Page 45 of High Reward

We’re pacing the emergency room parking lot, and I want to crawl out of my own skin.

“Son of a bitch,” Owen swears as he leans against the hood of his car, tapping buttons on a tablet.

“What is it?”

He hands me the tablet, and I see three guards pull out their radios and walk away from their posts. A fourth man, who isn’t one of ours and probably isn’t one of Novak’s, takes their place.

Lili comes out of Trinity’s room and another strange guard steps into place. When the three original guards return, they shake hands with the man standing watch. They have no fucking clue he’s not part of the team, and that error alone makes me want to slit all their throats.

“Goddamn it. I have to make sure Trinity is OK and fire some people.” Owen is already on his cell phone and stalking into the hospital before I can say anything.

“What about Lili?” I shout.

He turns and points at the tablet he’s left on the hood. “It’s scanning for footage of her in the parking lot. It will buzz when it’s done. Flip through it. I won’t be gone long.”

I can’t just sit here and watch a screen.

We’re certain they didn’t leave through the ER exit. That means they probably used the main entrance around the other side of the building. And whoever took her could be long gone.

If she was taken.

Stop that, Victor. But my lack of trust in most humans is rearing its head, and there is a part of me that wonders if she went back to her husband willingly. It would bevirtually impossible for her to have communicated with him or coordinated this, but I still don’t like it.

My phone lights up with Grace’s name.

“Is everything OK? I thought you would be done by now,” she says when I answer.

“Everything is fine, butterfly.” I see no reason to cause her panic if I don’t have to.

“How’s the paper?” My voice gives nothing away, despite the storm of anger and worry raging inside me.

She groans. “Terrible. My headspace is just not there, and I wish you were both home already.”

That she refers to my place as home for all of us is one part heartwarming and several parts terrifying.

“Me too, Grace. But you’re going to do great. Now focus for me, because if you haven’t made progress by the time I get home, you’re going to be in front of the computer on your bare butt after I’ve welted it.”

Dominating her calms my panic, and her breath catching with a little gasp at my threat is a little bonus.

“Yes, Sir,” she whispers. “Thank you.”

“Is that what you needed, butterfly? A little encouragement?”

She giggles. “Maybe. I’m not sure.”

“It sounds exactly like what you need. Maybe we’ll just start each study session with a trip over my knee, so you remember to focus. How does that sound?”

“I think I’m supposed to say it sounds terrible. It doesn’t, but it seems like that’s what a sane person would say.”

I laugh as I stare at the tablet on the car, willing it to do something.

“If you thought it sounded terrible, I don’t think you and I would do very well together. But we work because you like the way I challenge you with pain and pleasure. Don’t you, Grace?”

“Yes, Sir. Very much.”

“Good girl. Now, go work on your paper. I want to see progress when I get home.”

The tablet buzzes and I snatch it up. “I’ve got to go.”