When she reached the first floor she practically flew through the lobby, ignoring the questioning look of the woman behind the reception desk.
A guard stood at the glass exit door. He glanced at her visitor badge and nodded as she breezed past him and barreled outside onto the sidewalk.
She searched for Blake’s Aston Martin, but couldn’t see it. Had Hannah not gotten here yet?
Please, please!
She prayed silently. Don’t let him die.
“Lilo! Here!”
She whirled her head to the side and saw Hannah wave to her from the corner. “He’s here.”
Lilo ran toward her friend. “Hannah!” She’d never been more relieved to see her friend. Hannah looked exhausted and worn out, dark circles under her eyes, her red hair an unruly mess, her clothes rumpled.
When Lilo reached her, Hannah was already running toward the car, which was parked halfway down the block.
“You should have double-parked right in front!” Lilo called out, tears brimming at her eyes. How were they gonna carry Blake inside?
“Help me, Lilo!” Hannah waved to her as she opened the passenger door of Blake’s car. “Quickly. He hasn’t got much time left.”
She raced to the car, and Hannah stepped aside, so she could tend to Blake. Lilo reached out and bent toward the interior—but nobody was sitting in the passenger seat.
“Where is he?” She spun her head to Hannah, but it was too late.
Her friend pressed a cloth to her face. Lilo gasped in surprise and sucked in the vapors emanating from the cloth: chloroform.
“No! Help!” But nobody heard her muffled cries.
She tried to fight it, but all the strength seeped from her body and she collapsed, darkness descending on her.
39
Blake stared at the human who’d arrived with a small motorboat and then calmly walked into the arms of the vampires waiting for him. With a permanent marker somebody had written For Scanguards on his white T-shirt.
“They sent a fucking pawn!” Blake ground out, while the man continued to stare blankly into the distance.
“Drugged out, just like the other guy,” Wesley confirmed. “They must have known we were coming.”
Blake kicked against a trashcan. “Fuck!” No matter how careful they’d been, he’d always known that there was a chance that Norwood and his guys had been watching Ronny, though there hadn’t been any indication of it. “How’re we gonna find Hannah now?”
Several of his colleagues grunted in displeasure, and in the midst of it all, his cell phone vibrated. He pulled it from his pocket and looked at the display.
Pressing the answer key, he said, “Thomas?”
“Can you talk?”
“Yeah, they didn’t show. They sent a drugged human instead. No sign of Hannah.”
“I wish I could say I was surprised, but I just got alerted that Hannah’s access card was swiped to enter the garage.”
“You mean somebody took her access card and managed to get inside Scanguards? How is that even possible?” There were more levels of security than just the access card. “They would have had to have her fingerprint, too.”
“I know. That’s why I pulled the video feeds from the levels accessed with Hannah’s card. Hold on.” He paused for a second. “Thanks, Eddie. Blake, you’re not gonna believe this: Hannah entered the garage. It’s her, without a doubt. She went to the main parking level and accessed the emergency key hold.”
This made no sense. “If she escaped somehow, then why wouldn’t she just go upstairs to the staff office and report back?”
“Blake, I don’t think she escaped. There’s something about her… Eddie, zoom in on her face again… There! Blake, I think she’s drugged.”
“Oh shit! Where did she go?”
“That’s just it, she took one of the keys, then went to parking level B2. Eddie, go to the recording for level B2… There, she comes out of the elevator, heads for the cars. Oh no.”
“What?” Blake barked into the phone.
“She took your car. Let’s see…”
What was she planning to do with his car?
“She left with it. I don’t know where to, but she drove out of the garage about twenty minutes ago.”
“It makes no sense. Why would Norwood make her steal my car? They must realize that we can trace it with its built-in locator chip. Something isn’t right.”
“I’ll go through all the footage again to see if we’re missing anything, or if she let anybody else in, but so far I see nothing.”
“Blake!” Ronny suddenly called out, holding his cell phone in the air. “It’s Norwood. He wants to talk to you.”
“Stay on the line, Thomas,” Blake ordered and took Ronny’s phone with his other hand, already barking into it. “Norwood, you little shit! What’re you up to?”
“Is that a way to greet the man who’s in possession of the one thing most precious to you?” Norwood drawled.
“I know you drugged Hannah,” he started, but Norwood cut him off.
“But I’m not talking about Hannah. I’m talking about Lilo.”
Blake’s heart stopped.