AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And I hadn’t stopped thinking about it since we’d received the messages from Elsie and Jagger nearly two hours earlier.
Since then, Mayfair had transformed into ground zero for the entire city to locate Sofia Zola Parker, the name on her months-old passport. With Jagger’s help, Xavier had called in every favor he could, making connections at every crime fighting organization in the UK and Europe, including the National Crime Agency, Interpol, even MI6.
Matthew, who was freaking out in Boston, had called his friends at the CIA and the FBI for assistance, though no one had much to offer. Even Derek had been looped in on the process in case he knewanythingthat could help.
Elsie, in her abject state of guilt, was manning the sort of communications center that had been set up in the living room, which consisted of two laptop computers, four cell phones (two of which were on hold with some agency or another), and a headset allowing her to organize the search effort. It was the least she felt she could do, considering it had been on her watch that Sofia had been abducted from the private airport just outside of the city. Elsie had been locked in a bathroom by an unknown assailant. Meanwhile, the kidnapper had swooped in and taken Sofia, somehow without a fight and without raising the suspicions of the small number of airport employees who hadn’t heard Elsie’s shouts until it was far too late.
Now, while we anxiously waited, Xavier was pacing the apartment like a rabid tiger, clearly wishing he could take to the streets himself in search of his daughter. In lieu of that, he was back to throwing arrows where he could.
“Where thefuckis she, Georgie?” Xavier’s voice boomed across the entire Mayfair flat, echoing off the walls like thunder threatening to split the marbled floors in half. “Where is my daughter? If you know anything, you had better speak the fuck up.”
“Well,howin the world should I know?” Georgina’s shrill voice rang through on speaker. “Did I look like I’d gone and kidnapped the girl whilst hosting a dinner? I’ve been here the whole time, and well you know it.”
Over the speaker of Xavier’s phone, her voice sounded tinny and even more disingenuous than usual. It made me want to scream from the kitchen, feeling a bit feline myself.
“Do you think we’re stupid?” I snarled as Xavier came closer. “You literally threatened us less than an hour ago, and not five minutes later, we get a call that our daughter is missing. You are the obvious prime suspect.”
“Oh, love,” Elsie murmured.
Maybe it was the audible crack in my voice that caused such obvious pity. I’d already broken down exactly four times since hearing the news. Number five was coming.
Xavier, on the other hand, had only one emotion running through him in perpetuity: murder.
“I swear to God, Georgina, if you’re lying, I’ll fucking finish you for good,” he hissed. “I’ll have the queen open the Tower of London just for you. Maybe retrofit the old chamber in Kendal, since you’re so keen to get your hands on the place. I’ll have them bring back the rack, or maybe the Scavenger’s Daughter. You think the public likes pictures of me and mine? They’ll devour a duchess on display.”
“You’re a monster,” Georgina said flatly, though even I could hear the fear in her voice. “You always have been. I hope you understand these threats will not go unheard.”
“It’s what any sane man would do upon losing his daughter,” Xavier snapped right back. “I challenge you to find one who wouldn’t do the same.”
“Be that as it may, it makes no sense to accuse me. I shan’t stand for such insults!”
“You’ll stand for whatever the fuck I say until I have my daughter back safely!” Xavier roared.
“Boy—Xavier—Your Grace—”
“Elsie, what the hell?” Xavier whirled around. “Since when have youeveraddressed me as a duke?”
I plucked the phone from his hand and ended the call to Georgina promptly—she didn’t need to hear whatever this was.
Elsie simply crumpled on the couch.
“Xavi, be nice,” I said weakly. “She’s feeling bad enough as it is.” I turned to her for what had to be the tenth time. “It wasn’t your fault she was t-taken, Elsie.”
Shit. I really couldn’t even say it without wanting to scream and cry myself.
But Elsie just shook her head and refused to engage with that line of thinking, though her lower lip was also trembling something fierce. “Detective Kingston has just returned our calls, sir. He’s on the third line.” She held up one of the cell phones.
Without another thought, I flew across the room and snatched the phone. “Derek, hey. Do you haveanynews? Anything that might help us find her?”
It was a long shot, of course, asking a New York detective to help with a London kidnapping. But he wouldn’t be calling us back without something other than condolences, would he?
“Actually, maybe,” Derek’s friendly voice was a balm to my very soul. “And maybe not. Honestly, it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
And also a dart.
I sank onto the couch opposite Elsie while Xavier raced to my side, took the phone, and put it on speaker.
“Derek, it’s Xavier,” he said. “What is it? What did you find?”
