Chapter 4
When I got home, I saw that Robert’s fangs weren’t all that was missing. The rest of Robert was gone, too.
A lot had happened since I’d seen him. Not only did I crave my boyfriend’s comfort, but I was also bursting to tell him the news about Nick’s murder.
“Robert? Are you here?”
Nothing.
I’d repeatedly tried calling him on the way home.
His phone had kept going to voicemail, which was odd.
I assumed he would have been dying to learn all the nitty-gritty details about my meeting at Lakeside Plaza—or at least offer up commiseration after I’d been forced to deal with Nick.
At minimum, he should have at least wanted to know if I’d gotten his fangs back.
So, where was he?
My chest heated with a spark of anger. I wouldn’t have said that I was pissed off, but I was getting prepared to be. Robert couldn’t still be mad about the tiff we’d had earlier, could he? He’d better not be after what I’d just been through.
I went into the kitchen and set my handbag on the dining room table, then looked around for a note. After a moment of searching, I saw no note but understood why my calls had gone unanswered. Robert’s cell was sitting on top of the table, buzzing like crazy with message notifications.
I frowned. On weekdays, Robert never went anywhere without his phone. When you run your own corporation, being continually available Monday through Friday is simply a way of life.
I went into the garage to see if his car was gone.
It wasn’t. I felt the hood, and it was cold, so he hadn’t gone anywhere recently.
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled.
I was getting a bad feeling. There had to be a logical explanation, though, right?
No need to overreact when Robert simply may have gone out for a stroll.
Telling myself to stay calm didn’t slow the thudding of my heart, especially when a voice in my brain piped up to remind me that I’d never once witnessed Robert casually going for a walk the whole time we’d lived together.
He didn’t casually do anything. Everything he did had a purpose.
Also, he’d been expecting me, so he wouldn’t have suddenly gone meandering around the neighborhood.
So, where the hell was he?
Not in bed. I’d checked his sleeping chamber anyway, despite it being nighttime and vampires not being napping types. Empty.
I went through the rest of the house, starting from the bottom and working my way up. I even looked in closets. My fright increased as I ran out of places to search.
The house even felt empty. Off, too, though my heebie-jeebies might have been caused by seeing my ex-boyfriend’s head floating in a fountain. I took a few deep breaths to slow my heartbeat.
In the last place I searched, the living room, I came across signs of a struggle. It wasn’t a bloody scene, just a crushed ottoman, an overturned lamp and table, and a couple cushions askew on the sofa. However, it was enough to convince me that something nefarious had happened.
I sprinted to the front door and set the home alarm, then ran to the kitchen to get my phone out of my purse.
I tapped nine and one but hesitated before adding the final one.
Was that the best move, involving human law enforcement?
Robert and I were already on their radar, thanks to the statement I’d given Officer Dodds at the site of Nick’s murder.
Wouldn’t it seem suspicious that I was showing up in their reports twice in one night?
Had I been dealing strictly with human foul play, there would have been no reluctance on my part.
I would have already been down at the police station hollering for somebody to find my man.
But I wasn’t dealing with a human disappearance.
Calling the police on a vampire’s behalf could do more harm than good. Robert might even get upset if I did.
I could only imagine the PR nightmare it would create for Robert’s company if word got out that he was missing.
I had absolutely no idea how corporations like Bramson Enterprises were run, but in the movies it always seemed like a CEO got screwed over whenever they were left in a vulnerable position.
What if board members made rash decisions during Robert’s absence, like sweeping layoffs or electing new partners who could overthrow his position of power?
I pulled a chair out from underneath the dining room table and slunk down into it. I tapped my nails nervously. “What am I going to do?” I asked, groaning.
Other questions I’d been trying to suppress floated to the center of my brain, demanding to be reckoned with. I squeezed my eyes shut to make them go away, but they stuck like glue. Was it possible that Robert had been involved in Nick’s murder? Was that why he’d disappeared so suddenly?
I bit my lip, ashamed for even having such thoughts. “Robert wouldn’t do something like that. It’s not his style,” I snapped, as if I’d been arguing with someone in the room.
Furthermore, it didn’t explain the signs of struggle I’d found. A minor struggle by vampire standards, which made the entire situation weirder. It wasn’t like Robert not to put up a fight.
Who even were his enemies? Robert had none, as far as I knew.
He, of course, had dealt with his fair share of disgruntled employees and crazed internet trolls—but show me a billionaire who hasn’t.
He’d also had more run-ins with the paparazzi than he could count.
However, none of the incidents had been so violent or nasty that they’d escalate to a home invasion.
What about the VGO? We’d been involved in the misunderstanding with them recently, but they now considered us allies. They’d have no reason to attack Robert out of the blue.
Frustrated, I sat back in the chair, staring at the chandelier above the table.
It sounded pompous, but it was true: Robert was important.
Any human with a vague knowledge of business and finance would know that he was outrageously wealthy and connected to all sorts of influential individuals.
Was that what this was, a kidnapping for ransom?
I made a sputtering sound. No mortal on the planet would have been able to overpower a vampire as strong as Robert, not even if they’d had the assistance of a dozen human soldiers on steroids. The house certainly would have been in a lot worse shape, had they even tried.
Did that mean, then, that it was a vampire who’d taken Robert?
That also didn’t add up. Most vamps had money.
They may not have as much money as Robert but kidnapping him wouldn’t have been worth the risk given his new alliance with the VGO.
No vampire in their right mind would have messed with him.
They’d have to be suicidal. Also, had two vamps gotten into a scuffle, the entire living room, and maybe even the rest of the house, would have been wrecked.
My nerves getting the better of me, I went to the pantry and pulled out a family-sized bag of cheese popcorn so that I’d have something to munch on.
I considered getting a bowl for all of two seconds.
I returned to the table and ripped open the bag, deeply inhaling as a puff of cheesy air wafted up to my nostrils.
As I munched, I considered that maybe Robert wasn’t missing at all.
He could have upended the living room while running out of the house in a hurry.
While it would have been absurd to imagine a human doing such a thing, I knew firsthand that vampires inadvertently damaged objects all the time.
Maybe he’d been in such a hurry that he’d forgotten his phone.
For all I knew, he could have run out the door to help a neighbor catch a runaway cat.
“Are you kidding me?” I spat at the empty room. I doubted Robert even knew the neighbor’s name.
It was time to face facts. Something bad—or, at minimum, not good—had happened to my vampire boyfriend.
He wouldn’t be helped if I didn’t stop sitting around inventing nonsense scenarios.
I sensed Nick’s murder, the missing fangs, and Robert’s disappearance were connected, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how.
I regarded the phone as I considered calling Robert’s maker, but no way in hell that was happening.
Robert and I were both still pissed at him for all the problems he’d caused us.
I’d rather have no help at all than Leopold’s, though my tune might change later if I exhausted all my options with no success.
I put the popcorn away, noticing that I’d nearly plowed through the whole bag.
My mouth was dry, so I used that as an excuse to pour myself a glass of wine.
I went into the living room, shuttered as I saw the disarray, and returned to the kitchen to grab the whole bottle.
Between Nick’s murder and Robert’s inexplicable vanishing, my nerves were electrified.
I set the bottle and my glass aside and moved the squashed ottoman into the closet so that I wouldn’t have to look at it. I then placed the lamp and table upright, fluffing cushions. There, it was like nothing ever happened.