“No one calls him Dr. Buchanan.” Becky gave her a look. “It’s either Doc or Slade.”
Dawn laughed just as Becky’s phone rang. Looking down, Becky smiled, relief and excitement rushing through her when she saw Frankie’s name. “It’s my son. Can you excuse me for a second?”
“Sure.” Dawn shooed her with a grin. “Go.”
Becky headed for the private suite, already hitting the answer button. “I was getting worried when you didn’t text me back.” When the line stayed silent, her smile slipped. “Frankie? Hello?”
“If you want to see your son alive, you will listen to me very closely,” a stranger’s voice said on the other end.
Becky went cold all over. “Who is this?”
“Interrupt me again, and he’s dead.” The man’s voice turned hostile. “Get into your car and start driving toward Kentucky alone. In ten minutes, I will call you again and give you an address. Do you understand me?”
“Yes.” Becky swallowed hard against the bile rising in her throat, her hand tightening around the phone. “How do I know you have him and that he’s unhurt?”
She prayed she hadn’t made a mistake asking, but she wasn’t stupid either. Maybe they were lying. Maybe Frankie was on campus, or out with his friends, or asleep in his dorm ignoring his phone like he sometimes did. God, she prayed that was the case.
“Mom!” Frankie’s voice came through, farther away but real, and Becky’s knees almost buckled. “Don’t do it. Don’t come!”
“Shut him up!” the man ordered just as Frankie screamed in pain.
“Stop!” Becky cried, pressing her hand to her mouth. “I’ll come. I’ll come. Just don’t hurt him, please.”
“You will be watched. If we see one Warrior anywhere near you, he is dead, and we will get you another way. You have something of ours, Becky. For your son’s sake, do not fuck this up.”
The line went dead.
“Hello?” Becky stared at the phone, panic ripping through her. “Hello!”
For a few seconds, she couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Frankie. Her son. Oh, God, what was she going to do?
Then her hand moved to her stomach.
"No!" she shook her head as rage started to overcome her fear.
No, she was not doing this. She was not standing here falling apart while someone hurt her son and threatened to take her unborn child. She had been scared and confused. She had been lied to, used, and pushed to the edge of every emotion she had, but now someone had threatened her children. That was a whole different emotion.
“Get your shit together, dammit,” she hissed at herself.
Rushing toward the table next to the bed, she opened the drawer and saw the gun Sloan kept there. He had taught her how to shoot, and she knew where every hidden gun was in this place. Grabbing it, she ran to her bag and shoved it inside, then froze with her hand on the zipper. Dawn was out there. How in the hell was she going to get past her without questions? She couldn’t tell her. Couldn’t risk Dawn running for Sloan or Slade. She believed the man when he said they would kill him.
“Think,” Becky whispered, closing her eyes for one hard second. “Come on, Becky. Think.”
Then it came to her. Opening the door, she plastered a smile on her face and prayed to God it looked real enough. “You’re not going to believe this.”
Dawn looked up from the paperwork she was going through. “What?”
“My son came home to surprise me.” Becky laughed, hearing the nerves in her own voice but forcing the smile to stay in place. “Sloan should be back anytime, and I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen Frankie in a while.”
“Well, why are you standing here?” Dawn smiled. “Go see your boy, Becky. I’m fine. I have a ton of stuff to do here.”
Becky nodded, her smile holding until she turned away. The second Dawn couldn’t see her face, it fell. Her hand tightened around the strap of her bag as she headed for the door, every step taking her farther from the safest place she could be and closer to the monsters waiting for her.
Rushing up the steps to the control room, she prayed it wasn’t being manned. The Warriors were short-handed, but she needed to make sure just in case and grab keys to one of the SUVs. Opening the door, she sighed in relief when she found it empty. Hurrying to the controls, she hit a few keys and stopped the recording. She knew this would be the first place Sloan would come once he figured out she was gone.
Running toward the wall of keys, she grabbed a set, took note of which SUV it belonged to, then took off without even closing the door behind her. Making her way back downstairs, she looked around, praying she wouldn’t run into anyone. The Warriors wouldn’t let her leave alone, and the mates would question her. Dawn didn’t know how things worked around here with the overprotective Warriors, so she had been easy to get past. The others, not so much.
Making it to the main door, she rushed outside, her eyes scanning the compound. Dark storm clouds hung low, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Running toward the parked SUVs, she hit the key fob, needing to find the right one fast. She didn’t have time to search each one. There were six sitting in a row, and every second she wasted was another second Frankie was in danger. Jumping in, she fumbled with the keys, then froze when she heard motorcycles in the distance.