HelenKay Dimon - Traceless

“I have a package,” the kid sputtered.

“At midnight?”

“I got extra to bring it now. Are you Connor Bowen?” When Connor stayed silent, the kid practically threw the padded envelope at him. “I had to wait three extra hours to deliver it as ordered. The guy said it was pretty important and said you’d be the one to answer.”

The timing and delivery didn’t make much sense, but Connor—and Corcoran—had a lot of enemies. It was entirely possible that one of them planned on crawling right up his lawn, or at least wanted to send a message that he could.

Connor was not in the mood to play. “Who? I want a name.”

The kid visibly swallowed and started backing down the stairs. “I don’t have one.”

“Then who do you work for?” Cam stepped into the doorway, not bothering to hide the gun in the hand hanging by his side.

The kid’s eyes almost popped out of his head. He took another step and almost went down when his heel overturned. “Whoa, what are you—”

“Stop.” Connor didn’t yell but the kid stilled anyway. “Now answer the question.”

“I had instructions.” Words rushed out of the kid as he held up his hands. “All the information about my boss is on the packing slip. You can ask him. I just needed the money for, you know, stuff this summer.”

Connor swore. “Unbelievable.”

“You should leave.” Cam waved the kid away. “And stop going to strangers’ houses at midnight.”

Connor heard the slap of sneakers against the pavement followed a minute later by the rev of a car engine. None of which grabbed his attention. Curiosity nailed him. He didn’t even wait for the door to close to check the package. Taking it back into the office, he had a pair of gloves on and went to work.

A few seconds later Cam appeared on the other side of the conference table. He watched the preliminaries with a frown. “Paranoid much?”

“It’s protocol.” The package could contain a host of dangers and Connor was already breaking rules to rip it open fast. “And do you blame me in light of some of the people we handle?”

“Good point.”

Wearing the blue gloves, Connor ran his hand over it, carefully squeezing. “Feels empty.”

“Want to x-ray it?”

The question highlighted the step Connor decided to skip. One of them. “No time.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’m not sure.” But the churning in his stomach and twitching at the back of his neck gave him the clues. His instincts shouted at him to hurry.

Sliding a letter opener under the flap, Connor broke the seal. He upended it onto the paper Cam spread out on the conference room table. A ring bounced around on the table, pinging and spinning. Gold and slim.

With each rotation the anxiety built in Connor. He slammed a palm against it to stop the noise then picked it up. He didn’t know anything about jewelry but he recognized this. To be sure, he tilted it to get a better look at the inscription and read the piece of the Aristotle quote.

“A single soul inhabiting two bodies...”

Cam leaned in and studied the ring. When he straightened again, the frown morphed into a look of confusion. “I don’t get it.”

Connor did. The kick to his gut had him rubbing a hand over his stomach from the sharp whack of pain there. “It’s Jana’s.”

The phone he always carried with him buzzed in his pocket. It couldn’t be a coincidence his wife’s wedding ring arrived right as the private line only she knew about lit up. He braced his body for the killing blow.

If this was the way she planned to tell him their temporary separation had become permanent in her mind, she could forget it. He was not losing her. He’d get on a plane and fly to her. No more waiting or giving her space.

She asked and he obliged, even though every day without her sucked a piece of his soul away. But the end? No way. Wasn’t happening.

Feeling the heat of Cam’s stare and tension coiling inside, Connor slid his thumb across the screen and lifted the phone to his ear. “Jana?”

“No, but she says hello.”

The metallic twinge had Connor’s head snapping back. He recognized a voice modifier. More out of habit and training than actual thought, he pressed the speaker button.

Jana’s voice filled the room. “Connor, stay away!” The tremble gave way to a scream then all sound cut off.

“Jana!” Connor almost dropped the phone as adrenaline and anxiety thundered together in his brain.

The other voice filled the line again. “She’s done talking.”

The word done echoed in Connor’s head. “Where is she? Put her back on.”

“That’s enough.” The modifier only highlighted the menace in the person’s voice. “This isn’t a negotiation. You have your proof of life.”

“Who is this?” Connor could barely get the question out.

This time the voice laughed. “The man holding your wife. And if you want her back, you’d better get smart fast and figure out where she is.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You have seven hours and a long way to travel.”

The line cut out but Connor kept yelling over the buzzing sound in his ear. “Wait, where are you?”

“Okay.” The color drained from Cam’s face as he blew out a breath. “Any idea who that was?”

With a shaking hand, Connor hit the end button and fought off the mix of panic and fury whipping through him. “The man who kidnapped my wife.”

Chapter Two

The noises in Jana’s head roared, growing louder with each second until she woke with a start. She tried to move her arms and something pinched her stomach. She tugged again and bindings dug into her skin.

She bit back a scream as she opened her eyes. Blinking, she adjusted to the pale light and tried not to draw any attention or move her head as she glanced at the area right in front of her and just off to the sides. She couldn’t turn around and see behind her, but she picked up enough clues to know she’d been moved.

A small room with a few windows. No furniture except the rickety, hard chair under her. A wood floor thick with dust. And two bruisers dressed in black, standing on either side of a window next to what she assumed was the front door to this cabin. Without facing her, they looked like the same ones who burst through the door back at the office.

The pieces didn’t add up to anything good.

She searched her memory for a building that fit what she saw and remembered an abandoned shack about two miles from the charity. She’d found it while out walking one day, trying to clear her head and work through the pain of not being near Connor.

Connor... Because of her he would walk into a trap. She closed her eyes on the wave of pain that crashed over her.

“The princess is awake.”

At the sound of the male voice her eyes popped open again. Her captor, the one who had hovered over her earlier while he threatened Connor over the phone, stood right over her again. There still was nothing hiding his identity, which confirmed they did not plan for her to survive whatever they were plotting.

He or one of these guys must have knocked her out. Some way she’d ended up here with only these three. She had no idea how many hours had passed but could see from the area outside the window that it was dark outside. The sky took on an eerie gray and tall trees blocked her view of anything more than a few feet away from the building.

Hoping to stall, do anything to get her bearings again, she said the first thing that came into her head. “How is Connor supposed to find me here?”

The man she thought of as the leader shrugged. “He’s resourceful.”

“He’s not superhuman.” But he was close. He’d saved her from an impossible situation once before and she had to believe he would somehow do it again. But at what cost?