“Right? That was my reaction, too. I told Brian if he had a problem to take it up with you. That my big boyfriend was meaner than him and he’d make his time in Hell thus far seem like a cakewalk.”

Boyfriend. His chest swelled. “You told him that?” He melted. Like his heart seriously became a giant puddle.

“You might not be a man of many words, Duke, but your actions say it all. You love me.”

Something inside him burst as the pressure of holding it in eased. “Fuck me, but I do. I’d do anything for you.”

“Anything?” she purred, running her finger down his chest.

Which was when they were interrupted by the baying of hounds.

20

The urgency in the howling had them racing for the kennel.

“Why are they freaking?” she asked. Then in the same breath, “Where’s Miguel?”

“Boy is with them, and they’d only be howling if one of them was in danger.” Not reassuring. Especially matched with Marduke’s grim expression.

“How can they be in danger? The compound is secure.”

“But not impenetrable.”

Her heart sank as it occurred to her there were only a few hounds that wandered loose. Frik, Frak, and Miguel’s pup.

“Miguel!” she yelled the moment they entered the kennel.

The dogs were going nuts, slamming into their doors.

Marduke didn’t stop but kept running for the far end. “I can smell the road outside. Someone opened the gate.”

Panic set in, fast and furious. Especially since she knew who was just outside. Had Miguel seen him? Or worse, had Brian, that slimy jerk, kidnapped her kid?

At the far end of the kennels, the service door was ajar, a hound lying in its opening, its muzzle covered in a yellow dust.

“Sleeping powder. Someone knocked out my dogs.” Marduke’s voice was tight as he paused only a second to put a hand on them and check their breathing. Frak lay in the door, Frik just outside.

And as if finding them were a signal, the baying hounds ceased.

Merry glanced up and down the street and saw no one at first. It was Marduke who pointed. “Follow the powder.”

A dusting of yellow led them down the street, past nice houses—this was after all the first ring, home of the most honored in Lucifer’s circle. But even the rich had their problems. Alleys and basements that catered to the less savory.

It was down some slimy steps they found him.

Brian, clutching a bleeding leg. The culprit at his feet.

Miguel’s puppy was covered in that drugging dust.

“You!” she huffed. “What have you done with my son?”

“He’s mine, too.”

She didn’t have to say or do a thing. Marduke had Brian by the neck and slammed him against the wall.

She stood in front of him, arms crossed. “I said, where is my son?”