Fixing my father’s mistakes was becoming a major part of my life, and I hated it with every part of my being.

Being in that office, I felt cooped up and nervous as fuck. Talking to the investors, calming them down all day, and to have them still doubt me, drove me crazy. I wanted to strangle every single fucking one of them, and it took everything I had in me to keep my hands off their throats.

I stayed there late, and when I was finally on my way back, I noticed I had several missed calls from the house. I just ignored them, figuring I’d deal with everything when I finally got home. Instead, I thought about sweet little Evangeline. The way she came on my cock the day before, the way she always begged for my cum so sweetly. She was fucking perfect, and she was making me break every single rule I’d ever adhered to. But the worst part about it was, I didn’t even regret it. I would’ve broken every single one of them if it meant keeping my Angel.

My thoughts were filled with her as we drove back to the house. And once I got out of the car, and saw Carolina waiting for me, my brows furrowed together in confusion.

I called out for her, and as I came closer, I realized she’d been crying. This strange feeling in my chest made me catch my breath, and I barely managed to catch Carolina as she ran into my arms.

“What’s wrong?” I barked at her, my heart lurching. It had to do with Evangeline, I just fucking knew it. “What fucking happened?”

“She-she… She… Oh my God,” Carolina breathed through the tears, and I held her away from my body by her shoulders, shaking her.

“What happened?” I demanded to know. “Tell me what the fuck happened, Carolina, or so fucking help me…”

“She’s, she’s gone,” she hiccupped. “She ran away. I tried to go after her, I swear I did…”

I just let her go, not giving a fuck when she swayed on her feet.

I ran into the house like a madman. I tore the place apart looking for my sweet Angel, shouting all her names at the top of my voice.

Not downstairs.

Not in her room.

Not in the cage.

Not in the playroom.

No.

Fucking.

Where.

She really was gone.

I found Carolina again, sitting in the kitchen and shaking so badly I thought she’d just topple over from the tremors. Any other day I would’ve given a fuck, but not when this had happened, not when my girl was possibly in trouble. I needed to know exactly what had happened, and I needed her to tell me right the fuck away.

“Tell me,” I ordered her. “Catch your breath, calm the fuck down, and tell me what happened.”

As it turns out, she didn’t know much. She just said she saw Angel come down the stairs and linger in the kitchen, her eyes wild and her face streaked with tears. And then she saw her run. Carolina said she went after her, trying to get one of the other servants to help, but she was too slow. By the time she reached the gate there was no trace of Evangeline.

“Who left the gate open?” I barked at her, and she shivered, shrugging. “Find the fuck out. I want them fired. Now.”

She left on shaky feet, still fucking sobbing as I went to my study. And as soon as I went in there I knew something was up. I checked the videos on my hidden cameras, and I watched Evangeline going through my shit. She sat at the computer and I could see over her shoulder and her face from another camera. I watched her see the worst video I’d ever seen in my life, and I watched every emotion leave her beautiful face and be replaced by dread, and intense, all-consuming fear.

I rubbed my temples. She was never, ever supposed to see what happened to Carolina. No one was. It was a stupid fucking slip that never should have happened in the first place.

I knew what I needed to do right away. I needed to call Savage.

He’s the only person she could have gone to. She trusted him with everything, he was a father figure in her life and he knew her almost as well as I did. I knew she’d want to find comfort with someone who understood.

I called his number and nearly threw up as I waited for him to pick up.

“Knight,” he said when I answered. “How can I help you?”

I tried to decipher what happened from his voice, but it was completely impassive.

“Something’s happened,” I barked down the line. “It’s Evangeline.”

“What?” he sounded wary and a little worried. “Don’t scare me, Knight, tell me what the fuck is going on.”

He didn’t know.

Was he acting?

Playing a game with me?

There was no time for questions. I just needed to find her and bring her the fuck back into my arms where she belonged.

“She’s gone,” I said plainly. “She ran away from the house.”

“How long ago?” His voice was pained, and panicked, but he somehow held his composure. I hesitated and he lost it in seconds. “Damn it, Knight, how fucking long since she’s been gone?”

“A few hours, fuck, I don’t know,” I cursed. “I had some missed calls, I wasn’t home. I have no fucking clue what happened. I just got home. Is she not with you?”

“No,” he replied slowly, and I could feel the regret in his voice. “She’s not here. I’m coming over. We have to find her.”

He cut the call and I paced the room, trying not to fucking panic and failing miserably.

I called every number I could think of. I got every man I could use on the case and trying to find her by the time a red-faced Carolina brought Savage up to my study.

“Any luck?” he asked. He looked like hell.

“No,” I said roughly. “I have three men searching for her and three others trying to find leads.”

“Someone took her,” Savage barked. “Someone fucking took her from right under your nose!”

“No,” I shook my head vehemently. “It wasn’t that… My maid saw her run off.”

“You fucking did it,” Savage sneered at me. “You broke my little girl. You fucking ruined her, you piece of shit…”

“Shut the hell up,” I snarled at him. “Shut up! We have to find her. We can fight later. We just have to fucking find her as soon as possible and make sure she’s alright. I think that should be our priority before we kill each other.”

He stared at me with his eyes blazing.

“If we don’t find her in one piece,” he said roughly. “I’m going to fucking chop your head off. If there’s one hair on her head harmed, I’m going to fucking kill you.”

“You won’t have to,” I grunted back. “If she’s hurt, I’ll fucking do it myself.”

***

Hours later, we were no closer to finding a lead. There was nothing. Not a fucking thing that could’ve helped us. All my guys came back with no information, and Barron and I just felt useless sitting around the house. I made him call his house repeatedly to check if she was there, and I had one of my guys drive to the amusement park, but she wasn’t there either, and he assured me he’d checked every crevice with his flashlight.

It was getting late. If she was out, and alone, she was vulnerable. I wanted to fucking hurt someone, I was so damn pissed.

“I don’t know anything about her,” I said out loud as Savage paced the room. “Fucking nothing. I never learned anything. Not about her past… Not about her family.”

Savage stopped and gave me a short, incredulous look. “You must be kidding.”

“What?” I looked up from my glass of whiskey, feeling confused. “What the hell do you mean?”

“You don’t know about her family?” he asked me, and I shook my head.

“What about them?” I asked him.

He laughed bitterly, shaking his head.

“It’s not my place to tell you,” he said roughly. “Evangeline should be the one doing it.”

“Well, she’s not fucking here, is she?” I growled at him, jumping up from my seat. The amber liquid spilled over the rim of my glass and Savage backed up.

“Calm the fuck down,” he grunted. “I’ll tell you, just calm down. No use us killing each other. We need to find her. She needs both of us.”

As much as I wanted to deny it, I knew he was fucking right. There was no way I could get to the bottom of this alone. I knew eventually Evangeline would come to him, and I needed to be ready to take her back when that happened.

“You don’t recognize her last name?” Savage asked me.

“Evangeline Lovell,” I remembered. “No, it’s pretty common. Should I?”

“Connect the fucking dots, you moron,” he snarled at me. “Lovell. Her age. Her fucking father, working for your company. You can’t be this fucking stupid!”

I stared at him blankly while my mind tried to bring up details from the dustiest corners. And then it all came together so suddenly I took a step back as I stared at Savage.

“Her father,” I breathed. “Her father was Alec Lovell.”

“Ding ding ding,” Savage mocked me with a bitter laugh and a shake of his head. “Took you fucking long enough.”

I realized how fucking bad this was. How fucking awful she must’ve felt, alone and lost in that moment. Seeing the video of Carolina, and now this… My head felt like it was exploding.

I grabbed Barron’s lapels and slammed him against the wall.

“We have to find her,” I uttered in panic. “We fucking have to, Savage.”

“I know,” he managed to get out. “Don’t you fucking think I know that?”