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“Not a chance, Belle. You know what has to happen now that you know so much.” Ethan cast a look over his shoulder at Haileigh. “Get the cables.”
ChapterThirteen
When Declan burst into the WEST Protection office and slammed the door behind him, three sets of eyes met his.
“I’m going to make this short and sweet. A guest is missing. Belle. My date. Myfakedate,” he corrected himself. His fists curled as he prepared to make heads roll if someone so much as uttered a word about his state of dishevelment.
He’d spent hours stalking the grounds, searching for Belle. And even more hours being dragged into the deepest depths of despair that she really might have just up and left without telling him.
The only thing that kept him from grabbing on to the thread of that narrative and believing it was the fact that her belongings were still in the bunkhouse. But the other part of him knew that she was just stubborn enough to take off and leave her stuff for someone else to box up and send to her.
Boone pushed to his feet. “We already know. We’ve been searching for you. Jesus, you look bad, Declan. Sit down before you fall over.”
He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Can’t. You gotta help me track her down. I can do it myself, but if we all work together, we’ll find her faster.”
His boss pointed to the chair again. “Sit. We already heard from her.”
“Where?” he snapped.
A couple of the guys exchanged a look.
Boone waved a hand. “Show him.”
“Show me what?” Panic and dread rolled like a barbed-wire tumbleweed through his chest and tore out half his heart. If something horrible happened to her, he could never forgive himself.
McCoy swiveled the computer monitor in front of him so Declan got a good look at some video footage. Belle’s beautiful face appeared on the screen.
He stumbled forward and braced a hand on the desk. “Where is this? Where is she?”
“We haven’t pinpointed her location yet, but we think she’s close.”
“How did you get this video? Was it sent to you?”
McCoy shook his head, lips grim. “Looks like she hacked the system last night.”
He stilled and then snapped upright to his full height. “Not possible. She’s Belle…just Belle.” He echoed the words she used, but as he said them, he knew how hollow and unbelievable they sounded.
“She hacked the system and applied a patch with a message that she’s been kidnapped. This video was coded into it. When we ran the security check this morning, it popped up. It’s genius-level work, really. Quite impressive.”
He slashed a hand through the air. “I don’t care about any of that! Turn up the volume so I can hear what she’s saying!”
A second later, Belle’s voice poured out of the speakers. He listened, his stomach hitting the soles of his boots as dread overtook him.
“She’s being held hostage by her ex!”
“We know. We’ve got guys out searching for her already. They’re combing over the ranch, but it’s difficult because a lot of the guests are pulling out or have already left.”
“But it’s still dark. Why would they be leaving so soon?”
McCoy shrugged. “Who knows why these rich people do what they do? Maybe they want to get home for family. All we know is that several RVs pulled out around midnight, and several of the cars are missing from where they were parked in the field.”
He slammed a palm off the desk. “Make them search faster! Did you get a trace on that video?”
Boone stepped up to the desk. “It came from somewhere on the ranch.”
His brows shot up. “IP address?”
“Same as here. She hacked that too.”
