Chapter 33
thirty-three
ZACH
“Sadie?” I let out a groan as I move my head. There’s a heavy pain throbbing through my left temple. “Talk to me, are you okay?” Finally I manage to open my eyes, but it’s pitch dark and silent, except for the thud of bass coming from the ballroom.
“Shit.” I sit up way too fast, and my stomach clenches with nausea. I have no idea how long I’ve been on the ground, but the fact I can barely open my fucking eyes makes me feel like it’s been a while.
I scramble around, trying to find my phone, and let out a relieved sigh when I find it in my jacket pocket. Pulling it out, I slide my finger to turn on the flashlight. A white beam lights the room. There are so many fucking floaters in my vision.
“Baby, where are you?” My voice cracks as I push myself to my knees. Fuck, if she’s been hit too, I’m going to throw up. “Darien? Is that you? If you touch one hair on her head I swear you’ll regret it.”
But there’s no sign of her. Or her asshole ex. If it was him. Because I never saw a fucking thing.
I couldn’t even protect her. I never saw the danger coming.
A breeze lifts my hair and I see that the back door leading to the parking lot is slightly ajar. It was closed when I left here, I swear it. Somehow, despite the pain in my head and the sickness pulling at my guts I manage to crawl over there.
When I reach it, and push at the glass, the door swings open easily. Cold night air drifts in, carrying the distant sound of the gala. Something sharp spikes under my ribs.
Fear.
I brace my hand on the wall, managing to get to my knees as I push the door wider, wincing at the way it creaks as I skim the outside with my phone’s flashlight.
There’s a trail across the gravel, two parallel lines that lead from my apartment to the lot. Like somebody was dragged or stumbled.
Then I see a fucking shoe. Her shoe. Silver and high heeled and abandoned on the path like a production of Cinderella gone bad.
Like, really, really bad.
How the hell didn’t I see him? He must have been there, right next to me. Close enough to hit me with… whatever he used to make my head pound like a bass drum.
Close enough to take her. And I let him.
Because of my fucking eyes. And my lust. I was too busy thinking of ways I could strip her to notice he was there, right next to me, waiting.
And now she’s gone.
Grabbing my phone again, I try to concentrate on the screen, but I can’t read the oversized clock lit up on the front. So I hit the side button, and hope to God I stay conscious long enough to get help.
“Siri,” I manage to croak. “Call Asher.”
The little circle lights up, and that tinny voice comes out.
“It sounds like you want me to call Asher Fitzgerald. Is that correct?”
“Yes.” I’m about two seconds away from screaming. And maybe the robot in my phone knows this, because Siri quickly says, “Calling Asher Fitzgerald.”
It rings once. Then again. My body sways with dizziness and all I can think is that I need to stay conscious until he answers.
“Zach?” Asher sounds confused as he picks up the call. “Why are you calling me? Aren’t we in the same room?”
I can hear the music louder now, he must be in the ballroom. Probably because he doesn’t want to take his eyes off his pregnant wife.
“She’s gone,” I manage to rasp. “Sadie. He took her.”
There’s a beat of silence. Then, because he’s Asher and he senses danger everywhere he realizes I’m not joking. “Where are you?”
“Outside the back door of my apartment. I think… I think Darien was here. He hit me. I didn’t see him. I didn’t fucking see him. And she’s gone. Sadie’s gone.” My voice lifts into full-blown panic.
“Shit. Okay, we’re coming. Stay put.”
I let out a groan of agreement before the phone falls to the ground and I start to retch my guts up. Of course I’m staying put. I can’t fucking move.
And this is all my damn fault.
SADIE
There’s a rumbling beneath me, and it takes me a minute to realize where I am. In a van, I think. I wrinkle my nose. It smells of… flowers? Like roses.
That’s weird. What am I doing here?
And then I remember Zach. Oh God, he was hit. Or at least I think he was hit. I remember a thud and then it all went dark.
Where am I? God, think, Sadie.
I manage to roll onto my side, pressing my palms onto the metallic floor of the van and realize I’m still wearing my gala dress, though there are rips in it. I’ve only got one shoe on. And my phone, it was in my bra.
I touch my chest. It’s gone, too.
And suddenly I’m furious. Because Zach could be hurt. And I’m here, wherever here is. I manage to crawl over to the metal wall that divides the storage space of the van from the driving area and start to bang on it. Loudly.
“Let me out of here,” I shout. “You asshole, let me out.”
The van comes to an abrupt stop. And when I say abrupt I mean the kind of stop that makes my head bang against the metal, then causes my body to slide to the door end.
But before I can right myself, one of the doors is opened.
“Can you shut the hell up?” Darien says.
Because of course it’s him. Who else would be idiotic enough to do this?
Just the man I messed my whole life up for.
And now he wants to mess it up a little more.
Who else would hit Zach and take me? I know he can break into practically any building.
The police told me that much. That he was faster than any locksmith they’d seen.
“Where’s Zach?” I ask him.
“Is that your boyfriend?” My ex sneers. God, I can’t believe I ever kissed that man. “He’s a little laid up right now.”
“If you hurt him, I swear…”
“Shut up!” he roars again. And for the first time I realize he’s serious. God, he’s really doing this. Whatever this is.
“Why did you hurt Zach?” I ask him. “Why did you take me?”
“Because I need that painting.”
“It’s not with Zach,” I tell him. God, let Zach be okay.
Darien actually rolls his eyes. “I know that. And it’s not in your apartment either. Or your shop.”
“You’ve been to my shop?” I blink.
“I’ve been every fucking where. I need that painting, Sadie. Either you tell me where it is or I’ll…”
“Or you’ll what?”
He gives me a sickly smile. “Or I won’t need you anymore.”
I let out a breath. That stupid damn painting. Why did I ever take it in the first place. “If I tell you where it is will you let me go?”
He shrugs. But let’s face it, I’m telling him anyway. I don’t even want the thing.
“It’s in the locked storage room at the back of the store.”
“Shit.” He grimaces. “I was so close.”
“Now will you let me go?”
“No. Not until I have what I want. You’re coming with me to the shop.”
“But I don’t have the keys.”
“It’s okay. I already broke in.” Of course he did. The anti-locksmith strikes again. “Now can you shut up for five minutes, please?” he grunts. “I’m gonna lock this door and then we’re going to drive to the shop and you’re gonna give me back what you stole from me.”
He doesn’t wait for an answer. Just slams the door shut, before I hear it lock.
A minute later, the engine starts up again.
Dammit. I need to think of a plan. And I have no idea what it could be. All I know is that Zach might be lying on his floor, bleeding out, with nobody knowing where he is.
And it’s all my fault.
ZACH
“Any news?” I ask Asher ten minutes later, because I’m dying inside. Where the hell is she? Where has he taken her?
I try to stand, but Skyler pushes me back down and I don’t have the strength to resist her. I’m still feeling sick and dizzy. And my eyes are shot. I can barely see five feet in front of me.
“You really need to get to the hospital,” Skyler murmurs, dabbing at the drying blood on my temple with an antiseptic wipe she found in the first aid box in the kitchen cupboard.
It stings like hell, but I don’t flinch.
My body might be here, slumped in the armchair that Asher and Wyatt managed to drag me into, but all I can think about is Sadie.
Is she hurt? She must be so scared. I can still smell her perfume on my shirt. It makes the room tilt even more.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m fine,” I lie, even though my head feels like it’s cracked in two. “We need to focus on finding Sadie.”
Wyatt hunkers down in front of me. “Can you see okay?” he murmurs. I grimace at him. I don’t want to talk about my eyes right now. But the movement makes my stomach heave.
“I didn’t see him,” I say softly. “So no.”
Skyler’s hand stills against my skin. “Is there something wrong with your vision?” she asks, frowning. She looks at Hudson. “Is there a doctor here we can call?”
I shake my head, because fuck, they’re not taking this seriously. “Let’s find Sadie, then I promise I’ll go to the hospital,” I rasp.
“Asher’s got his team sweeping the entire hotel and the grounds,” Wyatt tells me. “Every exit, every room, every camera feed.” He runs a hand through his hair. “He’s tearing the place apart. We’ll find her.”
My apartment is full of my family, all bustling around, making cups of tea and looking scared.
Hudson is on the phone with the Coast Guard, Francie and Eden are comforting Romy who’s convulsing with tears, and West and Asher are leaning over his laptop, Asher talking into the phone that’s lodged between his ear and his shoulder.
He looks up at me, his face unreadable. “What type of phone does Sadie use?” he asks me.
“She has an iPhone,” I say. “Do you think you can track her?”
He lets out a low breath. “They just found an iPhone in the parking lot. Red case, a crack on the front.”
My chest feels so tight I’m not sure I can breathe. “That’s hers,” I say. So much for tracking her. “Shit.”
Asher nods once, sharp and grim. “That’s what I thought.” He doesn’t soften the blow of his words. He knows I wouldn’t want him to. I need to know the truth.
A pulse beats hard in my ears. “She didn’t go willingly.”
So much for being no fucking threat. The man hit me. He stole her. He’s taken everything I care about.
The room goes silent. Even Romy’s sobs quiet into soft gulping breaths.