Page 138 of Ember

“I shouldn’t have left.” West sounded guilty. “I should have stayed?—”

“No,” Rian said immediately. “I would have left too. Having your private business plastered all over the computers? Nope.”

We waited, tense, until twenty minutes later, Alejandro showed up. The other alpha was quickly brought up to speed and we waited for the recording.

“About my record…” West paused, his voice flat.

I put my hand on his wrist. “You don’t have to talk about it. Any of it.”

He ignored me. “I stabbed my stepfather. For touching me.” He paused, and murderous rage rose so quickly I thought I would simply teleport to wherever this stepfather was.

“I was charged, but they didn’t convict. My stepfather died in prison,” he said, patting my hand. The murderous rage must have made it to my expression.

I squeezed his hands, cold and clammy. I hated that life had been so unkind to him, and now someone was using that against him.

“Good,” Alejandro said, his voice hoarse. “Otherwise Ben and I would have taken a little trip as soon as we found out where Ember was.”

West sighed. “I’m fine. I mean, I don’t like my business being plastered everywhere, but I’ve moved on. All of you have helped me move on.”

“Good,” Rian said, his scent shifting. “We would never hurt you.”

“I know,” West said quietly. “Whoever did this, they had to hack the sealed records.”

Mr. Arnold came back into the room, bringing his gross scent with him. “We’ve already alerted security.”

I stood up so fast I banged my knee on the table. “What?”

“The angle is bad, but…” He paused. “We have her leaving the elevator and leaning against one of the pillars. She struggles, and then someone lifts her into a van.”

A roaring sound hit my ears. Alejandro and I snarled at the same time. “Who?”

“The angle doesn’t show anything more than someone a bit taller than her wearing a black ski mask.”

“Call the police,” Alejandro said from my right, his voice tight. In the bond, all we felt from Ember was muted nothingness.

“She’s unconscious,” Rian said. “Has to be. She doesn’t feel upset at all.”

After that was a flurry of activity after that, but my eardrums wouldn’t stop roaring.

Someone had my omega. I would burn the world down if it meant finding her.

Chapter 53

Alejandro

Someone had Ember.

The thought wedged its way into my mind until it was all I could think of. I wasn’t there to protect her. We demanded to see the security footage, in case we could identify something. Anything. We were grasping at straws, but we had to try.

All it showed was Ember hesitating, leaning against the concrete pillar in the parking garage, and in the next moment, someone wearing a black ski mask put a white cloth over her mouth. She struggled but collapsed against the masked person a moment later.

Each second was burned into my mind.

Detective Kelly took over from the officers that had responded to Mr. Arnold’s phone call. I was happy to have someone familiar with Ember’s history taking over. I notified Raina of what was going on, and despite the entire Sullivan clan wanting to drive to the office, we decided they would do better looking for her in the Half Moon Bay area.

But I hated sitting still. I kept squeezing West’s hand, more for my comfort than his.

The detective grilled us on the events of the morning and concluded that the stalker probably pulled this stunt at work so we would all be distracted.

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