CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
Balor
T hree days not hearing from Ella.
I’m raw with pain and wired with enough rage to level this entire city with a dirty bomb.
I’ve been unable to leave my house, craving her scent that I smell on every damn piece of upholstery. I told my housekeeper to not touch my bed or even go near my bedroom. I can’t work, my hands are cramped from fisting them so tight. I can’t eat, except for the food that Jillian and Shea force on me.
If I thought my sleep sucked before, this is much worse. At times spots form in front of my eyes and my breathing shallows out. Darragh is stopping by tonight to give me a B12 shot.
“We tracked her down!” Shane bursts into my home office with Eoghan on his six.
Several of my most trusted tech experts are working around the clock to find her. All while I’m a useless, melted-down mess.
Eoghan has practically moved in to make sure I don’t drown myself in the toilet bowl.
“Where?” I go to stand but feel dizzy and sit back down.
“It wasn’t easy.”
I grab the tracker device from Shane’s grasp. “What the hell is she doing in Beacon, New York?”
Where the hell is Beacon, New York? I never fucking heard of it.
“Her phone’s SIM card isn’t pinging anymore. But...” Shane takes a breath. “I used that tracker you put in the back of the phone, under the case.”
Something I never told her about. “And?”
“I got a read on it. But it’s fading. Dying. ”
“Why? Fucking talk, Quinlan .”
His jaw tightens as he says, “Her purse is at the bottom of the Hudson River.”
I stagger back into a chair. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
“That doesn’t mean she is.” Eoghan comes up next to me and rubs my shoulders. “Hold it together. We’ll find her.”
“I was also able to track her movements on the day she disappeared,” Shane says. “She went to a clinic in Manhattan. Saw a...gynecologist.”
My head snaps up. “The day she went missing? Saturday?”
“And my team is scouring cameras to piece together where she went after that appointment.” Shane lays a laptop in front of me. “This video is her going into the clinic.”
Seeing her stroll into that building alone tears my heart out. I miss her so damn much. It stings more because she was angry with me. I was supposed to go with her to see the doctor. Instead, she went to a clinic without me.
And didn’t tell me.
She didn’t want me there.
That meant she planned to tell me it was over between us. It feels like broken glass in my mouth when I try to swallow that down.
“There’s more information on her visit, if you want it, Balor.” Shane eyes me with a wary, flat smile, cautious of my reaction. “I dug further into her records.”
“She told me she wanted to see the doctor and confirm the pregnancy before we made an announcement,” I say the words as fear paralyzes me. “She is pregnant, right?”
The idea she lost the baby or wasn’t pregnant in the first place, even though multiple at-home tests confirmed it, has me reeling.
“She’s preggers all right.” Shane cups my shoulder and bends down to whisper in my ear. “She’s having twins, Balor.”
Twins. Ella is having twins. We’re not strangers to twins. Darragh and Cormac are twins. Kieran has twins. Now...me. The guy who didn’t even want a relationship.
“Oh, we got more footage of her. I’m pairing my laptop.” Shane grabs a remote and switches on my large-screen monitor across from the desk. “Here she is going into the doctor, and coming out. She walks home to her father’s apartment. We got her on a series of cameras.”
A montage of her movements, stills and grainy videos, eat at my sanity.
“She gets home, but then a few hours later, here’s what happens.” Shane fast forwards. “Here she is, getting into a car.”
“A car?” I stand up.
“From what I further pieced together, an Uber was called to her father’s building.”
“One Uber?” Eoghan says, hiking up to the screen. “I see two cars.”
“Guys, shut the fuck up with the commentary.” They forget I’m the real expert. “Let me just watch the fucking video.”
It plays, and every second destroys me. She’s dressed up to go out with her friends. I see Hannah, Val, and a woman I don’t know by the other car. Why did they make her go alone? Was she planning to go somewhere else?
“Shane, did you track this other car’s license plate?” Eoghan snaps.
After more glaring, Shane says, “Stolen car.”
My phone rings, and I lunge for it. Seeing the caller, fury floods my veins.
Why is she calling me when...
I swipe to answer. “What?”
“Some thanks I get,” Petra huffs .
“Thanks for what?” I bark.
“When are you coming over? I got rid of that little girl for you, like you asked.”
“What?”
“Your text!” she cries out. “You said you were forwarding her calls to me. When she called, I did as you asked. Said you were in the shower and we just fucked and that you don’t want anything to do with her.”
I stagger into my seat. “Petra, I never sent that text.”
“It came from your number.” Her breath hitches. “You aren’t coming over?”
My stomach twists painfully. “Petra. No. In fact...”
Something hits me, and I snap my fingers. “Shane, do a scan on this phone number. Petra got a text ghosted from my number. Get one of the guys to see where the fuck that text came from. It’s also looking like my calls from Ella only are being forwarded to her.”
“Got it.” Shane reaches for the phone, but I speak into it one last time.
“Listen to me carefully, Petra. Do not hang up, or it will be the last thing you do.”
Shane takes my phone and leaves the room.
“What’s going on?” Eoghan crouches in front of me. “Talk to me.”
His wedding celebration with Jillian is on Saturday. He’s completely and utterly obsessed with his bride. Barely leaves her side. But he’s been here all day, every day.
“Someone ghosted a text to Petra from me that said if Ella calls, to say I’m in the shower.” I shift in my seat. “My calls from Ella are being forwarded to her.”
Eoghan’s jaw drops. “You can do that? All that? Ghost texts? Deep-fake call forwarding? How the fuck do we trust anything we ever see, Balor?”
“I’m going to have to re-program our phones to enter codes, two-step verifications. Just us. Family. Until we know...”
Family...
Corvin Snow.
I shoot up from my seat. “Where the fuck is Ella’s father?”