Page 50 of Rescued By Four Alphas
Then Dahlia's movements become sluggish. Her eyes start to droop.
"She drugged her," I whisper, my hands clenching into fists.
On screen, Dr. Marianna picks up her phone and says something brief. Within seconds, a section of the back wall slides open, as if on hidden tracks. A secret door.
Three men in dark clothing emerge from the hidden passage with another man. He looks at Dahlia, then nods at Marianna before he orders the men. One of them lifts Dahlia's unconscious form gently and carried her bridal style through the door. The other one strikes Dr. Marianna in the head with something, and she crumples to the floor. They pick her up too and carry her out through the door, which immediately slides shut behind them.
Everything took less than two minutes.
I'm shaking with rage. Every muscle in my body screams for violence, for something to tear apart with my bare hands. Instead, I slam my fist into the wall so hard that plaster cracks and rains down on the floor.
"Fuck!" The word explodes out of me like a gunshot. "FUCK!"
Axl immediately moves to the back wall where we saw the secret door open. He runs his hands over the surface, pushing, pulling, looking for any button or lever.
"It's solid," he reports, his voice tight with frustration. "I can't find any way to open it."
"Of course you can't." I scrub my hands through my hair, trying to think. "They're not going to leave their escape routeaccessible. They probably locked it down the moment they went through."
"We have to tell Evan immediately," Axl says, pulling out his phone.
"Wait." I grab his wrist. "First, we need to get all the security footage from this building—everything from the two to three months. Marianna was scrutinized down to her hobbies. If she was, it's complicated; it would have to be within the past two months. There might be evidence of her previous meetings with these people."
Axl nods grimly. "I'll go find building security. Meet me downstairs in five minutes."
He rushes out while I grab Dr. Marianna's laptop. I dial Evan's number, already dreading this conversation more than any I've ever had to make.
"Leo?" Evan's voice is sharp as usual. "What's your status?"
"Dahlia's been taken."
The silence that follows is deafening. When Evan finally speaks, his voice is so low and deadly that I flinch.
"Taken? What the fuck do you mean taken?"
"Dr. Marianna drugged her during the appointment. There was a secret door in her office, and three men came in and carriedDahlia out through it." The words taste like poison in my mouth. "They took Dr. Marianna, too, probably to make it look like she was also a victim."
Evan's rage is so loud that I must hold the phone away from my ear. "YOU HAD ONE JOB! ONE FUCKING JOB!"
"Evan..."
"I trusted you to keep her safe! I always trusted you to fucking stay with her, damn it!"
"We didn't know there was a secret door," I say, hating how defensive I sound. We should have remained inside. "We monitored every entrance and exit. Our security covered the entire building."
"Clearly, that wasn't enough!" Papers rustle in the background, like he's sweeping everything off his desk. "How long ago?"
"Twenty minutes, maybe twenty-five."
"What do you have? Any details? What about the fucking wall? Where does it lead?" His voice cracks slightly. "She's carrying our children, Leo. Our fucking children."
"I know." My voice breaks. "I'm going to find her. I swear to you, I'm going to bring her home… we have footage of the kidnapping."
I hear him take a shuddering breath. "Send me that footage now."
I navigate to the security system on Dr. Marianna's laptop and start uploading files to Evan's secure server. My fingers feel clumsy and slow.
The office door behind me opens, and for one wild moment, I think Dahlia might be walking back in, that this has all been some terrible misunderstanding.
