Page 60 of Protecting Salvation

Hurricane felt like every single millilitre of blood drained out of his face. “Peyton.”

“Lotus has gone to tell her.”

Hurricane gripped Titan’s shoulder. “No, she left. I was a dick and she left. She went home. She’s on her own.”

“Ah, fuck.”

Hurricane ran toward the door as Titan followed behind, shouting something to him but his sole focus was getting to the woman he loved and telling her he was sorry and that he loved her.

“What’s going on?”

Bás stepped in his way, Bishop and Reaper beside him, Bein coming up behind with Duchess and Snow.

“Peyton left.”

“Not surprised. You were a prize prick today. What the fuck was that about?”

Duchess didn’t mince her words and he loved that about her but right now he didn’t have time. “I’ll explain later but Trevor is out. McCain broke him out and Peyton is alone.”

“Let’s go.”

Bás lifted his arm and waved in a circle and every member of Shadow began to run.

Watchdog confirmed she’d gone into her house and hadn’t come out but his next words made Hurricane almost drop to his knees. “Trevor has her.”

They stood around Bás’ living room TV as Watchdog streamed footage from a CCTV camera near the school that backed onto her garden. It showed Peyton being led towards a dark Vauxhall near the road. Two men were in the shot, one was clearly McCain.

Hurricane dropped his head forward, hands braced on his knees as he sucked in a breath. “Oh, God.”

Snow rubbed his back as she stood next to him. “We’ll get her back.”

“Watchdog, find out where they’re headed. I want to know where they have her and how the fuck this happened. Duchess, get Aubrey on the line right now.”

He had her, he had her, he had her. It was like a fucking mantra in his brain. He could hardly function thinking about the woman he loved being alone with such evil men and it was his fault. If he’d just answered her question and not been a complete dick, she never would’ve left and she’d be here. He could have protected her from them when they got home but no, he was selfish and he’d hurt her and now she might die because of it.

“How did they get in? We have an alarm.”

“It’s offline so maybe they cut the power.”

“It has a backup battery.”

Watchdog looked at him with sympathy. He had no answers and he knew better than anyone the kind of evil that could be done in just a few short hours.

“Okay, I’ve got something.” Lotus was crawling through street cameras but she wouldn’t look at him and he knew she was angry and she had every right to be. Aoife was beside herself and Bram kept looking at him like he was the fucking enemy and was three seconds from knocking his teeth into his belly.

“Look, they’re at the racecourse.”

“What?” He wasn’t sure why they’d be there and then it hit him. A helicopter could take off from there. It was why the air ambulance used it for accidents in the city.

“Helicopter.”

“Shit.”

Bás looked at him and put his hands on his hips. Hurricane was no longer cleared to fly. The new guys were deep in the mountains on some training exercise Bás had sent them on to see if they had what it took for Shadow.

“Don’t you fucking dare try and ground me. I’m her only shot and you know it.”

“We both know that you’re not fit to fly, that your tumour is worsening.”