Page 108

FLASHBACK

THERON

NEW YORK CITY

A few months after the Warren and the first raid with Deathwing, we were back in New York.

The investigation into Quarry had been a dead end and we weren’t any closer to finding Emersyn then we were before we raided the middleman’s operation. There was evidence she’d been with him but somehow Quarry had gotten spooked and disappeared before we got to him—taking all of his inventory with him.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay abroad any longer. I was needed back home—several aspects of my business could no longer be ignored—and so I begrudgingly flew back to the states. Deathwing promised he’d continue having eyes on the operations there and in the meantime, he told me it would be beneficial to work on getting close to Mahoney.

Greg and I had stayed in touch after the Warren and gotten together for drinks a few times. Before I left he’d told me he was due for a trip to New York and just this morning he’d called me saying he was in town. I hoped this would be when he extended the invitation to the Red Auction he’d promised me.

“Oh good you’re here,”

West said.

I was in the kitchen at the house making coffee. I looked him over. He was brimming with excitement and anticipation.

“What is it?”

“You need to see what I found,” he said.

I poured another cup and handed it to him and we walked down the hallway towards his rooms. The minute I walked in, Kaelin’s picture was up on a monitor. Except, it wasn’t just any picture.

“Why is she on the cover of a tech magazine?” I asked.

The title was CTO of Phox Enterprises Develops Latest in Military Drone Technology.

The date was from six years ago.

“Yeah, your girl is a techie,”

West grinned. He clicked through some screens. “Kaelin Bennett. She has several patents, is an active philanthropist—”

he pulled up a screen with several tech magazine articles. “And as you can see, she’s a world renown military tech developer and the CTO of Phox.”

When I didn’t say anything West chuckled. “I never thought I’d see you speechless.”

I ran a hand through my hair, staring at the image of her on the magazine cover. She looked a thousand times better than she had in the Warren and her resume was incredibly impressive. I would be lying if it didn’t make me even more intrigued than I already was if that was even possible.

“This is all from a few months ago,”

West said.

He clicked a few more things and article after article popped up all talking about the missing CTO of Phox. There was everything ranging from conspiracy theories to worries about the company’s stock but the bottom line was no one knew where she was or even how she had disappeared.

“It looks like all they know is she was somewhere in the Arctic Circle visiting a friend. She never made it home when she was scheduled to. They also questioned her fiance—”

“She has a fiance?”

“Looks like you have some competition,”

West snickered.

I studied the pictures West pulled up and scoffed. He looked just like every other law firm asshole.

I pulled out my phone and called Cooper.

“Cooper,”

he answered.

“It’s North—”

“Ah, I was going to call you,”

Cooper cut in. “My partner is interested in contracting for a few hundred thousand rounds.”

“That’s fine. I can draw something up but the deal will need to include Kaelin.”

Cooper was silent, then I heard him sigh.

“Jesus North, you’re like a horny teenager going after your first crush. I told you to forget about her.”

I was quiet, composing myself before I spoke again.

“I can’t do that,”

I said firmly.

“Well, I have some bad news anyway,”

Cooper sighed. “She’s gone.”

“What do you mean gone?”

“I mean, she’s not here anymore, okay?”

Cooper snapped. “Do you want the contract or—”

I hung up before he could finish his sentence.

“She’s not at the Warren anymore,”

I said to West.

“Does that mean she’s—”

I could tell he didn’t want to ask if that meant she was dead.

“He didn’t say—just that she was gone,”

I replied.

I ran a hand over my face and stared at Kaelin’s picture on the screen.

“I’ll keep an eye out for her. Let me know if you want me to dig into anything else,”

West said.

I went back to my office to do some work but when I sat down at my desk, I found myself putting her name into Google. An hour later, I’d gone deep down the rabbit hole of Kaelin Bennett. Everything in the Warren made sense now. The things she talked about during cocktail hour, knowing the book on biotech I’d brought—I knew she was a force but knowing what I did now, I had a hard time believing she was dead. She was a survivor, and I hoped she’d found a way out of that hell.

Nyx knocked on the half-open door and when I gestured for him to come in, he plopped down in one of the chairs in front of my desk. I turned the monitor towards him and showed him the image of Kaelin on the magazine cover.

“Who is—no,”

he said, eyes wide. “That’s not—she’s actually—T, she’s a big deal! And in the same industry? What are the fucking odds, man?”

He grinned. “So, we still going to grab her at some point?”

“She’s missing. Cooper doesn’t know where she is.”

“Dead?”

I shrugged. “Unclear. West is keeping an eye out but the news of her missing has caused a stir on the internet. We must have missed it in all the chaos recently and being abroad.”

“Damn, well, she’s gorgeous,”

Nyx smirked. “I’m sure she’ll surface and then we’ll get her—wait—she wants to be with you too right? Or is this a kidnapping situation?”

I shrugged. “She has a fiance. Could be a kidnapping situation.”

Nyx waved his hand. “Who is he and do you want me to take him out now?”

I chuckled even knowing he was serious. “If she’s alive, she’s mine. Let’s wait and see what happens before pulling any triggers.”

Literally.

“You should have just taken her when you left,” Nyx said.

“And then what? It’s not like I could have given her the attention she deserved—no, needed after coming out of a trafficking situation. Plus, if she really does like this asshole fiance, she probably would run back to him and I wouldn’t have time to do anything about it.”

“Yeah, but she would’ve been safe,”

Nyx shrugged.

I sighed because he was right and I still questioned myself for not just grabbing her and stealing her away while I had the chance.

“Cooper would have come after us,”

I said. “Just too many variables and my daughter takes precedence.”

“Over a girl with a fiance who you’ve only spent five days with? Definitely,”

Nyx chuckled.