Chapter 36: Framed

WADE'S POV

Pacing up and down the office, I cursed. Vaughn had been compromised in this war that I had started when I returned to Valletta. The panic in Elaine's voice when she called me to say she couldn't reach Vaughn and that he had a meeting with Vera made my skin crawl.

My mind raced back to Gideon's call demanding I rush up to the penthouse suite and when I walked into the room and saw Vaughn lying on the bed, I felt fear for the first time in ten years. My body trembled all the way to the hospital. The test results came, and I heaved a sigh of relief. But something kept nagging me at the back of my head.

What was Vera's goal? I could not put a finger on it, but I knew that she would reveal it sooner or later.

Auden walked into the office and immediately advised, "You need to calm down, Wade. Only then can you be rational and think of a plan to counteract this."

"How? They drugged him, carried him to the hotel, and God knows what they did to him. Cleaned him up and then l