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"Edward?" Mike’s annoying, nasal voice called out

"What took you so long?" he asked as he stepped out When he saw Mike’s face, he cringed Half his face was red and swollen Soon the h

"That bitch did this to e to kidnap her?" He tried to keep the disgust out of his voice That’s what he got for hiring these s for the APL’s ultiood, even if they didn’t know it yet He couldn’t recruit anyone too savvy just yet Not until the first phase of his plan was complete

"There were…complications," Mike said under his breath

Edward reached into his pocket and idly fingered the handle of his crescent-moon-shaped knife It was small but deadly And he’d made it himself The handle had been carved from a deer horn and the blade was one of a kind Impossible to trace to any store "That much is obvious What happened?"

"I took her to that Italian place, just like you said I excusedani was there He left but he really shook that bitch up" Mike pressed a hand to the side of his face and winced "I think she ht have knocked a tooth loose"

"What happened?" He didn’t care about this asshole’s tooth

"I tried to inject her with the ketaave me, but she kicked the shit out of my face"

"How?" Unless she had , he couldn’t see the curvy redhead kickboxing Mike

"How do you think? With her fucking steel-toed boots She kicked at my face and the wheel and--"

"You tried to inject her while you were driving?" Edward tried to rein in his disgust God, he’d really scraped the bottouy

"Well, yeah I didn’t think she’d freak out like that Man, she moved fast! And I didn’t want to take the chance that once we stopped in town, soht it’d take one jab and she’d be knocked out, but I didn’t even get that far" Mike spread his hands in front of hiesture

The ketamine wouldn’t have knocked her out That’s not what Edanted anyway He’d added medetomidine as an extra sedative The combination acted as an anesthetic It would have put her in a semisedated state until they could lock her up He didn’t like his prisoners to be aware of their surroundings Now they had nothing And this ether

Mike had proiven hied He’d wanted hiiant shifter, Lia, was very interested in her, and Adler knew they could use that against the entire Ar humans and if Adler had the animal’s woe In another world Adler could have waltzed into her store and asked her out and taken care of this business himself, but because of his scarred face no woman like her would look twice at him Women didn’t even want to look once at hi Attractive A pretty boy And a giantbreath He needed answers before he killed Mike "So what happened to the car?"

"I had to leave it She escaped and bolted for the road I thought I saw that shifter in the parking lot e left, and I didn’t know if he’d been following us I couldn’t get the car out of the snow, so I ran through the woods until I couldn’t run anyhtly "Ah I wiped down the wheel and handle Besides it’s not like she knows "

Edward’s head cocked to the side "Did you tell her your first na the world a favor

"Well, yeah It’s a co to reet here?" Edward often used the abandoned barn to conduct business It was on his land but miles south of his home and not many people outside of his circle knew about it Not even his own boss with the APL

"I stole a car and parked it at your place When you weren’t houred you’d still be here I’ive et her I’ll take her fro"