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Maybe I was wrong, and they’re still shopping. Taking out my cell, I call my wife, but the call goes straight to voice mail. Her battery may have run out, so I call one of the guards I sent with her and my mother.
“Boss, we have a problem,” he says when he answers.
I tense up. “Are they okay?” I want that information first because my wife and mother are the number one priority.
“Your mother is with two of my best men. Your wife? Well, we’re still searching for her.”
What the fuck?
Clenching my fist, I don’t hold back my anger as I shout at the imbecile, “Why was she ever alone in the first place?” Heads will roll for this!
“The store’s crowded. We thought we had her in our sights. Your mother went to the ladies’ room, and that divided up the team. Somehow, she just disappeared on us, boss. But we’re looking everywhere right now. We’re gonna get her back. I don’t want you to—”
“Worry?” I ask, interrupting him. “I’m not worried. I’m furious. Her father wants her, and now she’s gone. And you know fucking well who’s fault that is, don’t you?”
The first time she’s gone out since the night before our wedding, and she’s been taken. She was right—there was a reason for her to be afraid. But I trusted my men to keep her safe. They let me down, and they all know the penalty for that.
“Should I send someone to the Barone mansion, boss?” he asks, trying his best to keep his head since he knows I’m holding him responsible for my wife’s disappearance.
The fact he hasn’t already done that only pisses me off even more. “I’m coming down there.” Fuck these morons. If I have to go find my wife myself, then that’s what I’ll do.
Anger isn’t anything new to me. But anger at this level is something I have never experienced before—and I don’t care for it. I just need to get my fucking wife back, take her home, and teach her never to walk away from her security team again.
When my driver pulls up in front of the store, I get out and take long strides to get inside. There are people everywhere, shoppers who have no idea anyone important is missing.
We have to keep it that way, too, so no one of any real importance finds out that my wife is not in my possession. If not her father, there are others who would love to get their hands on what’s mine.
This is a dog-eat-dog kind of business, and one has to play their cards close to the vest at all times. So, when one of my men sees me, he nods, acting cool like nothing is going on. “Hey.”
I nod back and shove my hands into my pockets as I look around for any sign of Isabella. “Hey.”
We separate so we can cover more ground. The first thing I notice is there’s a shit-ton of people in this place. It would be fairly easy for Isabella to get out of the eyesight of her guards if she wanted to. I’ve already spotted ten women with the same hair color and body shape as my wife.
Would Isabella want to leave me?
She knows her father wants her. She might have thought that if she went to him on her own, he might treat her better than if she had to be brought to him.
Looking around the huge store, I see that she could have simply ducked down and used the crowd to hide her. She could have made her way to the exit and left the building.
I don’t want to think my wife would leave me, especially since we have been getting along so well in the last month. But this was the first time she’s been outside the mansion, and she’s gone missing. What else can I think?
For all I know, she might even be pregnant already. She brought up the idiotic notion of not having children yet due to the danger she’s in, but perhaps that was some kind of ruse.
I don’t know her well enough to know what kinds of things she’s capable of doing. I know how she was raised. I know John said she was easy to get along with and naturally subservient. But that was before she knew who she really was. Before she knew she’d been lied to her entire life. And before she knew that she had been raised by her father’s rivals and married to his biggest rival of all.
Could she have left on her own? Could she be on her way to the Barone mansion right now? Or am I way off?
Not that it matters. She’s mine and always will be. If she does go to her father, asking for his protection, it won’t stop me from getting her back. Even that man knows he can’t take what’s mine—even if she was his first.
What I’ll do to her if she did run is another thing entirely. Betraying me and my trust is unforgivable. Most people die for doing something like that. But I suppose I’ll deal with that if it comes to it. She might be carrying my baby. Killing her would be out of the question if that’s the case.
Maybe I’m making excuses for not wanting to see her dead. Maybe she’s gotten to me somehow. Maybe she wanted to fool me into thinking she has real feelings for me and wants to be my wife. I can’t put anything past the woman. She is a Barone, after all.
Scanning the area, I find my mother. She sees me and comes toward me. Her face is pinched, and she looks upset.
Approaching her, I look past her at the guard behind her. “She shouldn’t be here,” I tell him.
“I agree,” he says.
