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Mark’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out. “Chase?”
“Did you see the news about the Café?” Chase asked.
“I’m in the middle of a concert. What happened?” He motioned to David toward the outside exit and they walked out into the warm night air.
“It’s burning. We came to empty it out tonight but...” Chase paused. “We were going to clear it out and take care of it tonight but it was burning when we got here. We tried to rescue as many as we could—helping the firefighters—but there was a locked, heavy metal door in the back...” The man’s voice cracked. “We could hear them screaming.”
“Oh, God!” Mark sat down on the garden wall and ran his hand over his eyes.
“The fire caught up with us and there was no way...” Chase paused again. “We’re hoping once the fire’s out somehow whoever is down there was protected. Somehow... Emily wasn’t down there, was she?”
“No. She’s out here. At the conference.”
“How did that happen?”
“Geoffrey sent her out here with someone. I’m not sure why.”
“That’s strange.” Chase cleared his throat. “Geoffrey left DC this morning. Corey says he went to California.”
“Geoffrey’s here?” Mark looked at David, who watched him intently, and his stomach churned. He turned his phone speaker on so David could hear. “We have to find Emily.” He started pacing. “Both Rafael and Emily’s father were no-shows at the concert tonight, and Rafaelnevermisses a concert.” He stopped pacing. “They must have taken her.”
“Tell me what’s happened since you got there,” Chase said.
Mark paced again as he told Chase about Rafael and Joe knowing where Emily was the whole time. “Why would Geoffrey come out here?”
“Maybe someone is cleaning up a mess,” Chase said. “Why else burn the place down?” He was quiet for a long moment. “Corey did some digging into Geoffrey and a few years back, he was given a huge influx of money, like a million dollars. Then every month he’s given a couple thousand. Corey couldn’t trace that money... where it was coming from.”
Mark’s stomach dropped. “How many years ago?”
He heard Chase calling to someone. “Corey says three.”
“I think Emily met Geoffrey three years ago.”
“Rafael and Joe were paying him off to keep her out of sight,” David said, frowning. “I guessed as much but didn’t want to believe it.”
“That’s what it sounds like,” Chase said through the phone speaker.
“That’s disgusting,” Mark spat.
“I think, if Emily has disappeared, you can safely assume one of them has her,” Chase said.
“But which one? And where?”
Forty-Eight
Emily screamedand kicked at the unknown man as he dragged her through the front door of Rafael’s cabin and into the living room. She fought with everything she had, but the man was tall and strong and didn’t react when she kicked him in the shins.
“Emma, you might want to be nice to Jarrod, or later, when we let him play with you, he won’t be nice.” Her father smiled at the tall, muscular man. “He does have quite the temper.”
“Why are you doing this?” Emily asked, still trying to free herself from Jarrod’s grip, though with her hands tied behind her back, it was pointless. But she had to try.
“Because you’ve messed up our plans.” He shot a glare at Geoffrey. “She wasn’t supposed to come back here.”
Geoffrey shrugged. “One of my best customers asked to use her. I wasn’t going to say no to that money.”
Emily stared at Geoffrey. “David... paid you to bring me out here?”
Geoffrey laughed. “Of course. He pays me every time he fucks you. Do you honestly think I’d let him use you for free? You’re a commodity, Emily. Everyone pays me to use your body.”
