Patrick looked at his brother. “Okay. But if something goes wrong, I’m going to whoop your ass.”

Grayson brushed his hand through his younger brother’s hair, messing it up. “It won’t come to that.”

“Well, good,” Blake said, steering the conversation back to the task at hand. “The boys need to head back to HQ to get ready. Get yourselves suited up with the reinforced Kevlar gear and semi-automatics. I want you protected against any silver bullets or stakes. We don’t know yet whether Mendoza has any accomplices. And you’ll be wearing cameras, so I can guide you from HQ.”

Gabriel tossed a set of keys to Ryder. “Take the SUV to get to HQ. I want you all riding together.” He gave Damian and Benjamin a pointed look. “The sports car stays here.”

“Spoilsport,” Benjamin grunted under his breath.

“Let’s go,” Grayson ordered, assuming command just as naturally as his father.

“I’ll give you further instructions when I get back to HQ,” Blake added.

The four hybrids walked to the stairs leading into the garage and disappeared. When the door shut behind them, Blake turned back to the three male vampires and their mates. The younger hybrids watched them with interest.

“There’s something else.”

Delilah reached for her husband’s hand, her eyes widening in fear. “What is it?”

Blake exchanged a look with Samson, who nodded. He’d filled Samson in earlier. “Isabelle wasn’t the kidnapper’s target. It was Katie. He mistook Isabelle for Katie. I don’t know why or how, perhaps because they looked so similar in their costumes and hairdos. It doesn’t matter now.” He sighed. “Katie called me earlier. She has some letters that might point to the kidnapper. Some crazy fan. We’re trying to figure out whether Mendoza is that man.”

“I don’t understand,” Delilah interrupted. “You just said that Mendoza has Isabelle. So it must be him.”

Blake shook his head. “It’s possible that he wasn’t acting alone. He could have been hired. Do you think a crazy, stalker-type fan would really mistake Isabelle for Katie? I doubt it. He would have immediately recognized that he had the wrong woman. That’s why I suspect that Mendoza is working for someone.”

“Have you gotten anything from the letters yet? Fingerprints? Anything at all?” Samson asked, pulling his wife closer to him.

Blake rubbed the back of his neck. “We don’t have the letters.”

“But Katie—”

“Katie isn’t answering her phone. Haven is on his way to her house to check on her and get the letters so we can analyze them. If Mendoza isn’t working alone, we need to know that, or we’re sending the boys into undue danger.”

Blake searched Samson’s eyes.

A second later, Samson nodded in agreement. “I want all our bases covered. We have to be prepared for when Mendoza realizes that he’s got the wrong woman.”

Blake set his jaw into a grim line. Yes, once Mendoza realized he had the wrong woman, he’d come after Katie too, and Isabelle would then become a burden to him. They had to get to him before that happened.

His cell phone pinged. Blake pulled it from his pocket and looked at it. “Oh good, that’s Haven.” He accepted the call. “Hey, what have you got for me?”

“Katie never got home.”

Blake felt the blood in his veins turn to ice.

14

The call still echoed in his ears.

“You have to come, Luther!” Samson’s voice implored him. “She’s in a bad way.”

Before the last word was even spoken, Luther raced outside into the dark and jumped onto his motorcycle.

Buildings flew past him, lights flashed by him, the wind in his ears drowned out all sounds, but it couldn’t drown out his thoughts.

“Vivian, I’m coming! I’ll be there.”

Minutes became hours. His fingers around the handlebars turned to ice, holding on for dear life. His back was as stiff as a brick wall, his neck frozen in its position, his eyes focused only on the road ahead.

Only one thought filled his mind, repeating on an infinite loop. It’s not time yet.

The baby was coming too early. Two months too soon.

That’s why he wasn’t with her, why he’d taken another assignment, thinking she would be safe for a few days without him.

She’d assured him she was fine just before he’d left. “Go, Luther. I don’t need you hovering around the house like a caged tiger.”