Chapter Fifteen
Beckett
“Go over it one more time.” I look into my little sister’s red and bloated face as she tells me for the third time how she and Scarlett left without my permission to go to Panache in Midtown. Mia says again how Scarlett didn’t come out of the restaurant after they finished their meal.
“I’ve told you,” she says through her sobs, “now go and find her, God damn it.”
“The police are looking for her, but I need to hear this again. I want to make sure I have the entire story. Start with the beginning and don’t leave any details out.”
She chokes out another sob and tells me again.
Truthfully I don't need to hear her say it one more time, but I have a really hard time believing Scarlett is gone. I don't think she would run away from Mia, so more realistically, she’s been kidnapped. Someone involved with the darker side of CSS is trying to either teach me a lesson or muscle me into decoding my drug. Scarlett’s life is in jeopardy.
They already know she is just a mistake; someone I'm married to to save face.
Since CSS assumes Scarlett is not the love of my life, I am sure they don’t expect me to involve the police. It is just going to be some strong-arming. She will probably be handcuffed, chained, and gagged somewhere and I'd have her back in a matter of time as soon as I agree to alter the drug.
The problem is as soon as I heard that Scarlett was gone, my stomach bottomed out.
I did something very uncharacteristic of me and I threw up.
I didn’t often have a visceral reaction but hearing that Scarlett's life was at stake affects me in such a way I am having a hard time getting my bearings.
I need to hear the story one more time to see if I can pick something out of it that makes sense.
“I came to get her at around nine this morning. She was still asleep when I got here, and we talked for a minute. I told her that I was going to take her to brunch and she protested,” Mia makes sure I hear that.
“Did you say where you were going?” The only person who was home at the time Mia entered was my butler, Mr. Craig.
Gloria was with Rayne, but her shift had ended, so I wasn’t sure where Gloria was at the time.
I’ve been calling her mobile, but she doesn’t answer.
For some reason last night she needed to work the overnight shift and switched with the temporary nurse.
“Yes, I told her Panache and we joked about you chaining her up and paddling her if you found out.” She starts sobbing again.
“Yeah, that joke hits a little too close to home.” Fuck. I hope to all hell she isn’t chained up somewhere.
“Then she breastfed Rayne and I held her while Scar got dressed. Gloria was with us, but we didn’t see anyone else until we got to Panache.
I’d called them around seven in the morning and used your name to get us a table,” she says so faintly I hardly hear her.
She’d left that part out the last two times.
“You did what?”
I try not to be livid with her, but fuck.
Using my name in anything that has a database is dangerous because CSS has some of the best hackers in the business.
They could have even been waiting for correspondence to pop up on their system with my name at any restaurant in the world.
CSS surveillance systems are sophisticated; they could have someone just waiting to see my name pop up on any device, even a digital watch.
It would be extremely difficult to abduct Scarlett from my penthouse. Not only do I have security detail on the property, but I also have cameras and alarms everywhere. There were three in Scarlett's room, however, because I hadn’t told Scarlett that I was monitoring her I didn't turn the sound on.
Mia's story can be visually corroborated on video.
I see her jump on Scarlett's bed while she is sleeping and the two of them do in fact talk. When they go into Rayne’s room Gloria is there for a moment, but then she leaves.
Scarlett also leaves for a brief period and comes back dressed in a breezy pink sundress.
She looks gorgeous on the camera and my heart stabs again.
I try to keep my voice even keel. “You didn’t tell me you used my name.”
“How else were we going to get into Panache?”
“Right. And go on…” The next part is what confuses me a little.
“Well, Scar saw a creepy guy staring at us, well, her and I looked back and he had henchman vibes, but while she went to the restroom and I paid the bill he stayed at his table and was still there when I walked out of the restaurant to wait for her. It was so crowded in there and loud that I just needed a little air. I didn’t expect that Scarlett would never come out. ” More tears.
“Ok.” I am shit at consoling people. “How long before you went back inside to look for her?”
“I stood there for like fifteen minutes and then went to the restroom to find her. I figured there might have been something wrong with her and since I had her purse, she couldn’t call me.
When I went into the stall she was gone but the creepy guy was still at the table.
I asked him if he saw her, and he gave me a confused look and then said he didn’t speak English in a really thick accent, that sounded Eastern European, but I don’t know.
” She wipes her eyes and blows her nose on a dwindling scrap of tissue.
I push the box toward her. We are sitting at a table in my office at the penthouse because I have all the computers tracking and security there that we’d need.
Both she and I have given statements to the police as did the restaurant owners and anyone who was on the reservation list for that time period.
“When I didn’t find her in the bathroom, I tried to look around for her, but she wasn’t in the restaurant.
I asked our server if he’d seen her and he said no.
I tried to think back if anyone had left, but how could they get her out of the restaurant?
I did see a guy carry a girl into a cab with a friend of theirs, but they were really drunk and I couldn’t tell if they were carrying a man or a woman.
The girl hailed the cab and it came.” She knows the minute she says it, that she’d watched Scarlett being abducted. “It wasn’t her was it?”
“It had to be,” I say gently, because how would she have known? At the time she was waiting for Scarlett to leave the restaurant, she wouldn’t have cared much about some drunk socialites acting like assholes which is the cover they used to get Scarlett out of the restaurant.
The guy at the table was a plant. He probably had a way to communicate with whoever tipped them off and the pick-up team at the restaurant. This was all premeditated and pulled together fast but with expert precision.
“Then, I called the police, and then you.” She hiccup-cries the last few words.
“Drink some water,” I nod to her glass. “Listen, I get it. You and Scarlett have been friends for years and you and I haven’t gotten along that well for most of your life.
The two of you are incorrigible young women as you should be at your age.
Thank God you didn’t take Rayne with you.
” God if they had my baby as well… I don’t dare think of it.
“She’s tougher than you think and you keep her cooped up here. It’s been two months.” She is about to launch into a protest.
“Which is the bare minimum for healing from one injury or birth, but she’s had several injuries and is only eight weeks postpartum. I’m just asking that next time, God willing there be a next time—”
“Don’t say that,” she screams. “She’s all I have Beckett! Don’t you fucking dare say shit like that. God.”
She is a sobbing mess again and I realize I truly don’t have a heart.
No. I do. It is just buried behind numbness, fear, anger, and determination to find Scarlett.
The moment I have her back in my home, I’ll lock her in for a while, but probably, hopefully, I’ll also appreciate her appropriately.
My instinct is to just be angry, yet she isn’t a child nor is she my prisoner.
It reminds me that we need to work on our communication.
Even if we only have five years together, it isn’t going to be peaceful if we can’t talk to each other.
If she never comes home… well, I really don't know how I’d handle that.
She is essentially still just a concept of a wife.
A beautiful dancer with a gorgeous body and a snarky little attitude who gave me a child.
She agreed to a legal document that is largely in my favor though she wouldn’t notice.
I am giving her more money than she's ever seen, but much less than she deserves as my wife.
I am taking advantage of her; however, I don't plan to always take advantage of her.
“OK. I’m sorry. Listen, I have to make some calls. If you feel better staying here with me you can. We have security everywhere." I am about to assure her when she interrupts again.
“Are you sure your people are safe?” she asks through her tears.
“No, actually I’m not.” I still haven’t heard back from Gloria and had to hire another temp nurse for Rayne.
“I’ll stay here with the baby. At this point, I’m the only one you can trust.”
She is right. Mia is my only ally in this because she adores Scarlett and will do anything to get her back.
I don’t know who initiated this abduction, but I have a feeling the sweet little granny-like Gloria was the one who tipped off the team that Scarlett was leaving and likely knew exactly where.
All they had to do was confirm the location with my name on a reservation and they had a few hours lead time to set the operation in motion.
I have to call Griffin and see what I can find out.