William reeled back at the admission. Blanching at the honesty. He swallowed several times, looked forward, and then turned to Hugh once again. “I was young, dumb, and clearly full of myself. Christ, Hugh, I don’t blame you for not liking me. I want you to know I never touched your wife. I wouldn’t have done that to you and certainly not to my own wife. Even thoughallowing her the leeway to speak to me in a flirtatious way disrespected you both. Forgive me.”
He could tell William was sincere. He couldn’t have known how bad things were for Hugh back then. He didn’t want anyone to know. He’d probably appeared uninterested in his wife’s infidelity. “Forgiven.” Will stood and offered Hugh a hand up. “Wewillfind them.”
“We will,” William agreed.
23
Raven
Raven just got off the phone with Nan. Difficult didn’t even begin to describe that conversation. River grasped her hand and squeezed. Tears shone against her sister’s red-rimmed eyes. She and Bran and River and Patrick had been absolutely paralyzed with fear. They hadn’t slept, all of them sitting in Raven’s living room, holding their phones—waiting for a miracle. They hadn’t gotten one.
Around three that morning, Hugh had given them a rundown of what intelligence had been gathered so far. Raven almost fainted when he told them that forensics had found hair matching Rowan’s and William Stanton’s ex-wife, Katy, in the trunk of the car. The kidnapper changed vehicles, and the police were working on what they were being transported in now.
She and River hadn’t been able to speak, shock freezing their tongues. She looked at her husband, her eyes pleading for him to do something, anything, which was wholly unfair, but Raven was long past caring about fair.
Her sister was gone, and she wanted her back!
“I called our pilot, Bobby, Rave,” Bran cupped her face in his palms, forcing her to look at him. “We’ll go to Oklahoma and not leave until we have Row back. I promise, baby.”
Raven twisted her head to kiss his palm before she looked at her sister. “River?”
“We’re coming. Right, Pat?” She turned pleading eyes to her own husband.
River was almost seven months along and Raven knew Patrick would prefer to keep her from flying especially when she was so distraught. He also knew keeping her from going would place even more stress on his wife’s shoulders. So, he agreed. “Of course.”
Raven looked at Bre, her assistant, and Daniel’s part-time nanny and asked if she would come with them.
“Of course. I’ll run home and pack now.” Organized as ever, Bre told Raven to “Go ahead and pack your bag. As soon as I get back, I’ll help you pack Daniel’s things. I’ll bring the travel crib from my house,” and with that, Bre flew out the door.
Raven looked back to River. “Would you email Dom now so he’ll know what’s happening first thing in the morning? Tell him to cancel our calendar for the foreseeable future. He’ll know which clients want to meet Josh for his metalwork sculptures, and those appointments can stay. Tell him we won’t be coming back without Rowan.”
There wasn’t a business manager in the world that could top Dom’s skill. Raven and River wouldn’t have to spare Triskelion a thought, which was a blessing since there wasn’t a thought left that wasn’t focused on Rowan.
“I’ll text Jo that we’ll call her once we land in Oklahoma. I hope she takes our advice to stay and finish the Zurich job with her mom. Maybe by then, we’ll be back in Ireland with Rowan, and she can come straight here,” Raven finished, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion. Jo was frantic, and she loved her friend forit, but there was no reason not to finish her current job. Jo admitted they’d be done in two days.
“When I spoke with MacGregor, he told me that he is working closely with his team on deep diving into BlackOut’s IT infrastructure. He said if there were links to be found between the company and the kidnapper, they should know in the next twelve to twenty-four hours. Since he is currently in Scotland, I asked him if he would make sure Jo knew everything we know in case the time difference screws us once we’re in Oklahoma,” Patrick explained.
“I’m sure that wasn’t a problem. He probably talks to Jo constantly,” Bran said as he scooped Daniel out of Raven’s lap and grasped her hand to pull her up.
“Turns out, it was a problem,” Pat raised his brows, clearly still surprised. “He said he and Jo were currently not in touch.”
River started to cry. Hormones.
“No worries, Riv. Once we have our sister back, we’ll find out what the hell Thomas did to hurt Jo. Now, dry your eyes, Riv, and go pack. Hugh will get Rowan back.”
24
Rowan woke up groggy, sore, dry-mouthed, and...handcuffed. It was the last that shot panic streaking through her body, stinging her fingers and toes, ears and scalp. Her chest felt constricted, and her breathing was rapid, panting, and shallow.
Her situation came screaming back. She’d been kidnapped. Drugged. Tied and transported in the back of a van. Her reality didn’t produce even a sprinkle of calm. How much time had passed, she wondered. When the van finally stopped, she and the other woman looked at each other. Fear was swimming in her eyes. Rowan knew her eyes reflected the same.
The back of the van door swung open, almost dumping the woman to the ground. Without a word, a smaller man wearing a ski mask produced two syringes and efficiently stuck them both in the necks with a fresh round of drugs. Without saying a word, the man climbed out the back and shut the door. It was the last thing Rowan remembered until waking up for the second time.
They weren’t in the van. The cold metal floor had been replaced with a cold floor, definitely not metal. Concrete maybe.
When she and the other woman had been awake in the van, they hadn’t been able to communicate. Their captors never removed the thick tape covering their mouths. There was no tape now.
It was dark in this new place, pitch black, so she couldn’t be sure if she was alone or not. She tried to take stock of what she could feel. One wrist was cuffed to what felt like a thick pipe. With her free hand, she was able to trace the pipe, thick and solid and never-ending. The scaly texture could have been peeling paint or corrosion. No light, industrial type pipes, concrete floor...a basement?
