by Sarah Bailey
“I didn’t want to have to do this, Miss Daniels, but you need to calm down.”
The next thing I knew, he jabbed a needle into my neck. I screeched, pain radiating from where he’d stuck the needle in. All too soon, I felt tired and my mind began to swirl.
“What did you do?”
“It’s okay, Mis Daniels. Just go to sleep now.”
I fought back against the need to sleep. My body started going slack as whatever he’d given me took effect. My head lolled on my chest.
“What… I don’t want to… I can’t…”
My very last thought before I fell away into oblivion was that Aiden would lose his shit when he found out someone had taken me. And my heart broke knowing he’d stop at nothing to get me back.
Chapter Fourteen
Aiden
The stupid machine closest to the car was busted, so I had to walk to the other end of the carpark to find a working one. I didn’t want to leave Avery alone, but this wouldn’t take too long.
As I walked back, I noticed the passenger door was hanging open. My senses tingled. I heard the revving of an engine. My eyes fell on a huge black Range Rover driving away from my car. I stared at the number plate. It registered with me immediately. That was the same fucking plate of the car Avery told me about last night.
My legs surged forward.
They’d gotten to her.
They’d fucking got her.
I didn’t stop to check the Jag. Everything inside me screamed as I dashed after their car. Before I could even get near it, they got out onto the street. I ran out behind them, searching for the direction they’d gone in, but it was too late. I was too fucking late.
My knees almost buckled. Avery was gone. My fucking girl was gone. Some pricks had taken her. Just like someone had taken away my mother. Fuck. My heart pounded in my chest so hard I thought it might fucking burst out. I couldn’t fall apart. I had to find her. I had to rescue her. Nothing would fucking stop me from getting my fucking girl.
I dashed back into the carpark and raced to the car. I found her bag in the footwell and cursed. So much for tracking her by her phone. She always left it in there rather than on her person. I slumped against the car, running my hands through my hair.
I needed to get home and on my computer. That was the only fucking way I’d find her. I slammed the passenger door shut and got in the driver’s side. I got the fuck out of that carpark and on the road. I slammed my hands against the steering wheel as I drove.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
I couldn’t fucking believe it. The one moment I’d taken my eyes off her and they’d got to her. Whoever the fuck they were. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have gone straight to Chuck’s and demanded to know where the hell she was. Except Chuck was trying to keep Avery out of harm’s way. He needed his niece alive and well to keep up appearances.
Frazier would be the next logical point of call, but he wouldn’t send men after her. He’d have sent Tristan. So it couldn’t be him either.
This left me with a big fat load of nothing. I connected my phone to the car via Bluetooth and dialled the only person I could think of to help me in this situation.
“Aiden,” John said.
“Avery has been taken. I don’t know by who or why, but she’s gone.”
“What?”
“Some fuckers in a Range Rover followed her last night, we stayed at her friend’s place. I was taking her back to mine today, but they grabbed her.”
“What do you need?”
Something to help me calm the fuck down before I lost all sense of rationality.
“I have the number plate so I can use that to find her. I’ll need back up if I’m going to get her. I can’t do it alone.”
“I’ll head over now. I take it you don’t want me to inform Chuck just yet.”
“Fuck no. If he gets wind of this, there will be hell to pay.”
“I’ll see you in forty.”
He hung up. John was the only person I could ask. I wasn’t about to involve Ben in this shit. Not when he had a baby on the way. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could go in all guns blazing when I found out where the fuck she was. I had no idea who I was dealing with. This made it a fucking nightmare. What sick fuck would take my girlfriend? I knew she was in danger from her own family and Frazier, but I hadn’t counted on anyone else being after her.
I slammed my hand down on the steering wheel again and narrowly avoided some prick pulling out. The fucker hadn’t been looking properly. I honked the horn and flipped him the finger. Some fucks didn’t know how to drive properly. I was too fucking worked up to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. Someone had my fucking woman.
I took several deep breaths. I had to chill the fuck out. Keep my fucking wits about me and put my head back on straight. Thoughts of how scared she’d be filled me with uncontrollable rage. Avery was strong but being taken by men she didn’t know to god knows where would be enough to make anyone afraid.
What the fuck did they want with her? If any of them harmed a single hair on her head, I’d fucking kill them. I’d burn the fucks to the ground. No one and nothing would keep me from Avery. Not like they’d taken away my mother. I wasn’t losing another person who meant the fucking world to me. Never again. Never a-fucking-gain.
It took me twenty minutes to get back to mine. I rushed upstairs and into my office. When I sat down at my desk and booted up my laptop, it dawned on me. I was afraid for her. Afraid of what whoever had taken her would do to her. The crippling anxiety and helplessness almost paralysed me. I had to get her back. I had to make sure she was safe.
It didn’t take me long to hack into the automatic number plate recognition system. I’d done it before and their security quite frankly sucked. I ran the number plate and waited. It would take a while for it to get a hit.
Getting up, I went into the kitchen and made myself a shake. It wouldn’t do me any good to skip it. Not when I needed to keep my strength up and stay alert. If I had to fight my way into wherever they had Avery, then I’d need the fuel.
I downed it as the bell for the door went. Thank fuck. I discarded the glass in the sink and buzzed John in the front door. I paced the hallway, growing ever more agitated by the second. My body was coiled tight. I felt it in every muscle, the tension and anxiety within me.
How could I have left her alone and defenceless? I’d turned my back for a few minutes. A few fucking minutes is all it took. My heart felt as though it was in a vice, fracturing and cracking with each squeeze. I choked down air, trying to stem the tidal wave of crippling fear from drowning me completely.
They won’t kill her. They’re not going to kill her like they did my mother. I have to remember that. I have to.
As soon as the knock came on the door, I ripped it open and almost fucking slumped on the floor in front of John. I didn’t care what I looked like right then. He shut the door behind him and put a hand on my shoulder, leading me away towards the living room. He made me sit down on the sofa without saying a word. John had been here before so he knew his way around.
“You need to breathe, Aiden,” he said, his voice soft.
I drew in ragged breaths, putting my head in my hands and digging my palms into my eyes. This situation completely caught me off guard. I’d been too fucking complacent. I should’ve locked her in the damn car or taken her to the fucking machine with me.
“That’s it. Just breathe. It’s okay. She’s going to be okay.”
“They took her. Someone fucking took her,” I said, hating the pitiful note to my voice.
“I’m going to check the ANPR and then we’ll talk about what happened.”
I nodded, not looking up at him. I hated anyone seeing me in such a fucking state. John wouldn’t hold it against me. After yesterday, I was well aware he cared about Avery and her safety. It’s why I called him and not anyone else. I didn’t completely trust the man, but what choice did I
have? I needed allies in this fucking war and if I could find one in John, all the fucking better.
He came back into the room a few minutes later. I looked up. His green eyes were dark and he shook his head. Nothing yet. He sat down next to me.
“Start at the beginning.”
“Which beginning?”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Start with the phone call you got yesterday. I meant what I said, I don’t want to know about how you and Avery got together. That’s between you. I don’t want to be lying to Chuck any more than I already am.”
I couldn’t fault him for that. Plausible deniability and all. So I explained the events leading up to when she got taken. The more I talked about it, the less the whole thing made sense. As if it made any sense to begin with. Was I missing something? A vital piece of information which would let me know who I was dealing with.
“Did her friend say how many men there were?” John asked.
“No, I don’t think he was paying close enough attention.”
“You need to ask him.”
I sighed, pulling out my phone and dialling James’ number. Not that I wanted him involved, but at this rate, anything to help us would be better than nothing.
“Hey, Aiden. You two get back okay?”
“How many men got out of the car last night?”
“Um… two I think, one of them was bald. Why? What’s going on?”
If I lied and told him everything was okay, I doubt Avery would forgive me but how could I tell him I let her get taken? I mean I hadn’t exactly allowed it to happen, but it was on my fucking watch.
“Do you remember any other details?”
“They were both wearing black suits and ties and they had earpieces. Aiden… what happened?”
I sighed, running my hand through my hair. Earpieces meant they weren’t some low life scum. They were organised. This complicated things further.
“I don’t want you to freak out, but they got to her.”
James was silent for a long moment. I could hear his harsh breath down the phone.
“How?” he whispered.
“I turned my back for one minute to pay for parking and they ripped her out the car. I couldn’t get to her in time.”
“You’re going to get her back, right? You have to get her back.”
The fear in his voice cut me like a fucking knife. I had no choice but to get her back. Avery was the one person in this world I could not live without. I loved her with every inch of my soul. Except making that sort of promise was impossible. I had no idea where she was or who’d taken her.
“I’m going to try my damn fucking hardest. If you remember anything else, text me.”
“You have to stop this shit with her family. You’ve painted a huge fucking target on her back by getting her involved. You know that, right? If you really love her, then you’ll find her and keep her out of it. I don’t care how you take down her family, just stop putting her in danger.”
He didn’t wait for me to respond. The phone went dead. I took it away from my ear and stared down at it. I couldn’t even be pissed off with him for his outburst. James was right. I’d put her in danger. I’d put her in the line of fire and now I was paying for it.
James didn’t know Avery quite like he thought he did. She was more than willing to do this. She’d laid down her cards. Ready to end this shit for good. I’d given her an out when we discussed her going back into the world. I’d told her she could sign the company over to her uncle and wash her hands of it if that’s what she wanted. She didn’t. Avery told me we were in this together. No matter what. She needed the shit with her family to end just as much as I did.
“You look like someone punched you in the gut,” John said, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Just got an earful for getting her into this situation is all.”
“What did he say?”
I looked up at him.
“They are organised. Low-level idiots don’t have earpieces. They’re likely carrying. This won’t be easy. That’s if we even find out where the fuck she is.”
John nodded. I stood up, slipping my phone back in my pocket and paced the room. I was still in yesterday’s clothes and I was in desperate need of a shower. How could I think about my own fucking comfort when my girl was missing?
I walked over to my boxing bag and slammed my fist into it. The pain radiated up my knuckles, but I didn’t care.
“Fuck.”
“If you need to beat the shit out of that, then go ahead. I’ll keep an eye on the search for you.”
I stared at the bag. Taking out my frustration on it would calm me down. It would help me regain my senses. Keep a level head.
I gave him a sharp nod and started unbuttoning my shirt. John got up and left the room. Wrapping my hands up, I took out my anger on the boxing bag. I slammed my fists into it over and over again, grunting from the impact.
All my fears poured out of me. The fear she would be hurt. That someone might force her to do things against her will. That she might be raped and abused. And lastly, the crippling anxiety I felt at someone taking her life.
I couldn’t stand it. I promised to protect her. To keep her safe no matter what.
Those promises were shattered in pieces on the floor. Would she be able to forgive me for letting her get taken? Would she still love me?
I hit the bag so hard, my hands felt like they’d been put through a fucking meat grinder. Shaking them out, I unwrapped them, finding bruised knuckles underneath it. Fucking myself up was not helping matters.
Since John hadn’t come back in, I stalked into the bathroom and turned the shower on. I stripped out of the rest of my clothes and got under the steady stream of water.
I remembered the last time I’d had her in here with me. She’d let me pin her up against the wall, her tits squished up against it as I fucked her from behind. I’d left marks on her hips where I’d gripped her too hard. She hadn’t seemed to mind one bit even though I apologised.
My princess.
My fucking goddess.
Gone.
I didn’t want to break down, but the leash I had on my emotions snapped. I let out an anguished howl, feeling my insides ripping to shreds. This was almost as bad as when she’d left me of her own free will. That crushed me completely. Whereas this left me angry, frustrated and ready to kill the motherfuckers who thought they could get away with taking my girl.
I’d kill for Avery.
I’d snuff out their lives one by one, relishing in the sick, twisted justice of it all.
My girl needed me. Fucking needed me and I wasn’t there for her. I needed her back. Desperately. This whole fucking thing was eating me alive. It’d only been a couple of hours and that was too fucking long. They say the first seventy-two hours after someone goes missing are the most crucial. I had no fucking time to waste.
I got out of the shower after cleaning up properly and got dressed before going into the office. John was sitting at the desk. His gaze flicked up to me.
“We’ve had a couple of hits, but then it just stops. I think we need to find CCTV footage of the area around the last hit,” he said.
He got up off my desk chair and let me sit down. I got to work immediately. Hacking into the national CCTV network, I found the last ANPR hit and the cameras around it. They were still in London. Thank fuck.
“There,” John said, pointing at a car on the screen.
I paused the footage, zooming in on the vehicle. The number plate was a little blurred but clear enough for me to know it was the right fucking Range Rover.
“Let’s see where these fucks go.”
We followed the footage as far as we could until we found the car turning into a carpark. More cars went in and out as we scanned through the footage, but the Range Rover didn’t leave. And we couldn’t see Avery or any of the fuckers who took her on the footage surrounding the carpark. Why the fuck would t
hey have taken her in there? And where the fuck did she go after that?
“Do you want me to check it out?” John asked.
“No. Something is off about this.”
I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the whole fucking situation felt wrong to me. I checked around the carpark. It was close to Mayfair. That struck me as a little odd. Rich pricks owned property around there.
“Do any of Chuck’s clients live around here?”
I looked up at John. His brow furrowed for a moment.
“A few, but none who’d pull shit like this.”
“Names and addresses. We leave no stone unturned.”
John wrote them down for me. He was right. None of them stuck out to me. Mostly older clients from Nicholas Daniels’ generation. I had no fucking clue what to do with this bit of information. For fuck’s sake, this was turning into a fucking nightmare.
“This doesn’t make any sense. How much does she know?” John asked.
“Avery? She knew nothing until we met and even now, she doesn’t know the full story. No one knows she’s aware of it except me and her friend. Nothing about this adds up.”
I stared hard at the list of names.
Fuck. No fucking way.
“John… Is he here?”
I pointed down at the name of the man who was connected to the one person who I could never get close to.
“You think he’s back in the UK?”
“He can’t be. All my fucking backdoor alerts would’ve gone off if he went through border control here. It can’t fucking well be him, can it?”
“Why would it be? You said yourself, no one knows she knows. He has no reason to be here. He’s left you alone this long.”
What John said made logical sense. Except something fucking nagged at me. Telling me I shouldn’t rule him out completely. What if it was him? What if he’d discovered my relationship with Avery and had taken her because of it?
Fuck.
The question remained. How the fuck would he have got into the country without crossing through passport control? He wasn’t a fucking British citizen.