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Sun for reassurance, she walked softly through the receptionist area and back to the hallhere she paused Sticking just her head through the doorway, she peeked down at the elevator and waited

Nothing Not even the earlier dinging she’d heard That was good, right?

Feeling so back in the office, she ventured out into the corridor Sticking close to the ith the elevator on it, one hand running along the smooth surface, she approached the elevator cautiously She could hear the hu slide of the thick cables

Standing there next to the elevator, she cursed herself for an idiot She should have called Hamilton from the office He was probably on speed dial, or if not, she had his nu

She was just turning to head back for the office when the thunk of an arriving car froze her in her tracks She backed away, staring, afraid to breathe as she watched the elevator doors slide almost soundlessly open

Men poured out of the elevator, their faces and clothes bloodied, guns er than hers already in their hands She screaun, but it was too little, too late One of theh that she spun around and slammed face-first into the wall just outside the elevator She tasted blood in the back of her throat and felt her nose swelling shut frorabbed her by the hair and yanked, torqueing her neck as he pulled her back to her feet and held her upright Someone else wrenched her hands behind her back and zipped a plastic tie around her wrists, jerking it so tight that the plastic band cut into her skin She barely had a chance to cry out before a wet cloth was pressed against her h her swollen nose, Sid sucked in a breath through hernot to throw up Pri a second breath, and stars dotted the blackness behind her eyelids

Her last thought was that they wanted her alive, and that was a good thing But she couldn’t remember why

Chapter Seventeen

ADEN WOKE TO a rare fury His eyes opened, and he leapt froe as he scanned the es splitting his gu The rooht out and found all four of his offspring, each just beginning to wake as the sun dropped deeper below the horizon

He straightened fro to nor out as the adrenaline drained away He glanced over at the eain, he exerted his power in a search of the offices beyond the safety of his roo the frail beat of her hu a pair of sweats on the fly, he ran for the door and input the release code, pulling the pants on as the shutters retracted slowly, as the bolts slid into the ith the heavy thunk of solid steel He didn’t wait, but ducked under the still- shutters as soon as the bolts were clear and the door could open

The s him back half a step before he raced down the hall and sla a scent he kneell He’d taken Sidonie’s blood It flowed through his veins, it pulsed in his heart Her scent drew him not to the office as he expected but all the way to the end of the hallway, to the closed doors of the elevator and the s as he crouched down Sidonie’s blood was in the carpet, too, and it wasn’t alone There was other blood there Human blood, and more than one person But the scent was too faint to tell him who or even how many, as if they’d carried the blood on their clothes and lost only trace aledwith Sidonie

He closed his eyes and tried to reconstruct what had happened, using only what his nose could tell hi He heard an authoritative voice leaving a e, but didn’t bother to listen to the words Nearly silent footsteps and the unique awareness of his offspring infor and now stood in the office doorway, listening to the e

That same awareness told him a moment later that his lieutenant had co

"What is it, Bastien?" Aden asked quietly, as he dipped his fingers in Sidonie’s blood

"That was the police, Sire The caller didn’t say so, but the lobby doorround They’re interviewing tenants and are very unhappy that they cannot access our two penthouse floors"

"Where’s Ha down the hall in time to hear Bastien’s stateht to hiht security chief, and asn’t he the one who’d called to report instead of the police?

"The invaders were here," Aden said, standing and eyeing the blood sers "They took Sidonie"

He turned to face his people, all four of who hier, but no fear, he was proud to see They had confidence in him, in his ability to protect them and to kill whoever had dared orchestrate this brazen attack Vaht It was one of their few taboos And to do it during a territorial competition was unheard of