Chapter 26
chapter twenty six
why did she always want to run from me?
She heard everything.
Every. Damn. Thing.
That was what the teary look in her eyes said as I spun around to find her standing behind me, listening to every lie that was falling from my mouth.
I told Cora it was Oscar so she wouldn’t worry, but it was a No Caller ID, and with the software I’d embedded into my phone, those calls were supposed to be redirected.
So when I saw that this one had gotten through, I answered.
And whoever he was had made it clear the second I answered the phone that he was somewhere, watching me.
The voice in my ear let out a low chuckle. “Have fun with that one, mate.”
Then the line went dead, right at the same time Cora’s eyes raked over me with all the disappointment and sadness she could cram into the swirls of brown, before taking off and bolting out of the alley. I was quick on her heels, not thinking twice before pumping my arms and following after her.
But luckily for her, I ran straight into foot traffic—what looked like a school trip leaving the gallery—my entire lower half surrounded by tiny people dressed in the same matching green uniform.
I kept my eyes on her as best as I could, watching her take off down Millbank.
I slowly barged my way through the crowds and went after her, but she was quick.
Too quick for me. I spun in a circle as though that would help, frustration nipping every nerve ending in my body.
I raked my hands through my hair and groaned as my knees bent.
“Fuck!” The word ripped through my chest.
If she’d heard everything, then I was done for.
And I knew she wouldn’t listen if I got to tell her it was all lies.
It had taken this long for her to finally trust me, and all that work, all that time and effort proving to her that I wasn’t the man who’d had this position before me, had just been set alight.
But when her name slipped out of him, I threw up my shields.
Although now, knowing Cora had heard all the ways she wasn’t important to me, I was in two minds about whether I should have just dared him to come after her and done everything in my power to protect her.
But it scared me. If this asshole knew everything about me, knew how to hack my systems and ruin me, I had no doubt that he’d find his way to Cora. And losing her sounded scarier than losing Romano right about now.
I’d been wandering London like a crazy person for hours trying to find this girl, but it was as if she’d simply vanished. It was already sunset by the time I’d tracked her phone to a little square of green near Westminster, finding it swimming in a fountain.
Why did she have to be so fucking smart?
I’d lapped the hotel. Twice. No sign of her.
I reached out to Oscar to see if there was a way he could sneak into the CCTV in the area and set up a team to find her. He said tracking down a fly would've been easier, but still, he tried. And even with twelve people scouring London via security cameras, we were no closer to finding her.
Frustration had burnt me out hours ago, and now I was in my room, the world outside pitch black. I was running on nothing but fumes and that shot of adrenaline when I remembered she was out there.
It felt so stupid now. I didn’t want to pretend that Cora wasn’t meaning more to me every day I was around her. Because she was. She was as good as my sunlight.
Fuck.
She had to be close. She had to. It was like whatever internal radar I had for her was telling me I wasn’t far. I just had to think.
What made this even harder was that her friends had gone dark too. Practically taken over the hotel one minute, then disappeared the next. And because of one of her stipulations, I couldn’t track them.
“You’re my bodyguard, not theirs,” she’d said.
That was fine. But right now, that boundary felt like a knife to the chest.
Tristan was the only one with real connections here. If I could find him, maybe I could find her.
I found my way to his socials. Most of it was useless. Rehearsal clips, crew snapshots. But then I saw it. A group photo in front of the London Eye. My eyes snapped to her immediately.
Cora.
My jaw clenched.
I paused there longer than I should have, staring, trying to read something in her eyes, trying to decide if she looked happy or was back to pretending. Then I spotted it: a tiny white link in the corner.
That little fuck had tagged her.
One click, and I was in her curated world—the one she showed to hundreds of thousands of strangers. My eyes snagged on her story. Only one post. A re-share, probably from Daisy’s account judging by the blonde in the small profile picture. My fingers didn’t hesitate before pressing the screen.
And that’s when I saw her. In real time.
A flash of her face, caught mid-laugh. Lights strobing in the background and bouncing off her glowing skin.
I was out of my chair in a heartbeat. Out of the room and flying down the stairwell, phone still in my hand. My eyes locked on the glowing sign behind her, just barely visible above the crowd, but it was enough. More than I’d had all day.
I’m pretty sure I broke every traffic violation in England. But that was the least of my worries. After finding out where she was, I’d found out it was a club in Soho. One you could only get into with a following and name like hers.
Clever, considering I was practically a ghost.
I parked around the corner of the club they were in, blending in as well as I could until I found a blur of people hovering outside behind a set of barriers. I scanned the crowd, her face in mind, panic rushing through me on the off chance that I’d already missed her.
I eyed the bouncers blocking the door and decided that they weren’t worth the hassle. Pleading to let me in was the only way I’d never get inside. But as I waited, scanning, hoping for a glimpse of her, one face in the crowd rang a bell.
Blonde hair. Green eyes. Annoying laugh.
Finn Rhodes.
When the guards weren’t looking, I hopped over the barriers, not making too much commotion before stalking through the crowd and finding Finn. I didn’t bother with introductions; I simply grabbed his shoulder, twisted him around, and stood over him.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
Finn’s eyes widened before that dopey smile took over his face. “Where is who?”
My grip on his shirt grew tighter. “You know God damn well who.”
He let a giggle slip, intoxication dripping from the noise. “I’ll be honest, I don’t even know my own name right now. All I do know is that I want to kiss whoever made the drinking age eighteen over here.”
Frustration bubbled in my mind, burning my fingertips, but as I tugged his shirt, a wall of black appeared in my peripheral.
“I’d get the fuck off him if I were you, mate.”
I turned my head to find Tristan, a cigarette in one hand, his other ripping mine away from Finn and standing in front of him like a guard. “Now, off you fuck.”
“Where is she?” I demanded through gritted teeth.
“Safe,” he nodded. “And that’s all you need to know, so, t’ra.”
I rolled my eyes and pushed both of them out of the way, making headway for the entrance back into the club.
“Wristband?” a pale-skinned bouncer asked as he blocked the way, his ginger hair in curly tendrils framing his face.
I looked him up and down before barging past, like his arm was a long blade of grass. “Doesn't go with my outfit.”
I easily slipped into the hustle of the club, which was packed. And loud.
God, I hated these places.
But she was here. So, ironically, it was the only place I wanted to be.
I made my way through the clumps of dancing girls and the men standing on the outskirts like fucking vultures. The strobe lights were blinding, as well as the smoke, but that didn’t stop me. I came to another room which was bigger than the rest.
The whole thing looked like an abandoned house that someone had turned into a nightclub.
There were old floral sofas filled with people kissing, rotting staircases with people dancing and hanging from them like stripper poles, and the 70's lamps that gave the room its only bit of warm light.
The rest was intense, bold flashes of light, mostly in blues and purples.
I scanned the next room, what would have been the kitchen before it was overrun with socialites, and for a second I thought this search would be pointless.
But then… no.
Short black hair. Slender shoulders. Snowy skin.
Found you, angel.
The more I looked around, the more the faces of her friends became visible. But all I saw was her.
All I ever saw was her.
Long strides took me across the room, but as I was halfway to getting her, she turned, dancing and smiling, but all that faded once she saw me.
For a second, the black in her eyes widened; even in the smoke, I could see that difference.
Her chest halted. Her mouth popped open. Her body paused entirely.
But then something washed over her.
Molten anger.
Her eyes narrowed, bottom lip sinking between her teeth, and her body moved like she knew every little sway was driving me insane.
She turned away from me again and carried on, blocking me out.
My strides resumed, but when I looked up again, her arms weren’t up in the air.
No, they were tracing some scumbag who probably didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her.
He was taller than her, blonde hair, so completely not her type, but I knew what she was doing.
And lucky for her, it was working.
I didn’t have time to move before she snaked her arms around his neck, and with a quick smile and a look in my direction, her mouth was on his.
My body felt on fire, as though gasoline had been dumped on me and Cora had flicked a match in my direction. I didn’t think then. Couldn’t. All I wanted to do was drag her out of here and explain everything. My core was molten as I made my way to her, and it would’ve taken an army to stop me.