Chapter 5
Vincent
By the time Black and the rest of my useless security team track down Hazel’s location, I’m two steps ahead of them. Her hotel was right down the street from my own the whole time, a thought that both alarms and comforts me.
Alarming because as long as she’s close to me, she’s close to the danger. Likely to be seen by Damien, who knows damn well that she’s one of the few bargaining chips he could use against me.
Comforting because last night I needed to know where the hell she was and didn’t, which made my mind wander. She could be anywhere, in any part of this vast city. In danger, maybe.
Or maybe just with another man.
“I’m really not supposed to -”
I glare daggers at the small, mousy woman behind the front desk of the small hotel. She shrinks away.
“I…could get my manager,” she says reluctantly. “And see if there’s anything they can do?”
Cursing, I retrieve my wallet from my pocket and pull out a stack of hundreds. Her eyes widen.
“Room number,” I say to her. “And room key.”
“Room 457,” she whispers, reaching for the bills.
“And the key,” I prompt, holding the money just out of her reach.
She shakes her head.
“I’m sorry, sir,” she says. “It’s a safety matter. We can’t just give room numbers out to every stranger who -”
Cursing, I slap the money on the table and rush to the elevator, taking it to the fourth floor where I locate Hazel’s room, banging on the door.
“Hazel it’s me,” I roar. “Open the motherfucking door.”
No response.
I bang on the door again. Still no response. I’m contemplating breaking the door down when my phone rings.
“You better have information,” I growl to Black.
“She’s here for Startup Week,” Black says in a rush. “Same as you.”
“Fuck,” I growl. “Find her. Take her back to my hotel and secure the entrance. Nobody gets in or out.”
“We’re trying, sir,” he says. “We’re having a hard time locating her and her associate.”
“Associate?”
“Kristen Redding,” he replies. “A close friend.”
I grunt. The name is familiar, which means she was a friend of Hazel’s when I met her. Which means I had my team background check her already. Whoever this Kristen friend is, she must be a decent person.
Which means there are now two women in danger instead of one. Because of me. Because I failed to do what I should have done a long time ago, too busy following my dick instead of listening to my brain.
I’m a fucking bastard.
I head back to the elevator and rush out of the lobby to curious eyes, meeting a car at the curb.
Black weaves in and out of the city traffic with the kind of reckless urgency that only working for me could inspire, and we’re at the conference, hosted in the ballroom and auditorium of a major hotel, in no time.
We rush inside and there are people everywhere. Vendor booths, salespeople, and conference attendees swarm around, the crowd too thick to part easily, too vast to see whether Hazel’s head of dark hair is among them.
I turn to Black.
“Exits,” I tell him. “I want men at every door.”
“Yes, sir.”
There are at least a dozen men working to find Hazel now, and another dozen making sure that Hazel doesn’t make her way out of the building unescorted. I just hope that it’s enough.