Claiming His Unexpected Baby (Assassins Guild #2) - Michelle Howard Page 0,47

leaped over Amelie’s small gate and pounded up her stairs.

When he reached her door, he banged the code in but the door was roughly opened from the inside. Amelie cried out when she saw him and fell into his arms. “Sulen! He took my baby, Sulen. Bring her back.”

She broke into shuddering sobs as he wrapped his arms around her. Her cries tore at him and he didn’t know what to do. Lifting her in his arms, Sulen carried her inside and closed the door behind him with his foot.

He stiffened at the sight of a uniformed man seated on a stool at the kitchen counter. He rose at Sulen’s arrival. “I’m Enforcer Targis. You are?”

“Her bond mate.” Sulen ran his hands up and down Amelie’s back. “What happened?”

Targis glanced from Amelie then back to Sulen. His gaze softened. “We received a report that a male suspect approached the woman and child out front. The woman tried to defend herself and managed to injure him. The child was taken as the assailant ran off.”

Sulen tried to work it out in his head. “Saedra. Was Saedra the one with Fleur?”

Amelie eased from his arms and wiped her face. Her cheeks were puffy and her eyes were red. “Saedra was playing with her when Roan came up to them. She cut him with her knife.”

She grinned maliciously as she said the last part.

“Garik must have freaked.” To put it mildly and Saedra was pregnant.

Amelie released a watery chuckle. “I thought the way he was around me was intense but when everything happened, he reacted in a way they chilled me to the bone.”

It was the assazi in him. Years had not dulled Garik’s edge. If anything, time away had increased his vigilance because of Garik’s obsession with seeing to Saedra’s safety. Her background was filled with a dark past and Garik was determined she never experienced anything close to it again.

“Scarlett went with Saedra and Garik left to search for Roan and Fleur. He said to use his old comm code.”

The one Sulen used earlier. Time to join Garik. He nodded, kissed Amelie on the forehead and whispered, “I’m going to find her. He will pay for this, Amelie.”

Her hands gripped his shirt tight then she released him. A sheen of tears glimmered in her eyes but she appeared to remain strong, holding his stare. “Okay.”

Chapter 17

The evening grew dark and Sulen’s temper flared. Beside him, Garik snarled, “Where the fuck is he?”

That was Sulen’s question. Granted, he and Garik were working without any intel or prepared report to go off but between the two of them, it should have been easy to find a trail or sign of Roan. “I think it’s time we question his wife and the ambassador.”

They were the two who might have an idea of where Roan had taken Fleur.

Garik’s silver gaze narrowed. “Do you think they have a hand in this?”

“I’m sure you have the same information I have from your background check on Roan. His work with the ambassador has not been seen in a good light of late, not that it was ever great. Aviana’s reputation as a spoiled socialite seems fairly accurate.”

They’d canvassed areas within a wider and wider radius of Amelie’s house in desperation and found nothing. The trail had vanished once Roan left the residential area. There was a wooded park that spanned hundreds of acres they hadn’t had a chance to explore yet.

“I’m at a loss,” Sulen reluctantly admitted as they stood at the end of the city line and gazed into the wooded darkness.

Garik answered his buzzing comm and his face drained of color. He turned on his heels, snapping out words as his pace quickened. “I have to go. There’s something wrong with Saedra’s numbers. They want to do testing to see if the baby is in distress.”

Sulen was torn. He stared in the direction he was willing to bet Roan had taken Fleur. There was nowhere else for him to hide. Roan wasn’t from here, so he didn’t have specific places to connect him to. The woods was his only option to hide.

Sulen thought of Garik’s temper. He needed to make sure Garik didn’t kill anyone in his worry for his bond mate. He chased after him but Garik stopped and jabbed a finger in the air between them. “No. Getting Amelie’s daughter back is your priority, Saedra is mine. You find the bastard and make him pay. I don’t care how many of our peers you