Page 51 of Master Baldor

I had just hung up from a call with a client and was leaving my office when Gabe called.

“Miss me?” I answered.

“You wish! I’m calling with an update. Got a minute?”

“Sure.” I went back inside and sat at my desk, grabbing my stress ball. “Okay, spill.”

“You were right. Rog Rouge has been tracking Shelby for a long time. His name is Peter Rodriquez. I believe that is the same man that Shelby dated a few times?”

Son-of-a—

“So, the guy follows her online, and then what… discovers her profile on MatchMaker?”

“I think he is a little internet-savvy. Technically, Shelby did all the right things to protect herself, but the protection software was crap as you saw when we went over it. The guy hacked her accounts with little effort. So, yes, I would assume it was easy to find her on all her social media, including the dating site, and follow her. You saw she had no encryption software, so this was bound to happen to her eventually.”

I was quiet, processing Peter. I had seen him at the club. He’d been a smug bastard.

“What now?”

“I assume you will want to have words with this asshole. I have his address whenever you’re ready to have a ‘chat’.”

Now was probably not a good time because I would want to kill him for stressing her out to where she feared for her life. “Thanks, Gabe, I’m going to talk to Shelby and will call you back in a few.”

“Roger that.” Gabriel hung up and I left my office in search of Shelby. The apartment was unusually quiet, too quiet. Where was she?

I ran down the hallway to the gaming room, a bad feeling settling in the pit of my stomach. No Shelby, it didn’t look like she’d been here at all. The kitchen showed me a rinsed-out coffee mug in the sink, no plates, and upon opening the fridge, both her breakfast and lunch were untouched.

“Shelby!”

I made my way down the second hallway to her room; it was empty as well.

“Shelby!” I hurried into our room and bathroom, but like the rest of the place, it was empty. Something was wrong. Back at my office, I played over the security feed and saw she entered the elevator at 11:30 am, almost five hours ago.

I grabbed my wallet and keys and moved down as quickly as possible to the parking garage. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to her. Rush hour traffic slowed me down on the drive across town, and it was all I could do to not totally lose my shit. Already I’d threatened several drivers, which, of course, didn’t help the situation, nor would me being in prison help Shelby.

When I arrived at her building, I raced up the stairs and found her apartment door open. The packages she had been waiting for lay scattered at the entrance. She must have come to collect them and then was attacked, kidnapped?

“Gabe, we have a problem. Shelby is missing and there has been a scuffle at her apartment. I need that address, and I need you and Colin or Lincoln to meet me there.”

“On it.” He gave me the address and told me no going in until they arrived.

Pocketing my phone, I ran back to the car. It took all I had not to break every law as I raced to the address in the trendy area of the city. I was thankful to have my brothers on my team. Lincoln and Colin were also frat brothers who had done their time as special ops in the military. They worked on the seedier side of Gabriel’s security business. They often found themselves away on missions, which worked for the best friends as both men had restless spirits ever since their tour in Afghanistan.

I arrived last despite my Fast and Furious moves through the city. After a quick meeting, it was decided that Linc and Colin should go first. It rubbed my nerves not being the one to kick down the door, but this was their job, and I could trust them, any of them, with Shelby. I knew that.

Gabriel got us through the front door, and we made our way on silent feet up the stairs to Peter’s floor. If he’d harmed a single hair on her head, he would leave in a body bag.

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