Page 26

Spending the evening in the police station hadn’t been on my itinerary for the day, but I was grateful for it. Anything to help figure out what the fuck was going on.

In the span of the past twenty-four hours, I’d gone from finding out that my casual hookup had gone missing and that my assistant for the better part of my career as a member of the House might have something to do with it.

I wanted to hold out hope that Maxim wasn’t connected, that it was some kind of mistake, but his emails were pretty damning and Hudson wasn’t letting it go.

Not that he should, because he’d made some headway by the time a few more hours had gone by.

Wrage and I had persisted to join him at the police station, needing to have updates on the apparent hate group that was behind the petrylle kidnappings.

Hudson had told us that it might take some time for one of his best tech guys to find something, but he’d struck gold after we’d only been there an hour.

Hudson walked back to his desk, where Wrage and I were both waiting on antsy feet.

It humbled me that no one at the police station had gawked at Wrage when he’d entered it, which had made me wonder how often O rbs walked through these hallowed halls.

But as Hudson approached us with a folder, I knew that the night was about to get a hell of a lot more involved.

“So?” Wrage blurted out before I could.

Hudson nodded. “It’s Maxim. He’s involved somehow. We traced the IP address and it’s connected to a warehouse under the name Stacy Kachowski.”

“Stacy?”

My mind blurred, numbing itself as a form of protection from any more tragedy befalling it. Now I was being told that not only was Maxim connected to this hate group but so was his girlfriend?

“We’re already getting a warrant for Maxim and Stacy’s apartment.” Hudson lowered his head. “But before that, can you try calling him?”

My brow furrowed. “You want me to try calling him now that we know?”

“If he answers, great. If not, we’ll know that he at least suspects that we know.”

“And you expect me to be able to keep calm if he answers?”

Hudson had way too much faith in me. He hadn’t been in my head for the past month while I’d been ping ponging back and forth about my feelings about Wrex.

I briefly closed my eyes at the mention of his name.

I couldn’t dwell on that, not when he was missing and I was actively pursuing what had happened to him.

I could only handle thinking about this as a board member, not as the guy who’s favorite petrylle had gone missing.

“I’ll be right here if he answers,” Hudson assured me with a glazing stare. “You’ll be fine, just put it on speaker.”

“And if he doesn’t answer?” Wrage asked.

“Then we move forward with the warrant and storm the warehouse.”

With their eyes staring expectation into my temples, I fluidly pulled out my phone from my po cket, hesitating as I found Maxim’s name.

This hellgrammite group…it just was too soon to think about Maxim being with them.

I knew that anyone could be capable of great evil, but I thought the same about people being capable of great good.

I’d always thought that Maxim was part of the latter.

This wasn’t about Maxim. This was about the petrylle. This was about Wrex. My heart felt like it was squeezed when I thought about his name again, lurching in the palm of an invisible hand. I needed to do this and as fast as I could.

I tapped on Maxim’s name on my phone and put it on speaker and held out my cell in my hand like I was cradling it. I didn’t think that he’d answer, but he proved me wrong when I heard a click on the other end.

“Hey boss,” The casual way that he spoke gave me an inclination of where his head was at. He had no idea that we knew anything at all. “Everything okay?”

Glancing over at Hudson, I was suddenly very glad that Maxim was on speaker. He mouthed what he wanted me to say and I recited it plainly. “I know about the Hellgrammites.”

The silence was so much worse than if Maxim had denied it all. Because the silence was more confirming than anything. That was all I’d needed to confirm that Maxim was in league with these pieces of shit.

“There’s nothing you can do.” Maxim’s voice was low and sounded so unlike him, I probably would have questioned it if I hadn’t known without fail that it was him on the other end. “I’m sorry, Wallace. For what it’s worth.”

Hudson grabbed the phone out of my hand. “Tell me where the petrylle are.” The phone disconnected immediately following Hudson’s demand. Sighing, he handed me back my phone and nodded. “Well, that settles that.”

Things were a blur after that, my heart breaking over the fact that my fucking assistant, someone I’d let into my life and thought shared my views on hel ping Orbs, was behind the petrylle kidnappings.

Hudson was taking charge and I was just a passenger in following orders.

Wrage and I found our way in the backseat of Hudson’s car, heading straight for the warehouse that was under Stacy’s name.

Even though I’d heard from Maxim’s own mouth that he was doing this, albeit in not so many words, I briefly toyed with the idea that maybe Stacy had put these thoughts into his head.

But even that was a mindfuck because he’d been dating Stacy for three years.

I’d shared meals with this woman, gone on and on about things I’d hoped to do to help Orbs in the future and both of them had smiled directly in my face and told me that I was changing the world.

Just how long had they been involved in planning this?

I shook myself mentally as Hudson pulled up outside the warehouse.

I didn’t want to go to the place that made me think that Stacy and Maxim had planned this out over that amount of time.

It didn’t make sense. Not that it made sense in the first place. I just wanted answers.

More than that, I needed to see Wrex. To see that he was okay, that the rest of the petrylle were okay.

I hadn’t allowed myself to be wrapped up in thoughts about his safety or lack thereof, but now that we were potentially heading to a place that could be holding him and the rest of the missing petrylle, my heart skipped irregularly.

The slight shift of the car being stopped brought me out of my mental reverie. Hudson locked eyes with me in the mirror before mimicking the action with Wrage.

“You two stay here, okay?” Hudson nodded. “I’ve got backup on the way, but until then, stay here in the car where it’s safe in case things go awry.”

“You think things could go awry?” Wrage’s voice trembled with uncertainty. If he hadn’t displayed the worry in his voice, mine surely would have shaken enough for the both of us .

“Things could always go awry,” Hudson scoffed. “Everything’s on the table when it comes to criminals.”

Hudson pried open the driver side door and wielded his gun from whatever hidden place it had been before.

I glanced at Wrage, who was watching the detective just as intently, as Hudson made his way toward the entrance of the warehouse.

The red door was surrounded by an archway of brick that made it look more homey, as if this wasn’t some previously abandoned warehouse that had now been turned into a hotbed of kidnapped housing.

He had to kick down the door after yelling for someone to open up, but Hudson made his way inside. As soon as the detective disappeared inside the confines of the warehouse, Wrage stirred next to me.

“I’m not just fucking sitting here,” Wrage said, reaching for the door handle with gusto. “Wrex could be dying in there.”

That was my greatest fear realized in one sentence. Images of Wrex lying in a pool of his own blood, simply because he’d been a prime candidate to take because of our position on the board ran through me like a freight train with tampered brakes.

I gave Wrage a nod. “Let’s go.”

We both shoved ourselves out of Hudson’s car, slowly making our way to the warehouse with the still ajar red door waving a warning sign at us.

When I glanced at Wrage again, he activated his luster, a clear sheen settling over his skin that now meant he was basically indestructible.

It should have made me feel a lot safer heading into a den belonging to kidnappers that could very well be armed, but it only reminded me that I was human and very likely to catch any stray bullet that might have been meant for Wrage.

Giving me a nod, Wrage stopped at the door frame. “You get behind me, okay?”

I tilted my head back, not wanting to waste the time arguing. With eerie quiet and caution, we crept inside the warehouse .

Inside the warehouse was exactly as I’d imagined.

Oil spills long faded and forgotten decorated the slate floor, giving it a sort of abstract art quality to the otherwise drab flooring.

Dust collected in every corner. There was absolutely nothing of note in the building.

No furniture, no decorations, nothing. It was just a simple, empty room.

Which was the disturbing part. If this was the building that Stacy had bought, or at least put in her name, why was it empty? Furthermore, if there was nothing more to this warehouse than meets the eye, why the fuck wasn’t Hudson here?

Wrage seemed to be thinking the same thing as he inclined his head in my direction. “Something’s not right. Hudson should be here.”

There had to be something we were missing. But that was the most frustrating part. The only things in the room were the windows that adorned the walls and a door at the far back that must lead outside. My head shifted, inspecting the door.

Unless it didn’t lead outside.

“Over there.” I said, pointing to the door.

Slower than we probably needed to, Wrage and I sauntered over to the door.

The last thing either of us wanted was for someone to randomly pop out of nowhere and attack us when we weren’t on guard.

Nothing happened. I moved in front of Wrage before he could mutter a protest and flung the door open, needing this wait to be over.

I tensed, as I felt Wrage do the same behind me, waiting for a gun to be pointed in my face or something of that sinister nature. The only thing that was staring back at me after opening the door was a closet. Just a closet.

“What the hell?”

I nodded at Wrage’s loose inquiry. There was a mop in the corner, a shop-vac that looked like it had been abandoned here after the warehouse had originally traded hands, and a built in bookcase. My brow furrowed. Wh y would anyone build a bookcase in a closet of a warehouse?

“Can you think of any reason why someone would have a bookcase in a closet?” My brain went into overdrive, thinking about the plethora of things that would possess someone to do this.

But only one thing made sense in my brain, whether it was because of the media I’d consumed or the video games I loved to dabble in: this bookcase had to be some type of secret door.

I watched in fascination as a sense of whimsy scrolled over Wrage’s face as he looked it over. Then anger claimed the land of his features, and he growled. “Step away from the bookcase, Wallace.”

No sooner had I moved out of the closet, Wrage stomped inside and, using his still activated luster, pummeled his fists hard against the bookcase.

So hard that the entire thing was ripped off whatever was keeping it in place until the thing caved inward, thrashing down a secret staircase that revealed a hidden basement.

Wrage stormed down the stairs and I was quick to follow him.

Before we even got to the bottom of the stairs, there was a sharp clicking sound.

Suddenly, we were surrounded by a dozen armed men pointing guns at both of us.

The basement, or at least this part of it, was a very small room that had the same flooring as the warehouse above, but without all the oil spills.

In the center of the armed men was Hudson, blood streaming down his face from the altercation that must have transpired as soon as he’d entered the warehouse.

Immediately, I put up my hands in defeat, but Wrage wasn’t as quick to mirror my actions.

It looked like Hudson was about to speak, his mouth quivering, but one of the men closest to him held a tighter grip on the gun that was pointed directly at Hudson’s temple.

The silence grew in the room until a door opened behind us and I watched in devastation as Stacy and Maxim walked into the room.

Stacy was shoving Wrex along with her, his arms tied behind his back as she held up a chrome pistol to Wrex’s head.

My blood roared in my ears. It felt like a thousand needles of different origin were pressing into my eyes, tears trembling at the sight while Stacy and Maxim took their time passing by us to stand in front of the men still aiming their guns at us.

Betrayal throbbed harshly in my veins, hurt danced behind my eyelids.

But my heart, that’s what was hurting the most. Because seeing Wrex in that precarious position, because of me, made me feel like my entire world was ending.

The only thing I wanted to do was run to him, to tell him how much he meant to me despite both of our positions on what kind of relationship we were looking for.

As I watched Stacy push Wrex down to his knees and whip her head in our direction, the tears streaming down my face told me all I needed to about how I felt about Wrex.

Wrage snarled beside me as I tried to reign in my emotions, knowing that I needed to be strong right now. Wrex looked relatively unharmed, but that did nothing to qualm the storm raging within me.

“Well then,” Stacy said, laughing to herself as she looked at Hudson, then around to her men, before settling her eyes on mine. “Let’s get started, shall we?”