AllFreeNovel
Share Us
21
JASE
The meeting I’d had to tour the location Emilia and I had our eye on with the real estate agent took longer than I’d anticipated. I’d been gone from the office for hours, and coupled with the fact I’d had no cell phone coverage, I was eager to get back and see my woman. I wanted nothing more than to hold her in my arms and kiss her.
Stuart had been waiting for me outside the property, so I slid into the town car and looked at my phone until it came back online. It started to ping immediately with email after email and a few messages. I skipped them all apart from the one from Emilia.
Harlow called, needs to speak to me privately at the club. Shouldn’t be too long. See you back at the office. Love you xxx
The time on the message indicated she’d sent it about three hours previously, so she would’ve been back at the office by now. I dialed her number and frowned when it went straight to voicemail.
That was strange. I tried again, but the same thing happened. I was just about to call Marian when my phone rang, our assistant’s number coming up on the screen.
“Hi, Marian. I was just about to—”
“Jason, have you heard from Emilia this afternoon?”
Her tone left me cold. She sounded worried, a little panicked, even. “She sent me a text message earlier this afternoon, but apart from that, no. I just tried to call her a couple of times but it went straight to voicemail. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I’m starting to get worried.” Marian was one of the calmest people I’d ever met and little fazed her, so if she was worried about something, so was I. “She left hours ago to speak to Harlow at Meteor, but I’d expected her to be back well before now.”
“Do you know why she went to talk to Harlow?”
“No. Harlow called here, sounding distressed. She was crying and wanted to speak with Emilia directly. Before Emilia left, she told me Harlow wanted to talk to her privately and she was heading for the club, but she didn’t anticipate being gone long.”
My gut clenched. Something was terribly wrong. I moved the phone away from my face and spoke to my driver. “Stuart, we need to get to Meteor as soon as possible.”
“Understood.”
I went back to the call. “Marian, I’m heading there now. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve found her.”
“Do you want me to call the police, Jason?”
“We can’t, not yet. We don’t know anything’s wrong. I’m going to call Connor as soon as I’ve checked the club and have him meet me there.”
“Please keep me posted.”
“I will, promise.” I ended the call and stared blankly at my phone, dread rising up inside me like a volcano about to burst. Something had happened to my beloved fiancée. What had Harlow done to her? Bile rose in my throat and I swallowed it down, telling myself not to panic until I knew exactly what was going on.
The journey to Meteor seemed to take hours, but finally Stuart pulled the car into the private parking lot for staff and into the designated space for Emilia and me. He told me he’d stay put until he heard from me, and I hurried out of the car with a murmur of thanks.
Rushing inside the building, I took the private staircase two steps at a time and burst into our booth. It made sense that if Harlow had wanted to talk with Emilia privately, that was where they’d be. It only took me two seconds to realize the room was empty, but when I saw Emilia’s distinctive Hermès handbag on the sofa, looking like it had been tossed onto it haphazardly, blood started to pump harder through my veins.
I also noticed the two wine glasses sitting on the large coffee table. I went to reach for the one closest to Emilia’s bag, but I stopped myself from touching it, just in case.
It only took me about ten minutes to race through the entire building. I checked both the nightclub and the strip club, but she was nowhere to be found. I asked every staff member I ran into if they’d seen her, but they all shook their heads, except for Kim, who told me she’d seen Emilia arrive and ask about Harlow’s whereabouts, but hadn’t seen either woman after that.
A few of the guys who worked at the nightclub must have sensed my distress and offered to help me search, but I declined their assistance with murmured thanks.
By the time I got back to our private booth, the awful truth had begun to sink in.
Emilia had simply vanished into thin air.
I pulled out my phone and tried her again in the vain hope she’d answer, but it went to voicemail. I then called Connor. He picked up on the second ring.
“Hey, Jason.”
“Connor, I’m at Meteor and I need you here right fucking now.”
