Chapter 38
“Actually, take me to the penthouse,” I told the driver and then sent Luc and Marksen a message.
Change of plan—meet at my place.
Thankfully, there were no accidents, nothing holding me up. This time, I was able to get straight to my home and head upstairs, but I hated it because the apartment didn’t feel right.
The entire atmosphere of this penthouse had changed simply from her presence for a single day, and it now felt empty without her here. I took off my coat and threw it on one of the couches, marched over the broken glass from the table still in the middle of the room, and poured myself a drink.
I slammed it down and immediately poured myself another, the burn helping to focus me and take an edge off my anxiety so I could think clearly.
I didn’t toss the second one back. I didn’t want to overdo it. Eddie needed me to be strong, clear-headed, and focused for her. Instead, I took a sip, set the glass down, and waited.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long. Marksen was in my home within minutes, making calls to friends and friends of friends and seeing if they could figure out who took my girl.
Minutes after that, Luc walked in with a man I didn’t recognize. He was tall, not as tall as I was, but far more imposing with his almost-silver eyes and black hair. His nose had clearly been broken at least a few times and his muscles were stacked high, like he never had anything better to do than work out in a gym.
This man wasn’t like us. He didn’t give off an air of money and prep school. He was a different breed altogether. He was a brawler, but not a dumb one. He looked around the room, cataloging everything in his mind.
I could see just how he took in every single detail, filing the information in case he needed it later. And for once, I thought Luc might have made the right call with who he brought.
Luc introduced the man next to him. “Harrison, this is Sergeant Reid Taylor. He heads my private security team, and he’s going to help us find your girlfriend.”
The bodyguard nodded.
“Eddie,” I said. “Her name is Edwina Carmichael. She goes by Eddie.”
“Okay, Mr. Astrid, I’m going to ask you to take a seat,” Reid said. “And tell me absolutely everything you know. No details are too small. We need anything you can give us.”
I nodded, sitting down on the couch and taking another sip of the whiskey as I told him everything. From my suspicions to the call I got from her number, as well as what her friend saw. I gave him her friend’s number when I showed him the picture that she gave me.
“It’s not much,” he said. “But I’ve worked with less. I’m sure we can find?—”
“Isn’t this the same guy who wasn’t able to find Olivia when Marksen took her?” I asked, interrupting him and looking at Luc. I didn’t have time to deal with a second-rate security force.
“No, he’s the guy I hired after I fired my last team because they couldn’t find Olivia,” Luc said.
“Had he hired me in the first place, I promise you that story would have turned out much differently.” Reid crossed his thick arms over his chest and stared me down.
“Not that anyone’s asking me,” Marksen butted in. “But I think that actually turned out very well, all things considered.”
“I don’t know how the hell you can say that. Olivia is clearly settling,” Luc said, rolling his eyes.
I picked up a crystal glass and threw it across the room, watching as it shattered against the wall, the expensive fifty-year-old Scotch staining the white wallpaper.
“This isn’t about Olivia,” I yelled. “This is about Eddie. She is in danger, and it is my fault. We need to get her back. You two can bitch about Olivia’s bad taste in men later.”
The men stared at me in shock for a moment. I stared them each down in turn, my chest rising and lowering with each breath I sucked in through my no-doubt-flaring nostrils. “Help me find her or get the fuck out of my way.”
They all nodded, and Marksen got back on his phone, making calls. Luc sent a message to his father to see if he knew if the mob had taken her, and why they would have taken my girl, and where.
Reid took his phone into the other room to call Eddie’s friend, and I realized I had never even gotten the girl’s name.
I turned back to Luc. “What are the chances this is the O’Murphy clan?”
“I would say pretty high, but something about this doesn’t feel like them,” Luc said. “After you called me, I called their boss, and they said that they’re no longer worried about the work they lost when I decided to break ties. They’d found a bigger whale. I’m still checking with my father and other people, but it seems like they are being funded by someone else.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I asked.
“I have absolutely no idea, but I don’t like it,” Luc said. “I really don’t like it at all. They didn’t deny taking her, just denied that you were their target. Is there any other reason they would be after her?”
“No, to them, she is a nobody. I don’t understand,” I said. “Why her? Why would they go after Eddie? If they know about the case that I’m building against them, why wouldn’t they come after me?”
“Because you’re too big of a target,” Marksen said. “If they go after the district attorney, then the mayor, the governor, the entire state is going to rain holy hellfire on them, but Eddie, as far as they’re concerned, is disposable. She’s nothing, just your girlfriend.”
“But they don’t know that. The only thing anybody knows about Eddie is that she’s my paralegal. How would they know that she was anything more to me? We just became official last night. As far as the world knew, I was happily engaged to Catherine until about twenty-four hours ago.”
“Is there anyone else that knew you and Eddie were a couple?” Marksen said, sitting back on the couch, crossing his ankle over his knee. “They are clearly getting their orders from someone with a bone to pick with the girl.”
“No, the only other person I told was Luc, but she was gone by the time I came back from the club.”
“Did anyone know you two were sleeping together?” Luc asked.
I shook my head and then thought about it.
“I mean, I’m sure Catherine and my mother suspected, but it’s not like it was a problem for Catherine. She didn’t care. She was well aware that our arrangement was nothing more than a contract.”
“I can’t imagine your harpy of a mother was thrilled you were dipping your pen in the company ink.” Luc apparently couldn’t resist stirring things up.
I gave him a death stare that made him look away.
“Mary Quinn Astrid didn’t know that I was serious about Eddie. She thinks I stopped seeing her a little over a week ago.” The words tasted like a lie as soon as they passed my lips.
I didn’t know what to believe. I didn’t know whose fault it was that Eddie was a target. Or whether it was because she was dating me—even though no one was supposed to know—or if she was just the most convenient target close to me, and the mob actually did think that they were just kidnapping my paralegal.
I sat down on the couch, put my head in my hands, and tried to focus. I had no idea what my next move should be. With any other case I worked, I knew what I had to do. Once I had a goal, I could clearly see the path to achieve it, but this time I just didn’t know what to do.
Footsteps entered the room. There was a pause, then more footsteps before the wooden coffee table in front of my couch creaked.
“I understand you’re a district attorney?” Reid’s voice came from directly in front of me. He must have sat down on the coffee table.
I nodded, not willing to look up.
“Does that mean you have connections in the local PD?”
Again I nodded.
“Did you contact any of them?”
“No. I don’t know who can be trusted in the police department. This mob has several cousins, brothers, uncles, and friends in the different police precincts,” I said, finally looking up into the cold, determined eyes of the bodyguard. “Like most infesting insects, they are best at breeding.”
“Good, I’m glad you didn’t get in touch with them. I have a few trusted friends on the police force myself. I’m reaching out to them to put an APB out on the car. In the meantime, I have men on the streets checking out the known locations for the O’Murphy clan.”
“What do you need me to do?” I asked, needing to do something.
“Keep your phone handy in case I need you to call in police backup, but for the moment, just sit tight.” He rose from the coffee table and grabbed his phone again.
“Absolutely not.” I straightened and met his gaze. “This is my woman, my responsibility. I need to bring her home safe.”
Reid looked at me for a moment and nodded. “Okay, well then, get off your ass, and let’s go get your girl.”