Page 133 of Hushed

“How long will you be gone?”

He nudged her to stand and stood with her, pulling her close. “That’s impossible to say, pet. But I promise I’ll be in touch as soon as I can. Now kiss me and get your pretty ass back in bed. You didn’t get enough sleep last night.”

She let out a short laugh at the absurdity of his suggestion. There was no way she was sleeping. But if it put his mind at ease, she would go back to their room and lay down.

He lowered his lips to hers and brushed a tender kiss across them before sliding a hand into her hair and kissing her properly.

She wanted to cry when he finally broke away and headed out of the office.

“Gage,” she called, stopping him before he got out the door. “Be careful. I’m going to be pissed if either of you end up dead.”

Chapter 26

Gage

“You can’t be fucking serious.”

Reggie glared at Gage and Samuel, as Gage pulled the SUV into a parking space in front of their destination.

“It’s just a formality,” Samuel said from his spot in the front passenger seat. “Something is off, and we know they aren’t above drugging women. What if your rage is because you’re being drugged?”

When Gage informed Samuel of Reggie’s outbursts and mood swings, his first suggestion was to have him drug tested. The two men agreed that ambushing him with a trip to the lab was better than telling him up front where they were going, given his current state of mind.

It seemed they’d made the right choice.

Reggie slammed his fist into the back of Gage’s seat, and Samuel reached back grabbed his wrist. “That’s enough, Reggie. You need help. It’s not like you to blow missions or fly into blind rages. Let’s just get some blood work and see if there are any answers in it. Unless you already know what the results will be.”

Reggie twisted away from the other man’s grip, and Gage watched with concern as his best friend put both hands in his hair and pulled. “I don’t fucking know what’s going on.”

“Then let’s go find out. Do it for Kenzie if for no one else. She’s worried sick about you.”

That seemed to deflate some of the frustration, because he let go of his hair and reached for the handle.

Samuel hopped out and opened the door for him, as if he was afraid Reggie would bolt. Gage didn’t blame him given Reggie’s out of character behavior lately.

They walked into the private lab and were immediately seen by a technician. Samuel arranged everything before they arrived, so there was no paperwork to fill out, and no one asked questions. They just sat Reggie in a chair and drew several vials of blood. Then they took a hair and saliva sample before sending him into the bathroom to pee in a cup.

Gage thought Reggie was going to murder someone when Samuel insisted on accompanying him to the bathroom to observe.

It wasn’t so much that Samuel didn’t trust Reggie as he didn’t trust the federal government or the criminals Reggie had been hunting. Having a witness for everything was crucial to Reggie’s freedom right now.

They were promised results in under three hours, so they sat in the SUV and made plans for how to confront the men at The Cage while they waited.

“What if we treat it like a rescue for Maggie?” Gage asked as they tossed around ideas.

“What would we be walking into, Reggie?” Samuel asked.

Reggie closed his eyes as if trying to picture they house they thought Maggie was being held in.

“It’s secure, but not heavily guarded. As far as I can tell they don’t house anyone there for long. It’s more of a stopping off point for other locations. I’ve managed to pick up on three or four of the locations in the last few years, but nothing I’ve sent in has been good enough for top brass to approve an operation to shut them down. This group is slick and they know how to fly under the radar. They hire just enough legitimate adult performers to staff their so-called studios, that you can’t tell what’s going on until you really start to dig.”

“I just want to make sure we aren’t walking into an ambush. You really didn’t know about this Maggie chick?”

“I saw her a few times, but I thought she was Chris’s latest favorite. Every few months he fixates on a different woman. Maggie came in for the first time three or four months ago, and it seemed like the two of them hit it off. She came back two or three times, and then disappeared. But nothing indicated that she was involved or that Chris and Jake targeted her.”

Samuel’s phone buzzed, and he climbed out of the car, leaving the door open as he read the message. “That’s our results,” he said, as he swiped his thumb across the screen. “I’ll be right back.”

Gage and Reggie stayed in the SUV while Samuel went back inside the lab.

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