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The man slapped her across her face, hard enough to make her dizzy.

“Stop that,” he snarled and started dragging her out the door.

“No…” Mei moaned weakly, trying to struggle, but she was having trouble making her limbs move the way she wanted to. Her ear was ringing dimly, and it felt like her mouth wasn’t moving quite right. She could see her grandmother stirring and heard another low moan.

Then the second man moved, blocking her view of her grandmother.

“Keep it moving; this has been too noisy already,” the second man muttered. He gave Mei a hard look, as if it was her fault she was resisting being kidnapped.

She stumbled out into the street after the first man. There were people on the street. She could see them. Some of them were even watching.

“Move along if you know what’s good for you,” the first man snarled. “This is Heger’s business.”

Mei had no idea what that meant, and she was too dazed to see the reactions of everyone, but she could see them scatter. The second man muttered something again, far too low for her to hear whatever it was, especially with one of her ears still ringing. A sob caught in her throat, and she began struggling again, even knowing it was useless. She couldn’t just let them take her.

She couldn’t just give up.

Sebastian

This was taking too long. Sebastian knew it in his heart even though he did not know what his mother had done, what she had planned. He’d had his horse saddled as quickly as possible and gone straight to Tiffany’s because she was the closest to get Mei’s address. He had not explained the demand, but his urgency had communicated itself to her and Gregory; she gave it immediately and did not try to stop him as he immediately rode off.

Faster, he thought, though his horse was already moving as fast as it possibly could through the streets of London. Faster than was truly safe, if he was being completely honest, though not as fast as he wanted. The only thing that held him back from being truly reckless was the safety of the others on the street and the knowledge that hurting someone else or his horse would only delay him further.

He was not the only one, either—turning a corner as he reached the outskirts of Mayfair, he pulled up to avoid running into another horseman. A horseman he recognized.

“Drake!”

“Sebastian. Excuse me.”

“No, wait! I need your help, Mei is in danger!” Sebastian waved one hand at his friend, pulling Drake’s attention back to him.

Immediately, the other man frowned, calculation flickering through his eyes. He looked back over his shoulder at two other men in nondescript clothing. Men Sebastian had not even noticed, or he would have realized they were with Drake, if not for this moment. Drake nodded at them, and they took off like a shot, headed in the same direction Drake had been going—the street Sebastian had been about to turn down.

“What do you mean Mei is in danger?” Drake demanded to know. As brusque as Drake could be, he seemed even more so right now, his voice harsh.

“I… my mother… I think she’s done something. Or is going to do something to Mei… She…” Sebastian shook his head. “I know it’s not making any sense, but Mei is in danger. I know it.”

“Where is she?”

When Sebastian gave Drake the address, the other man paled. The unhappy pit in Sebastian’s stomach yawned wide.

“You’re right, she’s in danger. Come on!” Without pause, Drake directed his horse away from Sebastian and began galloping away, though Sebastian was only a moment behind him. However Drake knew whatever was going on, he could figure it out later.

First, he had to save Mei from whatever danger threatened.

As they neared the street she and her grandmother lived on, he heard a high, terrified shriek, and his blood ran cold.

Mei

“No!” Mei shrieked, kicking and hitting at first, but that had no effect. The big brute of a man smacked her again, but she managed to dodge the worst of it. He was not able to get as much of a swing going before impact, so it did not hurt nearly as badly.

However, her struggles were completely ineffective, so she did the one thing she could think of that he might not expect.

She stopped.

Completely.

Deadweight, all of her body falling downward, going completely limp.