Page 72 of The Secrets She Keeps

“Powell’s pregnant?” Daniel asked.

“Yes.” Gunnar’s world. Gunnar’s entire world was out there somewhere. In trouble.

Neither Heather nor Powell were the kind of women who would just disappear without a word deliberately. Not the two of them—not with what they knew was going on. Heather definitely would be exceptionally cautious of personal safety. Especially now.

“Where’s the bodyguard on Powell? Where is he?” Gunnar asked. “She’s kept a guard with her at all times since Haldyn was abducted.”

“No sign of the guard anywhere,” Daniel said.

“She wears a tracking bracelet. One of her cousin’s prototypes,” Gunnar said, grasping at anything to give them a place to start.

“I’ll call Mel Barratt,” Jake said. “See if we can get a read on it. We’ll find your girl, Gun. No matter what.”

“What do we have to do to find Powell and Heather? How do you even know they were together?” Alex asked.

“Whoever has them has no qualms aboutkilling,” a voice said from the door. “Powell’s bodyguard was just found, with two shots to the chest. In her recently purchased property onJackson. He’s alive. But barely. He’s been bleeding slowly for hours. It doesn’t look good, and he may not wake to give us anything. And now they have Powell and Heather.”

Murdoch was there with the rest of Major Crimes. Waiting on instructions.

“What do we have to do to find them?” Jake asked, stepping into the conference room.

“Get her family out of here,” Gunnar said. “They don’t need to be here for this. And we can’t work as fast if we are guarding what we have to say.”

“Out, Mac. We’ll keep you updated,” Daniel said.

Mac tried to protest. Gunnar shot him a furious glare. “Go. You are just wasting our time. Time we need to get them back.”

“You’d better keep us in the loop. I’m going to go call the rest of my family, Dan. Find my sister. No matter what.”

Daniel just nodded.

Gunnar looked at Daniel. “When this is over, you and I are going to finally have thattalk. I’m tired of all the bullshit that’s been going on. It’s time to clean house. Even if I have to do it the hard way. No more games, McKellen. You can count on that.”

49

Heather nudged Powell awake.It took her a moment, but Powell was able to open her eyes. To remember.

Exactly where they were. Theclosetthose bastards had shoved them in because thedocwas coming, and they didn’t want him to see her and Heather.

Yet.

They wanted to make it special.

Powell was terrified of what that meant.

Someone had left a light on in the office. She could just see some of them moving around. Laughing. Talking.

They’d been talking about a relocation. Of their entire enterprise. She half thought they were high too. Or drunk. They just didn’t seem all that sober and reasonable to her at all.

She’d tried to pay attention to what they were doing. Talking about. They’d had boxes of those pills. Heather had told her what they were when they’d first been shoved in here.

After the things that man with a scar had said. The way he had run his hands over Powell. She’d almost puked on him. It was all that had had him backing away. He’d slapped her. Hard.

No one had ever struck her before. Not until the day she had almost been abducted with Haldyn.

But Heather…

He had slapped Powell. And Heather had kicked him. Donethingsto deliberately draw his attention to her. Instead of Powell.

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