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“I’m going to put Emma to bed,” I said, pulling away from him in the middle of the song.
Landon tried to follow me, but suddenly the wedding coordinator was at his elbow. Another Best Man duty called. He called after me, but I was already making my way back to Emma.
Back at the room, after I put Emma to bed, I called Casey again. This time I would demand she be my best friend and not mentor Casey, but I didn’t get either. She didn’t answer.
I hesitated only a second before calling my mother. I didn’t get a choice of who I spoke to with her, but I hoped that she’d hear the pain in my voice and be the loving, nurturing presence I needed right now.
I had no such luck.
“Where have you been?” she demanded as soon as she heard my voice on the line.
“We’re in – we went on a trip,” I said, startled. My mother didn’t sound like herself. At least, she didn’t sound like the person she was now. She sounded like – a memory from two decades ago came back to me in a rush – she sounded like her younger self. The stressed and on-edge woman she had been before Robert and the money and the security had made her sumptuous and satisfied.
“Where?”
Landon had given me explicit instructions not to tell anyone where we’d gone. Not even Mom and Robert. “Oh, just a little weekend getaway,” I said vaguely. “We thought it would be nice for Emma.”
“Well, it would have been nice for yourmotherto know where you were so I didn’t have to worry if you were dead.”
I laughed weakly; sure she was exaggerating.
“It’s not funny! After what happened, how was I supposed to know he hadn’t gotten you somehow?”
“Afterwhathappened?” I hoped she was referring to one of the threats. Something I knew about. But somehow, I doubted it. She sounded too high strung. I remembered Landon’s security man pulling him aside. His face darkening. Fear swelled and rose like a huge wave funneling up over my head. If it broke over me, it was almost sure to drown me.
My mother’s next words brought it crashing down.
“After he broke into Landon’s apartment, of course!” Her shudder was audible. “And to think he claimed it was the safest place on earth.”
25
LANDON
Iwas never going to be in another fucking wedding again. Another two hours passed before I was able to break away from the festivities and head back to our rooms. The conversation with Cami was eating at me. I’d fucking proposed to her – more or less – and she’d looked at me like I’d asked for a paternity test.
It didn’t make sense.
What the hell was going on?
I nodded at my guy on the door as I let myself into the rooms. They were dark, which surprised me. I’d expected Emma to be asleep, but not Cami, too.
I switched on a lamp, the hair on the back of my neck standing up. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. Emma’s toys were still scattered over the coffee table. Cami’s high heels were by the door. But the space felt empty. Abandoned. A sick, familiar feeling took root in the pit of my stomach.
I opened the door to the bedroom Cami and I were staying in. As the light from the living room widened into it, I saw that the bed was still pin straight, undisturbed since room service had made it up earlier in the day.
My heart starting a sick thudding rhythm, I threw open the door to the next room. The bed was not neat – Emma had played in it – but she and Cami weren’t in it now. Ice cold logic snuffed out the panic that was building in my chest, switching my emotions off as easily as I’d turned on the lamp a moment ago. Through eyes that didn’t feel entirely my own, I began scanning the room. It took only a few seconds to determine that they were gone. Emma’s ombre sparkle glitter wheeled suitcase was gone along with the Elsa doll I’d given her the first day. The one she took everywhere.
I closed her door slowly and walked back out into the hall. My man on the door straightened immediately, my face giving away that something was wrong.
“She’s gone. Did you see her leave?” I asked, knowing what the answer must be.
He shook his head. “I did my sweep around back just a few minutes ago. Everything looked normal.”
I shut the door again. I didn’t blame my guy for Cami’s disappearance. He’d been hired to keep other people from getting to her, not to keepherfrom getting out. She’d never been a prisoner.
I’d trusted her not to leave again.
I’d been a fucking idiot.
