Page 160 of Receiving His Mercy
“You couldn’t have known,” Gray said. “Keeping her with you all the time wouldn’t have been feasible long-term.”
“Why not?” he asked at the same time Hunter did.
Gray sighed and rolled his eyes up to the sky.
“How did they know she was going to be there?” Rusty said.
“What?” he asked.
“How did the people that took them know that she was going to be there at that time?” Rusty said slowly.
“When was the appointment made?” Hunter asked.
Shit. Why hadn’t he thought of that? He was a mess. His brain wasn’t working properly.
“I’ll message Gable and get him to talk to Isabel, Oliver’s niece,” Travis said. “She changed the time of the meeting. It was meant to be tomorrow and Isabel called and asked Caren to come in today. Fuck. Why didn’t I think that was suspicious?”
“Could she have called under duress?” Miranda asked. “Could they have traced Caren through her agent, and threatened him to get the niece to call Caren and have her come into the office?”
That seemed like a likely scenario.
He got out his phone and quickly sent a message to Gable. Fuck. This was ridiculous. He needed to get his head on straight.
“We need to find them,” he said. “I told her she’d be safe. I promised her nothing would happen to her. I’m fucking failing her.”
“Nobody knew that Aadan was still a threat,” Clay told him.
It didn’t matter. She was his to protect and he hadn’t done that. It wouldn’t happen again. When he got her back, that was it. She was going to be glued to his side.
Forever.
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The assholes that had kidnapped and drugged them weren’t gentle when they dragged them through the house and into a large living room.
Shit.
She was back at the compound. Only this time, she was a prisoner rather than a guest. And she had Tyler to protect.
“What are we doing here?” Tyler asked.
One of the men glowered at them both before nodding over at the sofa. “Sit.”
Tyler scowled, but he was pale and swaying so she knew that he wasn’t in fighting form. Not that they were going to be able to fight their way out of this.
She grabbed his hand and drew him over to the sofa. “Sit.”
“Why would I do what they say?” he grumbled.
“Because you need to do what I tell you,” she said. “I’m taking the lead here. Plus, you look like you’re gonna fall over.”
“I am not,” he said as he stumbled back into the seat. “And I’m in charge.”
“No way,” she told him as she sat next to him to nervously wait.
Of course Aadan took forever. It was a power play and he definitely wasn’t above those.
Even though she was expecting him, she still jumped as he walked into the living room.
