Chapter 15 – Alejandro
Chapter
Fifteen
ALEJANDRO
Ilook up at the man I have always respected more than anyone else in the world and wonder what the hell has gotten into him.
I told him about the news Alana and I received earlier, expecting some words of advice and support.
Expecting his sympathy and understanding.
Instead, he launched into a diatribe about how useless Alana is to me now.
He’s not subtle about it either. I fume silently as he uses words like ‘defective,’ and advises me to get rid of her.
To discard her like used goods and look for something better.
I let him talk. That is his way, and it always has been. He talks at people, usually forcing them into submission with his power and conviction. When he finally stops, I stay where I am for a minute, trying to control my disappointment and my fury.
When the silence shows me that he has run out of bile to spew, I finally stand up. “Have you quite finished insulting my wife?” I snarl at him, unable to keep the emotion out of my voice.
He glares up at me, not at all intimidated. “Watch your tone, mi hijo,” he warns sternly.
“No, I will not fucking watch my tone, Papa! How dare you come into my office and talk about my wife like that? She is devastated that she might not be able to get pregnant, and if you can’t be anything but one-hundred-fucking-percent supportive of her right now, then I don’t want you anywhere near either of us. ”
“Alejandro!” he snaps. “I am your father.”
I have never spoken back to him like this before, but there is only so much I can take. I will not tolerate anybody badmouthing my wife, not even him.
“No. Right now, you’re just some jackass who is standing in my office, insulting me and the woman I love. So, if there’s nothing else, then get the hell out.”
His gets to his feet, and his nostrils flare as he glares at me, no doubt wondering if he should punch me in the face for daring to speak to him like that.
He may be older now, but he is still a strong man, filled with pride.
Respect is important to him, and I just offended him.
But respect goes both ways. He needs to know that if he insults my wife, then he also insults me.
For a moment I brace myself, expecting the worst. But that moment passes. He stares at me coldly, then turns around and storms out of my office.
I walk out of my hotel suite and into the hallway.
I cancelled my final meeting of the day because I want to get home to Alana.
I need to make sure she is okay. But more than that, I need her to make me feel okay, too.
I held it together earlier at the doctor’s, for her sake.
She needed me to be strong. Beneath that, I was also devastated, and I’d hoped that speaking to my dad might help me come to terms with things.
That did not go as planned, and now, I just need to be with her.
I need to hold her in my arms, kiss her beautiful face, lose myself in our love.
We will get through this together, but only if we’re both honest and we both make the effort.
That starts right now, with me prioritizing her over work. Over my father. Over everything.
“Evening, boss,” Lorenzo, says. “Are you heading to the bar?”
“No. Straight home,” I say as I reach the elevator.
“But Mrs. Montoya said you were meeting her in the bar.”
I frown at him in confusion. “What?”
“When she left earlier, she said that you’d told her to wait for you in the bar.” I see his Adam’s apple bob in his throat as he swallows. He’s nervous, and he has every fucking right to be.
“My wife was here?” I snap as my heart starts to race.
“Yes, boss.”
“When?”
“About two hours ago. She left shortly before your father.”
Shit! She was here while we were having that conversation?
Him, shouting his obnoxious views, and me…
letting him. At least that’s how it might have sounded on the outside, to someone who didn’t understand our dynamic.
My heart rate accelerates, and I tell myself to calm the fuck down.
I don’t know what she heard, and anyway, we can straighten this out.
Assuming I can find her. The fact that she seems to have snuck away doesn’t help the sense of panic I feel rising in my gut.
“What? Where did she go? You just let her walk out of here on her own?” I snarl.
“Like I said, she told me you’d asked her to wait for her in the bar. She said Hugo and Hank were waiting there for her at the elevator. Boss, I’m sorry if—”
I cut him off. I don’t have time for his bleating. “Call the bar right now, and see if she’s there,” I say as I pull my cell from my pocket and dial her number. My heart sinks as it goes straight to voicemail. And no, I do not want to leave a fucking message.
“Fuck!” I snarl as I call Hugo.
He answers after a few rings. “Everything okay, boss?”
“That depends. Is Alana with you?”
“No,” he replies, just as Lorenzo shakes his head. Alana isn’t in the bar either.
I take in a deep breath, sucking in a lungful of air as I tell myself that she is safe.
She is fine. She’s upset about what the doc told us and about what she may or may not have heard my father saying.
She just needed some space, and she’s probably already back at the house.
Knowing Alana, she wouldn’t have wanted to cause a scene.
“She’s not with you?” Hugo asks. I forgot he was on the damn line.
“No,” I snap. “Or why the fuck would I be calling you to look for her?”
“Sorry, boss, yeah. Look, this is how it went—she did some work over at the shelter, and then she said she wanted to come see you. Not my place to say, but she seemed a little upset. Not her usual sunny self. She said all she wanted to do was come and wait for you to finish work. I took her to your suite, escorted her inside, and closed the door behind me. She was safe. I thought she was with you.”
I hear the panic building in Hugo’s voice, and it does nothing to calm my bubbling anger.
“It is your fucking job to protect her. Unless you actually hand her over to me, or she is in the house, she is your responsibility!” I growl. “How could you just fucking leave her like that?”
Deep down, I know I’m not being reasonable. But my wife is missing, and I don’t feel reasonable. I feel fury and fear in equal measures. And below all that? Guilt. I should have insisted I spent the day with her. I knew she was upset, and I should never have let her out of my sight.
“I’m on my way back to the hotel, boss,” Hugo says. “I’ll find her.”
“No. I don’t think she’s here, and I have enough men on site to look for her in the hotel. Go check at the shelter. Or any other place she might be, anywhere you’ve taken her before. You’d better pray that we find her soon and that she’s fucking okay!”
“Of course,” he says as he ends the call.
I have so much anger fizzing away inside me I feel like an unexploded bomb.
I turn to a nervous Lorenzo, grabbing him by the throat and pushing him against the wall.
“How the fuck could you let her just go down to the lobby on her own? Especially with everything that’s going on with the Ortegas! What the fuck do I pay you for?”
“I’m sorry, boss. But she said…”
I squeeze his throat so hard he can’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t lift a finger to defend himself because he knows there’s no point. His life is in my hands, and I’m half considering ending it. If only he’d checked with me. If only he’d kept her in the suite. If only…
“I don’t care what she said. It is your fucking job to protect my family. She is my family. If anything has happened to her…”
I let him go and he gasps for air as he rubs his throat.
I step back and run my hands through my hair. My heart races. Adrenaline courses around my body as though it’s my lifeblood.
I’m wondering what to do next when I feel a familiar hand on my shoulder. I spin around to see Jax. “Hey, amigo. What the hell is going on?”
I pace up and down my office. Alana isn’t at the house or the hotel. She isn’t at the shelter. She isn’t answering her cell. Kristen hasn’t seen her since she left, Magda says the same, and Lucia says nothing because I can’t get hold of her.
Security cameras recorded Alana leaving the hotel and getting into a cab. The footage was too grainy to make out a plate, but I’ve got someone calling all the cab companies who work the area. It’s like she’s disappeared off the face of the fucking planet.
I have men out looking for her every place I think she might be.
Every park we’ve ever strolled, every restaurant we’ve ever eaten at, every store she’s ever visited.
Though the image of Alana indulging in retail therapy when she’s upset is ludicrous, I’m running out of ideas.
Jax sits watching me as I go quietly insane, the concern clear on his face.
I snap to attention when my cell phone rings.
It’s not her, but it’s the next best thing.
It’s Lucia. Thank fuck! She has to know something.
“Hey, Alejandro,” she says breezily. “I was taking a nap, and I left my cell on silent. Just saw you’d been calling, sorry. Is everything okay?” No, it most definitely is not. I take a deep breath before I speak. No point freaking the kid out.
“Have you seen Alana?” I ask.
“No. But she sent me a text a couple hours ago.”
“What did it say?”
“Hang on. I didn’t read it. Nap time is sacred. Let me check.”
There’s an agonizing few seconds of silence as she checks her phone.
“Huh. I’ll read it out to you. It says: Hey sweetie. I’m going away for a couple days. Alejandro and Magda will look after you. Take care of yourself and that baby. I’ll call you soon.”
“That’s all?” I snap.
“Yes. What’s going on, Alejandro? Where is she? Why has she gone away? What did you do?”
Lucia sounds upset but also fierce, and even under the circumstances I almost smile. They’re both so protective of each other.
“She got some bad news this morning. That’s all, Lucia. She just needs some space.”
Apparently. At least I know she’s alive now, but it still doesn’t calm me down completely.
“Yeah? From you, I’m guessing. Hasn’t she told you where she’s gone?” Her tone is snarky. My anger rides just beneath the surface, but I bite it back. None of this is her fault.
“Look, Lucia. She’s pissed at me. She’s pissed at everything. But I’ll find her. It’ll all be okay.”
“And how’s that going? Finding her? I’m surprised you haven’t got some kind of microchip implanted in her.”
Fuck. Why didn’t I think of that? Jax used his tech skills to trace her phone, but she’s not stupid. He said she sent a text from nearby, presumably the one to Lucia, and then switched it off. No pings since. She’s not used any of the credit cards we share either.
“I will find her,” I mutter, a promise as much to myself as to Lucia.
A pause, the sound of the fridge door opening, glass clinking. Lucia pouring some milk at a guess. It’s all so normal. The sounds of my home, the place that only truly became a home when Alana arrived in my life. The place that would be an empty soulless shell without her. Just like me.
“Well, if you want my opinion, there’s only one place she would have gone. Just for a few days.”
“I do want your opinion, Lucia. Where?”
She sighs dramatically. “Back to New York!” She doesn’t actually say dumbass, but I hear it anyway. Along with the silent “obviously.”
Fuck. The minute she says it, I know she’s right. Of course. It was Alana’s home before she met me, and even though her life back east was complicated, it would still offer her some comfort. It would still be away from me and the pain she’s in right now.
“Yeah. Thanks. Listen, tell me if you hear from her again, okay?”
“I will. And Alejandro?” she says, sounding like a child again instead of a snarky teenager.
“What?”
“Please bring her home soon.”
There’s a note of desperation in her voice that moves me. I know exactly how she feels.
“I will. Bye, Lucia.”
I put the phone down and Jax stares at me. “She might be in New York. Speak to our friends at LAX and see if she got on a plane.”
“Will do,” Jax replies. “But where would she go? She wouldn’t see her folks, would she?”
“No. I don’t think so. But she has a friend there. Kelly?” I say as I try to recall one of our many conversations about Alana’s life in New York. “No, Kelsey. Yeah, definitely Kelsey. She lived in the same apartment building in Manhattan.”
I don’t know the address. I don’t know her friend’s surname. What kind of a fucking husband am I? I should know everything there is to know about my wife.
“I’m on it, amigo,” Jax says as he pulls his cell out of his pocket. “I’ll find her. We’ll have her back home within the next twenty-four hours.”
Assuming she wants to come home, I think silently, my heart in tatters but my face betraying none of that emotion. Jax is my best friend, but even he would be shocked at how afraid I am right now. I’ve only just found her, and I cannot ever lose her.