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Patrick didn’t like the sound of this. He considered coming up with some excuse so that he could slip away, but Aleksander was smiling at him with that white-toothed sneer, and Patrick knew walking away would count as losing.
“And why is that?”
“Well, I’ve heard through the grapevine that a certain painting is missing. Aurora, was it?”
“Who did you hear that from?” Patrick knew that the assistants and lower-level employees tended to gossip, so he wasn’t surprised that the information had gotten out. Still, he was more than a little annoyed with whoever had spilled his personal business to his rival.
Aleksander waved a hand dismissively. “I have my sources. It doesn’t matter.”
Patrick made a mental note to investigate the possible leak. He didn’t suspect Owen, but perhaps he’d delegated the tracking of Aurora to one of his employees and the employee had passed the information on.
“Well, always lovely chatting with you,” Patrick said insincerely. “But as you’ve so astutely pointed out, Aurora is missing, and I wouldn’t much like to talk about it.”
“Oh, understandable, of course, old boy.” Even from presumptuous Aleksander, the “old boy” was a little too much. Only Patrick’s dignity kept him from rolling his eyes.
“Anyway, I see Ruben and I’d better go speak with him.”
“Well, enjoy your evening. Although I suppose it’ll fall a little short of our last gala together when you had that pretty girl on your arm. What was her name? Emily?”
“Emma,” Patrick corrected through his teeth.
“Right, Emma. Whatever happened to her, anyway? She doesn’t seem to be working for you anymore.”
“She moved on to other employment,” Patrick said shortly. He very much didn’t want to get into it with Aleksander, of all people.
“Well, I’m sure she’s missing the perks of this job. Attending galas with the boss and all that.”
“I’m sure she’s fine. I’d better be going.”
Even though he knew walking away now was probably a bad idea, Patrick couldn’t take another second of talking about Emma. Somehow, Aleksander knew just how to push his buttons. And he was well-informed. He had information about the stolen painting and about Emma.
The stolen painting. And Emma.
Pieces of the puzzle started to click into place. Emma had put messages into the painting to show that she cared about Patrick and that she was sad. Aleksander knew that the painting was stolen and that Emma was gone. Patrick had wondered if Emma had been forced into stealing Aurora, and now he knew that she had been. And that Aleksander was the one behind everything.
More pieces fell into place. Patrick remembered how Aleksander had pulled Emma off to dance with him and how uncomfortable she’d looked. Clearly, she wouldn’t have worked with him by her own choice. He remembered the teardrop in the painting. He remembered how genuine she’d seemed with him and how real her affection had seemed. It all made sense.
All of this was Aleksander’s fault.
Patrick couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to figure this out. It had been months.
Of course, there was still a chance that Emma had been coerced into stealing the painting, but she had only used Patrick to get it. She might not feel the same way about him that he felt about her. But Patrick remembered how she’d looked at him with those big brown eyes and how she’d melted into him when they’d kissed, and he was sure that she felt at least some fraction of how he felt.
Patrick made a break for the door. He no longer cared about the results of the silent auction or about “winning” his conversation with Aleksander. He had only one goal now: to find Emma and see if there was still a chance for them.
When he was almost at the door, Aleksander stepped into his path.
“Leaving so soon?”
“Stay away from me,” Patrick replied. “I know we’ve developed a certain rapport over the years, but that is over. I know what you did.”
The last sound Patrick heard as he pushed through the gallery’s doors and out into the cool early spring day was the sound of Aleksander laughing. It only confirmed what Patrick already knew.
It was late, but he still headed straight for the office. He’d tried to find Emma himself, back when she first disappeared, but had had no success. Luckily, he wasn’t the only person who could try. Patrick had a staff of excellent investigators who worked on his investments in various capacities. He made a meeting with all of them for first thing the next morning. Then, just to be safe, he placed calls to a few agencies he’d worked with in the past on specific issues and asked them to send their best detectives as well.
Patrick was going to find Emma. He had to.
That night was one of the longest of his life. Patrick spent a little more time in the office compiling everything he knew about Emma, from the pseudonym she’d given him to the details she’d let slip about her past. Then he went home, where he struggled to sleep. The thought of seeing her again was all-consuming. He could only hope that she was as interested as he was in giving their relationship a real try. He didn’t know what might have happened in the last few months, though. Maybe Emma had moved on. Even if Patrick hadn’t.
