Chapter 34
34
BENNETT
P anic runs through my body, but I don’t show it.
As much as I want to take the nearest weapon to me and storm out of this apartment to go find my wife, spilling all the blood I can along the way, I continue to stand where I am and try not let the madness in my head take over.
But it’s becoming hard.
With each passing second, more and more intrusive thoughts are making there way in.
Thoughts like I never should have stepped into this arrangement with Ella. Thoughts like I should have figured out another way to become CEO and not bring an innocent individual into this. Because now not only has someone take her, I’m at risk of losing her. There’s a chance that I could find her dead and once more, I lose someone that I care about.
Someone I fucking love.
I should have known from day one that this is where I was going to end up, but somehow through all my stubbornness, I was able to convince myself that two years with this woman was going to be enough.
It wasn’t enough when we went on our honeymoon and will never be enough fifty years from now. And now, there is a chance I might lose her all together.
The longer the she is gone, the more my anger against myself raises. That’s why I didn’t want to ever get married. Even though, my parents had a good marriage from what I saw, I didn’t want to go through the pain I would have felt if I ever lost that person, because me losing them would have been inevitable. I’ve already lost three people I was never supposed to lose, why not add one more to the list and make my abdomen issue unrepairable.
If I’m able to get Ella back alive, I will either end our agreement early so that she never has to go through this ever again or never leave her fucking side. I will be within arms reach until the day I fucking die.
As I look out at the Chicago skyline, the voices of my security team and the mafia men that infiltrated the space, envelope me, but I don’t pay attention to a single thing that they are saying.
They are looking everywhere for Ella, have been from the second that they were notified of her disappearance, and I should be partaking in the search, I should at the forefront of finding anything that may lead to her, but I can’t concentrate with all the dark thoughts.
It was Marisela. I know it was, there is no question about it, but why? Why take Ella? And why wait until we were home to do it?
They were in the same room just a few hours ago. Why not take her then? It would have been fucking easier. Why wait until we were at one of our homes? And how the fuck did they know that we were here?
There are so many questions that need answers.
“Mr. Bennett.” Henry’s voice takes me out of my head.
When I turn, my pseudo father is walking into the living room with Drake’s hand in his, and the girls and Grayson behind him. For a second, I take them all in. The kids are all scared but so is Henry. I notice the panic and the fear that he is trying to hide, but I have known this man all of my life, he can never hide anything from me.
I walk over to them and as soon as I’m within reach, Drake breaks away from Henry and wraps his little arms around me.
I haven’t told them why I needed Drake and Henry to leave the manor and the kids to leave school to come here, but by how tight Drake is holding on to me, he knows that something is not right. More so now that they just walked into a room full of mafia men and ex military.
Needing the comfort of my nephew, I wrap my arms around him too and try to get my bearings straight.
“Missed you today, bud.” I say into his mop of hair, hoping to fucking god that my voice doesn’t show the desperation I feel.
“What’s going on?” his voice is soft when he pulls ways from me, his eyes dancing all over the room, at all the people here with us.
It’s a lot for me. I can’t imagine how it is for him. I shouldn’t have had Henry bring them here. They shouldn’t be witnessing any of this.
But I needed to know that they were all safe and the only way to know that is if they are with me. For all I know, Marisela was also planning on hitting the manor or the school and taking one of the kids.
So until I find her and Ella, the kids are going to be wherever I am.
Placing a hand on Drake’s shoulder, I guide him out of the living room and nod for the other kids to follow me out.
As we walk down the hall to where the rooms are, I try to think of what to tell them, but the hallway isn’t long enough, and by the time we reach the bedrooms, I have nothing.
So I throw out the first thing that comes out of my ass. “Drake, bud, why don’t you go pick out a movie? We’re all going to be sleeping here tonight and I thought it would be fun to have a movie night.”
The kid looks up at me with eyes full of scrutiny. He knows something is wrong, and that I’m keeping him out of the loop. Thankfully though, he doesn’t fight me on it, and walks into the movie theater room.
As soon as he is out of hearing distance, I turn to face the three teenagers. No matter how hard I try, I won’t be able to hid anything from, so I might as well tell them what is going on.
“I need you four to stay in on this side of the house, okay? Keep an eye in your brother and under no circumstance do you leave that room unless I tell you to, got it?”
Grayson is the one to break the silence. “Are you going to tell us what’s going on?”
“Ella is missing.” Bile creeps up my throat as I say the words.
Right away, panic coats Charlie’s face as tears start running down her cheeks. “What? No, you’re lying. I just spoke to her like three hours ago.”
She starts too walk passed me with determination, but I wrap an arm around her waist and bring her back.
“Let me go. We have to go look for her.” She slams her fist against my chest, trying to push me away but failing.
“Charlotte, listen to me.” She shakes her head profusely, trying to get out of my grasp, but eventually she realizes that I’m not going to let her go. When she calms down, I speak again. “We are going to find your sister, okay? You have to trust me on that. She will come home to us. Those men in the living room? They are doing everything in their power to find her tonight. I know you want to help, but I can’t put you in danger’s way, so I need you three to go into the movie theater with Drake, where you are safe and stay there. Once we find her, I will come and get you. Can you do that for me?”
Tears run down her face as she nods.
For a second she reminds me of Ella.
Is this how scared she was when she ran form Josiah’s house with a younger Charlie? I fucking hope not.
I place a kiss against her temple and let her go.
All three kids walk into the theater and I let out a a sigh of relief. Four members of my family are safe. But I’m not going to be able to live until all of them are and under my fucking roof.
Leaving the kids, I had back to the living room and see that Elliot has finally arrived and is getting information from Dante.
I don’t have to hear what he is telling him, I can see it all over his face. He knows that his mother is back.
“Do we really think that she took Ella?” Elliot asks moments after getting up to speed.
There’s a small hint of optimism in his voice. Even though he hasn’t seen his mother in years, and thought that she was dead just like I did, he doesn’t want to believe that she is capable of doing this. He has a small bit of hope that she isn’t involved. And I wish I could give him that. I wish that I could tell him that I don’t truly think his mother is involved in this, but all the signs point back to her.
“I don’t want to, but given that she showed up at the office earlier today and now Ella is gone, I have to think that it’s her.”
He gives a nod and for a long minute, I don’t see him for the twenty-year-old that he is. I see the ten-year-old kid that showed up on my doorstep all those years ago, with his sister’s hand in his, looking terrified as he watched his father leave.
Out of all of the kids, Elliot is the one that holds the most on his shoulders. He feels a responsibility that someone his age shouldn’t, and now that Marisela is here, I can see him get angry at himself for not being enough for her. She is here, in the same city as them, and they aren’t her priority. Even after years of them thinking that she might be dead.
Me and him have had our differences, especially when it comes to his mother, but that will never stop me from making sure that she never hurts him again.
I place a hand on his shoulder and try to convey the promise with not a whole lot of words, before moving back to the task at hand. Finding Ella.
Even with dark thoughts still plaguing my mind, I spend the next twenty minutes, going through everything that the security team and Dante’s men have found.
Two men dressed in black, made their way up the elevator to the penthouse from the garage about five minutes before they took Ella. Apparently her phone ringing was a diversion. They figured calling a cell phone would cause enough noice that nobody would hear the elevator ding or the front door opening.
And the fucking kicker? One of Dante’s men found Ella’s found on the floor in the kitchen and took note of the number that called. It was the same number that has been messing with my mind for months. The same number that popped under Robert’s name. The same number that called me.
It must belong to Marisela. That’s the only logical explanation.
Marisela has not only been messing with my head for months, she has been been planning this for just as long if not more.
And I know for sure when my head of security tells me that the men that took Ella have been hanging out around the building for a whole week, acting as window cleaners, but instead of working, they were canvassing the area and getting to know the patterns of the security that is always here.
Since the penthouse is only used on occasion, the two window cleaners were overlocked.
“Where they canvassing the house?” I ask through clenched teeth. The house is a fucking fortress. Nobody could go in or out without at least five people knowing, but something could of slipped through the cracks. Someone could have slipped through without me knowing.
“No, sir. Not as far as we know. We ran their faces against the security system at the manor and nothing came up.”
That should give me relief, but it doesn’t.
“Did they follow us from the office?” I ask, trying to make sense of all of this.
“We checked traffic cameras and there is no sign of that.”
“Then how the fuck did they now that we would be here?”
Was it chance? They couldn’t get to the house, so they decided to just scoop out the penthouse until we showed up? It doesn’t make any fucking sense.
They knew that we were here, but how?
“They must have gotten lucky.” My head of security lets out.
As soon as I hear the words, I think about strangling him to death and firing him for such stupidity.
Thankfully Henry speaks and stops me from storming across the room and murdering someone.
“Mr. Rosetti mentioned something about a watch that Ms. Serrano left in your office.” It doesn’t go unnoticed that even though we know that Marisela is a Lane, he doesn’t attache it to her. “What watch is he talking about?” He asks, his face full of contemplation.
I let out a sigh, and answer him. “The one dad gave Robert for his sixteenth birthday.” There is no need to describe the watch. Henry was the one that got it ready for him. Henry’s eyes go wide at my words, though. “What?”
It takes him a second to speak. “Do you have the watch with you?”
I give him a nod, and take out the device from my pocket, where it has been all night.
Handing it over, Henry looks at it for a second before he lets out a sigh and looks up at me with regretful eyes.
“This is how she knew you were here.” He says, placing the watch on the coffee table between us.
“What are you talking about?”
Henry lets out a sigh. “That watch has a tracking device, Sir. Your father put it in there before he gave it to your brother. Even though he trusted him, he still wanted to know where he was at for safety measure. It’s just under the dial. Small enough to go undetected.”
I feel like I’m having an out of body experience.
A tracking device.
If what Henry is saying its true and the watch has a tracking device, does that mean I had a Robert’s location all of this time?
“He took this watch with him the night he left.” I voice out loud. “You’re telling me you had access to my brother’s whereabouts all this time and you are just informing me?”
Anger rolls through.
Out of all the people in my life, I never expected Henry to betray me like this.
I’ve spent years looking for Robert and Henry knew that. All he had to do was tell me about the tracking device, and I would be able to find him, but he kept it to himself.
“I cannot express how sorry I am for not informing of this sooner, sir, but at the time there was no need. The device stopped working after three years or so, and nothing had come up since then. The fact that it even works now is a new development.”
Marisela must have had the watch and found the tracker and made it work somehow. Brining the watch to the office was genius because she knew that I would keep anything that was tied to my brother with me at all times.
Fucking conniving bitch.
I’m railing from all of this information when Henry speaks again.
“The watch isn’t the only thing that has a tracking device.”
“What else has one?” I find myself asking a little bit too aggressively.
He looks me straight in the eye as he answers. “The bracelet I gave Mrs. Lane a few weeks ago. One of the diamonds is a tracker and not a real diamond.”
The bracelet comes to mind right away. It was my mother’s and when Ella showed it to me, I was a little stunned.
When it came to my mother’s jewelry, I handed it over to Henry because I didn’t want to lose any of it or give it to the wrong person. There are a few pieces that I already set aside for certain occasions, and have yet to use but other than that Henry can do what he wishes with them. So the fact that he gave Ella something was monumental. It means he sees her as more than just the woman I married to get CEO. He sees her as part of his family.
“So we can find Ella?” Elliot asks, everyone looking over at Henry for an answer.
“If she has the bracelet on, then yes.”
For first time all damn night, I feel fucking hope that I won’t find my wife dead somewhere.
All eyes turn to me.
“She hasn’t take it off since you given it to her.”
As soon as the words leave my mouth, Henry gets to work with our security team to start tracking the bracelet and Dante and his men start filing out so that they are ready to go when we have a location.
The next five minutes end up being torture in more ways than I can comprehend.
“Sir.” A voice calls out. “We found her.”
Sweet Ella, I’m coming to get you, and I won’t ever let you go.