Impulse (Billionaire Secrets Series, #5)

by Lexy Timms

  “Pay, and then what? Let them get away with hurting my father?” Fury, stark and terrifying, hardened the expression on his handsome face until he was completely unrecognizable to her. “I want to find these people.”

  Jake held up his hands. “I know you want to find them—”

  “No, you don’t know,” Simon said, cutting him off. “I want to find them and make them pay for this. Jail is too good for them. I want to make them suffer.”

  She reached over to place her hand over his fist, still balled up with rage. If he went down this destructive path, she was going to lose him. Lose him to the darkness until he was a totally different person. Hate had never been an emotion that Simon indulged in, but right now the darkness of it was radiating off him. Already she could feel it. Feel the dark chill of it as it swallowed everything in the room. This wasn’t who he was. She wasn’t going to let this nightmare destroy him.

  “The only way to do that is to figure out who did this,” Jake said. “Or, at the very least, figure out where they’re keeping your father.”

  “What about the surveillance footage?” Heather asked.

  “The hotel was good enough to send us hundreds of files of footage.”

  “I’ll get my laptop,” Simon said. “We can watch the footage and see if anything jumps out at us.”

  Five minutes later they were all sitting on the sofa, hunched over Simon’s laptop as footage from that evening played. Jake fast-forwarded to footage of Heather walking into the ballroom with Simon, Onslow on the other side of his son.

  As the moments went by her heart started to sink. She had argued with Onslow. Which meant that she might have been the last person to see him. Guilt didn’t even begin to describe the emotion that was making her break out in a cold sweat. That argument had made Onslow storm off and she hadn’t told Simon about it. In the chaos of the kidnapping, she hadn’t gotten the chance to tell Simon the truth.

  Biting her lip, she turned to Simon. “I need to tell you something.”

  Concern flashed in his eyes and that only made the guilt worse. She thought that he might get angry or sad. Instead, he was still concerned about her even while he was going through the worst thing imaginable. “I had an argument with your dad tonight.” She shut her eyes, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall again. This wasn’t about her. Simon was suffering and she didn’t have the right to start crying at a time like this.

  Taking a huge gulp of air, she opened her eyes again. “We argued and he walked away. I said he went to the bathroom because I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t want to ruin your night, so I lied. Your dad didn’t come back and it’s my fault. I’m so sorry.”

  “Heather.” He cupped her face. “This isn’t your fault. You didn’t kidnap my dad.”

  “If I hadn’t been so harsh with him, maybe he wouldn’t have walked away,” she said. “They wouldn’t have taken him.”

  “If you hadn’t argued, my dad would have gone to the bathroom. Or gone to get something to eat.” He leaned closer and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Don’t blame yourself for this.”

  The guilt hadn’t ebbed at all. If anything, his kindness and understanding was just making her feel worse. “It was a bad fight. You wanted me to give him a chance and I didn’t.”

  “I think this is it,” Jake said, interrupting them. “Looks like Simon’s father was really angry.”

  She glanced at the laptop screen, footage of her facing off with Onslow in front of all those people. Watching herself look so upset didn’t sit well with her at all.

  Simon pulled his hands away. “What was the fight about?”

  A painful tug in her stomach made her realize that there was a chance that Simon wouldn’t be so understanding when she gave him the details of the argument. Conscious that Jake was also going to hear the truth, she took another deep breath and went over the details of her argument with Onslow. She made sure to leave nothing out, including the fact that she had reminded Onslow that he hadn’t supported Simon when he first invested in Dover.

  When she was finished she clasped her hands together, already filled with remorse. “If I hadn’t said that to him, maybe he wouldn’t have walked away from me like that.”

  “You did nothing wrong,” Simon said. “Dad shouldn’t have said those things to you.”

  “Please, don’t think badly of him,” she pleaded. “I’m sure he regrets it, and getting him back safely is what matters most.”

  “Honestly, this is my fault,” Simon said.

  “How is any of this your fault?” she asked in surprise.

  “If I had listened to you and confronted Dad about our past, maybe he wouldn’t have taken things out on you,” Simon explained. “It’s obvious that there were some unresolved issues between us, and he decided to focus on you instead of me. Instead of seeing that, I put this burden on you to accept him immediately. I expected you to pretend and act like everything was fine, when it wasn’t.”

  She unlaced her fingers and took his hand in hers to give it a comforting squeeze. “You wanted me and your father to get along. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Yes, but I forced it,” he said. “You had every right to be upset with him, and now...” He rubbed his eyes. “Now Dad is gone because I didn’t want to face the past. If I had faced it, he might be safe right now.”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” she said gently. “Let’s both focus on getting your dad back. We can do that. I know we can.”

  “I want to get him back safely. But all I can see is me breaking the neck of whoever did this.”

  She felt him stiffen beneath her fingertips, his angry energy starting to return. “Jake, is there any more footage of Onslow after the argument?”

  Jake sped up the footage, going through video of Onslow storming out of the ballroom, marching through the hotel lobby and then outside.

  “Wait... Onslow left the hotel?” She frowned. “Why would he do that?”

  “Can’t say for certain,” Jake replied. “He walks out of the hotel, down the sidewalk, and then out of range of the hotel surveillance cameras. There aren’t any more cameras in the surrounding area, so that seems to be the last time he shows up on camera.”

  “So, whoever took him was outside the hotel?” Simon demanded.

  “That means the kidnappers never even got into the hotel to take him,” she said. “You were right, Jake, nobody could have gotten in with all the security, but Onslow could definitely get out.”

  “That doesn’t explain how they managed to broadcast their message in the ballroom,” Jake said. “And they still managed to get Simon’s father outside the hotel.”

  “But why would Onslow leave?” she asked. “I know he was angry, but angry enough to just leave like that? After everything he did to get invited? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “It makes sense if you consider things from a different angle,” Jake murmured.

  His tone unsettled her. Whatever theory he had in mind, Heather had a feeling she wasn’t going to like it one bit. “What other angle were you thinking of?”

  “What if whoever took Onslow was supposed to be there?” Jake wondered out loud. “Think about it: if there was something suspicious going on right outside the hotel, someone would have noticed. But all we seem to have is Simon’s father leaving and a threatening video. He might have left the hotel to meet someone. What if Simon’s father trusted the people who took him?”

  “Who would Onslow trust?” she asked. “It would have to be someone who belonged at the dinner.”

  “Most of the people who belonged at the dinner were Dover employees,” Simon said in a hollow voice.

  She gasped, the idea too horrible to contemplate. “You don’t really think that a Dover employee could do something like this, do you?”

  “It doesn’t have to be a Dover employee,” Simon said. “It could have been someone who belonged there at the time. Hotel staff. The documentary producer.”

  “I know you s
uspect the producer of sending those awful comments on social media, but kidnapping seems crazy,” she said.

  “A stunt like that could boost ratings,” Jake said.

  “I can’t imagine them risking prison for better ratings,” she said.

  “People have risked prison for a lot less,” Jake said. “But I see your point.”

  “So, who do you think it is?” she asked.

  “My money is one someone connected to Dover,” Jake said. “They would have had the opportunity and, with the ransom call, the financial motive seems obvious.”

  Months ago she wouldn’t have believed that someone at Dover could be capable of a crime like this. But after Everett Eastman had framed her for a security breach, Heather knew that anything was possible. She wished she hadn’t become so jaded. Time with her ex-husband’s bad behavior and Everett’s criminality had only made her more suspicious. Which was why she had given Onslow such a hard time. A choice she now regretted with all her heart. If only she had been kinder to Onslow. More understanding. He had tried to make amends with his son, and she hadn’t given him enough credit for it.

  She might have become more suspicious lately, but that wasn’t an excuse to take it out on Simon’s father. When they got him back safely—and they would—she was going to apologize to him.

  “We’ve seen tonight’s footage,” Simon said. “I’m guessing getting the money in cash is the next step.”

  Jake nodded. “Dover’s security team will go over footage from the past week to look for any suspicious activity at the hotel. I’ll make a brief statement to the police, and your lawyer can do the same on your behalf.”

  “I can make a statement to the media, asking for privacy while we deal with this,” Heather suggested.

  “Thank you, Heather,” Simon said gratefully.

  “In the meantime, even though security at Dover’s offices will be beefed up, I don’t think either of you should go back to Dover headquarters until we get Simon’s dad back,” Jake said in a no-nonsense tone that quelled any argument she might have had.

  “I don’t like the idea of staying away,” Simon muttered. “It makes us look like we’re too scared to show our faces.”

  “Sir—”

  “The only way I’ll take that advice is if you agree to do something for me.” Simon’s hard gaze slid to Jake.

  “I have a feeling I’m not going to like this,” Jake said.

  She had the exact same feeling as dread settled in her stomach.

  “You won’t, but you’re not paid to like my decisions,” Simon said gruffly. “I’m not going to sit around and count out a million dollars to hand over to these people. When we make the exchange three days from now, I want to save my father and catch these criminals at the same time.”

  A panicked weight crushed her shoulders. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying that, with Jake’s help, I’m going to prevent these kidnappers from getting any ideas to keep this kind of extortion going.” Simon placed a hand on her shoulder. “I suspect that you were right about these kidnappers, Heather. One million dollars probably isn’t a large enough sum, which means they probably want to keep my father for as long as possible. With Jake’s help, I want to foil their plan. I’m done being at their mercy, and going along with what they say. This has to end. And I’m going to be the one to end it.”

  Chapter 15

  Heather’s alarm startled her awake the next morning. As she opened her bleary eyes, still exhausted, heart thumping from the lingering anxiety, she rolled over to the nightstand and shut off her cell phone alarm. Six in the morning. She must have gotten two hours of sleep at most.

  She hauled herself out of bed and padded down to Finn’s room to wake him up for summer camp. Camp had only just started and was being held at his school, which was a Godsend as far as she was concerned. While Finn got ready, she went to the guest room to wake up her parents.

  She made toast, and after breakfast waved goodbye as they took Finn to camp, with one of Dover’s security personnel going with them.

  Now that Finn was on his way to camp, she had to check up on Simon. Last night had taken a turn that unsettled her, and the sooner she talked to him the better. After a quick shower she walked down the hall to Simon’s apartment.

  “Good morning,” she said softly as he let her in.

  He grunted a reply.

  Concern for him made her reach out to touch his arm. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair disheveled, and he had stubble on his jaw which meant he hadn’t shaved. However, he was wearing fresh clothes, so he had at least tried to make himself look presentable. She didn’t blame him if he was too stressed out to care about his appearance.

  “Have you eaten anything?” She suspected he hadn’t, so she motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen.

  He shook his head. “No.”

  She put on a pot of coffee and set a pair of mugs on the island for them. “How do eggs sound?”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “I know, but you need to keep up your strength,” she said.

  He sat on the stool at the island and buried his face in his hands.

  “Did you get any sleep last night?” she continued.

  “No.” He let out a loud, heavy sigh. “After you left last night to get some sleep, I went over a plan with Jake.”

  “You mean a plan to get yourself hurt. Or worse.” She didn’t want to sound so upset. Last night, after Simon had recklessly decided to go after the kidnappers and put himself in danger, she hadn’t said anything. Arguing with him when emotions were still raw didn’t make sense, and it wouldn’t be fair to put him through something like that right after his father had been taken. But now that she had gotten time to think things through, she knew that she had to put a stop to this.

  “Jake thinks we can catch these guys ourselves,” Simon said. “It’s a risk, but it’s better than letting the police handle it.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the police won’t care what happens to Dover,” he said. “They won’t care about the staff like we do. Besides, I don’t want to put even more people in danger. It’s obvious these kidnappers are sending a message to me, so I should be the one to fix this.”

  “This is about making your father proud of you, isn’t it?” she asked.

  He crossed his arms and glared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You still want to impress him,” she accused. “That’s why you’re putting yourself at risk like this. You feel guilty about what happened to him, so you want to make amends in the most reckless way possible.”

  His jaw clenched, giving away the fact that her words had hit their mark. “Don’t we all want our parents to be proud of us?”

  “Not at the expense of our own safety,” she said. “Your father would never want you to be in danger.”

  “He also wouldn’t want to be kidnapped, and yet here we are.”

  The bitterness in his tone stung for some reason. Maybe she was taking his understandable anger too personally.

  Taking a breath to calm herself, she grabbed a frying pan from one of the cabinets and got to work scrambling some eggs. If he didn’t want to eat that was his choice, but she was determined to help him through this ordeal in any way she could.

  She filled his mug with coffee and set the plate of scrambled eggs in front of him. When she turned away to make her own cup of coffee, Simon’s fingers curled around her wrist. His grip was firm, and yet still gentle. Sadness flickered in the depths of his eyes, filling her heart with an indescribable ache. This was eating him up inside. Not only did he have to worry about his father’s safety, but he was dealing with guilt. Last night he had blamed himself for rushing her into having a good relationship with his father. As if anything he did could have possibly caused all this misery.

  “This isn’t your fault,” she said gently.

  “It is,” he said evenly. “That’s why I have to save him.”

  “I can�
��t convince you to let this crazy idea go, can I?”

  He shook his head. “No. What would you do if it was your father?”

  She didn’t want to encourage his recklessness, but how could she lie? If her father had been taken from her, she’d do anything to get him back. Simon’s bravery terrified her because it put him in so much danger. Yet his bravery was one of the reasons she loved him so much.

  When the guests in the ballroom had scrambled out of the room in a panic, Simon hadn’t fled. He had refused to leave until everyone got out safely. Even though his father had been the one taken. That kind of selflessness was what made her love him, and yet that selflessness might lead to her losing him.

  “I’d do everything to save him,” she finally admitted.

  “I keep going over our last fight in my head,” Simon murmured. “The things we said to each other all those years ago...”

  She stared down at him, taking in the pain that flashed across his face. “You don’t have to talk about that if you don’t want to. I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard to face the past, when you weren’t ready.”

  “But you were right,” Simon pointed out. “If I had faced the truth about my father earlier on, I might have been able to repair our relationship sooner. Without putting a burden on you to ignore our issues.” He released her wrist and sighed.

  Realizing that he wanted to unburden himself, Heather filled her cup with coffee and sat down on a stool across from him. “I’m here if you want to talk.”

  He gave her a strained smile. “My father was the one who gave me some of the money I used to initially invest in Dover.”

  “Right. I remember you telling me this recently. You said it was a long story.”

  “Dad gave me some insurance money he got from an accident at work. At first I thought he had given me the money out of the goodness of his heart, but he did it so that he could control me,” Simon continued. “He never appreciated my intelligence. Never took my dreams seriously the way you did. He thought I was wasting my time by focusing on tech, and was pissed that he didn’t have a say in my life after I got my scholarship to Stanford.”