Page 96 of Duty Devoted
I stumbled down the sidewalk, ignoring people trying to check on me. I needed to get to my car. To an airport. ToLauren.
“Snatch and grab right in front of her apartment.”
Silence for a heartbeat, then Jace’s voice went sharp and professional. “Ty, you on?”
“Here.” Ty’s voice joined the call. “What happened?”
“Got the drop on me with a Taser, took her while I was down.” The words tasted like failure. “Right before, I smelled some fucking floral cigarettes. Same as what some of the cartel guys smoked in Corazón.”
Could that be a coincidence? Maybe. But likely not in this case. I knew it with every instinct I had.
“Fuck.” Ty’s curse carried weight. “Ethan’s already here. Patching him in.”
Another click, then Ethan’s measured voice. “Logan, you injured?”
I was already moving, heading for my rental car parked half a block away. The last thing I needed was Chicago PD showing upand keeping me tied up for hours with witness statements while Lauren got farther away.
“Probable mild concussion from hitting the fucking sidewalk. Body feels like…it’s been Tasered.” I prayed Ethan and the team weren’t going to question my judgment, although after my behavior the past couple months, they had ample reason to.
If they didn’t believe me, we’d have to slow everything down while we investigated, until we found proof of what my gut already knew was true: the Silva cartel was behind this. “Ethan…”
I would beg if I had to. Call in every favor I had. But I was not going to let red tape stop me from getting to Lauren as fast as humanly possible.
“Get back to HQ,” Ethan ordered. “Jace, start pulling traffic cams, security footage, anything that might give us a lead. I’ll handle the Valentinos.”
“It happened right in front of their building,” I said. “The doorman and other witnesses—it won’t be long before word gets to them. We should get ahead of this.”
“Agreed,” Ethan said. “Better they hear it from us with a plan already in motion than from a panicked doorman. I’ll get on with them now. How bad are you hurt for real?”
I touched the back of my head, fingers coming away bloody. The Taser burns on my neck throbbed with each heartbeat. “Functional.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“It’s all that matters. I’ll be in the office in about three hours.”
The call ended. I pocketed the phone and forced myself to think past the rage and guilt threatening to consume me. Lauren was counting on me. On all of us. Time to be what she needed—not a fragmented former Marine drowning in trauma, but the man she could count on to get her back.
Three hours later,I pushed through the doors of the Citadel office. Even in crisis mode, Citadel maintained protocols—I badged in, submitted to the biometric scan, all completed in under thirty seconds. The receptionist took one look at me and waved me straight through to the elevators. I probably looked like hell—blood on my collar, Taser burns visible above my shirt, the particular kind of controlled fury that made smart people step aside.
The elevator ride to our floor felt endless. Every second we wasted was another second Lauren was in their hands. Another second for them to hurt her, terrify her, or worse—transport her somewhere we couldn’t follow.
The operations center was in full crisis mode when I arrived. Multiple screens showed traffic footage, satellite imagery, data streams. Jace sat at the center of it all, fingers flying across three keyboards simultaneously.
“Tell me you have something,” I said.
He didn’t look up. “I’ve got everything. Hacked traffic cams, ATM security footage, even a tourist’s live stream that caught part of it.” His jaw tightened. “You’re not going to like it.”
“Show me.”
The main screen lit up with footage from a traffic camera. There I was with Lauren, both of us smiling. She looked relaxed for the first time in days, actually happy. My chest tightened watching her laugh at something I’d said.
Then I saw it—the SUV was already there, parked at the curb. Must have been waiting. Three men emerged—faces obscured by baseball caps, but their movements were coordinated, efficient. They’d been in position, watching, waiting for us to exit thebuilding. One raised something that looked like a cell phone, and I watched myself convulse and drop.
“Taser. Modified for range, probably fifteen feet.” Jace switched to another angle. “Watch this.”
The second view showed the actual grab. Two men had Lauren before she could even scream, one clamping a hand over her mouth while the other pressed something against her arm. She went limp within seconds.
“Some kind of sedative,” I said. “Fast-acting, whatever it was. They wanted her alive and manageable.”
