“Hey, wake up!” Finn patted the side of Lars’s face with his hand. Lars’s head rolled to the side, his ear on his shoulder.

He was out cold.

Finn gritted his teeth, hoisted Lars to his feet, and swung his arm over his shoulders. He dragged Lars around the corner, flung open the kitchen door, and wrestled him through the bustling crowd. As soon as one of the waiter staff saw them, people began asking if they could help.

“We’re fine,” Finn snapped, turning around so he could back out the kitchen door.

Halfway up the ramp that led to the ground floor of the hotel, Bailey arrived at his side.

Finn stared past him, waiting for Cora to emerge from the corridor they were headed towards, but she never did.

When he turned furious eyes to Bailey, the man broke eye contact, deciding instead to grab Lars’s other arm and swing it over his shoulder.

“Where is she?” Finn craned to see past Lars’s bobbing head.

“She was dancing,” Bailey said, refusing to make eye contact, “and then she was gone.”

“Gone?” Finn climbed out under Lars’s arm. “Take him to the den,” he said, stabbing a finger down the corridor to where they’d met with the dealers earlier that night.

Bailey went without another word, but at a much slower pace than Finn had. It wasn’t that Lars was heavy, but the man was so tall that it was difficult to get him around corners.

Finn snatched his radio from his belt. “November, this is Mike, come in.”

He pressed the edge of the radio against his forehead, pacing two steps before spinning around and pacing back the other way. Eventually, a crackle of static came back with a hesitant, “Yeah, it’s Neo.”

Finn waited, but of course Neo didn’t know the first thing about call signs. “Where are you? Over.”

“In the ballroom. Why?”

“Can you see Cora anywhere?”

“Can I or have I?”

“Can. You.”

“Uh…” Static. “No. Not from where I’m standing. Should I be looking for her?”

Finn clenched his jaw, the radio creaking as he tightened his fingers around the plastic unit. “Yes,” he said. “Get word out; she’s gone missing.”

“You sure?” Neo gave a short laugh. “She could be in the pisser.”

No, Cora wasn’t powdering her fucking nose. She hadn’t slipped off to the bar. What he’d been dreading since the moment he’d walked into this fucking death trap had finally happened.

Someone had taken her.

“Tell you what,” came Neo’s voice over the radio. “I’ll radio up everyone and ask them to lock down. No one leaves until we’ve found her.”

It might already be too late, but it was better than nothing.

“Keep a look out for Ana, too. She was supposed to be with Cora.”

“Sure. I’ll let you know if I find something,” Neo said. And then added a grim, “Over.”

Finn let out a stale breath. He barged into the den, making Bailey flinch where he perched beside Lars’s motionless body on one of the leather sofas.

“Leave him. We have to find her.”

“But he’s—”

“Drugged, not dead. He’ll survive.” It was harsh, but it was true. Lars was no stranger to amphetamines, psychoactives, or opiates. He probably hadn’t had more than one drink before being drugged, so there wasn’t any danger of whatever he’d been spiked with mixing with too much alcohol and causing issues with his respiratory system.

Right now, Cora was their priority.

Even as the flood of logical thoughts tore through his mind, Finn felt a pang of regret at having to close the door on Lars’s pale, unmoving body.

Bailey was staring down the corridor when Finn came up behind him. He grabbed the man’s sleeve, swung him around, and backed him hard into the wall. He almost threw a punch too, but managed to keep himself in check. Bailey flinched as if he’d been expecting that blow too.

“What the fuck did you do?” Finn spat.

“I only took my eye off her for one second—”

And then he did punch him, because his beast was baying for blood and it was that or explode with fury.

Bailey grunted, but he took the shot in stride, turning his head back and sticking out his chin.

As if he knew he’d deserved it.

“Did you see anything that can help us? Was Ana with her?” Finn realized he still had a fist bunched in the front of Bailey’s button up shirt, and he tore it away with a grimace.

Bailey staggered, caught himself against the wall, and touched his jaw as if it ached.

Good. He hoped it hurt like hell for the next week.

“It was just her. I was on my way back. But it was too loud—” Bailey lifted his radio “—I couldn’t hear you, man. I had to—”

“That’s it?”

Bailey drew a visible breath, and glanced down the corridor as if steeling himself. Then he looked back at Finn, and Finn’s skin began crawling like it was in a hurry to leave.

He took a step forward, shoulders lifting, but Bailey put up his hands. “There was a guy. It looked like they were dancing, but I wasn’t sure. When I looked again, they were gone.”

“A guy…” Finn repeated slowly. “Does this guy have a face? Hair? Clothes? Something we can use to fucking identity him with?”

Bailey gave a hurried nod. “Long, dark hair. Wore a weird mask, like two sides of a coin. Posh clothes.”

“That only describes like half the fucking men in here,” Finn said through his teeth. He grabbed Bailey’s shoulder, shoving the man in front of him as he headed down the corridor.

“November, this is Mike. Come in.” His voice sounded strained. It was no surprise, his beast was foaming at the mouth.

“Yeah?” came Neo’s reply.

“Possible suspect: long dark hair, two-faced mask, suit. He was dancing with Cora. Over.”

“Dark hair?”

Finn’s skin tightened. “Yes. Over.”

There was a long moment of staticky noise. “Think we got him, Milo.”

“And Cora?”

He wasn’t surprised when Neo said, “No. He’s alone.”

But he hadn’t come alone. There was obviously a team at work here tonight. Someone to distract Cora, someone else to take her away. Three, four other people. Maybe more. Lookouts, and guards, and muscle.

And every single one of them had slipped past him. Past Lars. Past Bailey.

Finn turned and swung his hand hard into the wall. Pain burst through his knuckles and tore up his arm. His beast bellowed, and then hunkered down.

Watching.

Waiting.

“Where is he?” Finn asked Neo, not bothering with call signs anymore.

A burst of static, and then, “We’ve taken him to the first floor. Second door on the left.”

“I thought they’d sealed the first floor?” Bailey said, and Finn jerked at the man’s voice so close to him.

His beast growled unpleasantly, but at least it wasn’t snapping and trying to take out Bailey’s eyes with its teeth.

“Apparently not. We all fuck up,” Finn said roughly, pushing past Bailey as he headed for the stairwell leading to the first floor. He glanced back over his shoulder. “Some more than others.”