It was a Monday morning, in a few hours, they should have been going to the company, but instead, Davian had to wake his mate up, the very first of its kind.
He had no plans to take Lake along, his mate was perfectly safe in their mansion, but he had to give Lake a quick rundown of what was going on before he left.
Lake wrapped himself up in a blanket and followed him out of his bedroom door - they were back home, which meant connecting rooms. Connecting rooms that barely mattered because they slept in Lake’s room anyway.
"Call me as soon as something happens, anything." He insisted, his tone one of concern.
Davian was in a hurry, but he stopped to give his mate a gentle,e reassuring kiss. "I will, first thing." He promised, striding off.
Lake watched him leave, he had yet to meet Angelo in person, but that didn’t take away from his importance. Davian had told him everything that happened at their meeting word for word, so he knew that Angelo being taken and Nikolai being unreachable were definitely connected.
And it couldn’t bode well, for either of them, or for the looming turf war with the High Council.
He sighed and turned around, trudging back into his gold-themed bedroom. It was the early hours of the morning, and although he had worn a thick sweater, comfortable pants and socks, he still felt the bite of the cold.
It was almost like it had rained somewhere close by, if he drew in a deep breath, he could smell the rain in the air. Even the sun brightening up his room didn’t do anything to dispel the cold, leaving him to get back into bed alone, the lingering warmth and scent of his husband still clinging to the sheets.
Rosie was still fast asleep, but he doubted that it would remain that way for long. They would have to work remotely for the entire day or at least until they got some more information on what was going on.
Lake knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, but he didn’t get out of bed either, making an exception to go pull out his mate’s night clothes when Davian’s scent faded enough to make him antsy.
He knew that Davian wouldn’t get hurt, but he didn’t like not knowing where the other was. He might have gotten a little too used to Davian’s constant presence on their honeymoon, and the tense situation didn’t make things much better.
Asher was pacing outside the mansion when Davian showed up, while Jael leaned against one of the cars, defined jaw grinding down on mints.
Asher was already on the move before Davian got out of the car he drove there. Davian didn’t bother stopping to turn off his car, tossing the keys at one of Asher’s men before getting into the car that Asher and Jael were already in.
"Any new information?" Davian asked as soon as the door shut.
Jael stepped on the gas, driving out the still-open gates. Asher’s and Davian’s men were on standby, they were only waiting for the signal to move in.
"Just the hospital Silvia’s at," Asher muttered, grim-faced. "You would think that with their obsession with protecting Angelo, they would have thought about putting a tracker on him."
Davian said nothing to that, "Where are we headed?"
"Nikolai’s casino, then downtown. Shit always happens down there."
Davian couldn’t counter those words, until they managed to get proper information, they could only blindly make moves in the dark.
Angelo held his breath when the car came to a stop, staying perfectly still when the door to his left was opened.
He stumbled a bit when his arm was taken and he was pulled out of the car, the blindfold around his eyes worsening his disorientation as he got out of his car.
So he struggled to regain his balance when he was shoved forward, the blindfold coming off his face.
"Go in there." Was all the men who brought him there said to him, right before they got back into their car and sped off.
Angelo looked back at them as they left, a lost look in his eyes as he took a few unsteady steps back.
The little house in front of him featured in all of his nightmares. He wanted to run away again, he wanted to beg them men to take him with them, his socked feet were rooted to the damp, broken pavement.
This used to be his home, his prison, his hell... His mom died in there, his dad...
Angelo clapped a hand over his mouth, his complexion pale, bile climbing up his throat. He swallowed thickly, glancing down at the weight around his neck.
His pupils shrank at the familiar chain link leash with a leather strap at the end for an easier grip attached to the choker around his neck.
It was his dad, it was his dad all along, he had come back...
If Angelo still had his tactical knife with him, he would have pushed it into his throat, right through the choker that he would rather be tortured than be made to wear again.
But knowing that his dad was behind this made his terror for Silvia surge again, his dad wasn’t going to leave Silvia alive, he wouldn’t...
Angelo’s legs were unable to keep him upright, shivering like a leaf on a tree in autumn. Before his body could give in under the adrenaline mixed badly with terror coursing through his veins, a familiar voice came from the other side of the closed door.
"I don’t appreciate being kept waiting, Angelo." His dad’s voice felt like a gunshot at point-blank range.
He had hoped beyond hope, prayed to a higher being that had fucked with him all his life that it was anyone but... anyone but...
Angelo pushed himself to walk forward, he hadn’t seen this coming. If he had... if he had...
Had Silvia known? Was that why she didn’t want him to go?
He took another step forward, going back to being that helpless teenager he was at sixteen, a shaky hand held out to open the door.