chapter 20
Zeke's POV
The call came at six in the morning. I'd barely slept after leaving Cecelia's room. Marcus's name flashed on my phone screen and I answered before the second ring.
"We found something," he said without preamble. "You need to come down to the security office now."
I was dressed and out the door in three minutes. The palace halls were still quiet, only a few early staff moving about their duties. I
took the stairs down to the lower level where we'd set up our command center for the investigation.
Marcus waited with two of my best trackers, Finn and Sarah. They huddled around a laptop, their faces lit by the screen's glow. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut.
"Show me," I said.
Finn pulled up a grainy video. "This is from a gas station on the outskirts of Seacreek. The owner finally checked his security footage
after we canvassed the area yesterday. Watch the timestamp."
The video showed a black SUV pulling up to a pump. The quality wasn't great but I could make out the general shape and size. It was an expensive, new model. The kind of
vehicle you didn't see often in a small fishing village like Seacreek.
"This was taken at four thirty in the afternoon," Sarah said. "Right around when Fatima said Cecelia left the house to run errands. The timing matches."
"The plates?" I asked.
"None," Marcus said grimly. "Front and back both removed. But here's where it gets interesting."
He pulled up another video, this one clearer. A traffic camera from the next territory over. The same black SUV, caught at an intersection twenty miles from Seacreek.
"This was taken an hour after the gas station footage," Finn explained. "The vehicle was heading northeast, toward our border."
My blood ran cold. "Someone from my territory."
"We can't confirm that yet," Marcus cautioned. "But the make and model is a limited edition Range Rover. Only about fifty of them in the entire region and most are owned by Alpha
families or high ranking pack members. We're pulling the registration list now."
I leaned closer to the screen, studying every detail I could make out. The tinted windows made it impossible to see inside. The missing plates suggested planning, forethought.
This wasn't some random opportunistic grab. Whoever took Golden had been
watching, waiting for the right moment.
"I want every Range Rover owner in our territory
questioned," I said. "I don't care who they are or what rank they hold. If they own this model, I want to know where they were that day and I want proof."
"Already on it," Sarah said. "We've got teams heading out within the hour."
"What about the driver?" I asked. "Did any of the cameras
catch a face?"
Marcus shook his head. "Nothing
clear. The gas station footage shows someone tall getting out to pump gas but they kept their head down and wore a
baseball cap. Smart. They knew where the cameras were."
I watched the video loop again and again, searching for anything we might have missed. A sticker on the bumper, a
dent in the door, anything that might help narrow down which specific vehicle this was.
"Send all of this to my phone," I said. "And get me that registration list as soon as you have it."
"There's one more thing," Finn said hesitantly. "The gas station owner mentioned seeing the SUV the day before too.
Same vehicle, same lack of plates. It was parked across the street for about an hour just watching the town."
"Surveillance," I said flatly. "They were watching Cecelia's house. Learning her patterns."
"That's what we think," Marcus agreed. "This was planned well in advance."
I felt sick. Someone had been watching my son, studying him,
waiting for the perfect opportunity to take him. And we'd had no idea. No warning. No chance to protect him.
"I need to tell Cecelia," I said. "She deserves to know we're making progress."
"Want me to come with you?" Marcus offered.
"No. Stay here and coordinate the interviews. I want reports on every Range Rover owner by noon."
I left the security office and headed back upstairs. The palace was waking up now, servants moving
through halls with breakfast trays and fresh linens. I nodded to them absently, my mind already planning how to present
this information to Cecelia.
She would want to be involved. I knew her well enough to predict that. And she had every right to be. Golden was her son. She'd been the one raising him, protecting him, loving
him for three years while I'd been an idiot nursing my wounds and pretending I didn't care.
But the thought of putting her in potential danger made my wolf snarl. The bond between us had
grown stronger overnight. I could feel it even now, a steady hum at the back of my consciousness.
I knocked on her door quietly. No answer. I knocked again, louder this time.
"Come in," her voice called, muffled.
She was in the bathroom when I entered, the door cracked open. I heard water running. Smelled the soap she used,
something with lavender in it. The scent took me back to mornings years ago when we'd shared a bathroom and she'd leave traces of herself everywhere.
"It's me," I called out. "We found something. A lead on Golden."
The water shut off immediately. Cecelia appeared in the doorway still in her pajamas, her hair damp, her face bare of makeup. She looked young and vulnerable and so beautiful
it hurt to look at her.
"What did you find?"
she demanded.
I told her everything. The gas station footage, the Range Rover, the surveillance from the day before. She listened without interrupting but I watched her
hands clench into fists at her sides.
"Show me," she said when I finished.
"I can send you the files."
"No. I want to see everything. All the footage, all the evidence. I want to help review it."
"Cecelia, I have teams working on this. Trained investigators who know what to look for."
"I don't care." Her voice went sharp. "He's my son, Zeke. I'm not sitting in a tower waiting for updates like some helpless damsel. I'm going to
be part of this investigation."
