AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I find Stuart then. Alize isn't with him either.
Wesley starts walking, and I fall in step with him. I clench my fist in my suit pocket, burning a hole into the side of his face as I wait for him to come up with his answer. It better be a fucking good one.
"She went to use the bathroom," Wesley offers. He starts walking a little faster, the only indication that he's realised that I'm on the edge of shooting him in the kneecaps. "I came to get her drink."
"You left her alone?"
Wesley stutters. "N-no, it's only been a couple minutes. She's in the bathroom."
I have definitely been talking to the Welsers for longer than a couple minutes. I narrow my eyes at him. "Well, you're not with her and neither is Stuart, so yes, she's fucking alone."
I can shout at him after.
Right now, I just need to find Alize.
I scan the room.
But in the sea of pastel gowns, there's no burgundy.
"Which bathroom?" I ask Wesley, but I'm already jogging toward the open doors that lead on to the terrace.
There's a sign indicating that there are bathrooms in that direction. Wesley's hot on my heels. We pass Stuart, who joins us when he sees the look on my face. I can't even bring myself to look at Wesley right now.
I gave him one job.
He just needed to make sure she was okay for twenty minutes.
Taking a deep breath, I try to remind myself that she'll be fine. She has a gun, after all. There's nothing that can happen to her here. There are cameras everywhere, more armed security than guests. She's fine.
Probably just in the bathroom, doing whatever women do that makes them take that long. I step out onto the cut stone terrace with hasty steps. The bathroom is at the end of the long patio.
It's decorated just like inside, a huge stone fountain in the centre of the terrace spewing heated water. But that isn't what draws my attention. No, my eyes are drawn to the wisps of smoke leaching from the cigarette of someone standing by the rails of the terrace.
My father.
There's nobody else out here, which I find suspicious for a party of this size. It's just my father, smoking a cigarette. My heartbeat is in my throat now. My steps slow as we approach my father, but Stuart and Wesley breeze past him toward the bathroom.
My father's acting like he doesn't notice anybody's joined him on the terrace. My heart's caught in my throat, and a sense of dread crashes down on my shoulders. Instantly, I know something is wrong. I know Alize isn't in that bathroom either, and my father had something to do with it.
I stop right beside him.
"Where is she?"
The levy of my restraint is going to break at any moment. Already, my armour is fracturing. My fingers tingle, itching to grab his neck, or the trigger of my gun, whichever means I'll get the truth out of him.
I picture him laying on the cut stone, crimson leaking from the centre of his forehead, eyes glassy and refracting the twinkling starlight above us. I try to convince myself that I can't do that.
I need the truth.
My father puffs out a breath, smoke billowing from his mouth.
A smile tips the corner of his mouth, and I want to slap it from his face. He should be worried. He should be afraid of me. But Griffin Duke has only ever feared one thing—losing his hard work, the Empire.
"Where is she?" I'm seething. My voice is louder now, and anger rushes through my veins like a crackling fire.
The cigarette is limp between his fingers. "Who?"
"You know who I'm fucking talking about," I hiss. "Alize."
