Chapter 16
Jared answered his phone with a frown. Who would be calling from an unknown number?
“Yes?” he asked.
“Bartolli! Where is she? Did you take her?”
He frowned. “Who is this?”
“Where is Angie?” the voice boomed.
Jared sat up straight.
Angie was missing?
How the fuck could she be missing?
“What do you mean where is Angie?” he snapped. “She’s supposed to be with you.”
“If you’ve taken her, Bartolli, I am going to rain hell down on you. They will not be able to find all of the pieces to put you back-the-fuck-together. Do you understand me?”
“What do you mean she is missing?” Jared asked icily. “You are meant to be taking care of her.”
“I am going to fucking kill you!”
“Zander, give me the phone!” a woman said.
“Keira, baby, what are you doing up? You’re supposed to be in bed.”
Zander’s voice changed as he spoke to his wife. It became soft, cajoling.
“Like I can sleep while my sister is missing. Let me talk to Jared.”
“No. You don’t need the stress.”
“Zander! Let me talk to him. You’re getting nowhere with him.”
There were some whispers and then a sigh.
“Bartolli, you’re on speaker with both of us,” Zander said.
Good. Finally, someone reasonable to deal with.
“Keira,” he said. “Angie is missing?”
He tried to rein in his anger and worry.
“Yes, you don’t know anything about it?” Keira asked.
“Of course not. Why would I?”
Keira sighed. “Shit. It’s nothing against you, but she’s missing and we don’t know where she’s gone. All of the cameras went offline and her phone was turned off. We don’t know where she is.”
“When did this happen? How? Isn’t Zander’s place locked down tight?” he asked.
He’d gotten North to look into Zander and his security when he’d learned Angie was with him.
He’d needed to make sure that she was safe.
“She wasn’t living with us at the time. She had her own place,” Keira told him.
“Her own place!” he yelled.
What the fuck were they thinking?
“Don’t you yell at my wife or I’ll rain the fires of hell down on you,” Zander threatened.
“You’ve already said that,” Jared pointed out.
“You need better threats, boss,” another woman said. “Bartolli doesn’t know who has her?”
“It doesn’t seem so,” Keira said tiredly. “Thanks for answering our call, Jared.”
“Wait, how long has she been missing?” he asked.
“We think the day before yesterday,” Keira said. “If you hear anything can you call us?”
“You will do the same.” Jared ended the call and got up to pace and think.
Fuck.
Where was she? Who had gotten to her?
He’d worked hard to keep her hidden and safe.
The door to his office opened and North walked in.
“Angie is missing,” he told the other man.
“I know,” North said, shocking him. “I need your help.”
“Where the hell are you taking me?” Jared asked as they walked along the path away from the house. “I have stuff to do. I need to find Angie.”
If someone had gotten to her . . . fuck!
This is why he could no longer care about people. Because he couldn’t keep them safe.
Obviously Zander had been a poor guardian to her.
It made Jared sick to think about all the stuff she’d been through. All the pain and suffering at his father’s hands. If she’d been kidnapped by someone, what were they doing to her right now?
Jared was trying to keep those thoughts out of his head. To remind himself that they had no proof that she’d been taken.
But where else would she be?
What had that fuckwit Zander been thinking, letting her live alone?
“Zander is on the list,” he told North.
North nodded.
The list was filled with people that Jared intended to destroy.
“I’ll add him.”
“Good. Now, we need to get to Wyoming. I need to see for myself where she was taken from. The kidnapper may have left some trace that Zander’s idiot team didn’t find.”
“Trust me,” North said. “He didn’t leave any trace.”
They entered an old building where no one lived any longer. There were barracks for his men on the other side of the large property. What were they doing here?
And what did North mean? Trust me? Huh? How would he know that the kidnapper hadn’t left any trace?
North led him toward a door in the derelict kitchen that he was pretty certain would take them down to the basement.
“North?” he asked in a low voice. “What is going on?”
“Just follow me down. But prepare yourself. It might not be pretty.”
Jared’s heart was racing as North unlocked what looked to be a new door. Why would he put a new door in? Why would North be bringing him down here?
North gestured to him to step into the room. Normally, Jared would refuse. With anyone else, he would have. But he trusted North.
Turned out, he shouldn’t have.
Because as he stepped into the room, he came to a sudden stop.
The scent of vomit hit him first as well as air freshener that only seemed to make the stench worse.
Then he saw her on the bed.
The first emotion to hit him was relief.
The second was horror. Then anger.
He turned to North. “What the fuck have you done?”
North stared down at Jared and Angie.
They looked right together.
This is what he’d wanted. To give Jared this. To give him what he really wanted.
So now he should back away. Leave.
After all, he didn’t know how to take care of her properly. He’d more than proven that.
“Hey, baby,” Jared said gently, brushing the hair off her forehead. “Fuck. She’s burning up. Have you given her anything for the fever?”
“Ahh, no. I have a First-Aid kit upstairs. I’ll go grab it.”
“Do that. And North?” North turned back as Jared hit him with a glare. “I’m going to concentrate on her. But after she’s better, you and I will chat.”
Sure.
If he was still around then.
Rushing up the stairs, he grabbed the First Aid kit and took it back to Jared. He handed him some pain relievers and fever reducers.
“Right, baby. You’re going to take these.” Jared sat her up and attempted to give her the pills. But she kept pushing his hand away and trying to move out of his arms.
“Shit. Have you got any that can be given rectally?” Jared asked.
“What?”
“She’s not going to swallow anything. We might have to hook her up to an IV. Perhaps we should ring the doctor.”
“No,” North said quickly. The fewer people that knew she was here, the better. “I can get that stuff.”
“You realized I just told her sister that I didn’t have her.”
“Ahh, you did?”
“Yes. And Zander promised to rain hell down on me if I did have her kidnapped.”
North shrugged. “He can try.”
He wouldn’t succeed though.
“Fuck. What a fucking mess. Get the stuff. Now.”