“Just spoke with Glory. It’s not just women, she’s been watching the site for any new movements. Seems as if there’s men caged in the same room as the women we know about. I’m not sure how many men, but she was able to see them on the screen. I need to see if Decoder is monitoring it this morning.”
“You know he is,” Kane rebuts. “He’s always watching those screens of his. He’s probably trying to figure out who they are before bringing us the information.”
As soon as those words leave Kane’s mouth, my office door slams open. Decoder and Glory are fighting each other as they both try to enter my office at the same time. “What the fuck? You two know better than to come barging in here without knocking first. I’m in a goddamned private meeting!”
“Pres…”
“Blaze…”
They say, talking over each other. Both look to be out of breath, and Decoder has his laptop snug to his chest. His hands are shaking and Glory’s eyes are wide and frantic. “Speak!” I call out, worried about what they are going to share next. Hasn’t there been enough twist and turns in this horrible situation without adding any more to it? “Decoder?” I look at him, giving him silent permission to speak first. Glory clamps her lips together in irritation. I hide my smirk at the spark of anger she’s sending my way.
“Echo,” is the only word he stutters out. Echo is my cousin who’s been overseas serving our country. He’s found a home in the military, and hasn’t had any interest in coming home and joining the MC. My eyes widen and my hand waves in the air, wanting him to continue telling me what’s happening with my family. “Echo, he’s one of the men being held captive.”
“He what?” Pops shouts as he forcefully stands up, shooting my chair backward as it goes flying into the wall behind my desk.
My body begins to vibrate with uncontrollable anger and anguish that’s streaming through my system. “How? How could they have gotten their hands on him while he’s across the goddamned ocean?” My body begins to levitate, my feet leaving the ground, as the reality begins crashing over me. I’ve always been able to control my abilities, but in times such as this, I have a hard time keeping it reigned in. “Someone better start fucking talking!”
“Once I saw him this morning, I started working on that.” Decoder begins speaking rapidly, stating, “It seems he was trying to surprise everyone. He didn’t reenlist as we had assumed. He was on his way home to take his place in the MC and family. He was captured somewhere on his route home. His bike is missing. It hasn't been reported as lost or stolen in any of the databases. Somebody knew he was headed home and my guess is, they set up a trap or roadblock to capture him. He wouldn’t have willingly gone with them without putting up a struggle. Do you think they somehow drugged him?”
“Who would he have told if not us? At this point, anything is possible.” Thinking about this question, I say it out loud unintentionally. I’m trying to put together the pieces of this missing puzzle. Why wouldn’t he have told me he was coming home? I would’ve given him an MC escort… hell, I’d have personally gone and rode home with him.
“Anston,” Pops blurts out. “He’d have informed Anston to ensure his way through other shifters’ territories. He’d have also asked him to keep his return on the downlow to surprise us.”
“Fucking Greyhorse is gonna die!” I yell out, blistering my throat from the impact of my screamed declaration. Glory rushes over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. She has a soothing tone in her voice, but the blood is rushing through my ears and I can’t decipher what it is she’s saying. Slowly, I feel my body lower back to the ground. Pulling her into my arms, I bury my head in her neck. Her scent is enveloping me, my anger begins to subside from her loving manner. “This can’t be happening, Glory,” I insist as her arms tighten around me. “It just can’t.”
“We’ll fix it, Blaze. We’ll bring him home with all the others,” she declares. And for some reason, her words calm my erratically beating heart and my synapses snap back online and begin to refocus.
192
Blaze
Jake called, asking permission to come to our territory for a visit. We granted his wish and he’s due to be here any second now. I had a rough night last night after learning Echo was in the clutches of these monsters. I kept envisioning him being tortured and sold for breeding. But what boggles my mind is that he’s a shifter; not a purebred human to be turned. What caused them to change courses? It goes against what they’ve been doing up to now. Something had to have changed for them to grab Echo the way they did. That’s the part that we need to figure out. Have they been taking shifters and us… hell, nobody noticed this entire time? Or is this a new development that we only found out with Glory and Decoder seeing Echo with their own eyes? There’s something not computing with this, if they’ve been going after shifters, why have none been reported as missing? As well as the human men? There has to be people out there
