Chapter Twenty-Eight
Noah
“Hawthorne!” A voice called from the atrium. Noah turned and saw Alan Johnson, one of the senators for Tennessee, waving him over. Noah seriously contemplated pretending he hadn’t heard him and making a beeline for the ballroom. He was eager to get back to Bree. Maybe he’d ask her to dance again. The smile on her face lit up the room. Man, he loved that woman. He’d been waiting to tell her until the time felt right.
The museum was a stunning piece of architecture and between the natural wow factor of the museum, the classical music, and the beautifully decorated outdoor spaces, tonight was the night. Noah paused for one more second before letting out a large sigh. Bree was with Zach. She’d be okay while he stopped to find out what the Senator wanted.
Noah turned around and plastered his business smile on his face while he walked over to the group of politicians and their families. “Senator Johnson, it’s a pleasure to see you.” He said, reaching out to shake the man’s hand.
“It’s good to see you too. I’ve been meaning to call down to your office—is Eli still employed at Hawthorne?”
“He is.”
“Fantastic. I have an engagement coming up that I could use some additional security for. I’ll have my secretary reach out first thing Monday. You know you’ve got loyal men working for you, Hawthorne. I offered Eli a job to come and work for me, and he wouldn’t even entertain the idea.”
“I work with the best men in the industry. Eli is definitely one of them.” He agreed.
“Great, I’m glad I saw you. We’ll be in touch.”
“Enjoy your evening,” Noah replied, shaking the man’s hand again and inclining his head toward the rest of the party. As soon as his back was turned, he let his smile drop and started working his way through the crowd without treading on any toes.
Noah walked toward the ballroom and stopped short when he noticed Zach walking through the crowd toward the room as well. “Zach!” He called, his eyes searching the area for Bree and frowning when he didn’t see her.
Zach made eye contact with Noah and worked his way through the crowd quickly and efficiently.
“Where’s Bree?” Noah asked immediately.
“I had to take a call. I left her with Theo.” Zach said.
Noah let out a breath. Okay—at least she was safe. “What was the call?”
“Kennedy called. I ignored the first one, but she called back right away. I had to make sure it wasn’t an emergency.”
“Everything okay?” Noah asked as they approached the ballroom doors.
Zach dragged his hand down his face and let out a rough exhale. “I don’t think so. I think this case she’s working right now is really getting to her.”
“Anything we can do?”
“No, but I’ll let you know if it changes,” Zach said.
They walked into the ballroom, the crowd unconsciously swaying along to the music, a large multitude on the dance floor. Noah watched them for a moment, searching among the dancers for Bree. He wouldn’t put it past someone to ask her to dance. She was not only beautiful, but still famous also.
He didn’t immediately see Bree or Theo, so Noah walked across the dance floor his eyes scanning the space as he carefully picked his way between the couples.
Theo was in the corner talking with some of the CEOs of a tech company who made software he wanted to get for the company. Eli and Peter were still in their assigned areas, constantly scanning the environment like the other security guards posted throughout the venue. He bumped into the shoulder of a man as he walked by, quickly apologizing. Where was Bree?
Noah made it to the far side of the ballroom and still didn’t see her. Maybe she had gone to the restroom, and they just missed each other? But Theo would’ve been there. Or one of the other men at Hawthorne.
Zach stepped up beside Noah and frowned, looking toward where Theo was. “She was supposed to be over with Theo.”
Noah felt his blood pressure skyrocket as he turned to his long-time friend and colleague. “What do you mean she was supposed to be? You did hand her off to Theo, correct?” Noah’s voice was low and full of the anger he longed to release.
When Zach didn’t immediately answer, Noah stalked over to where Theo was still chatting and forced a pleasant smile on his face. “Excuse me, please. I need to borrow Theo.”
Theo excused himself from the conversation and moved to stand by the window with Zach and Noah. “What’s up?”
“Where is Bree?” Noah asked, a sinking feeling in his gut as he started to fear the worst.
“She was with you,” Theo said.
“I left her with Zach while I went to the bathroom, and he said she was with you.”
“She was supposed to be!” Zach said defensively.
“What do you mean supposed to be?” Noah asked again.
Zach sighed. “Like I told you—Kennedy called. Twice. It was an emergency. Bree told me to take it outside so I could hear better and said she’d get over to Theo to wait for you. She was walking along this wall to get to Theo the last time I saw her.”
Noah’s jaw clenched. “And she never made it to you?”
Theo shook his head. “No.”
“Noah—” Zach started, but was cut off immediately when Noah lifted his hand.
“I can’t talk to you right now,” Noah said. “You were supposed to keep her safe. Go and tell Eli and Peter what’s going on. We need a grid search of this entire building. Theo, tap into the security cameras and see what we can learn from that. I’ll go outside and look. Meet me by the coat room in thirty minutes.”
The men nodded and left, and Noah felt terror threaten to paralyze him. Someone had taken Bree. He didn’t know who or where, but he felt in his bones that it was the truth.
***
The security room at the gallery was cramped, with drab white walls, and cheap furniture scattered throughout the space. The security guard was old enough to be Noah’s grandfather—if his grandfather was alive—and moved slower than molasses. Noah grit his teeth—his patience hanging on by a thread. Every second that passed was too long. There was a ten-minute window where Bree was unaccounted for by the men at Hawthorne. Ten minutes too long. The security guard pulled up the cameras and moved aside so Theo could work his way through them.
“You’re going to have to talk to him eventually,” Theo said as he began scrolling through the footage.
Noah leaned in, watching each screen in hopes that whatever happened to Bree was caught on film. “Eventually being the key word.” He ground out, anger still raging inside.
“I know you’re not ready to hear this right now, but we need all hands on deck if we’re going to get your woman back.”
“We’re going to get her back,” Noah growled.
“Yes, but we’ll get her back faster with our entire team working together instead of being at each other’s throats.” Theo pointed out, zooming in on one of the scenes in the ballroom. There! Noah watched as he and Bree danced, that beautiful smile on her face taking his breath away. Was she hurt? Was she scared? Was she…alive? No. He wouldn’t go down that train of thought. He’d be useless. He had to assume she was alive unless he had concrete evidence that suggested otherwise.
“Noah, if you’d been on assignment—mind you, this wasn’t even a formal assignment because she is not a client--but let’s say it was. If Bree had called you and you ignored the call and she immediately called you back, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t have taken the call.” Theo argued, fast-forwarding the clip a little to see when Noah left the ballroom.
“Of course, I would have answered. But I also would have escorted her to one of you and did a formal handoff so someone knew I didn’t have her.”
“That”s fair. Feel the anger—it’s okay to be angry or scared. But focus on the bigger picture. We can’t let this divide us. We can hash it out later.”
“Fine,” Noah grumbled. “But Zach and I will hash it out later.”
Theo nodded and turned his attention back to the screen. Noah watched as people moved throughout the ballroom, and a small movement along the wall caught his eye. “Pull up camera three and zoom in.” Noah directed, leaning closer to the screen.
There on camera was Bree, chatting with Zach. Theo and Noah watched as Zach pulled his phone out and ignored the call—just as he said he did. When the phone rang again they could clearly see Bree tell him to answer it and indicate that she’d head to Theo. Noah felt some of his anger dissipate. She was incredibly thoughtful, and he wouldn’t expect anything less from her. He did expect more from Zach, but if Bree was the one in trouble—if he hadn’t been able to hear her over the noise and needed to make sure she was okay—he could admit to himself that he would’ve left too.
They watched as Bree made her way along the walls, taking in the decor and dancers, and Noah tilted his head. “She’s starting to panic.” He said, watching the rise and fall of her chest increase. “She probably had a panic attack.”
“Could she be hiding somewhere just away from people?” Theo asked, following Bree closely as she navigated the space.
“I mean, she could be, but I highly doubt it. I think she would’ve come to one of us and asked to leave.”
Camera Bree looked around—like she had contemplated telling one of the men before deciding otherwise—and found one of the balcony doors. Theo switched cameras and they watch as Bree came outside and took a few minutes to gather her wits about her. Her breathing slowed and tension drained from her body as she stood under the stars. She was a vision.
Shadows moved in the corner of the screen and Noah felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle. They were about to witness her abduction—he was sure of it. Noah could tell the moment Bree realized she made a mistake. Her shoulders tensed, and her body language shifted. They watched the rest of the scene unfold in front of them, and Noah nearly released a breath of relief as Bree moved to walk past the shadow. Maybe she was in the museum after all. That hope was quickly squashed as Bree was hit in the head. She swayed for a moment before falling like a sack of bricks. Noah wanted to hurl. Bree was hurt.
“Can we get a close-up of his face?” Noah asked.
“No. Too many shadows. But we may be able to reverse engineer the timeline and see if we can catch a clear shot of him coming to or going from the event. He had to originally show up at some point.”
“I’m going to stay on this,” Theo said, gesturing to the footage in front of him.
“I’ll go fill everyone in,” Noah said hollowly, opening the secure door to the hallway.
The rest of the team was waiting in the hallway outside of the tiny space. Noah looked up at them, his heart in his chest.
“Aubrey was kidnapped.”