Lucien’s first conscious feeling was a throbbing in his head. Slowly, he woke and realized he was in his room in the Muteti compound, on the bed, on top of the covers, fully dressed. His hands secured behind his back. He struggled against the binds. At least it was rope, not handcuffs. There was a chance he could loosen the ropes enough to escape.

Memories hit him one by one.

Ryenne’s joy while inspecting his uncle’s knife.

John sleeping on the floor in front of Muteti’s room.

A shout. Then, John surging up from the floor and knocking Lucien’s head against the wall.

Ryenne’s body beneath his.

Shit.

He was falling for her. For a human. For a shifter hunter.

Fuck.

Ryenne had been inside that room. If John had been faking it, then Muteti might have been waiting for her.

It had been another trap, and they had fallen for it again. John must have carried him here after knocking Lucien out. Why not just kill him?

He had to get out of here. He had to find Ryenne and make sure she was safe.

He redoubled his struggles and the binds began to loosen, but not enough.

“Hello,” he called out. “Is anyone there?”

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he maneuvered himself into a sitting position on the side of the bed. He continued to struggle against the ropes, and continued to loosen them.

“Anyone? Hello?”

His ankles had also been tied, but in a cursory way he was able to break with a little concentration once in a sitting position. Then, he stood and walked to the door. Turning his back to the door, he fumbled for the door handle with his tied hands. The door wouldn’t budge. John must have locked him in.

He backed up a few steps and ran at the door, banging it with his shoulder. The door didn’t move a hair. His shoulder took the brunt of the impact.

“Hello?” a voice asked from the hallway.

“Jomo?” Lucien asked. “Is that you?”

“Yes, sir. Is everything all right?”

“I’m locked in. Can you open my door?”

A moment of silence made Lucien wonder if Jomo was on the side of the rogues or didn’t dare disobey his master.

“I will have to get the key from Eleanor. I will return as quickly as I can.”

Lucien sighed with relief. Luckily, whatever evil lurked within these walls had been kept separate from the staff. Well, other than poor Innocent, who had been used to make a point and who must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The minutes stretched on and Lucien began to wonder if he’d been wrong. Maybe Jomo had lied to him and wasn’t getting a key from Eleanor, but was reporting to his master that Lucien was awake and trying to escape. Lucien paced his room, searching for weapons to help him.

His dagger!

If he could position it the right way, he might be able to cut through the ropes. Again with his back turned, he rummaged through his suitcase with his bound hands.

“Aïe!” He’d found the dagger. Warmth on his finger, along with the sharp pain, told him he’d cut himself on the blade. But he managed to grasp the handle and get the blade between his wrists. With a slow sawing motion, he attempted to cut through the rope.

The blade slid off the rope and cut into his wrist. “Putain,” he muttered and kept trying. Eventually, his wrists flew apart and he was free.

He shook out his wrists and examined the cuts. Grabbing the first thing out of his suitcase, he mopped up the blood and applied pressure to the largest cut, the one on his wrist. It was a pair of his boxer briefs. He shrugged. It worked; within a minute, the bleeding had stopped.

He tossed the underwear on the floor and stalked to the door. Putting his shoulder to it, he again tried to break down the thick wooden door. He rubbed his bruised shoulder and glanced around. The window. He knew it was barred, but maybe he could work the iron frame loose as Ryenne had done earlier outside Muteti’s room.

The bars were too secure to budge with his arms. He needed more leverage. Wedging himself into the corner of the room, he pushed at the bars with his feet, but the angle was wrong. The window was too high off the floor for him to have a good shot from this position.

His hands curled into fists and he grunted in frustration.

“Mr. Malraux?” a female voice called. “I have the key.”

“Eleanor? You’re an angel.” He rushed to the door and stood aside as it swung open to reveal the plump, blushing housekeeper and the skinny boy.

“I am sorry it took so long,” Jomo said, his face as serious as ever. “I had to go to Eleanor’s home in the village to wake her to get the key.”

He glanced out the window. It was still dark.

He didn’t know how long he’d been out.

“I hope she’s still alive.”

“What?” Eleanor exclaimed. “Who? Miss Ryenne?”

Lucien nodded. “Have you seen her?”

“No, I thought she was sleeping.”

Lucien turned to Jomo who shook his head. “I only arrived a few minutes before I heard you bang on the door. I also thought she was in her room.”

Lucien wondered what the boy was doing here in the middle of the night, but Ryenne had commented days ago about the boy being here at all hours. “I think she has been taken by the rogue,” Lucien explained.

“What? No.” Eleanor covered her mouth with her hand. “The rogue was here?”

Jomo’s eyes widened.

Lucien decided he had to trust them with the truth. It might be the only way to save Ryenne. And they needed to know who they really worked for. “I hate to tell you this, but the rogue is Steven Muteti. And John has been helping him.”

The hand in front of Eleanor’s mouth began to shake. “Master Muteti? He killed his own friend? Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know. So, you had no idea?”

“None.”

Jomo pursed his lips.

“What?” Lucien asked, rounding on the boy.

“I wondered. He kept odd hours. And I noticed the bars outside his bedroom window were loose but when I mentioned it, he laughed. It was a strange reaction.”

Indeed.

“I never imagined he was the rogue shifter. I just thought he was not quite right,” Jomo continued.

Eleanor removed the hand from in front of her mouth and instead began wringing her hands in an old-fashioned gesture Lucien had only seen his grandmother make. “Eh, now that you mention it, he was not himself this past week. But I thought it was because of Kyeri dying, his oldest friend.”

Lucien grew impatient. “Let’s search the house. And get the men outside to help so it goes faster. We have to find Ryenne before they kill her. If it isn’t already too late,” he added under his breath.

Jomo took off at a run for the front of the house. “I will get them.”

Lucien went straight to Muteti’s room. If she wasn’t being held there, or lying dead on his floor, maybe there’d be a clue to her whereabouts.

But there was nothing. The curtains were open, revealing the loosened bars and an open window. A bowl of untouched stew sat on a tray on his bedside table. “Ah, they didn’t eat the drugged food.” This gave him another thought and he rushed out to Ryenne’s room. Since they didn’t eat the food, their attack didn’t mean they couldn’t be drugged. Muteti hadn’t overcome the tranquilizer and maybe Ryenne had more of it in her room.

He considered shouting for Eleanor to come with the key, but when he tried Ryenne’s door, it swung open. A quick glance told him John and Muteti had searched her room. Her weapons were gone, her clothes had been flung every which way, and her toiletry items had been swept off the counter in the attached bathroom.

But maybe they didn’t know to look for drugs. He remembered her vials of vitamins. Maybe she had something similar for the tranquilizers. He kicked through the mess on the floor and handpicked through the toiletries and eventually found one glass vial of a clear liquid in an inside pocket of her suitcase. He didn’t know what it was, but maybe it could help. He shoved it in his pocket and went back to his own room for weapons.

Dagger shoved through his belt loop and a long Taser in his hand, he stalked to the front of the house to find the others. The men stood in a clump near the gate, speaking in loud voices.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Why aren’t you looking for Ryenne?”

Teddy stepped forward. “We already searched the compound and found no trace of Miss Ryenne. But John never brought the car back last night. He and Master Muteti walked into the compound last night and we never saw them leave again.”

The back gate, Lucien thought. Maybe they’d kept the car out there last night. Or they had walked to wherever they were keeping Ryenne.

He realized he had to think of her as alive. His brain wouldn’t let him contemplate the alternative.

“Okay, where would he go?”

The men spoke in Gikuyu, voices speaking over one another.

“I don’t have time for this,” Lucien said.

Jomo pulled on his arm. “Some of them do not believe Master Muteti is the rogue and they are afraid of losing their jobs if they help you. But some are reminding them all of the odd things that have been going on and how Master Muteti could be involved.”

Lucien nodded. “Fine, but I have to find Ryenne. Never mind.” He strode to the gate. “I’ll go myself. Send a group after me if you hear anything.”

“Try the warehouse,” Teddy shouted after him.

The warehouse. Of course. It would be the perfect location to keep someone prisoner.

Or kill someone.

He ran for the woods. Once there, he stripped and shifted. Then he took off sprinting as a wolf for the warehouse as it was the quickest way to reach Ryenne.

He only hoped he would be in time.