Chapter 7 #2
Jamison’s shoulders square, and he glares at Aiden. “So much for that.”
Aiden releases a regretful sigh. “I didn’t know it would get to this point.”
“But it did.” Jamison’s jaw muscles tick. “Let’s get to what matters. What does Hunter’s mom want you to do?”
Aiden glances down then takes a deep breath. “She wants me to work for the French mob, doing the same type of work my wonderful father has had me doing. If I say no, she’ll hand Dori over to the men my uncle and dad work with and turn me in.”
My stomach rolls. “That’s some choice she gave you.”
Aiden peers in my direction, wiping his lip again. “She gave me an hour to decide. She’s supposed to call me to find out my response.”
I rise to my feet so I can dissipate my bubbling emotions.
“Like she believes you won’t agree to her demands, but we’ve got to stall her somehow.
If we don’t, she’s likely to hand Dorothy over anyway.
Can you call whoever is in charge of Dorothy’s case and see where they are in their efforts to find her? ”
He rests back in his chair, pulls his phone out of his pocket, hits the screen, and holds his cell phone to his ear.
“Hey, it’s Fisher. Any word?” His eyes shift around as he takes in the information for a minute. “Thanks. Keep me informed.”
He hangs up. “They have video of Dori being led out of her building by two women and two men.”
“Two women, not just one?” I crease my brows. I get behind my chair and rest my forearms against the back of it, leaning forward. “Do they have any idea who they were?”
“Not that they shared with me. Any guess from you?” He juts his chin my way.
“We know one is my mother. The only other person I can think of is Isabella. She’s made it clear she wants my mother to take my son, so we know they’re working together.” I face Jamison. “What’s your thought?”
He nods. “Your guess makes sense. That’s who I suspect it was, but she’s pregnant. I would think she’d want to be out of the line of fire for fear of the baby getting hurt.”
“Agreed.” My mind races with why Isabella would be present at Dorothy’s abduction. Nothing of reason comes to mind. “Maybe she was there because they drugged Dorothy again and needed her help somehow.”
Aiden’s gaze narrows on me. “What do you mean they drugged Dori again? When was she drugged?”
I dart my gaze to Jamison as my heart rate ticks up. This will not land well.
“I have two things I need to let you know about.” I look directly at Aiden, bracing for the worst. “Your dad didn’t attack you. My mother had that arranged. Not only that, but we were at a board meeting and Dori was roofied at the bar. My mother was behind it.”
Aiden draws back in shock. “Your mother had me attacked? And she drugged Dori? How?”
“She sent the guy there, hoping he would get her back to her room. He was supposed to make it look like they hooked up. He was going to leave the door cracked open, so when I went searching for her, I’d find her in bed with him and break it off with her.
” I tense in preparation for Jamison to come for me.
He studies me. “When did you find that out?”
“Very recently.” When he doesn’t come at me, I face Aiden. “Jamison got there before anything bad happened and took care of Dorothy the entire night. We can thank him for making sure that asshole didn’t take advantage of her while she was incoherent.”
Aiden’s cheeks burn red as he growls at Jamison. “She was drugged, and you kept that from me. I called and told you to watch out for her.”
“I did. She begged me not to tell you.” His shoulders go slack. “She wouldn’t go to the hospital or the police. I should’ve taken her anyway, but she was a mess. I didn’t want to make matters worse.”
“Relax, you two. It seems we’ve all fucked this up real good.” I round my chair and sit. “My mother roofied Dorothy to get her out of my life. When that didn’t work, she went after Aiden.”
“I can’t believe she was behind the attack on me.” Aiden huffs in disbelief. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. She’s the reason we’re all sitting here, trying to figure out how to save your sister.
Now we can go around and figure out what part each of us had, or we can try to figure out a way to fix this.
” My chest tightens as I address Aiden. “Did you ever see anything while you were helping your dad? Say, a location where they met?”
He considers something for a moment. “The tips I paid people off to look the other way were about shipments going in and out. While digging around, I found records about suspicious dealings at the locations my dad was concerned about. That’s when I discovered they were traffickers.
Maybe these guys are still using those locations. ”
“That’s if it’s even the same group of traffickers,” Jamison interjects. “Besides, we don’t have time to search all the shipping areas. We need something now. If we don’t figure something out soon, we won’t get Dori back.”
Jamison’s right. Even if my mother says she’ll return Dori, she won’t. Joan has Aiden where she needs him, regardless .
With that realization, my heart plummets to the ground.
We may as well say goodbye to seeing Dorothy ever again.