by Kali Argent
“Can we please talk?” Elena asked, her tone saturated with guilt.
“Later.”
“If you’ll just let me explain.”
“I said we’ll talk later,” she whispered harshly. “I can’t right now, El. I just can’t.” She needed time to process, and even then, she didn’t know if things could ever be the same between them. “I think you need to leave.”
“Fine.” Tears filled Elena’s eyes, but she just sniffed and jerked up from the table. “Goodnight, everyone.” Then she marched out of the café with her head down.
“I guess I’m going to head back to my room as well,” Jonas said a few minutes later. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Jonas.” She couldn’t bring herself to be angry with the guy. His sister had hurt her, not him. “Hey, I want to see those pictures you took today. Find me in the morning, okay?”
“You got it, beautiful.” He ruffled her hair affectionately, nodded to the other women at the table, then walked away with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his cargo shorts.
“Beautiful, huh?” Theresa asked.
Phoebe shrugged. “He’s a friend. Like a brother really.” She finished the last few sips of her coffee and set the empty paper cup down on the table. “Well, I guess that means it’s time for me to head up to bed as well. Ladies, it was a pleasure.”
The room tilted sideways when she stood, forcing her to grab the table as a wave of nausea roiled through her stomach.
“Phoebe? Are you okay?”
“You don’t look so good.”
“Oh, no. Are you coming down with something?”
“Maybe it’s food poisoning,” someone suggested. “That chicken at dinner looked a little iffy.”
“You know, I was wondering about that. I felt awful earlier.”
The voices blended together, tumbling over one another and merging into one, dull roar. It could definitely be food poisoning. It felt kind of like the time she’d been stupid enough to try broiled fish from a buffet restaurant. God, that had been awful.
“I’m okay,” she assured everyone, even as the dizziness threatened to drop her. “I’m just going to go splash some water on my face in the bathroom. I’ll see you ladies tomorrow.”
If she didn’t end up in bed all day. Her stomach churned, and bile rose in her esophagus. Crap, it was going to be a long night.
~ ~ ~
After taking a long, hot shower, Rayce had cleaned up the room, ironed Phoebe’s dress for the next day, and organized all of her many, many cosmetics in the bathroom. When Phoebe hadn’t returned by the time he’d finished, he’d called housekeeping to request fresh towels, then propped himself up on the bed to surf through the cable channels on the flat screen.
He knew it was important for her to interact with her readers, and he wanted her to enjoy her time at the conference, but damn it, he missed her. She’d been gone for only an hour, but it felt like much longer. Eventually, when their relationship wasn’t so new, he’d probably get used to the idea of sharing her with thousands of people.
Probably.
When a knock sounded at the door, he muted the television and hauled himself up from the mattress to answer it. It had only been ten minutes since he’d placed the call to housekeeping. Score one for the hotel on guest service.
“That was fast,” he said as he pulled open the door. “Oh.” He immediately tensed. “Hello, Elena.” She was the last person he’d expected to come knocking at his door. “Phoebe isn’t here.”
“I know.” Her eyes were red and watery, and she sniffled when she answered. “I just saw her down in the café. I guess she’s not speaking to me.”
Not wanting to have the argument he felt coming in the middle of the hallway, he stepped back and motioned for her enter the room. “I don’t know what you want me to say. She has every right to be pissed at you.”
“I know.” She tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and scuffed her toe over the carpet. “I don’t know how to make it up to her.”
“I don’t think you can. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Clearly, I wasn’t. I never expected anyone to actually look up a supposedly fictional place in a book. Everyone knows we just make that shit up as we go unless it’s somewhere big, like Chicago or New York.”
It was a flimsy excuse, and Rayce wasn’t buying it. “If you’re looking for an ally, you came to the wrong place. Even if Phoebe forgives you for this, I don’t know if I can.” He’d support whatever decision Phoebe made, but that didn’t mean he had to agree with it. “I think you should go. Phoebe will let you know when she’s ready to talk. In the meantime, I suggest you stay away from her.”
“Was that a threat?” Elena jerked her head up, eyes narrowed. “Are you threatening me?”
“Take it however you want. I won’t let you hurt her again, though.”
“God, you’re just like the last one. You take up all her time, and when that doesn’t work, you’ll find any excuse to get rid of the people who care about her.”
She was trying to pick a fight, but Rayce refused to rise to the bait. “I don’t really give a damn what you think about me. This?” He pointed at the floor in front of him and twirled his wrist in a circle. “This situation? I didn’t cause this. You did, and your actions have consequences. Don’t like them? Be a better fucking friend.”
“You’re a dick.”
“And you’re a selfish bitch.” He marched over to the door and jerked it open. “You need to leave.”
“Oh, Rayce!” a high-pitched voice called from the hallway. “I didn’t know we were on the same floor.”
Rayce vaguely recognized the woman from the reader-author dinner. “Uh, yeah, I guess we are.”
“How’s Phoebe feeling? Poor thing. She looked so pale when she left the café.”
His heart jumped into his throat, and his chest tightened painfully. “She left? When did she leave?”
“Maybe ten minutes ago? You haven’t seen her?”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Elena interjected, pushing past Rayce to stand next to the woman in the hallway. “She probably just met up with some more readers or something.”
The woman thought about this for a moment, then nodded. “You’re probably right. Well, I’m off to bed. Tell her I hope she feels better.”
Hurrying back into the room, he grabbed his cell phone from the nightstand and dialed Phoebe’s number. It rang several times, then went to voicemail. He called again. Same result.
“Rayce, calm down.” Elena stood just inside the doorway, holding the door open. “I’m serious. There were a ton of people downstairs. She probably just met up with someone else and lost track of time.”
“She’s not answering her phone.”
Elena rolled her eyes. “If she’s talking to someone, she’s not just going to answer her phone. Did you try texting her?”
He hadn’t, so he sent a string of text messages, demanding that she call him. Not a single reply. “I’m going to look for her.”
Their quarrel forgotten, Elena nodded. “You check the lobby and the café. I’ll check the women’s restrooms. If she was sick, she might have passed out in one of the stalls.”
“Let’s go.” Out in the hall, he tried dialing Phoebe’s number again as he led the way to the bank of elevators. “Where’s your brother?” It wouldn’t hurt to have another able body looking for her.
Elena shrugged. “He was still in the café when I left. I haven’t seen him since then.”
“Call him to help you look for her.”
“His room is just down the hall. I’ll go check and see if he’s there.” She stepped back as Rayce entered the elevator. “Call me if you find her first.”
“Same for you.”
“Rayce?”
“Yes?”
Elena wiped roughly at a tear that spilled down her cheek. “Just find her, okay?”
“I will.” And heaven help anyone who got in
his way.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I want to see the fucking security footage of the goddamn lobby!” Standing at the end of the registration counter, Rayce raged at the hotel manager. “Why is this so difficult for you to grasp?”
“Sir, I can’t just show you security footage.” The hotel manager, Mr. Leon Sanford, an aging man with white, thinning hair and a big, bulbous nose used a white handkerchief to wipe the perspiration from his brow. “The police have been notified, and—”
“I don’t give a flying fuck who you notified.” If someone didn’t show him the footage from the lobby cameras in the next three seconds, he wouldn’t be responsible for his actions. “Who’s in charge of security around here? Let me talk to him.”
“He’ll tell you the same thing, Mr. Hawkins. We have a duty to protect our guests.”
“Yeah, well, one of them is missing, possibly kidnapped, so how is that working out for you?” Rayce advanced a step, both hands curling into fists at his sides. “If anything happens to her, and I mean anything, I’m going to rip your tongue out and shove it down your throat. Are we clear?”
For nearly an hour he’d searched for Phoebe. He’d walked around the outside of the hotel twice. He’d checked the pool, the café, every restaurant, public bathroom, and unlocked closet in the damn place. There was no sign of her. He’d even tracked down a few readers and asked them, but they had all told him the same thing. Phoebe had said she wasn’t feeling well and was returning to her room. The last time they’d seen her, she’d been walking toward the restrooms at the end of a corridor off the lobby. It was as if she’d just vanished into thin air, and someone better start giving him some answers fast.
The entrance doors of the hotel slid apart, ushering in a rush of chilled air.
The cavalry had arrived.
“Dom,” Rayce called, lifting his hand to signal his boss and friend. “Over here.”
Dressed in a pair of black, tailored slacks and a burgundy dress shirt, Dominic strode across the lobby with the entirety of the ARIES team following in his wake.
“Anything?” he asked, eyeing the manager as if the man was something disgusting he’d found stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
“Nothing. The last time anyone saw her, she was walking toward the public restrooms on the other side of the café.”
“Have you reviewed the surveillance footage?”
Rayce glared at Mr. Sanford. “No. Apparently, I don’t have clearance for that.”
A dangerous gleam entered Dominic’s eyes as he placed a hand on the manager’s shoulder. “Let’s walk, shall we?”
“We’re going to find her,” Wren assured him as they watched Dominic lead the manager away from the counter. “You have to keep your head.”
Rayce had never been more focused in his life. “Someone check into her ex. Tucker Cromwell. I want to know where he is now, and where he was an hour ago.”
“On it.” Sawyer pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed as he hurried back toward the exit.
“Someone trace her phone.” He didn’t know if she had it with her or not, but it was a place to start.
“Give me ten minutes,” Colton Forbes answered. Water dripped from the ends of his long, sandy blond hair, and his red T-shirt was still damn with sweat in places as if he’d come directly from the gym. “What’s her phone number?”
Wren rattled Phoebe’s phone number off before Rayce could say anything. “Come on, I’ll help.”
“What do you want us to do?” Ryder asked, motioning to himself, then Tieran and Asher.
“Talk to anyone you can find. She disappeared somewhere between the café and the restrooms. Someone had to have seen something.”
All three nodded, and Asher clapped him on the back. “We’re going to find her.”
Rayce wouldn’t stop until he did. He just hoped he wouldn’t be too late to save her.
The rest of the ARIES team had just dispersed when the manager returned, pale and shaking, but much more cooperative. Rayce didn’t know what Dominic had said to the man, and frankly, he didn’t care as long as it produced results.
“If you’ll follow me.”
Mr. Sanford led Rayce and Dominic around the registration counter and into a small room containing only two desks, each supporting a column of monitors. The security guard at the first desk rose to his feet, his eyebrows drawn together, his lips slightly parted.
“Richard, can you bring up the security footage for…” Trailing off, the manager turned to look at Rayce, clearly at a loss.
“I want to see footage from the lobby and the café between nine and eleven this evening.”
Phoebe had left their room just before nine, and it had been almost an hour before he’d realized she was missing. Add in the hour he’d spent looking for her, and that narrowed his window down to a two-hour period where he couldn’t account for her whereabouts.
“Pull up footage from the parking lot as well,” Dominic added, his tone calm but his gaze piercing.
“Sir?” the security guard asked, looking to Mr. Sanford for confirmation.
“Just do it,” the manager instructed. “A woman has gone missing.”
“Where the fuck are the police anyway?” Dominic demanded, looking around the room as if an officer might suddenly pop out of the shadows. “You said they’d been notified?”
Rayce shrugged. “They’re sending someone to the hotel, but let’s be honest. She’s been missing for an hour, maybe two. Not exactly high priority.”
The police were the least of his concerns. They’d follow their rulebook, question witnesses, review security footage—basically everything Rayce was already doing. The difference was, he’d do whatever it took to find Phoebe, legalities be damned.
A few minutes later, Security Guard Richard had pulled up the footage they’d requested, but just as Rayce was about to sit down in front of the monitors, Wren knocked on the doorframe.
“Colt wants to talk to you.” She hurried into the room, placing her hands on the back of the rolling desk chair. “Go.” With a slight tilt of her head, she nodded toward the monitors. “I’ve got this. I’ll let you know when I find something.”
Though hesitant to pass the job off to someone else, if Colton had been able to locate Phoebe’s cell phone, that would be better than searching through two hours of footage. He nodded, grateful to have such a dedicated team backing him, and exited the room.
Colton waited for him at the end of the registration counter, his arms crossed and his expression guarded. Just by looking at him, Rayce knew the guy hadn’t come bearing good news.
“What did you find?”
In answer, Colton reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone, recognizable as Phoebe’s by the glittery stars on the case. A web of cracks snaked across the blank screen, and the edges of the case looked scratched and scuffed. Taking it, Rayce pressed the button at the top to bring up the lock screen, his heart aching when the picture of him and Phoebe from her birthday appeared beneath the fissures.
“Where did you find it?”
“In the gutter out by the main road. Looks like someone threw it out of a moving car.”
Logically, Rayce had known Phoebe wouldn’t still be in the hotel. Yet, a small part of him had been holding out the hope that they’d find her somewhere close. If her abductor had gotten her into a vehicle, she could be anywhere by now.
His heart beat too fast, too hard, and his throat constricted with emotion. With one last look at the picture, he turned the screen off and slipped the phone into the back pocket of his jeans.
“Have you heard from Sawyer?” He coughed to clear the gravel from his voice. “Has anyone located Tucker?”
Colton shook his head. “Nothing yet.” His brow furrowed as he unfolded his arms, letting them dangle at his side. “The only threatening thing this guy has done has been directed at you. That’s a good thing. If he cares about her, he’s not going to hurt her. That means we have time.”
&
nbsp; “No.” They were missing something. It tickled the edges of his mind, just out of his grasp. “Back up. Say that thing about threatening me again.”
“The only threatening thing this guy did was directed at you.”
Rayce waved his hand, then pointed his index finger at Colton’s face. “Not true. There was that email. The one with her security code.” He’d been so fixated on making sure Phoebe was safe that he hadn’t seen it at the time. “Why would he send that email? It doesn’t fit with anything else.”
“Okay, wait, what the hell are you talking about?”
“First an email, something about them being kindred spirits or some shit.” Head down, eyes on the ugly green carpet, he paced. “Then the rose on the deck. Next, he sent her the code to her security alarm. After that, there was another email. Something about her looking nice. Next, he sent the rose for her birthday.”
“Okay, yeah.” Colton bobbed his head. “I see what you mean. Everything else was…romantic.” He held his hands up, palms out, when Rayce growled. “I’m just saying that’s how he saw it—the flowers, the Shakespeare thing, giving her compliments. That email was different, though. It was taunting. He wanted to scare her. He wanted her to know he could get to her.”
Rayce had come to the same conclusion. He just didn’t know what it meant. Nor did it get him any closer to identifying who had sent that email.
“What was she doing when she got the email?”
Rayce thought back to that night. He’d been working security for the Lowens, and he hadn’t wanted Phoebe to be alone. “She was spending the weekend at her friend’s place.”
“The friend with the brother?” Colton shrugged when Rayce arched a brow at him. “Wren got me up to speed.”
“Yeah, that’s the one. Why? What are you thinking?”
“Maybe the email wasn’t a taunt, but it was designed to scare her. To keep her from going home.”
“To keep her right where she was,” Rayce added, picking up on Colton’s train of thought.