“IT’S ALL SET. ALL YOU have to do is sit back and relax and enjoy the celebration party I’ve got planned for you,” I told Jack Knave with a smirk.
Since our meeting in Mexico, we’d spoken on the phone and via encrypted email a few times. He’d warmed considerably to the idea of all of the opportunities I could provide him, and most of all, he liked the idea of having access to the power we held in our worldwide network.
“Tomorrow night at six, you’ll be a presidential nominee for the United States of America.”
His smile deepened at the sound of it. I laughed. “Almost as good as ‘member of the Wonderland organization,’ huh?”
Smart man that he was learning to be, he humored me. “It’s a close second.”
My phone vibrated against my chest in the breast pocket of my suit jacket, so I held up a finger and stepped aside. Jack moved back to his campaigners, people who thought they were responsible for the coming victory, but were wrong.
Cal’s name flashed on the screen.
“What’s up?” I answered, knowing he wouldn’t call me tonight if it weren’t important.
And he didn’t mince words. “Alex is gone.”
“What the fuck do you mean, she’s gone?” I nearly roared. “Gone where?”
“I don’t know. I ran down to the doorman to accept delivery on a package for you, and when I came back, the only girl in your apartment was Deena.”
“Did you go down and check Alex’s apartment?”
“Not yet.”
“Then fucking go,” I ordered, feeling myself already turning into the meanest version of myself. If she wasn’t all right, I’d fucking tear the whole world apart. “Call me back.”
I hung up the phone and immediately dialed Alex’s number. It went straight to voice mail.
“Fuck!” I shouted. Jack Knave smiled for the onlookers as he stepped closer to me, but he asked me quietly, “Is there a problem?”
My scowl was lethal. “Not for you.”
Defensively, he held up a hand and then smartly moved on. As much as his business was now mine, mine wasn’t fucking his. John Hadder said Hadder business was no one’s but their own. I’d always agreed with him, and now was no different.
My phone rang again, Cal calling back, so I didn’t waste time putting the device to my ear.
“Well?”
“Cat food bagged up and on the counter, no Alex.”
“Pull the recordings—”
“I hate to be the one to tell you this, Matt, but you had them stop recording her apartment. Remember?”
Goddammit! Nausea clawed at my stomach.
“Fuck! Then fucking call Hare, find out if he knows anything. I’ll call Damien. This fucking reeks of Eric Queen and the two fucking imbeciles he’s convinced to do his dirty work.”
“What do we know if it’s them?” he asked, his voice like gritty sandpaper.
“We know they’re motherfucking dead,” I said, every syllable equally as poisonous.
“I’ll check back.”
“Cal,” I called, straining for patience and calm, and trying to keep my heart from beating out of my chest.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Fucking find her.”
I’d worked hard to make sure this meant nearly as much to him as it did to me, letting him know her, letting him like her.
“Yes, sir.” At the solemnity in his tone, I knew sacrificing just a little part of my Alex to him was worth it.
My movements were clipped but no less efficient as I dialed Damien. He didn’t answer until the third ring, so by the time he did, I was fucking pissed.
“Hello?”
“Dame, Eric and those other fucks have Alex. What do you know about locations they might take her?”
“What the fuck? How do you know they have her?”
“She went down from my apartment to get something from her own without Cal as guard. She didn’t come back up.”
His voice was hesitant. “Matt, you know I respect you, but how can you be sure she didn’t just run? She was still getting used to everything around here. It can be a lot for an outsider to take in. Maybe—”
“Do. Not. Fucking question me. Do you understand me? Not when it’s this fucking important. I know she didn’t run.”
“I’m sorry, Matt,” he apologized immediately. “I’ll start looking into safe houses Eric, Mickey, or Jaybird might have off the grid.”
“Don’t start looking, fucking find them. This is her life we’re talking about, Damien, and none of us is going to be the reason it gets pissed away.”
I ended the call before he could waste my time with anything else and scrubbed at my hair. I hated feeling fucking powerless, and I suspected Eric knew that all too well. He’d love that I was away and unable to handle any of this shit myself.
And my Alex. God. I’d unwittingly made her vulnerable. She knew everything. And now they were going to use it against her.
I took off at a run for my car. I needed to get to the airport. I needed to get home. I needed to find my Alex before it was too fucking late.