Chapter 31
31
OWEN – FIVE DAYS LATER
“What the hell are you doing?” Jacob gasps as he steps inside my father’s office.
I reply, “Searching.” Sitting cross-legged on the floor, not lifting my head as I scan yet another piece of paper looking for any clues as to the whereabouts of my trust fund or money my father may have had stashed somewhere.
“It must be important, whatever it is you’re searching for,” Jacob says. “This place is a mess.”
I scan the room. Paperwork is scattered across every surface. Over the last five days, I have ripped the house apart, including the filing cabinet I found in a secret space behind the knight statue in the hall. I hauled it into the office, then took a crowbar to rip the drawers open.
“I couldn’t find a key for that.” I point at the tall empty cabinet that’s now completely unusable.
“So you wrenched it open?” Lincoln says sarcastically. “And I’m guessing you couldn’t find a key for that either.” He points at the wooden desk that no longer has a top .
“I took a chainsaw to it,” I answer honestly. “The crowbar didn’t work.”
“Is this where you’ve been for the last five days?” Lincoln looks at me like I’ve become a crazy person. He’s not wrong. I’ve had no sleep for days and I’m living off coffee. I feel manic.
“Yeah.” I push my fingertips into my eyes. “I need more caffeine.”
“You need sleep. You look terrible.” Jacob casts his gaze around the room. “And it smells like ass in here.”
“That would be me. I haven’t showered in days. I’ve been here since Jade left.” My eyes sting with tiredness, but I won’t rest until I find what I need.
Lincoln’s voice rises in surprise. “Is it something important you’re looking for?”
I nod, my head throbbing.
“We thought you just didn’t need help boxing everything up, but when we didn’t hear from you again this morning to arrange for your stuff to go into storage at Jacob’s, and your phone went straight to voicemail, we started to get worried,” Lincoln explains.
I scramble about the floor, searching for my phone. “Shit, I didn’t call Jade last night.” I urgently need to charge it and call her. I’m annoyed at myself for forgetting to call her like I promised. I missed wishing Poppy a good night, too.
“I’ve been a little distracted.” My shoulders sag with worry as I locate my phone. Pointing to the plug, I pass my phone to Jacob, silently asking him to charge it for me.
I never forget about Jade. That’s not who I am with her.
This money hunt is driving me insane to the point I’ve forgotten about my girls, and I’ve got nothing to show for the lost hours of my life I’ve spent on this searching mission.
Mission fucking impossible .
The private investigator came up short. My trust fund is lost in the abyss, along with my father’s billions.
“We took a drive up here and saw your car out front. You hate this house.”
I read between the lines of Jacob’s words. He wants to know what I’m doing in the building I spent most of my childhood trying to avoid.
“I need to keep looking.” I drop my head and go back to scanning the files.
“Can we help to find this important thing you’re looking for?” Lincoln asks curiously.
“Yeah. See those?” I point at the two stacked high columns of files on the floor. I haven’t been through them yet. “Take a pile each.”
“What specifically do we need to find?” Jacob asks.
“Money,” I say before I resume my search. “My father owed Richard and Gideon Sanderson a lot of money. He told me his debt now falls on my head.”
“What the fuck?” Lincoln gasps.
Head bowed, I keep talking. “He took this place and their life insurance. But it wasn’t enough to clear the debt. He wants another ten million. He’s given me ten days to find it.” My clenched jaw becomes tighter as the enormity of the situation hits me yet again. “I have five days left.”
“He can’t do that.” Jacob jumps in immediately.
“He has,” I reply, my anger so strong it burns like the fires of hell. I’m so mad, I feel like I could transform into the Hulk. “If I don’t have that money, then…” I trail off, unable to tell them the reality of my situation.
Jacob pushes me to keep going. “Then?”
I lift my head and stare at them, the knot in my stomach tightening. “He threatened Jade and Poppy. ”
They immediately take a pile each and join me on the floor. “Tell us everything while we search,” Lincoln insists.
When I’m finished, they are both speechless. After a long pause, Jacob finally says, “Between Lincoln and me, we can get our hands on all of the money but it will take a month to clear. And the money I have in the bank is spoken for because the renovations on the castle are already three times over our budget.”
I tap an appreciative small punch on his shoulder. “Thanks, man, but it’s not your problem.”
I will never forgive my father for this, and I still cannot process Gideon’s words. He killed himself, and your mother.
I don’t believe Gideon.
Lincoln adds, “With the restaurant extension underway, as directors, we all agreed to forego any withdrawals or share payouts. It’s already over budget too. The cost of the foundations alone makes me want to vomit. But like Jacob said, I could help too, but I would need much longer than a few days. I would need a few weeks.”
“Thank you.” Emotion thickens in my throat, and it cracks when I say, “I will find a way.” Although any hope I have is wavering knowing that, as each hour has passed, I am fighting a losing battle.
“I can’t let anything happen to Jade,” I whisper. “She’s the best thing to have ever happened to me.” I swallow hard.
Understanding my desperation, Jacob takes charge. “First, you need to go in the shower. You smell like a swamp. Lincoln will tidy up and order food for later, and I’ll keep searching while you have a few hours’ sleep. Having no sleep for days is not healthy, and you need to keep razor sharp.”
“I’m not sleeping,” I admonish .
“Yes, you are. I will set an alarm,” he counters. “You look fucking dreadful.”
I catch a glimpse of myself in the ornate floor mirror. Bloodshot eyes, deep shadows under them, dry skin, greasy hair. I really look haggard.
Reluctantly, I agree to run down to my house to freshen up and come back to call Jade once my phone is charged and to sleep on the office couch.
But that doesn’t happen.
As soon as I’ve showered, I lay back on my bed to rest my achy body for a moment. Closing my heavy eyelids that feel like they are being punctured by stinging needles, I’m engulfed in a tsunami of weariness. One where darkness envelopes me and pulls me under, and that’s the last thing I remember as I give in to a deep, hollow, lifeless sleep surrounded by Jade’s sweet fragrance and the memories of us under these sheets.
Owen – Two Days Later
Frantically running into my father’s office, I discover Lincoln passed out on the sofa and Jacob sound asleep on the floor surrounded by folders, files, paperclips, pages of reports, birth certificates, deeds for the castle; you name it, it’s here. All that’s missing is what I really need.
Money.
That or a solid piece of paper telling me exactly where my trust fund is, or the location of a miracle bank account somewhere overseas with my name on it.
That’s all I need. Just one piece of information to unlock the key to a ten-million-pound problem .
My hope is dwindling; I’ve never felt so helpless.
Crazily, I grab my phone off the coffee table to call Jade and catch a glimpse at the date.
I’ve lost two days.
I’ve been asleep for two days, only up once to use the bathroom and grab a glass of water. I didn’t realize I had slept for as long as I did. I push my hands through my hair.
“Fuck!” I shout, not meaning to waken Jacob and Lincoln up. Like two slumbering grizzly bears, they stretch and come to life and look about the place in a daze, as if not remembering where they are.
I give them a curt “Good morning” and hold the phone to my ear as I call Jade.
“Why didn’t you come get me?” I hiss at them angrily. They know I need to find that money. I have to admit, they were right. I needed the sleep and feel slightly clearer-headed today, but I’ve lost two days. Fear swirls in my gut as I realize the enormity of my mammoth sleep. And why the fuck is Jade not answering?
“You were dead to the world. You needed to rest. And we kept looking. We had your back.” Lincoln yawns and grabs his junk. “I need a piss.” He clumsily gets to his feet and leaves the office.
I hang up the unanswered call and check our family calendar. Within a few taps, I know her whereabouts. I check the time on the brass clock on top of the larger-than-life stone fireplace.
Lunchtime. Which means she’ll be prepping her jet along with her engineer for displaying at the airshow in Wales tomorrow. She never takes calls when she is prepping to take off or on the day of a show, insisting she needs to focus and time to get into the zone .
Jacob stands up and gives his back a crack, stretching out his body from sleeping on the uncomfortable hard floor. “We spoke to Jade yesterday and the day before,” he says calmly while yawning.
“Is she okay?” I panic. “I hope you didn’t tell her anything about this.” I rush my words as I point around at the chaos that still covers the floor of the office. I don’t want her to know what’s going on.
Jacob leans left and right, making his back crack again. “Of course we didn’t. She’s fine, as is Poppy. I did text Gregor, asking him to keep an eye on her for you too, and just said that we were looking out for her for you. She is apparently flying solo to Wales today, ahead of the team. She said she was going a day earlier than planned to scope the place out and then she was having dinner with the station commander and his wife before tomorrow’s display.”
“When you spoke to her, what did you tell her?”
“We said you’d been so busy with the funeral, and then there was a complication with the will and the estate that you were sorting out with Camilla when you got a stomach bug and had been bedridden for the last couple of days.”
“Did she buy your lie?” I ask Jacob, my doubtful voice half a tone higher.
“I guess she did. She didn’t question us if that’s what you mean. She just asked you to call her as soon as you were feeling better.”
Not having spoken to her these last few days, the urge to jump in my car and drive to her is strong. I miss her. And Poppy.
I’m not convinced Jade would have believed Jacob’s lie, because she’s a deception detective. She can read people so fast it scares me. Jacob clears his throat as Lincoln returns. “You received a text from Richard with a ‘tick tock’ message yesterday.” He stalls for a beat, his face turning somber. “Alongside a photo of Jade and Poppy. It was time and location stamped.” He clears his throat. “Yesterday morning, inside the camp wire.”
“Motherfucker,” I hiss, instantly checking his threatening message.
Right enough, there it is. Bile sours my gut as tap open the photo of her, blazing a knockout smile, hair blowing in the wind with Poppy in her arms outside her house on base.
I lay my hand over my tee shirt where, underneath, lay my dog tags with their names on.
My girls.
I will not let anything happen to them. I look around the room to see where to start today’s search.
“Richard’s a bastard for doing this to you. But we might have found something.” Looking confident, Lincoln grins wide.
A flicker of hope sparks in my gut. “What?”
“It’s not much, but it’s something.” Jacob looks pleased with what they have found too. He grabs a black box file off the top of the fireplace and hands it to me.
Hands shaking, I reach out to take it, then flip open the lid. Bundles of cream postcard-size pieces of paper fill the box. “Premium bonds.” I hold one up in wonder, looking at it as if it’s a twist of destiny.
“Thousands of the fucking things.” Lincoln turns around and picks up another five box of files.
“Are they all full?” I ask hopefully. This is the type of investment my grandfather would make. He was a smart man, and, unlike my father, he made wise investment choices. Buying premium bonds would have been a long-term game plan for him.
“Yup. Found them all in yet another filing cabinet in the basement among all your grandfather’s things. That place down there gives me the chills.” Lincoln shivers. “We also found love letters between your grandfather and an unknown lover.” He follows his words with a wink.
“I don’t want to know, and that place is a dungeon, not a basement,” I mutter.
“There are certificates and insurance policies with items listed from your mother’s jewelry and watch collection, but we didn’t find any jewelry or watch collection, either.”
“Do you think my father sold it all?” I ask, airing my suspicions.
“Perhaps.” Lincoln gives me a sad look. “But this is our job for today. We need to go through every one of them.”
“Premium bonds are a lotto, though.” I felt hopeful for all of a millisecond, but now I feel like the carpet has been pulled from under my feet. When do you ever hear of anyone winning the lotto? I’ve not known anyone close to me who’s won.
“My grandfather bought me some when I was a younger. I still have them, but I’ve never won.” Lincoln stares at the slips.
Jacob jumps in. “Each one has a code, right? If you get a winning code, the government has to pay out… tax free? This could be the answer to your money problems, Owen.”
I look down at the box filled with any last hope I have. “Let’s get started.” Then it dawns on me. “Christ, I have been so selfish. What about Skye?” I ask Jacob. “Go home to them. You’ve got a new baby.” Then I point at Lincoln. “And you’ve got a demanding girlfriend who is on a mission to destroy your dick every minute of every day.”
Lincoln throws his head back, laughing. “She’ll survive, and anyway, she’s staying with Skye to help with Aurora for night feeds. She’s in her element.”
Jacob looks at me and nods his head quickly as he smiles kindly. “She is. We are all taking care of each other in different ways. I told her you weren’t well, though, just in case Jade spoke to her or Violet.” He cringes, knowing how well those three women gelled and that they have probably spoken every day since the day they met. “The sooner we find the money, the sooner I can get back to Skye. I am missing my Butterfly and my little Princess.”
“Fuck, you guys are sickening.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, Hotshot .” Jacob mocks me, calling me out for being a gooey mess around my woman, too.
“Oh, let’s not forget about my little Poppadom .” Lincoln fakes a high-pitched voice.
On a blush, I chastise him. “You are in no position to take the piss with all that Sweet Petal shit you call Violet.”
“I’ll have you know I also call her the dick destroyer,” he says matter-of-factly.
Chuckling, Jacob says, “Fucking hell, what has happened to us? Those women have got us by the balls.”
Silently, we all stare at each other and smile.
“I love you two like brothers. You know that, right?” I say, looking at my friends, who I’ve never said that to before.
They both nod my way.
“I don’t know what I would have done without either of you.” They know I’m not referring to the past couple of days. They’ve been everything to me since we were kids.
Never one to talk about his emotions, Jacob bows his head and pushes his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He might be built like a tank, covered in tattoos, all buzz cut and muscles, but he’s a big softie underneath it all. He clears his throat. “We feel the same.”
In contrast, Lincoln is one broad, Greek, smiling muscly teddy bear who overshares and could charm the pants off anyone. “Fuck, man, bring it in.” He holds his arms out and moves toward us, closing the invisible triangle we are standing in. “Now let’s find some moola.” Releasing us, he steps back and rubs his hands together.
Jade
Everything feels weird.
One minute Owen’s calling and texting me every minute of every day, the next, it’s as if I’ve completely fallen out of his thoughts and I haven’t heard from him in days.
Before he did his Houdini act, he asked me some seriously odd questions on the phone. I laughed at him when he asked if I noticed anyone suspicious following me or if anyone was lurking about outside the house. But the one that freaked me out the most was the question that shot straight through my heart: Can you check outside and see if someone is lurking around?
I shrugged it off and told him he had been watching too many thriller movies since I left, but his silence told me a very different story, and I found myself closing the drapes earlier at night and peeking through them every now and again to check the surrounding area around my quarters just to make sure no one was lurking around like he said.
I put a stop to that silly behavior the night after, telling myself to stop being so stupid, safe in the knowledge I live inside a military base where no one gets in or out without permission.
Like I said, he was being weird, as was I.
Then Lincoln called me to let me know Owen had a stomach bug, but I don’t believe him and now I’m questioning if he’s having doubts about moving here.
It’s a huge ask; a big life change .
Although he assured me it’s what he wants, now I’m not so sure.
I hope he would do the decent thing if he didn’t want to follow through and marry me and tell me he’s changed his mind.
I miss him so much. So does Poppy.
I’m in the restroom at work washing my hands. As I finish up, I slide my beautiful engagement ring off my finger, pull the zipper of my flight suit down, and then hook my fingers under my tee shirt and into the cup of my bra to drop it inside so he’s right beside my heart.
Since Owen hasn’t come back, I don’t have my lucky stone, and my ring feels like the closest thing to luck I have. We’re miles apart, and it’s the closest thing to connect us.
Doing my zipper up, I quickly gather my hair into a low ponytail and tuck some smaller loose strands of my hair behind my ears.
I don’t have a fear of flying; what I do have is a bone-deep fear of losing him, and it scares me knowing he’s pulling away.
“Don’t think like that.” I stare at myself in the mirror and give my reflection a good talking to. “He loves you.”
The hinges on the restroom door groan loudly as it’s pushed open. Blake pops her head through the gap. “Ready?”
“I was born ready.”
I follow Blake out and she reels off a dozen different things about the weather conditions—sun shining, beautiful afternoon—and then something about dinner with the station commander and meeting her tomorrow for the show. I laugh, telling her to slow down. She’s the only woman I know whose brain works faster than mine.
“Go get ready.” Blake waves me off and as soon as I’m suited up in my survival equipment and red display coverall, I’m in the cockpit of my red jet plane, cruising solo above the clouds to Wales to prepare for another display tomorrow.
I’m looking forward to tonight’s dinner with the station commander and his wife. It’s been a while since I put a pretty dress on. It’s a pity Owen isn’t here or he could have driven and met me there. I would have loved to have introduced him as my husband-to-be.
Covered in a blanket of golden sun, I’m enjoying the view of the vibrant green mountain peaks of Wales, daydreaming about Owen being home, when my jet begins to violently shake. It then stutters and then loses altitude rapidly, plummeting a thousand feet. Gripping onto the control stick to steady the plane, I manage to level out as the fuel gauge alarm starts flashing, warning me I have no fuel.
Then the low altitude alert goes off as I drop another thousand feet, putting my stomach in my mouth as it falls faster than a roller coaster.
I hesitate for a millisecond.
Having trained for years and spent hours in the simulators to prepare me for something like this, I know I am losing height from engine flameout, but it’s the first time I have ever had to do this in a real time emergency, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Red 1.”
The air traffic controller responds immediately. “Mayday, Red 1 acknowledged, send details when able.”
Mind spinning yet remaining calm, I flip open my flight reference checklist to the engine seizure page and run through the procedure, while at the same time, I reply to air traffic. “Mayday Red 1, Hawk T1, engine flameout, no fuel remaining, losing altitude, three thousand feet, one person on board. ”
It all happens so fast; the engine sputters, then dies, and I find myself saying the words I’ve said so many times in training but never wanted to say in a real time emergency. “Scramble a helicopter. Will be ejecting over Mount Snowdon. Eject, eject, eject.”
When I pull the ejection seat firing handle, several things happen at once. It detonates the explosive miniature cord that’s embedded into the cockpit canopy above my head. The explosive cartridge under my seat ignites, then explodes, making me feel like my bones are rattling in my body. It blows off the canopy and turbulently catapults me into the air like a rocket being sent to the moon as I punch out at six hundred miles an hour. I’m momentarily hit by a wall of panic before I smash my head against something, and everything goes black.