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“You’re sure you’ve searched everywhere?”
“I’m telling you she’s not here.”
Raul rushes out the front door, pulling his jacket on. He must have just gotten in. Where would she go? Solana? Georgie?
I dig my phone out of the briefcase and hand the case to Paolo. While it slowly comes back to life, I tell Paolo to let me know if anything changes at the house.
“Raul, get the car.” I dial Ezra. It’s early, but he answers, and I know I’ve woken him from the groggy sound of his voice. “Ezra.”
There’s a pause. He must hear the urgency in my tone. “What’s happened, Judge?”
“I need the contacts of the men stationed at Georgie’s and Solana’s houses.”
“I’ll send them to you now.”
“Thank you.” I disconnect as Raul pulls up and move as quickly as I am able into the car. “Head into town,” I tell him and dial the guards one at a time, but they both tell me Georgie and Solana’s houses are quiet and have been all night.
“Her condo,” I tell Raul and instruct the men to let me know as soon as they see Solana or Georgie. All the while, I’m trying to keep my mind from wandering to Vincent Douglas. To how he wanted to witness Mercedes’s punishment but was told he could not. I doubt he’d believe she would be punished, considering. And then he’d set off on his own to avenge his sister’s death once again.
Why would she run? Fear of what The Tribunal would do to her? I’d protect her. Doesn’t she know that? I wouldn’t let them touch her.
But it doesn’t matter. I need to find her before Douglas does. She ran, and she’s on her own. She’ll need money which she had a lot of stashed at the condo. It’s not there anymore, but she doesn’t know that, so that’s where she’d go. I’m sure of it.
Traffic slows us down as we get into town, and when we’re a few blocks from the condo, I get out to walk, instructing Raul to meet me there. It’ll be faster. I hurry through the streets, imagining what I must look like when people clear out of my way. I haven’t slept. I’ve been beaten. And although adrenaline has burned the alcohol out of my system, I’m sure I’m a sight.
But I don’t care. Because I need to get to her. Bring her home.
Does Douglas know about the condo? Because he’s more dangerous than ever now. That’s where my mind goes as I get to the small complex with its white picket fences and families ushering children into minivans to be driven to school. I don’t miss their looks as I push open the gate of Mercedes’s condo and am slightly relieved when I see a light on upstairs.
I have my own key. I had one made, but that, along with the rest of my keys, is in my briefcase. I lift the pot to use the spare she keeps but find the space empty. The key is gone. It’s Mercedes. It has to be. She’d need to use it to enter.
I hear the Rolls screech to a stop once Raul arrives. I try the doorknob expecting to find it locked, but it’s not. I push it open, calling out her name as I charge into the house and immediately stop.
Because the living room and kitchen are destroyed. Furniture overturned, glasses and dishes shattered.
Raul walks inside and mutters a curse.
“Upstairs,” I tell him, and he takes the stairs two at a time.
A breeze blows in from the partially open patio door, and I take a step then another, then call out her name but get no answer.
“Nothing. There’s no one here.”
I walk through the living room, my mind not quite processing. Not wanting to. And there, just outside the patio door, I see her shoe. Just the one. I recognize it from the pair she wore when we went to The Tribunal. It’s beside an overturned pot, the plant that was inside it spilling out.
And caught on a splintered post of the little gate that leads down to the grassy path into the woods is a ripped scrap of her dress blowing in the early morning breeze. I pick up the shoe, my heart thudding against my chest as the gate loudly swings closed, then open again, and I rush down the stairs calling out her name, hurrying into the woods beyond.
Although I know she’s not here. She’s gone. Long gone. And so is whoever took her.
Their Reign
The Rite Trilogy Book 3
About This Book
From the first night I bedded her I knew I was playing with fire. And now I must face the consequence.
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