Page 77 of Lane

Lane couldn’t sit or stand still. He paced, waiting for Alton to come home. Jordan had no plans on paying Ulrich, but they still had to meet with him. Ulrich didn’t know he wouldn’t be getting a dime from them. Jordan insisted they meet in person. This could go very badly for either side, but Jordan wasn’t one to hide from the people after him. Hide his family, yes. Hide himself, never.

To meet with Ulrich, Jordan wanted everyone home. That meant Hartley, Vail, and Ava. That meant Alton. He’d even gotten word out to Dexen and the others by sending a guard to Untouchable to pass along the message without using any form of technology. No one was to be unguarded today. Ulrich didn’t do things by the book, as was made apparent yesterday when he had someone shoot at us. We knew it was him because Jordan contacted him shortly after with a lot of threats and a promise of death if Ulrich injured anyone under his protection.

“He should be here by now,” Lane said.

The clock read three. Ava would be arriving any minute, and so would Alton. This was the time that was established when everyone had to be home and locked in. Hell, even Greer was gathering those he cared about into the home he used to sharewith his brother. They called it the fortress for a reason. The place was large and easily defendable. Not to mention the many security measures in place.

No one was happy about the interruption to their day. We’d already heard about it from Alton. He took his job seriously and didn’t like having to cancel afternoon patients.

“Call Barry,” Lane said.

I sighed and picked up the phone. I wasn’t as worried as Lane was, not yet. Alton had time to arrive home.

Barry answered on the first ring. “Yeah?”

“Tap into the security feed at Alton’s practice. He should have been here.”

“One sec.”

Alton refused to let us trace him by his phone. He wanted us to trust him and not check up on him. We weren’t doing it so we could follow him. We needed him safe. He did, however, change out his security monitoring to give Barry and his team access to monitor his practice. We didn’t get to trace his phone, but we were able to use his existing surveillance equipment and install more to keep him covered.

“Shit. Go, Ray! Go to the practice! Sheldon’s down and I can’t see Alton.”

I jumped from the couch. “Move, Lane!”

We both ran to the door, grabbing our guns as we did so. The elevator would take too long, so we started down the stairs, jumping when we got near the bottom of each floor. We were a few floors down when one of the doors slammed open, and Rory joined us. Barry must have called him. Hartley was already here, so that freed his guard up.

As soon as we got to the garage, the SUV was waiting thanks to another guard, and I got behind the wheel with Rory beside me and Lane in the back. I didn’t hesitate to tear out of the garage into oncoming traffic. Tires squealed as drivers hit theirbrakes to avoid crashing into us. Luckily, we made it out without a scratch.

When one of the guards was down, we went to extract them. This was worse though. We didn’t know where Alton was.

Rory’s phone rang. He put it on speaker. “Yeah?”

“Ulrich took Alton,” Barry said. “I went back through the footage and caught him entering the practice. He looked to be Alton’s last patient.”

“He knew that could happen,” I bit out. He’d been warned Ulrich could pretend to be a patient. He could wear a disguise but knowing him, he probably walked right in like he was anyone else.

“He hurt Sheldon. There was a lot of blood. I called in and said I was from the security company. The other doctors are tending to him. He’s going to the hospital by ambulance. You need to find Alton.”

“Drop me off at the ER,” Rory said. “I’ll say I’m Sheldon’s brother and heard he was hurt. They’ll let me in one way or another. We can’t leave him alone.”

I nodded and kept driving through the city toward East Dremest Hospital.

“Xaiden Dremest’s partner, Corbin, is on shift in the ER,” Barry said. “He’ll get you in. I’ve already reached out to Xaiden.”

“How?” Rory asked. “I thought everyone was to be home.”

“According to Xaiden, who yelled at me through the phone, Corbin wanted to be in the ER in case one of us needed help.”

They talked a bit longer while I navigated the streets, going through yellow lights and one red, not giving a fuck about being pulled over.

“We’re here,” Rory said and hung up. He was out the door as soon as I pulled up to the ER.

“Where to?” I asked Lane. He already had his phone pressed to his ear.

He hung up. “Back to the building. Jordan wants to talk to us. Ulrich is refusing to meet before the predetermined time. It gives us an hour to form a different plan, one we didn’t think to do ahead of time. He also changed the location. Goddammit!” he roared and punched the back of the front passenger seat.

If I could have, if we had the time, I would have pulled over and gathered Lane into my arms. As it was, we had to return to the building. Leaving like we did gave us less time. It was necessary to take Rory to the hospital and attempt to find Alton. I should have known better. Ulrich had him tucked away until we would meet.

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