Chapter 10 Revelation #3
Grumbling, Scott slid the tablet over, pausing the security footage of a small blonde woman standing at the counter of a pawn shop.
The hood of her jacket covered most of her head, but from this angle, it was impossible for her to hide not only her pretty face, but the sparkle of the little blue diamonds collaring her neck.
I closed my eyes as a blinding fury seeped through my veins like an acidic poison, disturbing every cell in my body. Without thinking, I grabbed the arm of the chair closest to me and whipped it across the room, finding only a modicum of satisfaction as it splintered to pieces on the floor.
“FUCK!”
Planting my hands on my hips, I paced the room, trying my absolute damnedest to keep myself from going upstairs and throttling Jaden until her blood soaked through the fucking sheets. That conniving little…
“This doesn’t necessarily mean Jaden had a hand in it,” Scott reminded me.
I lifted my head and glared at him. We both knew better than that.
“She still had the fucking collar on,” I grumbled, throwing my hand up as I continued to pace. “So somehow she was able to block the tracking signal.”
“And it’s likely been removed by now,” Scott added. “This was months ago.”
I stopped pacing and turned to look out the window, thinking back to the day Kayla and Jaden were kidnapped.
“Tony had a blocking device on him. She must have gotten ahold of it somehow.”
“So either she stole it from Tony, or she stole it from the men Jaden claimed had killed her.”
Or Jaden helped her steal it.
“If they planned to relocate Kayla, they would need the blocker with them. But why bother? If they weren’t planning on returning her, why not just remove the damn collar? It was their fucking design, for fuck’s sake. It shouldn’t have been hard.”
My thoughts were laced with suspicion. Kayla didn’t have the training. I couldn’t see her successfully escaping a fucking playpen, let alone the clutches of another captor.
“Maybe she escaped before they could take it off,” Scott answered.
I frowned. “The fact that she would be able to escape at all is already hard to believe. But successfully escaping with the blocker? Even less likely.”
“But not impossible.”
No, not impossible.
Jaden had destroyed that entire building, an unlikely accident on her part. Which conveniently destroyed any security footage from inside or out.
“Jaden could have just as easily found Tony, taken the blocker, and then handed it and her ring over to Kayla. Then destroyed the building and any evidence of her involvement along with it.”
That was far more believable than Kayla escaping on her own.
“But why risk the exposure by giving her the ring?” Scott asked. “It couldn’t have been useful in Kayla’s escape.”
“No, but the money Kayla could get for the ring would help her evade recapture and disappear forever.”
Scott sighed as he sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I hate to say it, but that sounds like something Jaden would do,” he said, his tone almost apologetic. “But if she did help Kayla, you’ve got to take the win that she didn’t go with her when she had the chance.”
That was the only redeeming lining keeping me from breaking more bones in her body. Even if she had helped Kayla, she still chose to stay. At least I hoped that was the circumstance. The opportunity of escape might not have been suitable for two people at the time.
“We’re assuming Jaden had the chance to even consider it. Kayla may have had no choice but to leave her behind,” I reasoned. “Either way, Jaden still lied to me.” Her body had already confirmed it.
“Maybe she knows where she was headed then.”
I shook my head. “I doubt it. Jaden would have told her to keep it to herself, so even if I did find out, she wouldn’t be able to give her up, even if she wanted to.”
Scott nodded. “So where would she go to hide?”
“She’s just untrained, not dumb, so she would know to stay away from anyone she knew who could recognize her.”
I started pacing again, my arms folding over my chest as I went over the unlikely possibilities of her escape. Maybe I wasn’t giving Kayla enough credit. She had managed to make it this far for this long without being detected. But I was not convinced she had done it all alone.
“She had to have had help somewhere along the line. She doesn’t have the skills to remain hidden for this long,” I mused.
Was there anyone Kayla could rely on? A single ally in the world she could hide behind and trust to keep her safe?
And then it hit me like a punch to the gut. There was only one person I could think of that she might have sought out, the one person she would know who has managed to remain undetected throughout all my efforts. No doubt Jaden would have told her about the son of a bitch at some point.
“She found Jaden’s ex.”
Scott’s eyes lit up with recognition. It was the only thing that made sense.
“Well, fuck,” he growled.
“We need to double our efforts. If Kayla did find that fuck, then she had to have left a trail somewhere. Plus, she may still prove useful in getting Matt to back the fuck down.”
I’d gladly hand her right back over to Matt if it meant I could get him off Daniel’s ass and save myself the aggravation. But if he somehow managed to kill Daniel, then I’d kill her and send him the recording.
Scott nodded in agreement. “I’ll dispatch another team specifically for her. She had to have made some mistakes along the way. If we find her, we find him.”
I released a heavy sigh as a new plan was formulated. But even that wasn’t enough to quell the fresh rage still blazing through my blood.
If I saw Jaden now, I might just accidentally kill her. The only proof I had of her involvement was circumstantial at best, but her body would always tell me the truth no matter how much she tried to mask it.
I would need to be tactful in this, patient, let her believe nothing was wrong until the time was right to confront her about her deception.
Suddenly, my need to ensure Jaden’s swift recovery was overshadowed by a need to punish her for trying to undermine me.
For fucking lying right to my face.
If she thought she was getting out of that bed anytime soon, she had another thing coming. I was going to drag it out until it drove her so crazy she’d be begging me to let her walk again.
And I did so love it when she begged.
It was time to give her a little taste of the past and remind her of her fucking place.