Taming London (Warwick Dragons #1) - Milly Taiden Page 0,54

her as he rushed down the steps and into his car. “I’ll go get our girl,” he thundered.

As he sped toward Leonard Humphreys’ house, he berated himself for not seeing sooner that Bethany would definitely want to confront her stepfather. Once he got his hands on Bethany, he was never letting her go anywhere ever again without him or a bodyguard. She was too important to him. His fingers were clutching the steering wheel with such force, he was sure he would break the damn thing. London broke about a thousand different traffic laws, but he didn’t care.

The fashionable neighborhood where Humphreys lived was quiet as he tore down the road. He brought his car to heel with spinning tires and raced up the steps. He rang the bell with one hand and banged on the door with the other. There was no answer. London strained his ears, listening intently. There were no sounds coming from inside the house.

Not the shouts of angry conversation between Beth and her stepfather.

Not the sounds of beating hearts or breathing.

There was no one in the house.

“Fuck.” His voice echoed loudly through the air. There was no way he could figure out just where Bethany was. He could only guess that Humphreys had brought her someplace. She had to be alive. He was sure of it.

“Are you looking for Mr. Humphreys?” a soft voice asked.

London turned to see the neighbor peeking her head from her front door. The old woman’s face was full of wrinkles, and her hair was a cloud of white.

“Yes. I have urgent business with him. Do you know where he might have gone?”

“Oh, I think he has gone to his wife’s country house. It’s only about an hour or so away from here.” The woman rattled off the address. “I daresay, he is in quite a bit of trouble. I’ve called the police. He was shouting up a storm when he left not too long ago. He had those horrible guards with him. They were carrying his lovely stepdaughter. She was quite unconscious, and his new wife was causing quite the fuss. Didn’t seem right.”

London’s entire body was cold and shook with the thought of an unconscious Bethany at the mercy of the man who had her mother killed.

“Thanks,” he yelled over his shoulder as he raced back to his car.

He was thankful that he had chosen to drive himself instead of taking a car service. He inputted the address the old woman had given him into his phone’s GPS, and he was off like a shot. If he had broken a thousand traffic laws to get to Humphreys' house, it was nothing compared to what he had done to get to the small country house. He had considered flying there, but that would have drawn some unwanted attention.

No one wanted to see a dragon flying over London and the suburbs in the middle of the day. That would have caused way more problems than it would have solved.

There was a large black SUV parked in front of the house. The manor was tiny compared to the Warwick Estate, but it was sizable enough to have a great big lawn and be far removed from the neighboring houses.

This was a good thing for London.

If he needed to shift into his dragon, he would avoid detection and have the space he needed to move around without causing too much damage. He sent a quick text to James, letting his friend know that Humphreys had fled London and was at Lucille’s country house. He didn’t wait for the response, too concerned that something horrible had already happened to his mate.

London was sure she was still alive. He was convinced that he would have felt it if something fatal had happened. But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t go ballistic once he got his hands on Humphreys.

He jogged up the drive. This time, he didn’t even bother with silly formalities like knocking. He kicked the door straight down, using his strength. The wood splintered and went flying in every direction.

“What the hell was that?” a voice came from inside of the house.

London made his way toward the voice only to be accosted by four large men. From their smell, he knew they were shifters.

Interesting, his dragon commented.

Humphreys had hired shifter security guards. That wasn’t the usual choice for humans.

“I want Bethany,” London growled, dropping into an offensive stance. His legs were prone and his arms were held in front of him, at the ready.

“Boys,