Chapter 39 The Hunted
THE HUNTED
QUINTON
The tenth time’s the charm.
We’ve been looking at houses all weekend.
It’s proven to be rather difficult to blend the needs and wants of three very distinct individuals.
Damon prefers sleek surfaces, a minimalist approach.
Emery is drawn to warmer finishes—fireplaces and exposed brick.
I fall in-between, wanting a slice of both worlds.
We haven’t had much luck in our search until today.
This Park Avenue brownstone is modern, but also rustic and charming.
A perfect mix of us all.
Emery, Damon, and I step into the tastefully decorated living room, and I mentally cross my fingers that we’ve found the one. The realtor, a polished woman in her forties, greets us with a professional smile.
"I'll give you some time to look around. Let me know if you have any questions," she says before exiting the room.
Emery lights up with excitement as she begins exploring the townhouse. Damon follows her with a weak smile. At least he’s smiling. That’s a good sign.
As I begin to envision the future that could unfold within these walls, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I glance down at the screen. Agent Ube. My heart rattles with apprehension, and I excuse myself to a quiet corner.
He must have updates on Antonia Mancini. Why else call? I press the phone to my ear, fingertips tingling with nerves. “Well?”
Agent Ube clears his throat, a rough sound laced with tension. This can’t be good. "I have bad news, Dr. Marquis," he says solemnly. "It appears Antonia Mancini wiped herself from all our databases and servers. Every document we've compiled is gone."
My hand tightens into a fist, the ground beneath my feet nearly swallowing me whole. "What do you mean she wiped herself?"
"For the sake of transparency, which is what you deserve, it means she doesn't technically exist anymore," Agent Ube explains. "Birth certificate, IRS information, immigration records—everything. She has essentially deleted herself from every single federal and state server."
My mind spins, an anvil pressing on my chest. On my heart.
Fucking hell. How is this possible? She erased her entire digital footprint?
There’s no trace of her existence? It can’t be.
This chapter needs to end. To close. Until she’s behind bars, I know there won’t be any true peace.
We’ll all be on edge. Waiting. Wondering.
Christ…what a horrid way to live.
"What about surveillance footage, traffic cams?” I ask. “Hard copies? You must have hard copies.”
"We live in a digital age, Dr. Marquis,” Agent Ube says, a note of frustration in his tone. He’s frustrated? He doesn’t know the meaning of that word. “My team is working overtime right now to try and recover the files, but it’s not looking good. Whatever she did, it appears to be irreversible.”
Irreversible…
No. That can’t be.
"So, now what?" I ask through gritted teeth. "What does this mean?"
"It means that we'll need to work harder to find her," Agent Ube says. "We'll need to explore alternative ways to locate her.”
“Like what?” I seethe.
He sighs. “Mostly human human intelligence. She may have erased herself from the digital world, but she can't erase her physical presence. We’ll cooperate with other agencies, and we’ll find her, Dr. Marquis. I promise we will.”
Empty promises. That’s all this is. False hope.
A surge of anger courses through me. Damon was correct. The FBI is limited. They can only do so much for us. We need to find her. We need to hunt her down. Not in a year or a decade. Now. We need to find her right fucking now.
I tried the legal route, the proper route, but it’s becoming more and more evident that we must take matters into our own hands.
We need Red. She’s seen Toni’s digital signature. She knows what to look for. Toni might have wiped her existence but she’s still out there, and that’s unacceptable.
No matter the cost, we need to find her. I won’t stop until we do.
"Quinton?" Emery's voice calls out from the living room. “Quin?”
"I'll be right there," I say back to Emery, then turn my attention back to the agent. "Keep me updated, Ube.”
"Of course, Dr. Marquis.”
“I mean it. Any new piece of information, you share it, is that clear?”
“Let us do our job, Dr. Marquis,” he says, clipped. “We’re professionals. We will handle this.”
I almost want to laugh at him, but I don’t. I don’t utter another word. It’s useless. We’re on our own.
Ending the call, I pocket the phone and join Emery and Damon in the living room, attempting to appear unfazed and present. I’m a horrid actor. She notices my unease straight away.
“What’s wrong?’ Emery asks, brow perked. “Who was that?”
“Nothing’s wrong, darling.” I offer her a reassuring smile that she doesn’t buy, not even for a penny. “Just a work call.”
She crosses her arms. “You’re lying.”
“It’s nothing,” I say, tone lacking conviction. “I don’t want to worry you, darling.”
She tilts her head. “We said no more secrets, Quin. Whatever it is, I can handle it.”
Damon’s eyes darken. “Tell us.”
I swallow. They’re right. No more secrets.
“That was Agent Ube. He’s just informed me that Toni hacked into all their servers and wiped herself from their systems. All their systems. In the eyes of the law, she doesn’t exist anymore.”
Emery’s face pales as she staggers backward, her calves hitting the edge of the couch before she sits down. “That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not.” I sit in the armchair opposite of her as Damon hovers between us, his expression tense. “Maybe we should put off buying a house…” I bury my face in my hands. “At least our condos are monitored and guarded. There’s security and—”
“No,” Emery mutters, shaking her head. I look up at her, and she flits her weary gaze between Damon and me.
“No,” she says again, more confident, more certain.
“I… We can’t stop living our lives because we’re afraid, Quin.
What if… What if we never find her? What then?
She can’t dictate our future like this. That’s what she wants.
She wants us to be scared. No. This house…
” Emery looks around and smiles, genuinely smiles, and for a moment all seems well.
“We need this, Quin. I…” She glances at Damon. “I think we all want a new beginning.”
“I agree with Emery. We can’t let that bitch control us,” Damon states. “We’ll hire round-the-clock security. Ex-military. We’ll—”
“In that case, I think we should contact Red again,” I say, dreading another round of cat-and-mouse. “If anyone can track down Toni, it’ll be her.”
“For all we know, Toni could be halfway around the world not even thinking about us,” Emery says, and I’m taken aback by her newfound optimism. “Maybe she wiped herself because she also wanted a fresh start. Maybe we’re worrying for no reason.”
Damon cocks his head. “Given what you’ve told us about your last interaction together, I doubt she’s on a beach somewhere drinking a fucking margarita.” He glances at me. “Quinton killed her girlfriend. There’s no way she’s not out for blood.”
“Simone said that Toni left her, though,” Emery mutters. “Maybe—”
“Emery,” Damon states, tone cold. “I am not risking your life on a fucking maybe.”
“I’m with Damon on this one, darling,” I say, sighing. “While that would be an ideal scenario, I think we all know the lengths Toni will go to get justice.” Emery swallows as I give her a knowing look. “You betrayed her in a sense. From a psychological standpoint, I don’t see Toni letting that go.”
Emery lets out a frustrated breath. "So, that’s the plan? Security, Red, and then what? We just sit and wait for the inevitable?"
"We prepare, that’s what we do," Damon declares. "And if she comes, we'll be ready."
“Fine, but I don’t want to hide,” Emery says in a clipped tone, crossing her arms. “I won’t hide from her. You do whatever it is you need to do to find her, but I am not fucking hiding.”
“You just want to go back to Club Hades, don’t you?” Damon smirks, and I’m grateful he’s able to find humor at a time like this.
Emery glowers at him. “I was referring more to work. You know, my job.”
“Mhmm…” Damon hums playfully. “Sure.”
“Yes, well, at least when I do go back, I no longer have to report to you,” she sneers, and I rein in a grin. “Actually, do you know if a new CEO’s been appointed yet?”
Damon twists his lips into a sour expression. “I’ve heard whispers.”
I perk a brow, genuinely curious. “Who?”
Damon’s eyes darken. “Amir Hadid.”
I instantly mirror Damon’s reservations.
Amir Hadid is a well-known name in our world.
Not just in business but in our…extracurriculars as well.
He’s the owner of every Club Hades. An enigma.
Untouchable in ways Damon and I cannot fathom.
His family owns the majority of the land on the Las Vegas strip, not to mention countless other high-end developments around the globe.
He’s a third-generation billionaire. To him, we’re all poor.
"Since when is Amir interested in the tech industry?" I ask, unsettled by the thought of Emery working in such proximity to a man known for his penchant for the unattainable.
Damon scowls. "Rumor has it he wants to diversify the Hadid empire, now that his father has retired. I’m sure he’ll make a bid on the company within a year. Once he’s CEO, he’ll be able to sway the board.”
“Amir is never satisfied, is he?” I muse.
“No, which is a huge problem,” Damon grunts. “Huge.”
Emery looks between us, so blissfully unaware of the complexities that come with working for that man. "What's wrong with Amir Hadid? I mean, aside from being a business mogul, isn't he relatively harmless?"
Damon lets out a humorless laugh. "Harmless, Emery? Amir Hadid is many things, but harmless is not one of them. Let's just say, he takes great pride in his side ventures.”
Emery frowns. “Side ventures?”
“He owns Club Hades and its affiliate clubs around the world,” I say, cursing Damon for stepping down from his position. “He’s an interesting man. Rarely ever hears the word no.”
Emery blinks. “Oh.”
“I personally don’t know how comfortable I am with you two working together,” Damon admits. “Perhaps CJ Piers…”
Emery scoffs. “I am not quitting my job because you’re jealous, Damon. You’re the one who forced me to quit Piers so live with those consequences.” She shifts her stern gaze between us. “Plus, I have no desire to add another player to our team, so you’ll both just need to trust me.”
“It’s Amir we don’t trust,” I say. “Not you.”
Emery rolls her eyes. “I think we have bigger problems to deal with than Amir and his supposedly magical cock.”
Damon and I exchange a hardened look. She says that now, but I’ve seen Amir fuck a literal princess on the night of her wedding. She doesn’t know the type of man he is. But she’s right. We need to focus on one problem at a time. And for right now, that problem is Toni.
With a breath of resolve, Emery stands up and lifts a sassy brow. “You both seem rather tense right now. I think we should check out the primary bedroom.” She gives us a sly smirk. “I was told it comes with a California King.”
“The realtor is here,” Damon reminds her, but I can already see the shift in his demeanor.
“Plus,” I add, standing up, my cock twitching at her suggestive tone. “It would be very naughty to christen a house that’s not ours.”
Emery stalks toward us, her hips swaying seductively as she peers up at me through a thick veil of lashes. She tilts that pretty little head.
“So buy it.”
I grin. “Whatever you say, darling.”
Damon grunts as Emery places a hand on both our chests. “Well? What’re you doing still standing here? Go.” With a wily wink, she slips past us, strutting toward the staircase. She glances over her shoulder. “If you keep me waiting, I’ll start myself.”
“He’s going to hunt her,” Damon grunts under his breath as he meets my eyes. “You know he is.”
“One problem at a time, D,” I rasp, waving at the realtor. She scurries over, and I fish out a pre-written check from my breast pocket. “We’ll take it. You may leave now.”
“But...” She opens her mouth, gawking at the full amount.
“Go,” Damon states, glaring down at her. “And lock the door behind you.”
She blinks but doesn’t say another word. A deafening click sounds as she exits the brownstone. And as we climb the stairs toward our awaiting, willing prey, Damon’s comment plays on repeat in my mind.
It seems that everyone is on a hunt for something.
Someone.
And whether I like it or not, all roads lead to Emery.