Dark Captor (Dark Syndicate 2)

It’s when I walk back out to the passageway something feels off to me. Something more than it already did.

There’s a presence about the place that wasn’t there before. The same sort of presence I’ve been trained to pick up on when danger is near. It’s the same presence that tells me I’m not being paranoid. I feel for my Berretta in my back pocket and continue up the winding staircase leading to the bedroom.

Glancing around I check the place. This house is small. Several times smaller than the home we live in on Redondo Beach. It has more land around it, though. Nevertheless, I should be able to tell if someone was in the house.

That’s what it feels like.

I walk into the bedroom, expecting to see Alyssa inside but she isn’t.

I set the basket with the champagne on the bed and look for her in the En suite bathroom but she’s not there either.

“Alyssa?” I call out.

No answer.

I make my way into the other two rooms on the floor. The only other two rooms on the floor which are another bedroom and a larger bathroom. But … she’s not there.

Panic assails me, making my heart gallop and my racing blood pump through my veins like liquid fire. I rush back downstairs into the living room and stop in my tracks when I see the front door wide open.

It definitely was not fucking open just now when I was down here.

Fuck.

“Alyssa!” I call out and there’s still no answer.

Reaching for my phone I call Gio. When his phone goes straight to voicemail a shiver of ice runs down my spine. He always answers his phone. My heart sinks into a chasm of hell when I call my other guards and the same fucking thing happens.

No one who is supposed to be watching the place is answering their phones. And I can’t find Alyssa.

I rush to the door and gasp out a horrified breath when I see her wedding band on the threshold at the door. It’s just lying there, like it’s waiting for me.

Like it was set there to show me I’m helpless. Helpless, the very thing I feared. Oh God…

Fuck!

No.

This isn’t happening.

They took her. She’s been taken.

She’s gone. They got to her.

How?

Fuck, how?

How did I not see them?

Why didn’t I hear them?

I was only away from her for a few minutes. That’s all.

“Alyssa!” I shout, sprinting outside. My shoes meet the gravel path leading up to the driveway.

Where is everyone?

I run out to where Gio is supposed to be stationed. Ahead is his car. The door is open. In the moonlight I can make out something on the ground.