rest.
While Boaz’s duties as an Elite posted in Savannah overlapped somewhat with Corbin’s assignments as a sentinel assigned to the same general area, I wasn’t aware of them being chummy. However, I could see TPTB partnering them in this particular instance.
As paranoid as the Grande Dame was and had every right to be, she responded more favorably to those she knew and trusted. The sentinels were aware of her preferences and tended to allow her to handpick her guards when she required them. I saw no reason why they wouldn’t do the same this time.
The same logic held if she had left the sentinels out of it and brought in Boaz and Corbin herself to deal with a credible threat she wanted kept quiet.
However the assignments got handed down, it still hurt that Corbin hadn’t contacted me.
I’m not saying he should have blown his cover, or his mission, but a simple hello? He could have stopped by for a slice of cake, a hug, something. That he had done none of those things meant he either wasn’t supposed to be in Savannah, or we weren’t supposed to know he was in Savannah.
Fun times.
With Josephine and Marco briefed on their roles going forward, and no further leads to be found, I caved to the pain in my feet, knees, and hips, and told everyone to pack it in the van.
Absolute secrecy was necessary for this situation, and it ruled out our usual resources. Fumbling around in the dark carried less risk than alerting the Society their matriarch had been kidnapped from her own home.
We would have to reach outside for help solving this case. Luckily, Atlanta wasn’t that far.
By the time Hood pulled into the driveway, I had decided on a plan of action, starting with three calls.
One to Corbin, one to Boaz, and one to Tisdale Kinase.
Linus took my elbow to help me out of the van. “Do you want to nap first?”
“Yes.” I rolled my shoulders to ease the ache. “But we don’t have time for that.”
The first twenty-four hours were the most critical in any missing persons case. I was holding on to the hope that Boaz had, for whatever reason, relocated her. Without letting anyone know. The next best scenario was whoever had taken the Grande Dame wanted to ransom her back to either her son or the Society. Had it been an assassination attempt, of which there had been many, Marco would have found a body and not an empty foyer. She was too hot of a commodity to hang on to for no good reason.
We just had to find out what these people wanted and hope like heck we could give it to them. Preferably before anyone found out her business trip was a fib.
“You don’t have to do this alone.” He noticed my pain and massaged my shoulders. “I can help.”
The balance between our professional and personal lives had a few bumps left in both roads. After being his apprentice for two years, I had a tendency to take on all the work to prove I could do it. Now that I was off probation and official in every sense of the word, I no longer had to fear impressing my tutor. Except I was married to him, and I got a giddy thrill each time I earned his seal of approval. It was a heady thing for a man as educated and intelligent as Linus to be impressed by little ol’ me.
“Can you handle the call to Tisdale?” I wheedled. “She’s always liked you better.”
“She blames you for luring her daughter away from home.”
As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. Tisdale knew that no one could force Lethe to do anything she didn’t want to, but she was also Lethe’s mother, and she missed her daughter. She had expected Lethe to inherit the Atlanta pack, but Lethe had uprooted her life after meeting me and started her own three hours away in Savannah. I was an easier target for blame than her daughter’s inherited alpha tendencies.
Upon exiting the van, I noticed a large gift left on the bottommost step of the front porch.
Woolly flashed her lights in welcome, but there was a dimness to them I didn’t trust.
“What’s up?” I slid out of the van and started across the lawn. “Who dropped off the present?”
It had to be from someone who couldn’t make the party earlier, but Woolly had strict instructions not to allow delivery drivers onto the porch