Page 94 of Dragon Charmed

“No. I’ve been in the back all afternoon working on my accounting. Nadia was watching the front of the shop, but she left for the night.”

Ben turned in a circle. “Do you have cameras?”

“Yes.”

“We need to see your recordings,” Eric said.

“I don’t want to be involved in whatever is going on.”

Ben growled and grabbed him by his pricey suit jacket. Before he had to persuade him to help, Megan started talking.

“Connor, please help us find her. You obviously aren’t involved. Don’t become an accessory to whatever has happened.”

Connor nodded and Ben let him go, causing him to stumble.

“Show us the cameras,” he growled.

Connor led them to the corner desk and opened a laptop, clicked on an application, and brought up several screens with video. “The cameras record three days’ worth of video before copying over it.”

“Replay back the last hour.”

Connor reversed the time stamp and then fast-forwarded through the video in the store. The screen showed a woman sitting at the desk, talking to someone on the phone, and then according to the time stamp, twelve minutes later she picked up her purse and walked out the front door, giving them a clear view of her face as she left.

“That was Nadia leaving for the day.”

“Shit,” Eric mumbled.

Before Ben could ask what was wrong, Eric shook his head.

“Do you have any exterior cameras?” Eric asked.

“Yes.” Connor clicked on another button and selected a time stamp, and they started watching that as well.

“Wait. Slow it down,” Ben said.

The video showed Tessa’s car pulling into the lot and parking next to the gallery. Nadia walked over to her car and bent down. Then she opened the car and got inside.

“Reverse it back to when she leans down and looks in the window. There. Is that a gun?” Ben said, his gut twisting.

“Oh my God,” Connor exclaimed.

“Keep it running,” Eric said.

They watched as Tessa drove around the side of the building and out of sight.

Ben held his breath. “Do you have cameras in the back too?”

“Yes. That’s where I receive deliveries.”

They watched as Tessa drove up to a van and then tried to make a run for it. She fought back hard before the guy grabbed her and threw her in the van. Ben wanted to rip his throat out. His claws extended from his fingers. Luckily he was able to pull them back before Connor could see.

“Can you get a close-up of the license plate?” Eric asked.

“I don’t know for sure. But I can try.”

He zoomed in on the plate, and Eric used his phone to take a picture of it.

“We need to call the police,” Connor said.