Chapter 40
Chapter
Forty
ASHER
Nero is smiling and looking about as genuinely happy as I can recall ever seeing him.
Anabelle is right—I can’t take this from him. Even if I am right, and there’s something shady about Maude, I have to trust he’ll figure it out in time. And if he doesn’t… well, that’s what a good prenup is for.
“I promise you this is the right decision.” Nero clamps me on the shoulder.
I nod, not willing to go as far as to agree with him. “Do you know what you’re going to do?”
He grins. “I got a room for us nearby. I’ve arranged for the suite to be filled with flowers and some desserts. I plan to share a bubble bath with her and surprise her there and ask her to marry me.”
“You’re a regular Prince Charming.”
He rolls his eyes. “I have a feeling you’d do the same for Anabelle.”
I don’t tell him that I think he might be right.
The idea of making a lasting commitment with her has crossed my mind more than once lately.
But I don’t want to scare her off. She’s fourteen years younger than I am.
She still has so much more of life to discover and live.
I’ve already had the benefit of doing all that.
I’d hate for her to ever think I held her back because she committed to me too soon, for her to end up resenting me.
The collar is a step in that direction. Maybe in a couple of years, I’ll broach the subject of marriage.
“Well, good luck.” I shake Nero’s hand and clamp him on the shoulder.
“Thanks, big brother. Listen, if you don’t mind, I’m going to take off now. I’m so nervous I just want to get this thing going.”
“Sure thing. The rest of us can handle things here.”
“Awesome.” He doesn’t wait a beat, heading off the dance floor to go find Maude.
With mixed feelings, I head back to the table to wait for Anabelle to return from the bathroom. Sid and Kol are still there.
I’m not surprised that Kol is at the table. He hates these things, hates having to have mindlessly chitchat. But Sid would usually be making the rounds by now, using his charm to get people to part with their money.
A lot of people view Sid as the tamest of us all, but sometimes I think they have it all wrong—that he might actually be the most dangerous of the four of us. The true essence of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“Little brother find you to get your blessing?” Sid says, then sips his drink.
I take a seat beside him. “He did.”
“You give it to him?” Kol asks.
“I did.”
Kol’s eyebrows raise up to his hairline.
“I don’t feel right about it, but he can make decisions for himself. He’s an adult,” I say.
Sid laughs. “This must be the Anabelle effect we’re seeing.”
“Guess so. Who knew some good pussy could act like a Valium?” Kol says with a smirk because he knows his statement will piss me off.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Don’t start.”
“I’m just busting your balls. To be honest, I like her. She doesn’t take your shit,” Kol says.
Not unless we’re in a scene. I smirk.
Speaking of Anabelle, she should have been back by now. I frown and look over the crowd.
“Anabelle didn’t come by here while I was talking to Nero, did she?” I ask my brothers.
They both shake their heads.
“Huh.” I stand. “I’m going to go check the bar. If she comes back, tell her to wait here for me, okay?”
Kol gives me a salute as if I’m a drill sergeant because he’s an asshole, but Sid simply nods, a look of concern on his face.
When I reach the bar, I don’t see her there, so I do a quick sweep of the ballroom and don’t find her, though it’s possible I just missed her. I decide to check the bathroom.
I don’t see her anywhere in the hallway, so I make my way into the ladies’ room. A few of the women at the sinks give me a funny look, but when they realize it’s me, they scurry out.
“Anabelle? You in here?”
There’s no answer.
My heart rate speeds up as I step back out of the bathroom, whipping my head in both directions of the hallway. There’s another ladies’ washroom farther down and around the corner, and I decide to check that before I really start to panic. She’s not there either.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I text Kol and Sid to meet me in the hallway. Nero is probably already gone, and there’s no sense bothering him when I’m likely panicking for nothing.
Except deep down, I know I’m not.
I spy Kol and Sid running down the hall toward me, leaving people staring after them.
“What’s going on?” Kol asks, and I see some of his military training kick in.
“Anabelle went to the bathroom, and she hasn’t returned. I checked the ballroom and both bathrooms out here, and she’s gone.” I push a hand through my hair and grip the strands hard.
“Okay, first… there’s no chance she just ran out on you? Did you guys have a fight or a disagreement? Did she seem off at all earlier tonight?” Kol asks.
I step toward him. “She didn’t run off and leave me. Something’s happened.”
Sid steps between us. “Okay, if she’s nowhere to be found, we have to assume that someone has taken her or hurt her, that it’s not a medical emergency or something.”
My chest squeezes at the idea of someone kidnapping her to do her harm.
“Let’s split up and have one more look for her before we hit the panic button,” Sid says. “Kol and I will look in here, and you check outside. Maybe she went to get some air.”
We all glance at the pouring rain and know that’s not likely, but it’s the one place I haven’t looked yet.
“Text if you guys find anything.” I run toward the door as though my life depends on it, and in some ways, it feels like it does. Because if something has happened to Anabelle, I don’t know how I would move on.
I push that thought from my head as I race out the entryway and under the portico. The two greeters are chatting and look startled when they see me. I probably look like a rabid animal.
“Have you seen a woman with a yellow dress come out here some time in the last twenty-five minutes?” I ask.
They shake their heads in unison.
“No, sorry,” the one says.
I don’t waste another word on them, running out from under the portico into the driving rain. “Anabelle!”
I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for, but I keep shouting her name, running around the building. It’s not until I’m on the opposite side of the building that I spot something gold on the walkway near where the driveway meets the curb—Anabelle’s mask.
I’m soaked through as I pick it up, feeling as if someone has stuck an ice pick in my heart. Though I want to crumble and fall apart worrying about what might be happening to Anabelle, I can’t allow that to happen. Instead, I let the rage take over.
How dare someone try to take what is mine?
I pull my phone from my pocket and fill Kol in on what I found. He tells me to meet him in the security office. I don’t know where that is, but I’ll find it.
I tug on the closest doors, finding them locked.
They must be exit-only. In frustration, I let out a roar toward the sky, intent on destruction, then run around to the front of the building with the mask in hand.
If this is the last piece of her I ever hold, I will rain down hellfire on whoever has hurt her.
The same two guys are standing at the entrance, looking at me wide-eyed as I approach.
“Where’s the security office?” I demand.
“Um… I’ll show you to it.”
“Hurry.”
I follow him there, and when I get inside, I find my two brothers already standing around a desk with a few monitors across it.
“Anything?” I push my way between them.
“He’s just pulling it up for us based on where you found the mask,” Kol says.
It takes another couple minutes for the security guy to find what we want. I spend the time pacing and dripping onto the floor, my hand pulling my hair tightly.
“Got it,” the guy says, and I rush back over to stand behind him and watch.
My entire body goes numb as I watch a masked man I know is Preston Wallace drag Anabelle down the walkway. She struggles a bit before they reach the limo, and it seems as though she purposely dislodges her mask.
She did. For me to find.
“Good girl,” I whisper.
Preston pushes her into the limo, and it drives away.
“How long ago was that?” Kol asks.
“About twenty-five minutes ago,” the guy says.
My stomach sinks and leaches out onto the floor. Twenty-five minutes is plenty of time to kill someone, to rape them, to do any number of unspeakable things to them. My brothers and I share a look because we all know it firsthand.
“Hallway. Now.” I don’t bother looking to see if they follow me. I know they will. Outside the office, I whip around to face them both. “Where could he have taken her?”
Kol looks me dead in the eye. “If you were Preston, what would you do?”
I think about it for a moment. “Fly in and out of here. It’s the fastest way to get the hell out of here and away from us because he has to know I’m coming after her.”
“I’ll call the airport we came into and see if his plane is there,” Sid says, pulling his phone from his pocket and stepping off to the side.
“It could be a trap to get you to just do that. Maybe you’re his real target for what you did to him,” Kol says.
I have his tuxedo jacket in my hands and have him pressed up against the wall before I know it. Because he’s said out loud what I’ve known all along. This is my fault. I couldn’t leave it at just kicking the shit out of him, I had to humiliate him as well.
“I don’t fucking care if it’s a trap for me. He has Anabelle! I’m going to rip him to shreds, and I’m going to enjoy every moment. If he does anything to harm a hair on her head, I’ll make it slow. He’ll wish he never heard the last name Voss.”
Kol, to his credit, doesn’t fight me. “I’m just saying you need to go in there prepared, that’s all.”
I give him a small shove and let my hands drop. There’s no way I can stand here any longer doing nothing while Anabelle is out there alone and afraid.
“His plane is there. I just talked to my pilot,” Sid says, walking back over to us.