been by Rachel’s side and couldn’t figure out the timing of the blackout that had powered down or disabled the resort’s CCTV, Wi-Fi, electronic locking mechanisms that usually required a badge swipe, and anything else that would have been useful to find Rachel.

“They can’t get far.” Jared slammed his fist on the conference room table. A holiday arrangement of holly and pinecones jumped. “Parker, what do we know?”

Not much, Bryce thought. If Parker knew anything, he would have led with that.

Angry static burned Bryce’s ears. He could only come up with one answer: The enemy was among them. The idea that someone had taken Rachel killed him. The idea of losing her, like he’d lost Montana… The ache in his chest got stronger every time he tried to take a breath.

“Senator and Mrs. Porter are secured,” Parker said.

Jared pinched the bridge of his nose. “Tell me something fuckin’ useful, Parker.”

“Porter’s people had a leak—”

“Almost twenty-four hours ago. How can a fuckin’ power outage cause this much damage?” Frustration glinted in Jared’s dark eyes. “What does all of this tell us?”

“That it looks a hell of a lot like an inside job.”

Parker had said out loud what Bryce was thinking.

Jared paced. “An inside job.”

Bryce raged. His fists balled under the table. “How is that possible?”

“Too many cooks in the kitchen,” Parker said. “Too many people unfamiliar with each other. We’re not the lead. We haven’t been, and this isn’t how we’d operate.”

“Fuck.” Jared cracked his knuckles. “Is every access road out of this resort shut down?”

“Affirmative.”

“Helicopters are circling?”

“Look, the Feds are running point on this investigation. I’m only able to pass along intel—”

“I’ll get us where we need to be,” Jared said. “But I’m not hearing much to act on.”

“The helos are using thermal imaging. The dog handlers are running their pups, but the conditions are harsh. In a way, that works in our favor.”

“What does that mean?” Bryce wanted to know.

“There wasn’t much time between the leak about the summit and the abduction,” Parker said.

“That tells me there’s a lack of planning.

It smells of desperation, which statistically means that Rachel is close.

She might still be in the building. If not, I think she’s close by.

No one’s getting off this mountain without a huge number of resources. ”

Jared rubbed his forehead. “The question becomes why. What do they want?”

“To get the summit cancelled,” Bryce volunteered. “That’s a no-brainer.”

The head of Senator Porter’s security detail pushed through the conference room door. Boss Man tilted his head toward the table, signaling for the woman to join them. “Parker, Rhonda Melvin just walked in.”

“We found Rachel’s boot outside about fifty yards from a service entrance. The wear marks on the heel and side are consistent with being dragged.”

Someone had dragged Rachel away. Anger bubbled inside Bryce. Hope dwindled. Fear bloomed in his chest, an ugly foreign feeling he had no practice dealing with.

“Easy.” Jared raised his hand to Bryce in warning. “They want her for a reason. Dragging her means they’re moving her and nothing more.”

Nothing more? “She could be dead.”

“No,” Jared snapped. “Use your fuckin’ brain. Hurting Rachel won’t get anyone anything. She’s a bargaining chip. That’s all.”

Bryce understood what Boss Man was saying, but logic and negotiating tactics had fled his mind.

The woman he loved had been taken when he was so damn close by.

She could be dead and might be soon if whoever had taken her didn’t get what they wanted.

This was worse than Montana dying. That had been an accident, but this was Bryce’s mistake.

Jared studied Bryce for a moment longer and shook his head. “Damn it, Bryce. Fake relationship. That’s what you said. Fake. Pretend. No problem.” He pushed a hand through his dark hair, which was flecked with gray at the temples. “Falling in love with your principal is a fuckin’ problem.”

Bryce sure as hell couldn’t deny it. His molars ground together. He’d fallen in love with Rachel Porter. Again. “This isn’t helping anyone find her.”

Jared scowled. “Then it’s a problem for another day. After we get her home.”

An avalanche of guilt and panic smothered him.

“You’re sitting this out,” Jared barked at Bryce and pointed at Cash. “You—”

“No.”

Boss Man arched his eyebrow. “Yeah.”

“The hell I am. If—when—we find her, I’m going in. I’ll be the first face she sees and the first person who gets a shot at whoever put their hands on Rachel. That’s nonnegotiable.”

“Brother, you aren’t in a position to negotiate.”

“Well, here I am anyway.”

Jared scanned the room, maybe searching for someone who would object.

Maybe looking for backup. He found neither.

Years seemed to crawl by. Finally, Boss Man nodded.

“Fine. I get it. I don’t fuckin’ like it.

But I get it.” He pushed himself out of his chair, paced the conference table’s length again, and turned to Porter’s security detail.

“Rhonda, how sure are you about your team?”

“They’re clean, and I’ve sequestered everyone else.

Turned them over to the Feds, and we’re working with the FBI’s behavioral analysis folks.

This is my problem: Once we figure out which direction to go, I’ll never get a SWAT team up here in time.

” She nodded to the men around the table and looked at Jared. “I run point, and Titan is the muscle?”

Jared nodded then let out a long breath and gestured to Bryce. “Let that one lead the charge.”

Hope flickered in his chest. He had Titan Group. He was Titan group. That had meant a lot when he took the job, and now, it meant the world. He trusted his teammates to do what it took so that he could bring Rachel home safely.

Two things were abundantly clear. He loved his job, and he loved Rachel Porter. Bryce had zero clue how he could make both things work together, but right now, he’d sell his soul to Jack Frost for this to end like one of those cheesy holiday movies.