Page 33 of Hunted Innocence

I am about one second away from losing every ounce of my shit. It’s so bad that my body is actually shaking with the rage I’m holding inside of me.

“Where is she?” I demand, my gaze swinging from Vaughn back to Boden. Right now, he’s the only one who can tell me anything.

“Just got a text from Merrick.”

Merrick.

That motherfucker better hope I don’t see him anytime soon. Instead of saying anything to that effect, I walk over to Boden, who is holding his phone out. Vaughn joins me.

“What are we looking at?” Vaughn asks.

“It’s this door,” Boden announces.

I watch as Nadine walks up to the front door, then tugs on it, but it doesn’t open. She glances around, and I can tell she’s nervous just by her movements. Then she begins walking around the back of the building, and the footage ends there.

“That’s about as helpful as a concrete parachute,” I say with a grunt.

“No shit. Wait, he’s sending another one.”

“If it’s not the back door or something fucking useful, I’m going back to the office,” I announce.

Vaughn and Boden stay silent, choosing not to respond to my threat. They know better than to get between me and anyone. Just like I would not get between them and anyone with whom they had a beef, and right now, I have one with Merrick.

“Here it is,” Boden states.

He pushes the play icon on the video, and I watch as Nadine walks up to the back door. She tugs on the handle, and the door opens. She doesn’t move inside immediately. She appears to bend over slightly inside, almost as if she’s calling out to see if anyone is inside.

Then a figure moves up behind her. I can’t tell who the hell it is. I can’t even tell if it’s a man or a woman. The person pushes her body into the room and then follows her inside, and I watch as her feet are dragged inside.

“What the fuck,” Vaughn hisses.

What the fuck again is absolutely the only thing that any of us can think or say. The sound of crunching tires shifts our attention from the video, and I watch as Theron’s car swings into the parking lot.

The look on his face makes me know without a doubt that he’s just as pissed off as I am at this situation.

“Merrick is lucky he’s not standing right here,” Theron barks as he unfolds from the car and starts moving quickly toward us. “Where is she?” he demands.

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be standing here holding my dick,” I growl back. “Merrick just sent us some footage. We’re checking it out.”

Boden restarts it from the beginning, and this time, I don’t focus my attention on Nadine. This time, I look everywhere but at her, trying to see something, anything, a hint of who could be behind whatever the fuck happened. I know it’s not Landon, because that dark figure is about half his size.

The four of us replay that video five times and watch in silence each and every time. Once Nadine is dragged into the building, there is nothing else. I don’t know where or how the figure not only appeared from thin air but also escaped without being seen.

“And there were no disturbances to the surveillance?” Theron asks.

“Merrick says there weren’t.”

And I’m supposed to trust Merrick today? I think fucking not.

“Here’s one more. He says this is just about forty-five minutes ago.”

And the next video is of a bike pulling up and a gray-bearded guy in a Night Devils cut making his way from the parking lot to the door. He’s inside for what feels like an hour, then he and Nadine walk out together.

The next video in the sequence shows him folding into the front seat of her car, and he drives them away.

“Let’s go visit the Night Devils compound,” I call out.

“You sure you want to go there pissed off and guns hot?” Vaughn asks.

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