CHAPTER 17
KEVIN

“I took this meeting as a courtesy to you, Gianni. Because of our twenty-year friendship. But I’m not going to take another look at the numbers.”

“Kevin, come on. You know me. You know how reliable I am. I will make those payments. But this new security system will give my clients a sense of ease. It’ll get me back on my feet.”

“That isn’t how business works and you know it,” I said. “Clients don’t come because they feel safe. They come because you have a product that works. The only way I’m looking into the numbers is if you let me give you advice on how to salvage your business.”

“I know damn good and well how to run my business, Mr. Spencer.”

“So it’s ‘Kevin’ when you need a favor and ‘Mr. Spencer’ when you’re pissed? Come on, Gianni. You already have my answer to our contract. But I can help you come back from this. I can help you regain your footing. I’m a consultant on the side, you know this.”

I watched Gianni’s eyes as they went from pleading to dark. His face became stoic and his back grew a little stiffer. I cleared my throat and readied myself to leave. I knew this side of Gianni. He was a good businessman, but he sometimes used strong-arming tactics. He was readying himself for a fight.

“I think you should take another look at things,” Gianni said.

“I’m not one of your business partners that you can intimidate,” I said. “I’m your friend. And if you don’t want my help, then this meeting is over. I have two kids who are begging for my time and I can’t waste any more of it on you.”

“Did they enjoy the museums?”

I squinted my eyes as I held his gaze.

“Yes,” I said. “They had a good time.”

“And the girlfriend?”

I bit down on the inside of my cheek. That was his angle? Brooke? She was only six years younger than me. There was no story there.

No blackmail he could hang over my head.

“Goodbye, Gianni.”

“I suggest you take another look at the numbers. It might be in the best interests of your vacation.”

“I don’t like your tone and I don’t know what you’re suggesting, but we are through here. As a courtesy, I will inform you that all of the emails sent to Owen have been forwarded to Legal, and I’ll be informing them of this conversation as well.”

“Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay.”

I didn’t like the way Gianni was grinning at me. It made me nervous. I stood up from my chair and buttoned my suit coat, then pulled my phone from my pocket. I called Legal on the way out of the restaurant and told them to prepare a lawsuit against Gianni.

While I didn’t know what he had up his sleeve, I knew his tactics well enough to know something was coming.

I slipped into the back of a cab and started toward the house. But before I could get there, my phone rang. I sighed and picked it up, ready to bat away whatever work it was Owen wanted me to do.

But instead, it was Brooke.

And she sounded frantic.

“Kevin. It’s me. I’ve looked everywhere, and I can’t find her. I don’t know what happened. She was just in the bathroom.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, Brooke. You can’t find who?”

“Sydney. I can’t find Sydney, Kevin.”

“What do you mean you can’t find her? Where did she go?” I asked.

“To the bathroom. The kids and I were swimming in the ocean and she had to go to the bathroom. But Daniel didn’t want me to leave the water. I watched her all the way into the house, but then I turned around and a current had Daniel farther away than I liked, so I went to get him and bring him back. Then I went into the house to check on Sydney thinking she might need help with her suit, and she isn’t here.”

“Did she go to her room?”

“She’s not here, Kevin.”

“The waterslide.”

“Kevin. Sydney isn’t here.”

“The closet? The pantry? The fucking ductwork?”

My heart was slamming against my chest as I tapped the shoulder of the cab driver.

“As fast as you can and there’s a massive tip in it for you,” I said.

“I’ve looked everywhere. I swear to you, Kevin. It was up the steps to the porch and in through the back doors. I watched her all the way in.”

“She’s gotta be somewhere, Brooke. Sydney’s favorite game is hide-and-seek. Check the cabinets in the kitchen. I’m on my way home.”

The cab screeched to a halt and I threw a wad of cash at the driver. I bolted out of the car, started up the steps and found Brooke in the kitchen. All of the kitchen doors were open and pans were on the floor. I heard the patter of little footsteps and watched as Daniel slid around the corner.

“Not under the beds,” he said.

“Did you check under the bathroom sinks?” Brooke asked.

“Yeah,” Daniel said.

“Is it possible she ran up the beach?” Brooke asked.

“We can check.”

I watched her jump before she knocked her head on the corner of the counter. I rushed over to her side and pulled her into my arms, cradling her head. She was crying. Her shoulders were shaking with sobs. Daniel was clinging to my leg as my eyes darted around the beach out back, looking around for my daughter.

My little princess.

Where the hell was she?

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go check the beach.”

The three of us headed out and ran up and the down the beach calling her name. I looked out into the water, preparing for the worst. I never thought I would hate those crystal clear waters as much as I did at that moment. Because no matter how long I looked, I didn’t see her.

Not her eyes. Not her body.

Nothing.

We ran up and down the two-mile stretch of beach purchased only for us. And she was nowhere to be found. She wasn’t in the brush or behind the trees. She wasn’t in the house or out in the water. She wasn’t even playing at the edge of the property near the damn road.

Sydney was nowhere to be found.

“Emergency services.”

“Yes, I need the island’s best detectives at my house now,” I said.

“What’s the address?”

I rattled off my address as Brooke clung to my son.

“What’s the emergency?”

“My daughter,” I said.

“And what’s wrong with her?”

Tears rushed to my eyes as I gazed out into the horizon. Into the endless scroll of ocean as the sun beamed down upon my back.

“She’s been kidnapped,” I said. “My daughter’s been taken.”