Chapter 34 Slade
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
SLADE
That strange early-morning light wakes me.
Pale blue spills out from the edges of the night black, but the sun hasn’t peeked over the horizon yet.
My eyes crack open enough to study the faint glow slanting across the room and catching the glossy covers of my comics.
It takes me a moment, but the cries and pleasured moans from Thea rattle in my brain as its first coherent thought, and I groan, wanting more of her already.
I reach over, my hand slipping into the warm spot her body should be, but it’s empty.
The slight dip where she was is still there, but she’s gone.
I flip over and confirm the side of the bed she fell asleep on is empty, then I sit up, looking toward the bathroom.
The door is open, and I listen, hearing nothing.
I push back the covers and pad over to my closet, pulling out a pair of boxers to slide on.
She may have gone to the kitchen for water, or perhaps she couldn’t sleep.
Is she having second thoughts about what happened between us?
She can’t possibly know how perfect she was.
Her body, who she is as a person—she’s made for me.
I’ve never felt this way for anyone, and I don’t want to scare her away, but I also don’t want to lose her. I can’t lose her.
Driven to find her, I ignore any further clothing and set out across the mezzanine and down the stairs.
The gray clouds swallow the sun as it peeks over the horizon, and instead of illuminating the blue sky, bruised clouds drag shadows across the walls of the hallway.
Rain sprinkles, small drops speckling the windows, and the patter echoes through the house as the lone sound shakes loose an odd sensation from me. Where is she?
I stick my head into the kitchen to find it vacant. Stefan isn’t here yet, and Edmond hasn’t wandered in. Something is pressing on my chest. I spin, eyes rolling over the living room briefly before I charge down the main hallway toward her bedroom.
Edmond exits a room, dressed for the day in his butler suit. “Sir?” His eyes widen at my attire, then dilate even wider as he takes in my scar for the first time.
“Have you seen Thea?” I ask.
Edmond blinks. “Uh, no. She’s not in her room?”
We both move across the hall to her bedroom. The door is shut, so I knock quietly. If she’s asleep, I don’t want to wake her, but why would she leave my bed to sleep back in her own? Did I do something wrong? Is she ashamed? Hell, my heart is pounding.
There’s no answer to my knock, so I try the handle. It’s locked. I step back from the door, huffing.
“I’m sure she’s getting changed, sir. It’s in the early morning, and Miss Thea usually likes to join Stefan in the kitchen for coffee and breakfast.” Edmond’s words are meant to comfort, but they only mock me. She got out of bed with you to go spend time with Stefan.
I clench my teeth and turn, unwilling to piss away any more time in this damn hallway when something catches my eye. My office door is cracked.
Prying myself from her room, I pad down the hall.
“Sir?”
“Did you go in here?” I ask.
“No, sir.”
When I reach my office, I pause outside it, pushing the door.
It slowly and silently opens. From this angle everything looks the same, but the air is thick with the soft trace of her, like warm vanilla.
I’d know that scent, especially since I had her beneath me mere hours ago—her skin against mine.
I inhale, hoping I’m wrong. Maybe it was hanging from her walk through the hall, but there’s not much out here.
It’s stronger in my office, like she lingered here.
I was so caught up with getting to her last night I left it unlocked.
My books are untouched, and nothing is out of place, but my chair … my chair isn’t pushed in like I typically leave it. It’s pulled out and cocked to the side. Almost as if someone moved it, not to sit in it, but to occupy the space it was in.
I rush to my desk. The monitor is off, and when I switch it on, there’s nothing there. No windows open, stray tabs, or a hint of whatever I thought I’d find. It’s too clean. Normally, I leave my calendar up for quick access when Elliot demands I verify my schedule, but it’s not open.
Damn it, Thea. What did you do? Did she check something? Look for information and then ran and locked herself in her room.
Somewhere beyond thunder rolls in low, growling through the house, and I slide into my chair, pulling up the diagnostic software I keep on my computer.
It logs every keystroke, every file touched.
The code scrolls, each green line an entry.
My private server hasn’t been touched—my security would have been alerted if it had.
That’s where all my information and EV communication takes place, but that isn’t what worries me.
Regardless, EV monitors all the work on my computer, maybe more my grandfather, but still my stomach roils.
The software pauses and immediately slows down the playback, bringing up a recording of the screen. It flagged something—a sign-in to an outside email, [email protected] time stamped at 1:56 a.m. I slow the playback down even more, watching as a message is typed out.
My name is Thea. I have information about a secret society here in Chicago—
I don’t let it finish. Bolting from my chair, I rush past Edmond in the doorway. “Sir?”
At Thea’s door, I pound on it. “Thea!” WHACK, WHACK, WHACK. “Thea!”
When she doesn’t answer, I don’t bother with the handle. My bare foot slams into the wood just beside the lock, and the crack of impact ricochets down the hall.
“Sir!” Edmond cries. He rushes behind me as I rear back and kick again, the pain in my foot be damned.
The frame gives with a splintering pop, and the door lurches inward.
A hinge tears free, the door sagging. I push through, spotting her made bed.
My eyes sweep the rest of the room. No sign of her. My pulse ticks up.
There’s a faint hiss coming from the ensuite, and I pad over, landing two open-palmed slaps to the door. “Thea?”
No answer.
“Thea!”
Nothing but the steady rush of the shower. My adrenaline spikes, and I throw my shoulder into the door. It groans but doesn’t budge. I try again. And again.
“Thea! Open this door!” They’re the only words I can choke out. My body trembles as my breaths come in ragged and cling to the fact that Thea’s always reserved, timid. She knows the consequences; she knows she could be—“Thea!”
“Sir.”
“What?” I bark.
Edmond’s hand clamps down on my shoulder as I’m about to crash once again into the en suite door. “I have a key.”
I spin, and he extends it toward me. I snatch it, fumbling as I insert it into the lock. Hurry up, hurry up, I scream at myself. When the lock finally clicks, Edmond backs away, turning out of respect, but I burst in.
My focus goes to the shower first. Steam rolls inside the glass in a heavy wave, and the humidity strikes me in the face. Though it’s broken by ribbons of air pouring in through the open window. Hell. No—
The blinds, halfway pulled up, sway and snap against the top half of the window. My gaze darts everywhere at once. The wet floor, the towel still folded on the rack, the hygiene products still spread over the counter.
My pulse drowns out Edmond’s words behind me, and I stumble toward the window, leaning out over the frame. Gripping the sill, I scan the front and side yards. Security is clueless. I don’t know when she left. I’ll have to pull cameras, but where is she going? Wait. Shit.
I jerk back inside, my heart hammering, but also aching. Did she use me? Was the dance, her being with me, just a distraction? My office.
It takes but seconds for me to plop down in the chair and stare at the screen again, the email fully finished rendering.
My name is Thea. I have information about a secret society here in Chicago. Meet @ 7 a.m. Riverside Garage.
I freeze, and it takes me a minute to understand. Sent to who? My mind snags on the email, and then the name within it. Piper Reeves.
My pulse detonates. No, Thea. No.
I dart up, running to the stairs. “Edmond get the car!”
I take each tread two at a time, willing myself to move faster.
Piper Reeves is among the most watched reporters.
EV has had her on their radar for a while, but she knows nothing.
Everything she has is speculation and, for most people, a fictional story.
But if Thea speaks to her … if Thea confirms Piper’s suspicions and allegations.
Not only is Thea in trouble, but Piper is as good as dead.
Thea. Why, Thea?
That’s stupid, I tell myself. You know why. She wants to help the other girls. She can’t take the guilt, and while I don’t want that for her, she’s put a target on her back.
I roll my shoulders once I enter my closet, and picking out a suit, I work to dress as fast as I can.
They’ll come for her. They’ve seen the email; there’s no question in my mind.
This organization tracks for this, eliminates it.
Before I dart out my door, I glance at my clock.
6:30 a.m. The Riverside Garage is too far, but I can only hope to make it.
To make it to her in time. To save her, but moreover, save me.
Because I’m all in with Thea, and if I lose her, there’s no hope for this damn city.