David

“Lea, calm down, I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Chloe went to the office and two men went in after her.”

“Are they still there?”

“No one has come out yet.”

“Ring Caleb and tell him.” I ordered then I hung up. I ran to my car grabbing the car keys on the way. Fuck, Chloe was in danger and I was five minutes out. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I prayed Caleb would get there faster than I would. I didn’t know what the men wanted but as we’ve been digging into the child abduction case, I was sure it had something to do with that. If Chloe got hurt, fuck, it didn’t bear thinking about. I put my foot down and drove as safety as possible at a speed I would be arrested for if I were caught, but I didn’t care, Chloe’s life might depend on it. My building finally came into sight. Lea stood next to her car, her face in her hands. The office door was wide open. I parked my car, jumped out grabbing a gun from my glove compartment, and made my way to the door. “Stay there.” I shouted at Lea who looked like she was going to follow. “Is Caleb in there?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“Shit.” I cursed; I had no idea what I was walking into. I had to clear my head and forget that it was Chloe in there, otherwise I’d make a stupid mistake and put us both in danger. As I stepped quietly through the door, I could hear muffled voices coming from the stairs. Heading towards them, I stopped as the voices got louder. “Where is she?” someone shouted and I relaxed slightly.  Chloe must have hidden herself well. I had to take the men out, two was no problem but I had to do it fast before they found her. Moving forward on silent feet I stopped again as I heard footsteps, an arm came into view then a face. Randy Tom, well that was what his friends called him. I threw a punch and knocked him into the wall. It wasn’t quiet, his friend would have heard that, I punched him again this time under the chin and it knocked him out cold. His friend came through the door, he looked at me then at Randy, and he held his hands up in surrender. “David Poole.” He said quietly. “I’m Detective Ashen, I’m undercover.”

“Forgive me if I don’t believe you. I’ll check you out myself.”

“I figured you would. Your girl is in your office under your desk.”

“If that’s true why didn’t you tell Randy?”

“Because I’m an undercover Detective, we don’t put the innocent in danger. I told him she must have left.”

“We’ll talk about this once I have her safe. I want to know how the hell you got in here too.” I chucked him a pair of handcuffs. “Put these on until I can clarify your story.”

“No problem.”

I watched as he did as I asked then I took another pair off the desk and cuffed him to the bannister. He seemed to be genuine, but I wasn’t taking any chances with Chloe’s safety. I headed towards my office. “Chloe,” I called softly, so I didn’t spook her. Her head popped up over my desk. “Hey.” She whispered. She had tears running down her cheeks.

“Oh honey, please don’t cry.” I walked round the desk and gathered in my arms rubbing her back soothingly.

“I was so scared. I heard one of them talking about me; he was telling another guy all the disgusting things he was going to do to me when he found me.”

“The man in question is currently knocked out on the hallway floor baby.”

“Is he really?”

“Yes, come on. Lea is outside worrying to death about you and I need to call the police on these bozos.”

She gripped my hand tightly and allowed me to lead her out. She was so close to me it was as if she was trying to burrow under my skin and my anger spiked. How could anyone think they could go for my Chloe and get away with it? Randy Tom was going to pay for it. If the other guy wasn’t who he says he was, then he would too. He had a lot of explaining to do. We walked out the door and Chloe made a scared noise. “Baby, it’s alright, I’m here now.” I reassured her. “Talk,” I ordered Ashen.

“They want Chloe because they know how much she means to you.”

“What do they want her for?”

He looked at Chloe in apology before meeting my eyes. “The guy on the floor wants her for her body, but who we’re working for want her because they think they can use the threat of hurting her to get you to drop your case.”

I nodded. I’d already worked that out. “Where do you come in?”

“I have orders to keep an eye on the gang. We want the big guy but no one seems to know who he is.”

“I’m calling the police, I need confirmation of who you are and then I want this piece of shit out of my sight.”

I looked to the front door as I heard footsteps and Lea burst in with Caleb hot on her heels. “Chloe, shit, I was so worried.” She stepped over the body on the floor and pulled Chloe into a hug. “Are you ok?”

“Yes, they didn’t get near me thanks to David. And you for calling him.”

“You would have done the same. You need coffee; I think everyone could do with some. Let’s leave the guys to take out the rubbish and we can make some.”

Chloe searched my face. “You’re safe now.” I said quietly.

She nodded and let Lea lead her away.

Randy started to stir. “Handcuffs?” I asked Caleb. He chucked a pair at me. “Want to explain what’s going on?”

“I will, I just need to call the police.”

“Already done,” Ryder said as he walked up behind me. “Hey Ashen, how’s it going?”

“You know him?”

“Yes, you can take the cuffs off.”

I threw the keys at Ryder. “You do it, I need a minute.”

I stalked to my office needing space. My hands were shaking. Chloe had been so close to danger all because we were near to finding out the main man. If they thought we would back off, they had another think coming. This has only made me want to nail him more and I would do it. No one threatened Chloe and got away with it. I had to find out who the fuck was behind it all and fast before they made another attempt.

“David, are you alright?” Ryder asked quietly from the doorway.

“Not really, I’m really fucking pissed off.”

“And I get that but you need to focus.”

“I am focused.” I snapped.

“No you’re not, you’re focused on getting the bastard who sent them after Chloe and I understand that, but you need to see the bigger picture.”

“And that is?”

“We’re close, we must be because why else would they send someone to snatch her?”

“I get that, I know what it all means, but you can’t know how I feel right now knowing I’m the one that put Chloe at risk. It’s because of what I do that’s she’s in danger.”

“David, she’d be in danger even if you weren’t together. She’s your assistant. People talk, they’ve all thought you’ve been sleeping with her from the start.”

“I haven’t.”

“I know that, but rumours fly and like I said people know she’s your assistant, they presume you tell her important things about the cases we take.”

I sighed. “I know all that, but it still messes with me.”

“I understand.”

I met his eyes, and they reflected the sadness I heard in his voice. “You have someone, why haven’t you ever said?”

“I don’t have her. She’s divorced, her husband cheated on her. She isn’t in a good enough place for me to claim her right now.”

“The timings off, I know how that feels. She’ll be worth the wait though.”

“She sure will be. I’m not going to rush her and scare her away and besides it’s not as if I can go home right now. I’d put her and her daughter in danger.”

“She has a daughter?”

“Yeah, she’s a beautiful little things all big eyes and sweet like her mother.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that you loved her.”

“I love them both.” He admitted.

“I didn’t see that one coming. I thought you would be the eternal bachelor.”

“Lexi is my girl. I’ve known since I first laid eyes on her. Unfortunately, she was still married to that prick. Right, are you calm now?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Let’s go sort out this mess. I get first pop at Randy because he is a real prick. I’d like to find out what he gets out of this.”

“We could just ask Ashen.”

“We could, but asking Randy will be more fun.”

The look on Ryder’s face was one I knew I couldn’t argue with so I didn’t bother. I’d let him have his fun it would help send a message that our office and my people weren’t to be messed with. Lea walked in the door with a frown. “Is everything ok boys?”

“Where’s Chloe?” My heart jumped into throat.

“I’m here.” She said as she walked in behind Lea. I sighed in relief. Panic had been close. She couldn’t be alone again until we knew what was going on. I didn’t have any clue what to do though because I needed to be here, I needed to be involved, so did Ryder and Caleb. We couldn’t leave here to protect her, and I didn’t want her here caught up in it, all especially when we interrogated Randy. There was only one other person I trusted with her. “Baby, I’m going to call Alex and ask him to come and pick you and Lea up.”

“What, why?”

“I need to know you’re safe and being with him you will be.”

“Why can’t I stay here with you?”

She looked like she was going to cry and it nearly broke my heart. “We have to ask Randy some questions and I don’t want you involved.” I cupped her face in my hand using a thumb to rub away a tear. “Chloe, it’s important I sort all this out. We need to keep the children safe and to do that I need to focus. I can’t do that if you’re here.”

She bit her lip. “Ok, I’m worried about you, what if they send someone to hurt you?”

“I have my alpha bad asses to protect me, remember.” I grinned at her blush.

“Alpha bad asses huh, I like that.” Ryder laughed.

Chloe rolled her eyes in amusement. “I’ll try not to worry. Will Callie be there?”

“Yes, maybe you can take the opportunity to get your dress, unless you already have it?”

She searched her pockets with a frown until she pulled out a folded bit of coloured paper. Quickly before I could see she passed it to Lea. “I got the picture, we could try couldn’t we?”

Lea squealed in delight. “Yes, we can. I’m sure with help we’ll find this somewhere.”

 “I’ll phone Alex right now.”

“No need.”  A voice came from the doorway. “What is this, a mothers meeting?”

“Alex,” I greeted.

“Caleb called and said you might need me.”

“He was right. Can you take the girls to yours until we can sort this shit out?”

“Yeah of course, Callie will be pleased. She’s been dying to meet Chloe.”

“I can’t wait to meet her too.” Chloe said shyly.

“Come on then. I have the car outside and Arnold is waiting.”

“Arnold?” Chloe asked.

“He’s my driver.”

Chloe turned to me. “Please be careful.”

“I will, I promise. I’ll stop by to pick you up tonight.”

“You’d better.”

“Go plan our wedding baby.” I leaned in and kissed her on the lips. I wanted to do more than that, but I didn’t want to embarrass her.

Alex nodded at me. Waiting until Chloe and Lea had walked out the door before he spoke. “Be careful. I’ll keep an eye on the girls they’ll be perfectly safe with me.”

“I know thanks. I'll owe you one.”

“Nope you won’t. I will still owe you.” With that, he was gone.

“Time to get to work,” I ordered. Ryder’s face lit up, and I grinned. This was going to be fun.