6. Time Value
Time Value
Drew
It’s late by the time we leave Gideon’s house.
Verity’s uncle was more than happy to share the Serendipity’s AIS number, which will allow us to track it.
He then went into so much detail that I wanted to yell at him that we don’t need any of this.
But apparently, he’s really proud of his ship.
And that because it’s class B, it might show up on the satellite but definitely will show up when they go to port again.
We thanked him for his time and headed back to the apartment. The ship wasn’t on the satellite tracking at the time, but I bought a package on an app that will give me everything on the ship. Any notifications I can get.
The captain’s satellite phone was off, but Gideon tried to call it. There’s also a way to turn off the AIS, but the captain isn’t supposed to, and if Tom doesn’t know about it, then he won’t be able to turn it off.
The service is downloading all the previous reports of the ship’s GPS logs.
“Do we need to stop to get your passport?” Wyatt asks. His gaze is trained out into the dark street as the car heads toward his apartment.
“It’s in my bag at your place.” I give him a smirk. “I like to be prepared on a date.”
Wyatt shakes his head like he’s had enough of me but relaxes into the seat and closes his eyes. “Anything yet?”
I sigh. “Not yet. I have where they’ve been, which shows them at the port that Tom emailed from, but they’ve been out in the ocean since and haven’t been recorded except a couple of days ago.”
Wyatt leans forward with his elbows on his knees and buries his hands in his hair. She’s been gone less than a day and even I feel the pain of the separation.
“We might have to reach out to her parents.” Wyatt’s words are soft. “They should know what’s going on.”
“So they can worry too?” I click off my phone and slide it into my pocket. I’ve got alerts on, so it will notify me if we get any new information. “Is that really the smart thing to do?”
“The smart thing would have been to tell Tom to grow the fuck up. Long ago.” Wyatt straightens and whispers, “Fuck.”
“I don’t know Tom—”
“No, you don’t.” Wyatt turns his dark eyes to me. “He can be your absolute best friend and also the biggest asshole who ever lived. He gave all of us a home when our own families were crumbling around us.”
I sit back and watch him.
“You couldn’t possibly understand the debt we owe him.
The price he’s had to pay to protect us.
He’s our brother, more than a friend. We’d do anything for him, but this—” Wyatt cuts himself off and shakes his head.
“He’s never put Sara in this kind of danger before.
He never would have. So he’d better have a damn good reason it was worth risking her. ”
“Maybe he didn’t realize it would get this bad.
” I’m frustrated with this guy and I’ve barely seen him in passing.
I don’t have years of history to make up for the past few weeks.
“He couldn’t have known someone would kidnap her.
I don’t have a sister, but I can’t imagine doing anything that would make someone take her. ”
“Tom is a lot like Sara.” Wyatt grins wryly. “They have soft spots if you know the right buttons to push. They care too much for the people they love. And fall so fucking fast your head would spin. But once you’re in, you’re in. Until you betray them.”
“Like Verity?” I rub my hand over my pant leg. She’s a fucking blight that needs to disappear. “We need to make her pay.”
“She’s already paying and doesn’t realize it.
” Wyatt’s smile turns evil. “When she turned on Sara, she didn’t realize what she lost. Those people she took from Sara.
Verity probably turned on them too. It won’t be long before she’s turned everyone against her.
And they realize they put their trust in the wrong person. ”
“She’ll topple her own house of cards.” I nod. “Though I wouldn’t mind giving it a little shove.”
“Later. Right now, we need to focus.”
The car stops in front of the apartment and we both climb out. There’s a new doorman training with a doorman I’ve seen before. They both nod at us as we pass.
I’m not sure what we’ll find when we get up to the apartment as we step onto the elevator. Wyatt knows I sent Sebastian and his crew to help Finn and Dante, but we don’t know if they’ll still be here.
Part of me hopes they’ll be gone and on their way to get our girl back. Every minute, the dull ache in my chest grows. She’s safe. I know it because if Peter does anything to her, he’ll find out who the most powerful men in this city really are.
My network has a lot more power than most suspect. My club brings in some very wealthy clientele, but also some very dangerous men. Some are both. I’m willing to use any resource at my disposal to find her and, if I have to, avenge her.
The elevator opens and we go into the apartment. Sebastian sits with Finn and Dante at the table with a tablet open between them. Mac and X give me arched brows as we walk in.
I blow a kiss to them and take the chair next to Sebastian.
His brow cocks up, but he continues to mark on the tablet with a stylus.
“We have the property narrowed down to the country estate.” Dante pulls his hair back into a knot and ties it.
“We have the ship’s information. We’re just waiting for updated data.” Wyatt walks over to the windows and stares out.
Does that help him cope? Nothing’s really helping me right now. I place my phone on the table and stare at all the boats in the ocean currently, knowing the person I need to find is on one of them potentially.
But not the woman I need. I have to trust Dante and Finn will find her.
“We should go first thing in the morning.” Sebastian glances at us with his dark green eyes. “Get some sleep tonight.”
He looks at his watch and smirks. “A few hours at least. We’ll leave at three a.m. Be at the place by four and have your girl back in your arms by five.”
When he stands, Dante rises too. He holds his hand out to Sebastian.
Sebastian cocks an eyebrow but takes his hand.
“Thank you.”
Sebastian chuckles. “Thank Mr. Money Bags here.”
He claps me hard on the shoulder, but I don’t wince.
I meet Dante’s eyes. “Whatever it takes to get her back.”
Dante nods and steps over to Wyatt.
“You need any help with the ship?” Sebastian runs his fingers along his jaw as if he can see more dollars coming his way.
“I’ve got it.” I shake my head and Sebastian nods.
“Be back in five hours. Get some sleep. I can’t carry your asses too.” Sebastian heads out the door with Mac and X following him.
As soon as the door closes, the silence in the room is stifling. I stand and head into Sara’s room. I need a shower at least and then need to make sure I have a bag ready to go.
When Dante follows me in, I raise an eyebrow. But he just goes to her dresser and closet and grabs a few essentials. They don’t know what condition they’ll find her in. We don’t even know what she wore outside, but at least it wasn’t the dress from the fundraiser.
I grab a few things and duck into the bathroom after he takes some toiletries for her. Setting my things down on the counter, I inhale her citrus scent and wish it wasn’t faded. Fuck.
The way I feel about this woman isn’t simple or easy. She’s not someone I want to cut ties with or even just want to keep around because she’s convenient.
“Hey.” Finn stands in the open doorway. He looks like I feel. So fucking lost.
“What do you need?” I turn and lean against the counter.
“Keys to your place.” Finn runs a hand through his already tousled hair. “We don’t want to bring her back here in case they come looking for her.”
Makes sense. He backs up as I walk out to my bag and grab my keys. I open my wallet and give him a white card. “The security code is two parts. Outside door, 0-5-2-7. Interior, 10-19.”
Finn pockets the keys and card.
“We’ll get her back.” I don’t know why I feel like I need to say that or why he needs to hear it.
His green eyes burn when he lifts them to mine. “I’ll destroy everything of his if we don’t.”
“I’m game.” I mean it. But I also believe we’ll get her back. Peter is a businessman, and every good businessman knows you don’t damage the goods if you want full compensation.
Finn leaves the room and a small buzz draws my attention to the dresser. I walk over and find Sara’s phone. She has multiple missed texts, but her phone needs a code.
I take it out to Dante. His attention is still on the tablet, like he’s trying to memorize the layout or see exactly where she’s being held.
“Do you know Sara’s passcode?” I hand him the phone.
He takes it and enters the code. He opens her messages. A group text is blowing up, wondering if she’s too busy to text back and needing details.
Her mom and her little sister have both texted.
“Do we need to let her family know?” I glance over at where Wyatt standing, but he must have gone into his room.
Dante puts the phone down on the kitchen table. “No. If we don’t get her back tomorrow, then we can reach out.”
I sink into the chair across from him. “We’ll find Tom. Maybe that will help unravel this mystery more. Or at least Natasha might have more information.”
My phone buzzes, and when I look at it, my heart plummets when it isn’t from the app. It’s a text from my father I’m not planning on reading.
Dante sighs. “Sebastian is right. We should all get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.”
“Today’s been a long day.” When I stand, I look toward the room I shared with Sara for a night. Her scent clings to everything in there. Part of me longs to be close to her like that, and the other part feels like it’s just reopening a wound.
“She’s been in all our beds, man.” Dante claps me on the shoulder. “Even the couch smells like her.”
Yeah, that’s not going to change either. When we get her back, we need to be clear on what this is going forward, because I’m done just playing house.
* * *
Sara
I passed out earlier today from sheer exhaustion, but tonight…
I stare up at the ceiling and will myself to sleep. Drugs would have been nice compared to just lying here wondering what the guys are doing. How are they coping with me being missing?
Do they even know where I am?
I throw off the covers and stand. I’m dressed in my jeans and sweater because I want to be able to go at a moment’s notice. Even my sneakers are right next to the bed.
Turning on the lamp, I look at the walls. Maybe the windows aren’t the only way to escape. Sometimes old houses like these have secret hallways. For the servants to wander through so they aren’t seen in the main area. But right now, if that’s the case, they could be my way out.
Of course, Peter is intelligent, so if they exist, he’d know and there wouldn’t be an actual way out. But fuck it. I’m not tired and I’m bored.
I walk over to the door and turn the knob. Locked.
At some point, someone’s going to fuck up and I’m going to jump on that. For now, I run my fingers along the wall, looking for an indent. Checking the wood panels for any sort of lip or place that doesn’t quite connect.
Then I go through and knock lightly on the walls. I’m looking for something that sounds hollow, but fuck if I’d recognize it when I found it. When I’ve canvassed the entire room, I turn to the bathroom.
Nothing.
Then I move to the wardrobe and check the back of it. Maybe I’ll find Narnia. Anything is better than this place. Again, nothing.
I sit on the edge of the bed. Furniture is sparse in the room, but I could pick up the end table and try to break the window. I narrow my eyes on it. It’s probably double-paned. The noise would wake someone, and if it didn’t, I could cut myself accidentally and bleed to death before morning.
But I can’t just sit here and do nothing. There has to be something I can do to escape.
If the building was on fire, they’d have to let me out and the firetrucks would come and a firefighter could rescue me. But I don’t have any matches. I blow out a breath.
Maybe if I threw something at the glass from far enough away I wouldn’t get any cuts? There’s nothing really heavy enough that I could lob from a distance. Even the lamp would probably fall on the ground before hitting the window and wake up whoever is guarding me.
Can I even make a rope to lower myself down?
I stand and pull the blanket off the bed. Then I grab the sheet. I go along the edge all the way around and tug to see if it will rip. But studying the rolled hem, that seems impossible.
I need something to cut it. The windows draw my attention, but breaking it would make too much noise. There’s no way they won’t figure that out. Someone would notice the glass below the window. Dropping the sheet, I grab the lamp that’s been off and take it apart.
None of the pieces are sharp, though. I sigh and put it back together until I’m screwing in the light bulb. It is glass…
I glance at the door and check outside, but there’s no way to tell what time it is. The sun isn’t coming up, so it must still be the middle of the night. What’s the likelihood someone is guarding my door? No one came in when I knocked on the walls.
I strip a pillowcase off and toss the pillow back on the bed. This is stupid. This is stupid. I shouldn’t do this. Worst case, I get a little nick or tear up the pillowcase, but it would give me something to cut the sheet, which would help me climb down if I figure out how to break the window.
I slide the light bulb into the pillowcase and take it into the bathroom. The vent fan is on and I run the water, closing the door to the bedroom to help dampen the noise. With my shoe in my hand, I hit the light bulb and it gives.
The break doesn’t actually make a noise, or at least not that I can hear over everything else.
Opening the pillowcase, I inspect what I have.
Lots of tiny shards of glass, but around the base of the light bulb are a few bigger pieces.
And with the base as a handle, I should be able to use it to cut the sheet.
It crosses my mind that I could use it as a weapon, but I don’t think I could attack them. Not if they aren’t really threatening me. I could defend myself, but I couldn’t be like whatever girl scarred Peter. Not yet, at least. Which means I need to keep this hidden so he doesn’t know what I have.
At least I’m less defenseless now, but not much closer to escape. But I’ll get there.