by Cassia Leo
Brina appeared skeptical of this explanation. She could always smell bullshit from miles away. I just hoped this trip didn’t become more trouble than vacation.
Chapter 3
Brina
By the time we were checked into our suite at Claridge’s at four in the morning, I was thoroughly annoyed with Luke. I didn’t think Luke would ever cheat on me, but I was getting a sick feeling that he was holding something back.
Violet took the kids to their room to get them changed and into bed, while Luke and I changed so we could get a few hours sleep before he had to wake up and go to his first meeting in Covent Garden. As I watched him undress on the other side of the king-sized bed, the voice of insecurity in my head kept telling me to talk to him, or at least give him something to think about while he was in all those meetings later today. But the voice of reason won. He needed his rest.
As soon as we lay down, I hit the button for the lights and we were plunged into a cold darkness that penetrated through the blankets and sheets. I’d have to adjust the thermostat in here tomorrow. I pulled the covers up to my nose and curled up on my side. Luke scooted closer to me until his warm, solid chest was pressed against my back. He rubbed my arm gently as he laid a soft kiss on my bare shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he whispered, and a slow warmth spread through me as my muscles relaxed.
“Yes.”
“Good night, sweetheart.”
I turned over so I could face him and, through the darkness, I could barely glimpse the curves of his cheekbones and lips. But I could see that look, the look I’d come to know only as the look of love.
“I love you,” I whispered.
He laid a soft kiss on my lips. “I love you most.”
When I woke, the room was dark and quiet. It took a moment for me to remember where I was. I turned over, and the empty space where Luke lay last night taunted me. I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and I was appalled to find that it was 12:42 p.m. local time.
I hopped out of bed and quickly pulled on my robe so I could go to the living room to see if the kids were awake. I found Violet and the kids in the dining room eating what looked like a light lunch.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Maxwell,” Violet said without looking up from the plate, where she was busy picking the stems off a bunch of red grapes for Rhianne.
“Why didn’t anyone wake me? We have so many things to do today.”
“Lu—Mr. Maxwell said not to disturb you, that you needed your rest.”
Taking a deep breath, I tried not to make a catty remark about her almost calling Luke by his first name. I kissed both the kids on the tops of their heads and wished them a good afternoon before I left to get showered and dressed as quickly as I could.
Luke’s final meeting ended at two p.m. We were supposed to finish our sightseeing by then so he could join us downstairs for afternoon tea. Rhianne had been dying to do this ever since I bought her a tea set. She was beyond excited when I told her Daddy would be joining us. Now we’d have to put off the sightseeing until tomorrow and Lucas would be upset.
Luke will also be disappointed. We had plans to go over my speech for tomorrow’s charity dinner. He wanted me to discuss Maxwell Computers’ new Give Love website.
The Give Love Foundation was something we both envisioned to help boost individual donations for any non-profit organization that met the minimum requirements. Consumers could trade in old computers and electronics from any manufacturer, and those devices were then refurbished by Maxwell Computers and donated to schools, veterans, and low-income households. But the biggest potential came from the Give Love app and plugin. People could download the app or plugin so that a certain percentage of every purchase they made went to the charity of their choice.
Just like Blaze revolutionized the way people interacted with every device in their homes, we thought this would revolutionize the way people spent their money. We just needed a lot more corporate support.
Maybe we could squeeze in a quick trip to the London Eye today before we had to be back for afternoon tea at three.
I showered and dressed as quickly as I could, leaving my hair loose and purposely messy so I could hide behind my hair if I suspected someone had recognized me. For this same reason, I didn’t bother putting on a whole lot of makeup. It was a little annoying to have to constantly think about this sort of stuff when I wanted to go out and do normal things, like sightseeing. I didn’t really do it for myself; I did it for the kids. Luke and I had managed to keep them out of the spotlight, and that was the way we wanted to keep it. If no one recognized me, then we’d be anonymous, just your average group of American tourists.
I asked the hired car to drop us off on Belvedere so we could stroll through the Jubilee Gardens. As soon as we exited the car, the August heat and humidity pressed in on me. I hoisted Rhianne into my arms as Violet took Lucas’s hand. Her hair was pulled away from her face in two braids that met at the back of her head, while the rest of her hair fell in perfect waves down her back. She was dressed in jeans and a soft blue t-shirt today—maybe she was beginning to understand Luke better than I had anticipated.
The bodyguard Luke hired for us exited the vehicle behind ours once we’d gotten at least ten meters from the car. Luke knew I didn’t want the bodyguard too close, so the children didn’t feel they had a reason to be frightened.
I once took Lucas to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle when he was four years old. The bodyguard stayed close to us, on my orders, and Lucas—always being a bit precocious—asked if he was there to protect us. It dawned on me at that moment that if my four-year-old child already understood the purpose of the bodyguard, then he would always see this fear of being recognized and harassed as being normal. From that day on, I decided that my children would never see their bodyguards. They would be normal. Or, as normal as they could be.
“I love London,” I whispered as we walked along the curved stone pathways toward the London Eye. “I don’t care if it’s a glorified Ferris wheel.”
“Mommy, I’m hungry,” Rhianne said as she twisted the front of my t-shirt in her chubby fingers.
“Baby, you just ate lunch. We’re going to have tea with Daddy in an hour. Aren’t you excited?”
She smiled and nodded vigorously as I switched her over to my other hip when my arm got tired. We made it to the Thames boardwalk, where I turned around. I wanted to see Lucas’s reaction when he saw the London Eye up close.
Lucas and Violet were gone.
Chapter 4
Brina
My vision got blurry as the adrenaline surged through my veins. Without thinking, the first thing I did was scream Lucas’s name. At least a hundred people in the vicinity turned toward the sound of my cry, but I didn’t care. I wanted to put Rhianne down so I could race through the green fields of Jubilee Gardens, but I couldn’t. I set her down on the stone path and grabbed her hand tightly. The frightened look on her face broke my heart.
“Baby, you have to run with Mommy. Can you do that?” I asked as I knelt before her and dug my hand into the back pocket of my jeans to retrieve my cell phone.
I hit the power button, but nothing happened. No, no, no, no! I forgot to charge my phone when we went to sleep this morning. Luke told me I would regret not using the solar-charging cell phone case.
“Mommy, is Brother lost?”
The innocent anguish in Rhianne’s three-year-old face, skin so delicate and flushed pink with the summer heat, was what brought me back to the present moment. Lucas was with Violet. They probably wandered off when Lucas saw something interesting. I didn’t see Ian, our bodyguard, anywhere. He must be with them. They were safe. They had to be safe.
“No, baby, Lucas is with Violet. He’s not lost. We just have to find a phone to call them, because Mommy’s phone’s not working. Can you walk while we look for a phone?”
She nodded, but she still looked worried. I pulled her into my arms and squeezed her until she giggled. I released her, and the smile on her face was lik
e a beacon, guiding me back from a moment of near panic.
I stood and took her hand as we walked through the crowds back toward Belvedere to look for a payphone. I considered asking a stranger to borrow their cell phone, but the last thing I needed was to be held up by someone who recognized me. Part of being married to Luke meant being in the public eye. I always spoke at his conferences. I even starred in a commercial with him a few years ago, where the two of us were dancing to a bouncy indie pop tune. At the end of the commercial, it was revealed Luke and I were actually on opposite sides of the ocean and we we’re both using Maxwell Computers’ as-yet-released holographic calling app Be, for ‘be there, anytime, anyplace.’
I wished Luke could be here right now.
My eyes scanned the fields of grass in the gardens as we walked along the path. I tried not to yank Rhianne too hard as I dragged her this way and that way at the slightest whim of my instincts. Finally, we reached Belvedere with no sign of them and my heart plummeted. I wanted to break down, but I couldn’t do that in front of my baby girl.
I scooped Rhianne up into my arms and set off toward Chicheley Street. I contemplated asking the constable guarding the gates to Chicheley if I could borrow his cell phone, but I decided against it. He’d want details, and I didn’t need a massive search initiated when Lucas was with his nanny and bodyguard.
I continued down Chicheley and decided to turn in under the purple awning for the Premier Inn—a building that looked like it’d been around a couple of centuries. The lobby was dimly lit, and two clerks, a young man and woman, wearing purple polo shirts were chatting behind a beechwood check-in counter.
“May I help you?” the young man asked as I approach, his eyebrows perked up and his British accent smooth as his chestnut skin.
“Yes, I hope you can help. I was separated from my nanny and she has my son. I need to call her, but my mobile phone just died. I don’t see any phone booths around here. Would you mind terribly if I used your desk phone?”
He looked to the girl standing next to him with her blonde hair pulled into a messy bun. She was obviously younger than he was, but she must be his superior. She eyed me with suspicion, and I wanted to reach over the counter and shake her. I wasn’t asking for a free hotel room. I just wanted to make a damn phone call.
“All right,” she relented. “But be quick.”
“Thank you so much.”
I sat Rhianne on the counter and took the cordless handset from the girl: Beth, as it said on her name tag. I quickly dialed the country code followed by Violet’s number. The phone rang four times before her voicemail greeting came on.
You’ve reached Violet. Sorry I can’t take your call. I must be doing something fun without you. Leave a message!
God, I hated her voicemail greeting. I dialed Luke’s number, but the call went straight to voicemail. He must still be in his meeting. I didn’t know Ian’s phone number. Luke programmed it into my phone, but I never programmed it into my brain.
I was lost.
“Where could they have gone? They were right behind me,” I whispered aloud, and Beth and her coworker, Terry, were at a loss for words. “Why isn’t she answering her phone?”
Suddenly, I was furious. As soon as we got home, Violet was fired!
“Should we call the police?” Beth asked as she wrestled the phone from my grip. “You did say your child was missing.”
I couldn’t help but feel as if this all had to do with Violet’s crush on Luke. What if she planned to be separated from me so she could find a way to get Luke alone?
That was ridiculous.
“Madam?” Beth insisted.
“Please give me a moment,” I replied as I slid Rhianne off the counter and onto my hip.
I was torn between going back to the gardens to search for Lucas and Violet or hopping into a cab to find Luke. The driver who had dropped us off at the gardens wouldn’t be back to pick us up until after he’d retrieved Luke from the Kema offices in Covent Garden.
That’s it! Maybe Violet and Lucas took a cab back to the Kema office.
“I have to go,” I declared as I raced out of the lobby with Rhianne bouncing on my hip.
Bounding down the steps of the inn, I immediately spotted a taxi slowing down on my right. I sprint toward the street and the cab stopped right in front of the inn. The driver exited and assisted the passengers—a young Asian couple—with their bags.
“Where are you off to?” he asked, smiling as he held the door open for me.
I set Rhianne down inside the cab and motioned for her to scoot down so I could follow her inside. “Kema on Tavistock,” I replied as he slammed the car door shut behind me.
Chapter 5
Luke
Stepping out of the Hudson House, I immediately checked my voicemail and text messages. I had a text message from Violet that confused me. She was on her way to the Hudson House with Lucas and Ian. That was odd. I was supposed to pick them up at Jubilee Gardens. And why weren’t Brina and Rhianne with her?
I immediately called Brina, but the call went straight to voicemail. I followed with a call to Violet, and she picked up on the first ring.
“Luke. Our cab just pulled up in front of the building,” she declared.
“Where’s Brina?” I asked as I crossed the lobby.
“We got separated in Jubilee Gardens. Lucas took off to play on the little wooden things they have for the kids. I had a heck of a time wrangling him. By the time we made it to the Eye, Brina was gone.”
“Fuck,” I whispered. “Why isn’t Brina answering her phone?”
“I don’t know.”
I stepped out the front door of Hudson House. Lucas was pouting on the sidewalk, and Violet was standing behind him with her arm locked around his shoulders, presumably to keep him from running off again. I tucked my phone into my pocket and tried not to look too annoyed.
“You should have waited for Brina at the park. She would have found you eventually.”
“We looked for her at the park and on the boardwalk, but she was gone,” Violet replied defensively.
“It’s almost 2:30. Let’s hope she went back to the hotel.”
There’s no way I was going to miss tea with Rhianne. If Brina got separated, I knew that was where she’d go. She knew how much this meant to our girl.
The driver was already waiting for us in front of Hudson House. He opened the door for us to get into the backseat and I waited for Violet and Lucas to enter first. When I slid in, Violet gave me a look, and I knew what she was thinking.
“Not here,” I said quickly before she could bring it up in front of Lucas.
Violet leaned over Lucas to buckle his seatbelt, and her hand repeatedly grazed my hip as she attempted to get the clip into the buckle. Finally, I took the seatbelt from her and stuck it in myself.
“Take us to the hotel. Quick. We have a three o’clock,” I barked at the driver in frustration.
Chapter 6
Brina
I didn’t have a very good sense of direction, especially not when I was in a different country, but something told me we should have arrived at the Kema offices by now. And I didn’t think we were in Covent Garden. Of course, I’d only been to Covent Garden once, over two years ago, for a show. I’d been dying to come back to London to see Singing In the Rain on the West End, but Luke said we wouldn’t have time to see it during this trip. This trip was becoming more and more disappointing.
The cab began to slow as we came upon the corner of Park Lane and Oxford Street. This didn’t look right.
“Here we are,” the driver declared, and Rhianne attempted to jump off the seat, but her seatbelt confined her.
“What is this?” I asked.
“This is the Marriott. Is this not the correct destination?”
“No,” I replied quickly. “No, not at all. I said Kema on Tavistock.”
“Oh, dear. I apologize. I thought you said, ‘Take me to the Marriott.’”
I groaned with fr
ustration and instantly felt guilty when I glanced at the rearview mirror and saw the apologetic look on the driver’s face. “It’s all right. Can you please take me to the Kema offices in Covent Garden. I don’t know the address.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what Kema is. I’ll have to call in to dispatch. It will be just a moment.”
I fell back into my seat and closed my eyes as I realized we were going to be late for afternoon tea.
“Mommy, are you tired?”
I opened my eyes and Rhianne was looking up at me with those big, brown eyes Luke loved to kiss when he put her down to sleep at night. I smiled at her and leaned over to lay a kiss on her forehead.
“No, baby. I’m not tired. I’m going to try to get us back to the hotel in time for afternoon tea, but we might be a little late.”
“Where’s Daddy? We can’t have tea?”
I didn’t have a watch to check the time, so I looked into the front of the cab, hoping to see a digital clock somewhere, but all I saw was red numbers on the meter, which was still running. I hoped I had enough pounds to pay for this cab ride.
“Excuse me, sir? Do you have the time?”
The gentleman looked over his shoulder and smiled. “Just got the address, ma’am. Time’s 2:38.”
Twenty-two minutes until teatime. I didn’t know how far I was from the hotel or from the Kema offices.
“I’m sorry, sir. Can you just take us to Claridge’s?”
“Oh, absolutely. I know where that is.”
Great.
“Thank you. Do you know how long it will take to get there?” I asked as he pulled the cab away from the curb.
“Oh, should take roundabouts ten minutes, ma’am.”
Finally, a small sliver of hope.
Chapter 7