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I can't bring myself to finish the rest of the thought.
It's like I've been cut open.
I need to find her.
I kick the fucking planter that has her blood on it so hard it topples over. The sound of the stone shattering is almost cathartic. But I don't have the time to break them all to feel better.
Whenever someone's been kidnapped, the first forty-eight hours are the most crucial. I'm not even sure if I can completely rule my father out of this yet, but this doesn't seem like the Empire's style.
The blood left behind.
The whole thing happening in the garden.
It's too sloppy. My father would have had her taken from the estate without a trace. But this could also be his way of throwing me off his trail. Whatever the case, the cameras at this fucking hotel should help make things a little clearer.
I need to get to it before anyone else does.
"I need the CCTV footage!" I roar.
Wesley and Stuart have been canvassing the garden, looking for any sign of her. The look on their faces when we reconvene tells me that they didn't find anything. Wesley most of all looks like a lost puppy.
"Alexander, I'm so sorry, I—"
I cut him off with a slap across his face so hard I'm sure he's seeing stars. Blood trickles from his lip. Stuart is stoic. He knows better than to react.
I grab Wesley by the collar, bringing him close enough so he doesn't miss a word I say.
"You'd better hope she's alive," I grit out. "Make yourself useful by helping me find her, and maybe you'll only get out of this with a busted lip and a few broken bones."
His lips are pasted shut, his gaze level with mine.
But I know he's freaking out on the inside. I have every right to kill him for what happened here tonight, and he knows it.
"Because if she's dead, Wesley..."
I don't need to finish the sentence.
He nods solemnly. "Y-yes, sir."
"Get the CCTV footage," I order, shoving him away.
He scurries off like a rat. Stuart and I follow him. There's a pounding in my head to match the sound of our footsteps echoing in the darkness. When we exit the thicket of bushes and flowers, the party above us is in full swing.
And my father is gone.
Not like I expected him to stick around. He might not be the one who took Alize from the party, but I still think he saw her, saw something. It was too convenient that he was hanging around one of the last places she was seen.
I don't have the restraint to go back into the party.
So I enter the lobby from the grounds, the three of us heading toward the security room. My father chose Carlton Castle because they're on our payroll. How the fuck something like this could happen here, is beyond me.
I take my gun from my waistband, keeping a firm grip on it.
It earns me a look from Stuart, and from a handful of the guests in the lobby. My eyes scan the room. I fucking dare anyone to come up to me right now. I'm barely holding it together as it is.
I'd love a reason to take out my frustration on them.
When we get to the security room, the door is locked.
