Air of Seduction (Elemental Enforcers #3)

Chapter 13

Payton

I can’t help the way my body stiffens, and I look at the woman next to me out of the corner of my eyes, trying not to be too obvious about it.

Vampire. She’s a vampire. What is she doing here?

“Relax,” Ronan whispers in my ear. “She’s one of us, one of the good ones.”

I nod slowly without looking at him. She’s obviously welcome here, but that doesn’t mean I automatically trust her. Her very nature requires her to feed on humans, and that fact alone renders her untrustworthy in my book for the very same reason you can never completely trust a lion.

My phone rings, and I quickly yank it out of my pocket. It might be…

I don’t recognize the number on the screen, and if my friend wasn’t currently held against her will by a vampire, I wouldn’t answer. But she is, and there’s always the odd chance that she’s been able to get ahold of a phone to call me.

Sliding my finger over the screen, I accept the call. “Hello?” My voice sounds a bit breathless. I hate answering calls from people I don’t know.

“Payton.”

“Olivia.” Her name comes out as a whisper, and tears fill my eyes.

“Help me, please!” Olivia’s voice is low.

My fingers dig painfully into my thigh until Ronan grabs my hand and braids his fingers with mine. I lift my gaze to his as tears course down my cheeks.

He points to his ear and mouths speaker .

“I’m trying.” My voice breaks on the last syllable. I lower the phone from my ear and press the screen to put it on speaker.

“I know. I know you are, Payton.” Olivia’s tone is firm.

My throat clogs from her solid confidence in me. No one ever believed in me while I grew up, not even my own mother. But Olivia does.

“This is Ronan. You’re on speaker. I’m helping Payton find you. Do you know where you are?”

“No. There’s no windows in this room, and I was blindfolded on my way here.”

A sob forces its way out of my mouth, and I squeeze my eyes shut. How the hell are we going to find her if we don’t know where she is?

“Do you hear any sounds? Anything unusual at all that might help us locate you.”

Noah’s voice from right above me makes my eyes pop open, and I raise my gaze to stare at him.

He’s staring down with a fierce intensity in his eyes that makes me want to shrink away from him. But then I realize he’s not looking at me. His focus is on the phone in my hand.

“Only cars driving by outside.” Olivia lets out a dejected sigh. “So, nothing unusual, no.”

Ronan puts an arm around my shoulders. “Do you know if you’re far from where you were staying yesterday?”

“Only about a five-minute walk. Do you know where I was yesterday?” The hope in Olivia’s voice makes me smile through my tears.

I nod, even though she can’t see me. “Yes, we were there this morning, hoping that you were still there.” My eyes are wide as I glance at Ronan. A five-minute walk isn’t that far, but there’s a lot of houses within that range.

Ronan’s lips curve into a smile. “Do you know in which direction you headed when you left the house last night?”

A few seconds go by before Olivia answers. “We went left after we walked out of the house, but after that I couldn’t tell you. I—” The sound of a door slamming reaches us through the phone, and the call immediately disconnects.

“No,” I whisper at the phone.

“Call her back!” Noah’s command is harsh, and I tense.

“Don’t.” Ronan puts a hand over my hand that holds the phone. “If we call her back now, we might tip Barry off that she’s talked to us. We don’t want to do that, because then they’ll leave immediately. If we go now and spread out, we might have a chance to catch them.”

“We’ve got the perimeter. I love the Internet.” Lucas holds up Erica’s hand that’s gripping her phone like they just won a boxing match.

She chuckles before she yanks her hand out of Lucas’s grip and stares at the screen. “It’s a huge area, though, with a ton of houses, even if we only focus on the half of the circle in the general direction they headed. We don’t know how fast they were walking, and perhaps what felt like five minutes to her was more like three or ten.”

“What’s the number she called from? I’ll send Callum a text to ask if there’s anything they can do to help us narrow down our search.” Aidan stands up. “But they’re driving, so I’m not sure how much they can do.”

I recite the number while Aidan types.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Noah is already halfway to the door by the time he turns around. “And send me a picture of Olivia so I know who I’m looking for.” His eyes narrow on mine.

I nod. “I will.”

“And to the rest of us.” Lucas gives me a warm smile before swinging his gaze to Ronan. “Ronan can help you. He’s got our numbers.”

We all file out of the room and head down to the parking garage, and I suddenly remember what happened after our last excursion to find Olivia. An image of the somewhat medieval interrogation room pops into my mind, and I shudder. The whole thing could have been worse, I suppose, but I’ve seen more violence in the last few days than I have in the last ten years, and I know there’s more to come.

Ronan guides me to the same SUV we used earlier, but this time we end up in the backseat with Lucas driving and Erica in the passenger seat.

I scroll through the pictures on my phone and select a good one of Olivia. “What’s your number?” I turn my head to look at Ronan.

A wicked grin spreads across his face. “Why, I thought you’d never ask.” Then he holds out his hand, palm up. “Let me.”

I show him the picture before putting my phone in his hand.

He winks at me before concentrating on the screen, his fingers busy typing.

It might be a strange time to be flirty, but his lighthearted behavior eases some of the tension that’s settled between my shoulder blades. And perhaps that’s exactly why he’s doing it. He’s been acting standoffish at times, but that hasn’t prevented him from protecting me and caring for me.

“Here.” He hands me my phone back and takes his own out of his pocket. “I’ll forward it to everyone.”

While he’s busy, I look at the text he sent to himself from my phone. A smile steals across my face when I notice he didn’t just send the text, he added himself to my contacts as well. Does that mean he wants us to keep in touch even after we’ve rescued Olivia?

Tears prick at the back of my eyelids, and I turn my head to stare out the window. What if Barry kills her before we can get there? What if he’s already killed her for talking to us? Why did this even have to happen at all? Why Olivia of all people?

But I already know it’s probably a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I doubt Barry sought her out specifically, because I’ve never met him before, and I think I’d have known if Olivia had. She never keeps secrets from me.

Ronan’s strong arm comes around my shoulders, and he curls me into his chest. “We’ll find her,” he mumbles into my hair.

My throat clogs, but I fight the need to cry again. I’m not usually a crybaby, and if there’s ever any time I need to be strong, it’s now. For Olivia.

I pull in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Tipping my head back, I stare up into Ronan’s beautiful turquoise eyes.

His expression is unreadable, but his gaze is locked on mine, and his arm is firm around me. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but he isn’t pushing me away.

My gaze drops to his lips. They can be both soft and hungry at the same time. I’ve already experienced that firsthand.

“Payton.” His lips move with the whispering of my name, and then he closes the distance between us.

His lips brush against mine in a soft caress, and a shiver of need rushes down my spine. His arm around me moves until his hand cups the back of my head. And a moment later his lips seal over mine.

It’s nothing like our first kiss, which was wild and demanding. This is hot and sensual, and I fist my hands in his shirt to hold on as emotions swell inside me.

This is going too fast. I’m not supposed to feel anything for a man I’ve known for less than twenty-four hours. But as his mouth possesses mine, the man himself takes possession of my heart, making me wish for so much more from him than he’s likely to ever give me.

“Ronan, I’ve sent you your search area.” Erica’s voice breaks into my stupid wishful thinking, and I yank my head back, breaking the kiss.

Ronan’s lips stretch into a confident smirk. Holding my gaze captive, he clears his throat. “Thank you, Erica.” Then he cocks his head and continues in a low voice clearly meant just for me. “We’ll continue where we left off later when Olivia is safe, and we can be alone.”

Heat gathers in my lower belly, something I shouldn’t feel right now while my focus should be on finding Olivia. But there’s something about this man that has both my mind and body confused about my priorities.

I turn away without responding to his statement. Closing my eyes, I resist the urge to lick my lips and savor the taste of him. Instead, I conjure the image of Olivia in my mind, and prepare myself for what I have to do.

As far as I know, there’s only one thing we can do to try to find her when we don’t know which house she’s staying in, and that’s to knock on doors and talk to people. And I don’t like talking to people I don’t know. But I’ll do it for her.

Someone might remember seeing a woman who was blindfolded and guided along by a man. Particularly when I can show them pictures.

I open my eyes and turn to Ronan. “Can you send me the picture of Barry?”

He nods. “Of course.”

“Thank you.” I discreetly admire his profile while he works on his phone.

When the picture arrives on my phone, anger sours my stomach, and I grimace. I hate that vampire, and if Ronan doesn’t beat me to it, I think I’ll kill him myself for what he’s done to my friend.

I suddenly remember the fierce intensity in Noah’s eyes and turn back to Ronan. “Is Noah always like that? If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he knew Olivia personally. But I seriously doubt that. So, why did it seem like her situation personally affected him?”

Ronan shakes his head slowly. “I don’t know. I can’t remember seeing him act like that before. He always does his best to help people, but he tends to act like it doesn’t matter much to him. He’s aloof most of the time. To the point of irritation for the rest of us. But that’s just how he is and always has been.”

Ronan’s phone vibrates, and he looks down at the screen. “We’ve got a location. A house at the southern end of Navarino Road, a little to the east of Horton Road. Callum did it again.”

My heart rate shoots up as hope flares in my chest. Please, let us find her this time. I don’t believe in any god, but that doesn’t prevent me from praying. It might not help, but it can’t hurt either.