Chapter 29
Julian
I made it to the estate in record time, my car eating up the road at speeds that would've gotten me arrested if any cops had been around to clock me.
Not that it would've mattered. We owned the local police anyway.
My hands were white-knuckled on the steering wheel, my mind racing faster than the engine. Roman's expression after I’d thrown Calista in his face kept replaying in my head. The rage, the shock, the way he looked like I'd physically struck him.
I'd fucked up. Badly.
Now I needed to make sure Violet was safe while I figured out how to contain the situation. If Roman went to the Council before I could convince him otherwise, if he told them I'd been lying for months...
Well, I just had to hope he hadn’t done that already.
But he definitely could have, given that he’d torn away from Valcourt Manor thirty minutes ago in his Aston Martin at what looked like a hundred and twenty miles per hour.
Even though I’d grabbed my keys and left as soon as I possibly could, I hadn’t been able to catch him and see where he was heading.
I could only assume he’d gone to the Dionysus estate, though.
It was the most logical deduction in these circumstances.
I pulled up to the estate's side entrance and was out of the car before the engine fully died. Inside, I took the stairs two at a time, heading into the south wing.
I reached Violet’s door and pulled out my keycard, swiping it through the reader. The lock clicked open, and I pushed inside.
“Violet?” I called out.
Silence.
The room was empty. A plate with half-eaten cake sat on the small table, with a glass beside it. But no Violet.
“Violet?” I called out again as I moved through the suite, checking the bathroom, the closet, even the sitting room.
Nothing. Fuck.
My chest tightened. She couldn't have escaped, because the windows were sealed and the door was locked. That meant someone had taken her.
I pulled out my phone and called the security hub. “It's Julian Valcourt. I need you to pull footage from the Persephone Wing. Third floor, east corridor. Last thirty minutes.”
“Yes, sir. One moment.”
I paced the room while I waited, mentally cataloging possibilities. The staff wouldn't take Violet without authorization. Another Reaper? Unlikely. Everyone knew she was mine. And Roman might hate me right now, but there was no way he’d go that far to punish me.
Or… would he?
“Sir?” The security guard's voice came back on the line. “There's a problem with the footage.”
“What kind of problem?”
“Today’s footage… it’s all been erased. Completely wiped from the system.”
Ice flooded my veins. “Erased?”
“Yes, sir. It’s either a glitch, or someone with administrative access deleted it.”
Only a handful of people had that level of access. Council members; senior and junior.
“Double check it all,” I said, already moving toward the door. “See if there’s anything at all that can be salvaged.”
“Right away, sir.”
I was halfway down the hall when he called back.
“Sir, I've got something,” he said. “I was checking the recycle bin, and I found several files that hadn’t finished deleting yet.”
That confirmed it was purposely deleted. Not just a random glitch.
“Go on,” I said, eyes narrowing.
“One of the files has this afternoon’s footage from the south corridor, and there’s something strange on it. There’s a man carrying... well, it looks like a woman. She appears to be unconscious. It was only ten minutes ago.”
“Show me.”
“Sending it to your phone now.”
The video loaded on my screen. Grainy black and white, but clear enough.
Roman, his face set in grim determination, was carrying Violet in his arms. Her head lolled against his shoulder, body limp. He moved quickly, purposefully, heading down the south corridor.
The phone nearly cracked in my grip.
“Do any of the other recovered files show where he went after he exited that corridor?” I asked.
“I don’t think so, sir, but I’ll keep looking.”
Shit.
“If anyone asks,” I said, my voice deadly calm. “You didn't see that footage, and the reason behind the deletion was a glitch caused by a brief power surge. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
I ended the call and broke into a run.
My brother had taken my girl. Drugged her, by the look of it, and carried her off to god knows where.
The question was why.
Was he planning to hurt her? To punish me through her? To use her as leverage to force me to confess to the Council? Or was this something else entirely? A misguided attempt to ‘fix’ the situation himself, perhaps?
I had no fucking idea. But I was going to figure it out. And if he'd laid one finger on her…
Brother or not, there would be hell to pay.