Page 79 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

He looked angrier than I’d ever seen him, his fury scarier than what I’d seen on Frank or Charlie’s faces. “Find Willow,” he said.

I had no confidence Alex could take on Frank with only one good leg, but Lee stepped up next to him and I had to trust they’d handle it.

I raced down the dim hall and opened the first door past the bathroom. It led to the garage, the smell of oil giving it away, even before I flipped the light switch. It was empty.

I shut the door and ran to the next room. I almost ran past it, because the door was wide open and I’d pictured Willow locked up somewhere more like a dank basement.

I flicked on the light to see Willow in the large double bed, tucked under a comforter like she was sleeping.

My first thought was that she had to be dead. There was no way she’d have slept through all the noise in the house, no way she’d sleep through the room lighting up. I hurried to her side and sat on the edge of the bed. I put a hand to her shoulder and sighed with relief to find it warm.

I shook her gently. “Willow?”

She didn’t snort in her sleep or open her eyes, and my heart sank. I pressed two fingers to the pulse in her neck and felt her heartbeat strong and regular. She wasn’t dead, but she wasn’t okay, either.

I smoothed her hair away from her face, revealing a bruise near her temple. “I’ll be right back, sweetheart. I can’t carry you out of here myself.”

I stood, my torso screeching as I used the muscles there to lift myself.

I hurried to the front of the house to find that the guys had subdued Willow’s three captors. Lee had gotten rope from somewhere and was tying the guys together in the middle of the living room while they glared at him. The ones who could glare. Charlie was unconscious.

“I found her,” I said, my eyes on Alex. “She’s alive, but she’s not waking up.”

Alex’s expression somehow got even sharper and angrier. He kicked Frank in the thigh, making the other man wince and groan. “What the hell did you do to my sister?”

“She’s fine,” Frank said. “She wouldn’t stop screaming, so we gave her some sedatives. They’ll wear off in a couple hours.”

Alex’s hands balled into fists. “Tell me exactly what you gave her.”

Frank rattled off a drug name and Alex followed me back to the bedroom, Lee close behind.

When we stepped into the room, Lee shot past us and pulled Willow into his arms. He lifted her and carried her in a cradle hold out to the living room and, I assumed, out of the house.

Alex watched them go, his body tense. He looked to me, his hand going to my sore cheek and split lip. “They hurt you.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “Let’s just get out of here before someone else shows up.”

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