“It looks like the van took off from here in a hurry.”
I joined him. Faint skid marks showed against the asphalt a couple of feet from the curb. There was no way to confirm what vehicle had made them, but the location was awfully suspicious. And—
My gaze caught on a few dark specks that gleamed wetly against the pavement right by the gutter. I knelt down and touched one. It stained my fingertip red.
My heart lurched despite my best attempt at self-control. “You fought back,” I murmured.
Abruptly, I could see her in the back of my mind, striking out at her attackers with the fierceness she wore so well. Even through my concern, my cock stirred. As if this was a good time for those sorts of feelings. I straightened up, shaking off my imaginings, but the vise in my chest remained tight.
“What’s that?” Wylder asked, coming up behind me to peer at my fingers, more urgency seeping into his tone. When I looked up at him, his eyes were stormy. He definitely wasn’t unaffected by the situation either.
How had this woman managed to get so far under all our skins in a matter of days?
But that didn’t matter. Right then, all I could think was that we had to get her back.
“There’s blood on the pavement,” I said. “The van must have sped over, and someone jumped out to grab her. In the struggle, at least one person drew blood.” After seeing Mercy grapple with Gia last night, I could believe it’d been her. But even if it had been, her strength hadn’t been enough.
“And then they took her!” Kaige let out an incoherent sound, his hands balling tight. Fury flushed his face. “When I get a hold of them—”
“We don’t even know who ‘them’ is,” Rowan pointed out, but I noticed his own face had paled.
I straightened up, flattening my voice but hating the dispassionate sound of it at the same time. “It’s not hard to guess, is it? Who’s taken her before? Who’s wanted her dead this whole time?”
“Colt Bryant and his fucking Steel Knights,” Wylder growled. “How the hell did they get this far into our territory without anyone noticing? They grabbed her right from our doorstep, the motherfuckers.”
He was right. The move was bold and in some ways an open challenge, even though I doubted Colt would ever admit his involvement in Mercy’s kidnapping unless we forced it out of him. Imagining setting Kaige loose on the prick in Kaige’s current state gave me a small measure of satisfaction. The leader of the Steel Knights wouldn’t survive that encounter.
Kaige swiveled around. “I think I remember seeing a van parked down at the other end of the street. I figured it was just someone making a delivery. Shit, I should have paid more attention.”
Wylder smacked his knuckles against his palm. “The men we have stationed all over the city should have noticed something.”
“There’s no use in pointing fingers or placing blame,” Rowan said quickly, ever the diplomat. “That doesn’t help Mercy. We have to focus on her.” His voice cracked slightly on the last word. Even he was starting to lose his composure.
Kaige shook his head, raising his hands to his temples. “What do you think they’ve done to her? They’ve had her for an hour already. Is she even…?”
He trailed off. I didn’t want to complete his sentence, but the thought had occurred to me too. No doubt it’d crossed all our minds.
Mercy had been nothing but defiant to Colt. Of course he would want to get her out of his way as soon as possible.
“Bryant is a dead man walking,” Wylder said in a chilling voice that made my gaze jerk to him. I couldn’t remember when I’d last heard him quite that furious. I’d known Mercy appealed to him, but I hadn’t thought he cared quite that much.
But then, I hadn’t thought I cared as much as the knot in my stomach said I did either.
My best friend turned to me. “Whatever those shitheads have done, we need to find them before they can do worse. Can you get the license plate off the surveillance footage and run it?”
My mind leapt back to the recording, trying to remember how clear the back of the van had been in the split-second when it’d roared across the screen, but my practical side was already reminding me that there was no way Colt would have used any vehicle that could be traced to him or wherever his people had meant to take Mercy. I opened my mouth, dreading Wylder’s reaction to that statement. Then inspiration hit like a lightning bolt.
Yes. I’d been prepared for something like this after all… even if this hadn’t been quite what I was picturing when I’d made my preparations.
A smile had crossed my lips of its own accord. Kaige stared at me. “What the hell are you grinning about, Gideon? This is—”
I snapped my fingers, cutting him off. “Stop raving like a lunatic for a second and listen. We can find her. I’ve got something even better than a license plate to track her down.”