Chapter 1 #4
“Damn it.” Gideon took a deep, bracing breath and pushed away from Boudreaux.
He glanced at everyone with a single sweeping look.
When he spoke, his voice was measured but laced with frustration.
“You’re perfectly safe, Mother. As for Ireland, I’ll tell everyone what we know as soon as we get to my office. ”
Elizabeth opened her mouth, but Daniel squeezed her shoulder. “Best not to discuss family matters in public spaces, love.”
Her mother-in-law hesitated, as if she were debating whether to argue. Then she looked at Boudreaux. “Why are you here, Mr. McCaffrey?”
Eva watched as the Cajun pulled himself together, smoothing his rumpled shirt and softening his tone. “I’m Ireland’s plus one.”
Elizabeth’s brows lifted. “Interesting. You’re a very different sort of fellow from your brother, aren’t you?”
His nostrils flared on a sharp inhale.
A worried frown marred the space between Elizabeth’s perfectly arched brows as they all stepped into the service elevator car.
Gideon went to the back corner and turned, pulling Eva against him and draping his arm across her midriff.
She could see in the scuffed reflective surface of the walls that her husband looked completely self-contained, but knew he was far from it.
The hand on her belly trembled as he held her too tightly. She felt him breathe in her perfume, and then his other hand fisted the gray silk of her gown as if he needed to hold on to her with everything he had.
Wrapping her arms over his, she clutched him back, giving him what support she could, even as terror sank razor-sharp claws into her belly.
It seemed fantastical that Ronan McCaffrey Boudreaux would go so far as to kidnap Ireland, especially when she was on her way voluntarily to him.
Still, it would be a terrible mistake to ignore his criminal history.
Regardless of how he presented himself now, he was capable of murder.
That he was angled into a corner while typing on his phone also struck her as wrong. She tried to peek, but his phone had a similar privacy screen as her own and Gideon’s, deterring voyeurism. Who was he communicating with? That they couldn’t trust him was obvious.
But what was beginning to penetrate through the cloud of exhaustion, worry, and confusion that muddled her thoughts was how she and Gideon might be to blame. They were the ones receiving death threats.
The office they all went to was very different from the one Gideon kept in the Crossfire Building.
It was mostly used for meetings with illustrious hotel guests on brief visits.
The desk was almost an afterthought in a room dominated by a conversation area in front of a fireplace and an expansive bar topped with a large-screen television disguised as art.
The view of Midtown at night was breathtaking—the twinkling lights of a teeming city set against a sapphire velvet sky.
The décor style was very much Gideon, more Old World than modern, as he preferred items of skillful craftsmanship with history.
Some of the objects and art had been acquired on trips they’d taken over the twelve years of their marriage, and despite how infrequently he used the space, multiple pictures of her and their dog Lucky were scattered about.
Elizabeth was just settling into one of the three chestnut leather sofas with Daniel when the door opened again, and her ex-husband, son, and daughter-in-law entered the room with Victor.
Chris Vidal, Sr.’s slate-green eyes scanned the room and cataloged its occupants. He gave a curt nod to Daniel, a gentler one to Elizabeth, then settled his intensely focused gaze on Ronan Boudreaux. With an expression harder than Eva had ever seen on him, he asked coldly, “What have you done now?”
It was disconcerting to hear the thread of animosity in Chris’s tone.
He was a man Eva had come to know as perhaps too considerate and thoughtful for his own good.
He hated conflict, preferring to hope that time would smooth most wrinkles if given the chance.
It was yet another tremor that rocked her overloaded system as she realized that, after all these years, her stepfather-in-law might have unknown depths.
Boudreaux’s gaze narrowed dangerously. With his bowtie undone, collar open, and his hair a disheveled mess, he looked both debonair and disreputable.
His white dinner jacket made him a bright spot amid the room’s moody palette and its mostly dark-clad occupants.
“Perhaps it’s you who’s done this, Vidal.
Just how far will you go to keep Ireland away from me? ”
Eva felt a rush of hope at the accusation, then immediately hated herself for it. Guilt was beginning to choke her, closing her throat and making her dizzy.
She and Gideon received threats constantly.
Every single day, in fact. They were not unique in that regard; most prominently wealthy people faced a regular volley of menacing communications.
That the public seemed to have an unending appetite for photos and stories about their life together made her and Gideon more visible than most.
There were innumerable reasons for unhinged people to target them with hate, and most threats were dismissed as harmless. But some were taken seriously, and they’d recently been put on high alert after receiving yet another in a chain of unsettling and menacing letters.
Had Ireland been targeted by association?
“What are you two talking about?” Elizabeth asked crossly as her daughter-in-law, Natalie, settled on the couch beside her. “We’re all here now. Tell us what’s happening, Gideon.”
Eva watched her dad approach to stand beside her.
She slipped her hand into his and squeezed tightly, wishing she didn’t feel as if she’d fallen into a hole and every sound, sensation, and emotion was far, far away from her.
Everything felt enveloped in thick cotton, muted and distant.
Surreal. When her father began to rub her hand between both of his, she realized she was cold.
So cold that goosebumps dotted her skin.
“Hotel security sent you the footage from the entrance cameras,” he told Gideon. “Angus is on the move now with Rizwan. Traffic’s a snarl, so we have a team on foot, too.”
Gideon nodded as he moved to his desk and woke his computer. “Ireland was abducted from the front drive a few minutes ago.”
The flat, emotionless way her husband informed the rest of the family momentarily blunted the impact of his revelation. Then the heavy silence was broken by gasps of stunned horror. Eva felt her stomach churn at hearing the news again, this time with utter surety.
Christopher had remained standing by his father and quickly caught the elder Vidal when he swayed on his feet and needed help to get to the sofa.
The television screen lit up as Gideon cast the view from his monitor onto it, the faux painting transforming into a split-screen of still shots of the front entrance and driveway from four angles. They all watched in pained silence as the images began to move when the video played.
Ireland’s height, physicality, and formal attire made her impossible to mistake as she rushed out through the automatic doors and veered directly toward the rideshare pickup area.
She was clearly in a hurry. Surrounded by dozens of guests and pedestrians, it seemed impossible that she could be in any danger.
“Look at the camera on the top right,” Victor said.
The back door to a black SUV swung open as Ireland rushed past it, and a man hopped out to follow her.
She seemed to sense that someone was on her heels and turned to confront him, only to be swallowed in voluminous black material from behind by a second man and shoved into the SUV, which had pulled away from the curb to follow alongside.
The vehicle sped off, the whole abduction transpiring within seconds.
Boudreaux released a growl that raised the hair on Eva’s nape.
The primal rumble fractured the horrified silence. Everyone burst to their feet in frenzied, aimless movement, their voices rising into a cacophony of questions, accusations, and orders.
Only Gideon, Eva, and Victor stood unmoving. When Gideon’s gaze met hers, she knew his thoughts had mirrored her own. Those magnificently blue irises were shadowed with torment and pain that pierced her soul.