Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Hayden
I definitely hadn’t thought the whole going to a fundraising dinner while inches away from giving birth thing through. Yes, I loved going to parties and dinners, like the kind Mace and I walked into, hand in hand, on Tuesday evening. I just hadn’t ever been to one while nearly nine months pregnant.
“I feel enormous,” I groaned as soon as we stepped into the swanky ballroom in the Grand Hotel. “I should have thought to buy a formal suit to hide this bulge.”
In fact, I’d had to hurry out to the closest maternity store earlier that day to find whatever suit they had ready-made that would fit me so that I didn’t have to attend the soiree wearing sweatpants and a pregnancy t-shirt.
“You look fine,” Mace said, more than usually on edge as we shifted to the side of the doorway, hugging the wall, but not blocking the entrance. “You’re pregnant. You’re not going to look like a fashion plate.”
Mace was distracted with his hunt for danger, which he was convinced was going to be a problem that night, and I was already exhausted, bloated, and my feet hurt. Neither of us were at our best, and the result wasn’t pretty.
“Are you saying I look like a trainwreck?” I asked, trying to fight my hurt feelings with logic, but coming up short.
Mace huffed in irritation and dragged his gaze to me. “What do you want me to say? You have a radiant glow? You’re beautiful no matter how pregnant you are? I want to throw you over that table and pound your ass until you’re weeping?”
Both my cock and my mouth twitched in amusement. “Maybe,” I said sullenly.
“Well, you’re beautiful,” Mace snapped, gazing around the room anxiously again. “You glow. But I draw the line at public displays of lust.”
I grinned at him while he looked in the other direction, but when his survey of the room swept back around in my direction, I schooled that grin into a pathetic look.
Mace’s posture softened, and he gave me an apologetic look. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you,” he said. “I can’t shake the feeling like we’re walking on broken glass right now.”
I glanced down. “I wouldn’t know,” I said, resting my free hand on my belly. “I haven’t seen the floor for a few months now.”
Mace managed a smile despite his tension. He squeezed my hand, then we headed deeper into the room.
The truth was, I felt miserable. My body had been more out of sorts than usual all day, and Junior had been throwing a fit, squirming and stomping on my bladder and generally proving that he took after his papa when it came to being a troublemaker. He was quiet now, but I couldn’t guarantee he’d stay that way.
Mace’s obligatory compliments made me feel better, even though I’d yanked them out of him. I got all the reasons why he was anxious. His asshole ex—I knew it was just a business partnership, but there was something satisfying in thinking about Colin as an ex—had broke into his apartment. He was still trying to bring Mace down with the lawsuit. And just that morning, though Mace had tried to hide it from me, someone had delivered a hollowed out, rotting watermelon with what I suspected was a threat telling Mace not to come to this dinner to the doorstep of the penthouse.
It wasn’t so much the gross watermelon, which Mace got rid of, or the note that I could tell bothered Mace, it was the fact that whoever had delivered it had gotten it all the way up to the building’s top floor and left it at the door without being seen. Ten minutes of Mace’s security footage from the middle of the night was missing, and the same ten minutes was missing from the footage Mr. Granger had of the building’s entrances.
So basically, Colin was still out to get us, and here we were, attending a formal event in a place filled with traffic and people we didn’t know.
“Stick close to me,” Mace said as he spotted Mr. Harvey himself across the room, nodded to the man, then escorted me in his direction. “We should be fine in a place with this many witnesses, but you still have to watch your step.”
“I know,” I said, trying not to sound as irritated as I felt. I was a trainwreck, not a complete idiot, after all.
We didn’t have a chance to bicker further.
“Ah, Mr. Canton,” Mr. Harvey, an older beta with silver-white hair, intelligent, blue eyes, and a kind smile said, extending his hand to Mace. “It’s lovely to see you here this evening. And this must be your omega.” His eyes shifted directly to my belly with a surprised but pleased smile.
“He is,” Mace said. “This is Hayden Kipling.”
“Kipling,” Mr. Harvey said, tilting his head slightly and looking at my face instead of my belly. “Not Darrin Kipling.”
“That’s my father,” I said, my smile growing tight.
Mr. Harvey laughed. “Canton, you clever man. You didn’t tell me you were connected to Darrin Kipling.”
Mace glanced to me, trying to hide his surprise. “I didn’t think it was important,” he said.
“I suppose it’s not,” Mr. Harvey said, shifting his stance into what I recognized as the way my parents’ people stood when they believed someone to be on the inside. “What’s really important is what you and your company might be able to do for the Harvey Corporation.”
And they were off. I was surprised by how quickly Mace got down to business. I was also in complete awe of the mastery with which he faced the pitfalls Colin had put in his way.
“I believe Canton Enterprises could do a great deal for the Harvey Corporation, sir,” he said, respectful without being entirely deferential. Men like Mr. Harvey would respond to that, I knew. “We’re still a new company, but we’re growing fast. I’ve headhunted a talented and growing team of engineers and designers to develop the very latest in effective and discreet security technology.”
“I’ve been impressed with the specs you sent me,” Mr. Harvey said, “but as you know, I’m concerned about your reliability and ethics after what I heard from an associate at Victory Holdings.”
I could feel Mace tense. Victory Holdings. Of course. I was a little tense myself. If I’d learned anything in the last week, it was that corporate warfare wasn’t as cute and fun as it looked in the movies.
“I can assure you,” Mace said, very seriously, “the things you’ve heard about me from Victory Holdings are nothing more than the product of an unfortunate grudge that is going into litigation.”
“Oh?” Mr. Harvey asked. “Is that going to affect your ability to do business?”
I wanted to hear more. I was interested in everything Mace was doing, not to mention everything anyone was trying to do against him. But my entire body ached from standing for so long, and my pregnancy bladder wasn’t going to hold out.
I squeezed on Mace’s hand, then leaned in to whisper, “I really need to pee. I won’t be but five minutes.”
Mace had just started answering Mr. Harvey, so he nodded to me and let go of my hand before launching into a reassuring explanation of his feud with Colin.
I hurried to the side of the room where a lit-up sign indicated the bathrooms were located. The party was in full swing at that point, and before I reached the side corridor, a live band began to play in the far corner of the room.
The bathroom hallway was more like a passage connecting the various hotel ballrooms with the kitchens, service corridors, and other parts of the hotel that patrons never saw. I found the bathroom easily enough, but for some reason, I didn’t like being so far out of the ballroom, so far away from Mace.
I chalked it up to whatever bond had been steadily forming between us. Newly bonded mates couldn’t be apart from each other for long, or so I’d always been told. This was the farthest apart Mace and I had been in a week.
There was another guy in a suit in the bathroom when I came out of my stall and went to wash my hands. I nodded to him with a tight smile, then ignored him.
I absolutely did not expect the man to grab me around my chest the second I finished drying my hands or to clamp a hand over my mouth when I tried to cry out.
“Stay silent and do as you’re told and you might just live to see your baby someday,” the guy said in a low growl.
It was the hint that I might not see Junior that had me weak in the knees and slow to fight back. That and the dark, knit cap he slipped over my head and pulled down to blind me.
“You can’t do this,” I gasped as soon as a shred of sense hit me. “My alpha is just out in the ballroom, and he’ll realize I’m missing. He’ll come after me, and you’ll?—”
That’s as far as I got before I felt the sting of a needle in my arm. Within seconds, the world went black.
Mason
Everything was going so well.
“And that’s why I hope you can believe me when I say that these initial hurdles are small and that the vision I have, that the entire team at Canton Enterprises has, will overcome a few early set-backs,” I told Mr. Harvey, finishing the explanation, which had turned into a sales-pitch, of everything that Colin had put me through in the past few months. Everything I was at liberty to reveal, of course.
“Wow,” Mr. Harvey said, shaking his head in disbelief. “You’ve certainly been through it with your old friend. I’m sorry, I had no idea.”
“It’s as much personal as it is professional,” I said with a shrug. “There’s no way you could have known, and really, if the situation were ordinary, there would be no reason for you to know.”
“I’m glad I invited you to this shindig, at least,” Mr. Harvey said, slapping my arm. “Something you just can’t convey through email, or even over the phone. Come on.” He shifted and gestured for me to follow him. “Let me introduce you to a few more people.”
I took a few steps before a feeling that something was very wrong wafted over me.
Hayden. He wasn’t there. He’d gone to the bathroom about—I checked my watch—ten minutes ago.
Guilt and worry hit me a second later. I should have kept a better eye on him. I’d become so engrossed in my conversation with Mr. Harvey, and Mr. Harvey had asked so many questions, that time had flown by and I hadn’t felt Hayden’s absence.
I did now. I definitely felt it, along with a suddenly immense amount of worry.
“I’ll be right there, Mr. Harvey,” I said. “I just want to go make certain Hayden is alright. He’s due any time now, and you never know this close to the end.”
Mr. Harvey laughed in understanding. “Tell me about it. I’m just a beta, but my wife and I have five children. I remember how it was every time.”
I thanked him with a smile, then turned to head towards the corridor where the bathrooms were located.
My smile dropped and I picked up my pace within a few steps. Now that I was aware of Hayden’s absence, I could feel all sorts of strange, conflicting feelings within me. I had been aware since the weekend that Hayden and I were bonding, but we didn’t have a full bond as of yet.
I reached out for that space anyhow, hoping to feel Hayden’s mischievous, sassy, even guilty feelings as he got himself into trouble of some sort. But instead of feeling the essence of Hayden, I felt nothing at all.
No, that wasn’t true. It wasn’t nothing, like the bond didn’t exist or had been severed before fully forming. It was more like a blank on the other end, like…like Hayden was sleeping?
That didn’t make any sense.
My feelings of unease increased when I found the bathroom empty. I checked all the stalls and even, for some reason, looked up at the ceiling. Hayden wasn’t there.
I moved on to the ladies’ room, checking in there on the off chance that Hayden had wanted to pee in there, since he was pregnant. All I found in the ladies’ room, though, was a middle-aged beta who nearly screamed at me for walking into the wrong room.
I pulled out my phone, but immediately put it back. Hayden didn’t have his phone with him. He’d said something about it needing to charge before we’d left the apartment.
I kept on going down the hallway, toward the sounds of a kitchen. Hayden was exactly the type who would go check out a hotel kitchen just to see what was there. He would probably ask a bunch of nosey questions and get in everyone’s way. With any luck, the hotel manager would find him and we would be kicked out. I wouldn’t have said no to just going home and spending another quiet evening with my omega safely in my arms.
But Hayden wasn’t in the kitchen. No one in there had seen a heavily pregnant omega wander by. He wasn’t in any of the store rooms or other smaller ballrooms either. He hadn’t wandered back into the lobby, and he hadn’t gone out on the back deck. I even checked the hotel pool, figuring Hayden was nutty enough to take a dip to relieve the weight of his stomach, but he wasn’t there either.
“Is something wrong?” Mr. Harvey asked half an hour later, when I made my way back to the original ballroom.
“Have you seen Hayden at all?” I asked, not bothering to hide my nearly out-of-control worry.
“He wasn’t in the bathroom?” Mr. Harvey asked.
I shook my head. “He isn’t anywhere in the hotel that I’ve been able to find him so far.”
“That is concerning,” Mr. Harvey said. “I’ll help you search for him.”
Another fifteen minutes of searching passed, but without luck. I knew that every second that ticked past without finding Hayden increased the level of danger we were dealing with. I also knew that Colin had to be behind Hayden’s disappearance.
For that reason, I wasn’t surprised when my phone buzzed in my back pocket just as I’d stepped outside to do another quick search of the area around the hotel. I’d been considering calling Det. Shirley anyhow, and I swiped for my phone so fast I almost dropped it.
The number was unknown, but I answered it anyhow with a desperate, “Hello? Hayden?”
“Mace,” Colin’s voice greeted me.
“Colin, you bastard,” I snapped, not mincing words. “Where is he? What have you done with him?”
“Who? Your fat little omega friend?”
It felt like a black hole had opened up in my gut. Colin knew about Hayden. He had Hayden. I just had to figure out where and get to him.
“If you hurt so much as a hair on his head, I’ll kill you,” I growled.
Colin made a sound of fake offense. “You’re the one going around telling people that I’m the violent one, but listen to you.”
“I’m not messing around with you, Colin,” I said, glancing around, as if he were nearby and I could hang up the phone and deal with him in person. “Tell me where Hayden is. Give him back. He’s pregnant and vulnerable.”
“Now you’re just giving me more reasons to keep him right where he is,” Colin said. “Really, Mace, you shouldn’t tip your hand like that.”
I pinched my face shut for a moment to fight the panic and frustration growing in me. “Just…give him back.”
“Oh, I will, I will,” Colin said.
I popped my eyes open.
“Just as soon as you shut down Canton Enterprises, cancel all the deals you have in the works, and sign over the rights to everything we developed together over the last ten years,” Colin finished.
“You developed nothing,” I hissed. “I did all the work and you collected all the profits. I sure as hell won’t fold my own business and renege on the deals I’ve already got brewing just because?—”
There was a sudden beeping sound as the call cut off.
Furious, I pulled my phone away from my ear and glared at it.
I was ready to try calling Colin’s unlisted number back when my phone started to buzz again, this time with an incoming video call.
I tapped hard to accept it, and a moment later, Colin’s smug face appeared. I immediately looked to the background of wherever he was, but the only thing behind him was a concrete wall painted white.
“I don’t to draw this out,” Colin said. “You’ll give me what I want or you’ll have an even bigger mess to clean up than the one in your apartment.”
I let out a breath. That was more or less an admission that Colin had been behind the break-in.
“I’m dealing with some very important people these days,” Colin went on. “Very impatient people. They don’t like to be kept waiting when I promise them things.”
Something ticked at the back of my brain with the way he said that, like the people behind Colin were just as impatient with him as he was being with me.
“Victory Holdings giving you a hard time?” I asked. “Have they figured out that you’re a nobody with nothing backing up your bravado?”
Colin’s smug look shifted to one of anger.
Worse still, he moved, shifting his phone’s camera around, and pointed it to the other side of the mostly bare, concrete room he was in.
I only got the slightest flash of the rest of the stuff in the room. The moment the camera trained on Hayden’s sprawled form lying on a bare mattress on the floor, my heart nearly exploded and I saw red.
“What have you done to him?” I demanded, nearly wild with the need to rescue my omega.
Colin didn’t answer. At least, not directly. He swung the camera back around to himself, only at a slightly wider angle, like he was holding his phone at arm’s length. He held up his other hand, showing me the gun he held.
“You have until midnight to end Canton Enterprises or I end your little omega friend,” he said, then immediately ended the call.
The air rushed out of my lungs so fast I nearly dropped my phone.
He wouldn’t. Colin wouldn’t do it. He was a jerk and a cheat, but he wasn’t a killer.
I couldn’t count on that, though. I couldn’t count on anything. The carnage in my apartment came back to mind. Colin was desperate for some reason, and desperate people did desperate things.
I couldn’t think about that, though. I turned and headed back into the hotel, already swiping through my phone to find Det. Shirley’s number. My alpha sense told me that Hayden was still nearby, that Colin hadn’t taken him entirely out of my reach. But there was no telling if and when that changed. There was no way to know how much time I had to save my omega.