Page 57 of Stripped

"I can hear you two all the way down the hall," the colonel yelled. "Jesus Christ, I'm gone for one night, and all hell breaks loose. Both of you are to be in my office in twenty minutes."

Wraith strode down the hall to his flat. He changed into a suit and brushed his teeth. He was nearly leaving when he noticed the drawer to his nightstand was askew. Damn it. He frowned, opening it. The books and box were misplaced. He picked up his undershirt on the bed and smelled it. Pim had been in here. No wonder she fled; she must have put two and two together.

By the time he made it to Alex's office, Gabriel was already there talking in hushed whispers. He sat down in one of the armchairs.

"Tell me your version of this shite show," Alex said, sitting down in the chair opposite him. Sinclair would have already informed him of the events, so there was no point leaving anything out. He told him the entirety of it. "She was injured, wearing only my sweatshirt. We couldn't leave her to drive herself to A&E."

Alex glanced at Gabriel. The priest must have at least corroborated that part.

"Aye, I suppose not." The colonel stood up and began to pace. "Where is she? I'll need to talk to her. We've never been in this situation before."

Gabriel cleared his throat, exchanging a look with Wraith. "She's not here. She left in the middle of the night for Aberdeen."

"You let her go?" Alex asked angrily.

"I wasn't in a position to stop her. Trust me, I tried. The lassie has a mind of her own; she nearly ran me over with the car."

Wraith laughed, shaking his head.

Gabriel threw him a dirty look. "She's at the Malmaison hotel. I have Kian on it as we speak."

"And this Viktor Sokolov? Why have we never heard of him?" Alex stopped his back and forth march, leaning against the mantelpiece.

"We've turned up a few possible aliases, Vance Stevenson, Val Smith. The names pop up in some real estate schemes and now, of course, the sex trafficking."

Gabriel's phone started playing Pachelbel Canon. "It's Kian." He answered it, going over to a corner.

The colonel turned to Wraith. "Sinclair spoke highly of you and your skills."

Wraith eyes narrowed cynically. "I was just doing my job."

"Aye, but Sinclair speaks highly of no one." Alex sat down and inclined his head. His voice lowered. "I know we've discussed this before, but you need to stop the battle going on inside you. I guarantee those girls thank you for what you did. This Sokolov is a sick bastard. We'll give him the kind of justice he deserves."

Wraith didn't have time to answer before Gabriel came back over. "They're gone. Pim and Peter left the hotel in the middle of the night."

"Bloody hell."

"Scottish National Ballet performs in Aberdeen tonight," Wraith said. "They won't have gone far."