Page 62 of Pistols and Plush Toys

Nikolai pulled his gun out of its holster and clicked off the safety. What had happened? Was Elliot safe?

“I didn’t get any security alerts,”he growled.

Alex was already flicking his phone over to the app where the camera feeds were. Nikolai only had cameras outside his house because he wanted that privacy, but when Alex rolled back the footage, the cameras had caught a car exiting the gate. Before that, two figures getting into the car.

Elliot. Being roughly dragged forward by—

“Is that fucking Horace?”Alex spat furiously.

Elliot was gone. Elliot had beentaken.There was no gentleness in the way Horace had shoved Elliot into that car.

“Let’s go,”Nikolai said, shutting down his blinding worry.“Guns out. They might have left surprises. And I want to… find Pyotr.”

Only two figures had left by car. Meaning Pyotr was on property.

Nikolai swallowed bile and just hoped that he’d be breathing.

As Alex eased out of the car, Nikolai took a few precious seconds to text Gerard and Meredith his emergency codes. Then he followed Alex, gun at the ready as they followed the GPS signal for Pyotr’s phone.

They found Pyotr restrained and bleeding from a gash in his forehead on the side of the yard. Alex hurried over to him, crouching to pull the gag out of his mouth. Nikolai turned his back on them to keep watch.

“It was fucking Horace,”Pyotr hissed the moment he could speak. He had been twice cuffed to the metal gate.“Him and some other guy. Working for Vitale. I think they got the kid—I heard a car leave.”

“Get the bolt cutters from the car,”Nikolai told Alex. He was fairly certain no one else was on the property, but he’d rather have Pyotr on his feet before they went to the house.

Alex didn’t argue, and he went to fetch the cutters.

Once he’d returned, they cut Pyotr free and helped him to his feet. He looked gruesome with all the blood.

“Can you still hold a gun?”Nikolai asked.

Pytor nodded grimly, and Nikolai gestured to Alex, who pulled his second weapon and handed it over.

The three of them silently rounded to the back of the house and went in.

Pyotr and Alex led, clearing rooms while Nikolai protected their rear. He knew what they were going to find, but he still felt his heart drop when they got to the room where Brooks had been staying.

The door was open, the lights on. A lump of blankets and sheets were pulled haphazardly off the bed.

“How did this happen?”Nikolai gritted out, furious with himself. He approved every hire, and if he’d overlooked some connection between Horace and the Vitale family, that was his fault.

This washis fault.

“Boss, weren’t we looking at returning the kid anyway?”Alex asked carefully.“If he got rescued early…”

Nikolai didn’t answer, stepping around Alex to where the sheets were tangled on the floor.

Max was lying next to them, looking as though he’d been stepped on. There was a dirty boot print on his light brown fur, and one of his glass eyes was cracked.

He yanked the sheets apart and found the giraffe, Apricot, twisted in the bedding.

Something went ice cold inside him. None of this looked like someone who’d gonewillingly.Elliot might have left Max, but Nikolai knew without a doubt that he’d never leave Apricot behind.

If he’d had a choice in the matter.

“This look like a rescue to either of you?”Nikolai asked.

Alex and Pyotr looked at each other.“No, boss,”Alex said after a second.

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