“Baby?” Gabriel gasped in surprise. “You’re still there?”
“Of course, G Love.”
“The communication system is being routed through my laptop. As long as it has battery power, we can talk. The moment the lights went out, I opened up all the comms again.”
This shouldn’t have been happening. At a guess, someone must have hit the breaker box on the first floor, but they had been sure to lock that room. The only people who would have known where it even was in the first place would have to be extremely familiar with the house.
“Charlie? Soren? What have you found?”
“It’s Jason, Izzie’s friend,” Charlie came out a second later. “He’s just knocked out. Got a big lump on the back of his head.”
“Izzie’s not here,” Soren reported in a low voice.
“What? Where is he?” Athena demanded.
“Missing,” Gabriel answered before Kairo could speak. “We’re working to track him now. Justin, you stick to Athena. Physically hold on to her. Don’t let her out of your sight.”
“Done,” Justin said.
“Athena, don’t let anyone leave the house. Go to the living room and calm your guests.”
“But my brother—”
“We will find him,” Kairo promised. “Keep the guests here and calm. Charlie and Soren are going to head to the living room and back you up. Ed, Alexei, and West, check in with your locations.”
“Alexei on the patio,” the young man said in a near whisper.
“West on the second floor, heading to the command center.”
“Ed on the first floor, heading to the east hall.”
“Ed, do you remember where the breaker box is? Can you check to see if someone threw the breaker?”
“On it,” Ed growled.
“What about isolating the earpiece for Isidore or even picking up the tracker that you put in his clothes?” Gabriel demanded.
“The tracking program is through the main computer. I wasn’t expecting us to lose power. I’m isolating Isidore’s earpiece…now. Isidore? Baby, can you hear me?” Kairo paused and squeezed his eyes shut as he strained in the silence to hear anything that would prove that his lover was still alive. There was no sound. Not even breathing on the open frequency. His voice trembled slightly when he spoke again. “Isidore, if you can’t talk, just give a little grunt to prove that you can hear me. Just any sound.”
But there was nothing.
“It’s okay. Whoever did this knocked out Jason. They probably knocked out Isidore as well,” Gabriel reassured him.
“They had to have left the grounds. Otherwise, we risk tripping across them. How the fuck did they get away from the house with an unconscious Isidore? He’s not exactly small,” Kairo snapped.
The door behind them opened and Gabriel swung around in a silent blur, his gun automatically coming up. There was only darkness in the open doorway and a huge figure while they were lit by the glow of Kairo’s laptop screen.
“Slow down, Tex. It’s me,” West said. “I—” He stopped talking as the lights in the room flashed on, revealing West in the doorway with his empty hands held up in front of him.
Gabriel immediately lowered his gun. “Sorry about that.”
“No worries. Glad you’ve got Kairo covered.” He jerked his chin toward the computers. “Find him yet?”
“Not yet.” He snatched up his phone and swiped for the particular app that he was searching for. “I’m working on pulling up his tracker on my phone so I can more easily be mobile.”
“Are you sure that it’s better for you to go? It might be easier if you run things from the command center. Gabriel and I can retrieve him,” West countered.
For several heartbeats, Kairo could only glare at his friend. There was no way in hell he was going to stay behind while someone had their hands on Isidore. “I’m going,” he stated and then turned his attention down to his phone.