Chapter Eleven
Miles
An alert hits my phone before it rings. It is Kyros. “There was an explosion at the campus quad. It was a small bomb in the garbage can. Only two injuries and both are our guys, but Elsa’s missing.”
“Fuck, it was planned. Are you tracking her?”
“Yes, but the signal drops about ten miles from the location. Her ring was probably dumped on the highway out of town.” She has more trackers, but if they saw the ring, they probably pulled all her jewelry and her book bag.
She has one in her tennis shoes, so if he’s wise, he took them off too.
God, the thought of him taking her clothes off sends me into a fit, and I punch the wall, breaking a large glass cabinet.
“Oh my god, Boss, is everything okay?”
“Get Emiliano in here now,” I roar.
He rushes into the room, and I shout, “Someone’s kidnapped Elsa.”
The color fades from his face, and he barely makes it to my sofa. I’m afraid I nearly gave the man a heart attack. We call a medic and then get him care while I attempt to find out who took his precious daughter and the love of my life.
Fuck, I didn’t mean to send him to the hospital. Within ten minutes I’ve made all the calls, and my men are back from the campus with a special guest.
They’ve gathered in the interrogation area of the casino where we question thieves or card counters. As soon as I arrive, my fist makes contact with the bastard. I already hated the fucker, but he’s bumbling and not giving me the answers I need.
“Where is she?” I bark into the face of the stupid TA who has been fawning over my woman. I learn he has an eager interest in her beyond doing his job. I want to smash his head in, but I don’t have time to deal with him.
“I don’t know,” the punk squeals. He’s the man my security team mentioned was a little too friendly to her during class and often stopped her before she left for the day.
“You’re lying. You’ve been watching my fiancée, so you better speak up before I cut off your tongue.”
“I swear that I haven’t seen her since she left this morning, but she wasn’t alone.”
“Who was she with?” I demand, grabbing his collar and staring at this weakling in the face.
“First, it was the girl Angie that she meets up with, but then they parted ways and she went to her next class, but it looked like the doors were closed so she went off to the side. I didn’t see her go in because the explosion happened and I turned to see it.
When I finally looked back, I thought she went to class just like they did.
” He points to Elsa’s security who are bandaged.
They were charred from the explosion yet are safe, whereas my woman is gone.
How the hell did she get taken? She’d been safe, protected, or so I thought. Johnny wasn’t anywhere near her, and neither were any of the other families. If it wasn’t those assholes, then who could have taken my future?
We have only been engaged for a week. We foolishly thought she was safer now that everyone knew she was engaged to me, but that only seemed to make her a greater target.
I love her with all my heart and soul, and if anything happens to her, there will be no end to what I won’t do to seek my revenge. The thought of losing her is unbearable.
“Get this little bitch out of here. If I see him ever again, I’m going to put a bullet in his head and dispose of his body in the desert.” They drag his ass out and I return to my office to look for answers, but what I need is a way to find her.
I’m waiting for news from campus, and it’s been over an hour.
Kyros went there to get information from the school.
If I have to hack the system, I will. In fact, I’m loading my system right now.
I don’t have time for permission. I get a text from him.
I’m in. They don’t want problems from one of their prominent citizens.
Good. I need answers now.
I pace my office, pouring myself a drink. The sting on my hand doesn’t even bother me anymore, but it’s nothing because I’m going to do so much worse later when I go on a rampage. So far I haven’t heard from anyone about a ransom, which scares the fuck out of me.
My godfather enters, and I remark, “I thought you’d be in the hospital.”
He chuckles like a madman. “You are fucking crazy if you think I’d let the devil take me before I find my baby girl.”
“Good. I need all the help I can get because I’m about to burn the world to the ground for her.” I’m doing my best to maintain control.
“They gave me an adrenaline shot and a warning to rest, but I don’t give a fuck.”
“I’ve contacted the families, and so far, they all claim she wasn’t taken by their men. Novak offered his services, but I turned them down. I’m not owing anyone unless we need them.”
“We don’t. We have our own people. The only way they’d know more is if they’re involved,” Milo snarls, entering behind him and fixing his suit. I don’t miss the .357 on his person. He’s ready for war, which is good because it’s time.
“If any of them are involved, they will pay until there is nothing left. I don’t care if she even just chipped a damn nail.”
“I’ve got a lead. Someone nabbed her from her class after she met with Angie, her friend.
” I shake my head because I’m so damn furious at how I failed her and how her guards had failed their tasks, but knowing that there had been an intentional diversion to distract them while she was still twenty feet from their reach had pissed me off even more.
If we had her on a tight leash like we preferred, her guards wouldn’t have given her an ounce of space.
My main line rings, and I answer it. “Ivanov.”
“It’s Santos. I wanted to say I’m sorry about your fiancée. I wanted to let you know that my son and I have nothing to do with her disappearance.”
“Why are you calling me?”
“Because Johnny’s on his way there. I told him to mind his damn business, but he’s bringing Miss Stevens, who has information for you. I want you to leave him be because he’s only doing this to protect her.”
“Fair enough.” I know he’s not involved, but it’s interesting that he is bringing her along. “As long as he doesn’t start shit, everything will be fine. All I want is my woman back.”
A moment later, my office door slams open.
“What’s the news on her?” My father storms through the door with three other Riders I didn’t expect to see: Boomer, Blade, and Wrench.
They got here fast as fuck, which took me by surprise.
I check the clock, and it has been less than four hours since I called my father.
“You got here fast as fuck.”
“We took the fast jet, and we might have broken some FAA laws.”
“We need to find my niece now,” Blade snaps, grinding his knuckles. He grips my godfather’s shoulder. “How is my sister?”
“Barely hanging on.”
“Damn it. We need to find Elsa,” he snarls.
“Miss Angela is here to see you, Miles,” my assistant says from the wide-open doorway.
“Bring her in here.” She scurries in, looking a mess. Her face is tearstained, and her arm is bandaged. Johnny Santos isn’t anywhere to be found.
“What happened to you?”
“I was knocked down in the chaos. It was like a stampede near the can. I’d just dumped my cup about ten seconds before the explosion, so I was pretty close. Anyway, none of that matters. I only found out about Elsa when Johnny said his dad asked if he’d messed with her again.”
“Where the fuck is Johnny now? What do you know?” I ask.
“He left because he said I was safe with you all, but to call him if I needed anything.”
“You don’t need to call him for shit,” Milo snarls.
She looks up and him angrily and then directs her attention to me. “I think I know who took her. It was the guy from prom. I didn’t realize it at first, until I learned she was missing. It took me a minute, but I saw him on campus today, so it had to be him.”
“Do you mean Jacob?” Milo says.
“Yes. I swear it was him, except he looked a little different.”
My phone rings, and it’s my team leader at the scene so I raise my hand to stop the conversation. “Security here has footage, and I’m sending it to you now to do your thing with the software.” He explains the info, and I get to my computer, waiting for the footage while I boot my tracking system.
“He’s caught leaving the campus in an ambulance. We’ve traced it. We’ve sent a team to search for it, but I’m not sure if they changed vehicles.”
“Keep on it.” I look back at everyone after I end the call.
“Angie, thank you. Please go home and get some rest. Someone will escort you there.”
“Please let me know when you bring her home safe. We were supposed to have a girls’ day tomorrow.” She wipes tears from her face. It’s the first time I’m hearing this, but I know Elsa said she’d been neglecting her bestie and they needed to hang out again. Maybe they just made plans.
“Hopefully soon,” I add.
As soon as she’s gone, Emiliano looks right at his son and asks, “What the fuck happened, Milo?”
He drops to one of the chairs, running his hand over his face. “The night of prom, the bastard drugged her and attempt to assault her, but she ran to the bathroom and called Mom.”
“That was over two fucking years ago.” His chest is heaving with anger.
“Take a fucking seat before you pass out.” The man nearly died earlier today and he’s pushing it.
“Who the fuck was going to tell me about this?” he barks out.
“I thought I’d handled it, Dad.”
“Your mom didn’t tell me either.” There was a sense of betrayal in his tone that I knew hurt.
Milo sighed. “It’s not like mom didn’t want to tell you, but Elsa asked us not to. She was mortified and afraid that you’ve never let her out of your sight again.”
“Damn fucking right.”
“Security was high on her. She already wasn’t leaving the house after this happened.” He scrunched his brows together like he was remembering something.
“So why didn’t you kill him?”
“The only reason I didn’t kill the bastard was because there were too many people that knew she was the last one with him.”