Claiming Sarah (Ace Security #5)(64)

“Shut up,” his best friend told him. “They’re going to find her.”

He nodded and went to the sink to splash his face with cold water.

“They are,” she insisted.

Cole propped his hands on the sides of the sink and stared at himself in the mirror. All his life, people had told him how good-looking he was. Women slipped him phone numbers, and the woman who did most of his tattoos had made it clear she was more than happy to take him into the back room and blow him. He’d worked his ass off to keep his body healthy and fit. He’d been recruited to be a professional bodybuilder more than once.

All his life, when people saw him, they saw his outer trappings.

But not Sarah.

The first time her eyes met his, he knew she saw past his looks. It was as if she’d looked into his soul. And she loved him. Him.

He’d be damned if he’d stand around for one more minute speculating about what happened to her. He needed to get to Parker and make sure she wasn’t lying hurt on her floor, unable to get up or get to a phone. If she wasn’t at her house, he needed to figure out where the fuck she was, what Owen had done with her, and bring her home.

Another thought struck him then. One that made his blood run cold.

She could be carrying his child.

There was actually a really good possibility she was carrying his child. Lord knew he’d done his best to knock her up over the last couple of days, and she’d said it was the right time of the month for her to get pregnant.

Granted, if she was pregnant, the baby was no bigger than a grain of sand at the moment, but still.

No one hurt his woman.

No one hurt his child.

No one.

He turned without saying another word to Felicity and headed out of the bathroom and straight for the door of Ace Security.

“Where are you going?” Blake called out.

Ryder didn’t bother to ask anything. He simply stood and headed straight for Cole.

“Parker,” Cole said without stopping. “Sarah’s in trouble, and I promised her that if anything ever happened, I’d find her. And I can’t do that standing around here.”

“We’re going to find her,” Blake said.

“Go,” Logan said, nodding. “You and Ryder check out her house and let us know what you find. We’ll contact the Castle Rock PD and have them put out a BOLO for her car.”

“She hasn’t even been reported missing yet,” Nathan argued.

Logan turned hard eyes on his brother. “They will not deny us this. We’re not fucking around. Too many of our loved ones have disappeared, and there’s no way I’m going to let them sit on their hands. Sarah is one of us, and she needs our help.”

Nathan nodded immediately.

“Go,” Logan repeated.

Cole didn’t need to be told twice. He was striding out of the office within seconds, Ryder hot on his heels.

“I’ll drive,” the other man said succinctly.

Cole didn’t argue. He knew he probably shouldn’t get behind the wheel of a car right now. He’d drive too fast, too recklessly, and the last thing Sarah needed was for him to get in a wreck when he was on his way to find her.

Cole wasn’t usually a praying man, but as Ryder raced toward Parker, he prayed that they’d find Sarah alive in her house. If she was hurt, fine, they’d deal with that, but if she wasn’t there . . . he wasn’t sure what he would do.



Sarah moaned and brought a hand up to her head. It hurt. Bad. But when she tried to roll over, she almost passed out once more at the pain that shot through her ankle. Groaning, she couldn’t remember what in the hell had happened and why it felt as if she had knives stabbing into her leg.

“Rest,” a deep male voice said. “I’ll make you better.”

Sarah’s eyes popped open—and she stared up in horror at Owen. He was standing above her, smiling. He held out a plastic cup. “Here. Drink.”

Moving slowly, trying to figure out what in the hell was going on, Sarah pushed herself to a sitting position. Her head spun, and her ankle throbbed. She reached out and took the cup Owen offered and saw it held what looked and smelled like orange juice.

“When I’m sick, OJ makes it better,” he said proudly.

Sarah wanted to kick him in the face and run out of the room to get help, but something Cole had taught her in one of the many talks they’d had was to use her head in any dangerous situation. He couldn’t tell her how to act and what to do in every scenario because all of them were different. Some women were able to fight like hell and get their abductors to give up and run away. But in other situations, when a woman fought, she immediately had her throat slashed.

Dealing with a kidnapper was a matter of sizing up the situation and doing whatever it took to keep him or her calm. And then when the opportunity presented itself, she could escape.

Looking around the room, Sarah didn’t recognize where they were. It looked like one big room, with a kitchen on one end and two twin beds on the other. A wooden table with two chairs was behind the couch, but she didn’t see a television anywhere. She was sitting on said couch, right in the middle of the space. An old couch. There were holes in the cushion next to her, as if rodents had made their home there once upon a time.

That thought made her shudder, but she pushed it back. Dealing with a few mice wasn’t a big deal, not when the man standing over her was the bigger threat.