“God,” Danielle said. “You’d better watch it, Hanna, or you’re going to get sick!”
“I don’t care,” I replied, tossing my hair. “I deserve to be sick.”
Before Danielle could reply, the bartender leaned in and flashed us a big smile.
“Ladies,” he said in a charming Boston accent. “I got a couple of shots for you, on the house – how ‘bout it?”
I didn’t even think about it before grabbing one of the bright drinks from his hand and chugging it. It tasted both sweet and sour, and for a moment, I fought off an overwhelming wave of nausea. But then my stomach settled and I grinned.
“Thanks!” I yelled. I grabbed Danielle’s arm and pulled her close. “I’m gonna go pee, don’t leave, okay?”
Danielle gave me an absurd look. “Why would I leave?”
Turning around, I stumbled to the bathroom and locked myself in a stall. It seemed harder than usual to yank up my dress and yank down my panties, and I was sweating by the time I was done. Just as I was about to flush, the door swung open. I saw someone standing there, grinning.
“Hey,” I slurred. “Leave me alone, I’m using this one!”
The person didn’t move. They stepped forward, grabbed my arm, and pulled me close before pressing a rag over my face.
It was the last thing I remembered before blacking out.
Chapter Fifteen
James
After breaking up with Hanna, I felt lower than I’d ever felt in my entire life. Nothing cheered me up. I didn’t have any appetite, I barely felt like drinking, and the last thing I wanted to do was to see Hanna every day at Magnate Group.
But I didn’t have a choice. That week, Mark and my other shareholders sat me down and gave me a huge piece of news – the expansion in Seoul had been approved, and it was only a matter of time before Magnate Group stepped onto the scene as the world’s leading consulting firm.
“James, your father would be so proud of you,” Mark said. He smiled, and for once I thought he looked genuinely happy about things. “I just know it.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, shaking my head.
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you pleased? This is everything you said you wanted,” Mark said.
Yeah, well, everything I ever wanted is hiding in a small apartment, feeling miserable because I broke up with her, I thought, but I kept my lips pressed firmly together. I knew I couldn’t say anything to Mark about Hanna, no matter how great the temptation.
“It’s fine,” I said finally. “It’s good news.”
“We’re going to fly you out there sometime next week, and you can check in with the project leads,” Mark continued. “Obviously, we don’t have our own building yet – the plans for that are still in the works. But you should go out and introduce yourself to the new staff. I know they’re all looking forward to meeting you.”
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll have Maggie make the arrangements.”
Mark frowned. “I can’t help but feel that you’re not nearly as excited about this as you should be,” he replied. “James, is something the matter?”
“No,” I lied. “Nothing’s wrong.”
Mark gave me a suspicious look, but thankfully didn’t say anything else, or press me further. By the time the meeting was over, I was drenched in sweat. My heart was thudding slowly in my chest and my hands felt cold and clammy. This is it, I thought as I stood up from my executive chair, shook hands with Mark, and walked out of the conference room. This is the new normal for James West.
I had Maggie make the flight arrangements – I’d be flying out in three days to Seoul – and tried to lose myself in the design plans for the new office building. The plans were incredible, they were much more advanced than our Boston offices…but I couldn’t make myself care.
When Harry called around noon, I was glad of the distraction.
“Hey, man,” Harry said. “How are you?”
I sighed. “Not great,” I admitted.
“Dude, you’ll be fine,” Harry said with a dismissive scoff. “You’ll push through this. It’s not a huge deal.”
“It is a huge deal,” I said as the taste of bile seeped into my mouth. “The woman I love hates me now, and she’s never going to speak to me again.”
“Well, maybe things will settle down soon,” Harry said. I could tell that just talking about Hanna made him uncomfortable. “Come out tonight for drinks after work?”
I checked my watch. It was later than I’d thought when the phone had rung – almost two-thirty in the afternoon.
“You know what, I don’t think I can,” I said. “I’m going to South Korea in three days, and I really need to wrap some things up before I can leave.”
“God,” Harry muttered under his breath. “You really are something, you know that?”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever,” I said. “I should go.”
Once I’d hung up, I tried harder than ever to concentrate. But it was impossible. All I could think about was Hanna’s beautiful smile and her brilliant green eyes. Eyes that would never look at me with love in them ever again. My stomach twisted and I churned and I got to my feet. Before I even realized what I was doing, I walked out of my office and down the hall.
“Mr. West? Where are you going? You don’t have anything until three,” Maggie called over her shoulder.
I ignored her. Speeding up my pace, I made my way through the building to where Hanna’s office stood. To my surprise, the lights were turned off and the door was closed. A blonde woman passed by just as I tried the handle to her door.
“Hanna’s not in today,” the blonde said – I vaguely recognized her as one of our lower-level admins.
I narrowed my eyes. “Is she sick? Did she call in?”
The blonde shook her head. “No, I don’t think so,” she said. There was a suspicious note in her voice. “Why? Are you trying to reach her?”
Suddenly, it hit me that I looked like a crazy man. I was standing outside of Hanna’s dark office, practically trying to break in. I’m acting like I’ve lost my mind, I thought, yanking my hand away from the metal door handle like it was scorching hot.
“Uh, no,” I lied. “I was just wondering about the status of our new Twitter support account.”
The blonde frowned. “I don’t know anything about that,” she said, backing away and turning around before she walked off.
With a sigh, I slumped against the wall. Somehow, I’d gone from James West, billionaire playboy, to loser. It was like women could smell it on me – they knew I was a failure, they knew I’d gotten my own heart broken due to reckless behavior.
Harry was right – I’d become pathetic.
I pressed my lips into a determined expression and walked back to my office. Maggie watched me suspiciously, but she didn’t say anything as I closed the door and sank down on my couch with my face buried in my hands.
I don’t know how long I sat like that – for one of the first times in my life, I truly felt helpless. I’d read descriptions of panic attacks before, and while I’d always written them off as bullshit, suddenly it seemed all too close to home. I felt like I was in the middle of a horrible puzzle and I’d just thrown away the one piece that I needed to make it complete.
The sound of my phone buzzing across my desk made my head snap up. I got to my feet and grabbed the vibrating object in my hand. As soon as I looked down and saw that the caller ID was marked “private,” my heart sank.
“I don’t know who you are, or why you’re doing this,” I growled into the phone after swiping open the call and holding it to my ear. “But I can tell you this – I’ve had it, and you’re going to pay.”
There was no answer.
“Coward,” I muttered. “Come out and tell me the goddamned truth!”
“Um, I’m calling for James West,” a slightly familiar female voice said. I frowned – I knew that I’d heard it before, but where?
“Who is this?”
“It’s Danielle.”
I groaned. “Before you start attacking me for what I did, look, you have to realize that you don’t know the whole story. I—”
“What are you talking about? I don’t want some pathetic story,” Danielle said. “I want you to tell me where Hanna is. Simple, James. Don’t be an asshole.”
For a horrible moment, I felt like I was going to pass out. Lowering myself down into my chair, I kicked my feet up on the desk.
“Isn’t she at home, with you? She’s not at work today.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, no,” Danielle snapped. “Look, we went out a few nights ago, because she was miserable that you’d broken her heart. I thought it would help cheer her up to get back out there.”
“And you haven’t seen her since?”
“No,” Danielle said crossly. “I haven’t. I assumed that she was with you!”
“Oh my god,” I said, putting a hand to my forehead.
“Yeah,” Danielle said. “Jeanine called, and—”
“Wait, who?”
“Her older sister,” Danielle said. “God, you really don’t know anything about her, do you?”
I felt like someone had reached into my chest and ripped my heart out.
“I have to go,” I said hurriedly, hanging up the call and dialing Andrew.
“Hello?”
“I don’t know what you’re doing,” I said angrily. “Other than wasting my money and wasting my time. But you need to get a lead on this case, now, or else I’m firing you and suing you for incompetence!”
Andrew was silent.
“In fact, you know what? Fuck it, you’re fired,” I said sharply. “I know I could get a kindergartener to do a better job than what you’re doing!”
“Sir, I must ask—”
“Fuck you,” I said savagely, hanging up the phone and slamming it down so hard on my desk that the screen cracked. Seconds later, my door opened and Maggie rushed in with a concerned look on her face.
“Mr. West! What was that?”
“Get me the police,” I said. “And don’t dare say a word to anyone else.”
Maggie’s lined face turned white, but she nodded and scurried quickly back to her desk. In a few moments, I saw the red light flashing on my office phone.
“Hello?”
“This is the Boston Metropolitan Police,” a gruff voice said in my ear.
“This is James West,” I replied. “And I need to file a missing person’s report for Hanna Parker.”
***
As much as I’ve always distrusted cops, I had to admit that the Boston police department seemed much more capable – and faster – than I’d imagined. They showed up at Magnate Group in ten minutes, where I pulled them into Hanna’s office and unlocked her computer with the master key.
“She’s missing,” I said. “And I know it has something to do with this.”
It was painful to be sitting in Hanna’s desk chair, inhaling the traces of her floral scent. As I frantically typed search after search in her email account, I had a horrifying thought – suppose I was already too late? Between Danielle’s misconception and my colossal stupidity, I wondered if I’d never see Hanna again. No, I thought as I finally stumbled upon the message I was looking for. That can’t be it. The stalker wants something else…but first, they want to scare me into thinking that Hanna is in true danger.
As much as I tried to tell myself that Hanna would likely be fine for the immediate future, I couldn’t quell the sense of panic and urgency that I felt rising inside of me.
“This is the message,” I said, stepping back from the computer and letting the cops take a look. “Someone pretending to be pregnant with my child.”
One of the detectives blinked. “And why would that have anything to do with the missing Ms. Parker?”
I stared at him for a long moment until he went red in the face.
“Oh,” he muttered. “Right. Were you and Ms. Parker exclusively involved, or was she seeing anyone else?”
“We were exclusively involved,” I said miserably. “And I’ve ruined everything.”
The detective – his name was Patterson – brought me down to the station where we went over seemingly every detail of my relationship with Hanna in excruciating detail. Just as I was finishing up, another cop barged in.
“Patterson,” he grunted. “We need you for something else.” The second cop looked at me with obvious disdain as Patterson got to his feet and lumbered out of the room.
“Wait,” I said impatiently. “Where are you going?”
Patterson rolled his eyes. “You can go,” he said. “We’ll call you when there’s a development.”
And just like that, I knew the cops would be completely useless.
As soon as I was outside of the station, I pulled my phone out and called the Boston private investigator that Andrew had hired weeks ago.
“This is James West,” I said quickly. “And I need your help.”
Chapter Sixteen
Hanna
I was in a dark forest, walking slowly through the cold woods. My hands and feet were freezing, and when I looked down, I saw that somewhere along the way I’d lost my shoes. That’s weird, I thought to myself as I stumbled on. When did that happen?
There was noise – lots of strange noise, almost like a party – coming from all around me but no matter which direction I turned, it never seemed to get any louder or softer.
“Hello,” I called loudly. “Is anybody there?”
The noise grew fainter and I began to shiver. Wrapping my arms around myself, I leaned against the trunk of a tree to catch my breath. For some reason, I wasn’t dressed for the cold – I was wearing a bright red satin party dress that clung to my body and made it almost difficult to breathe.
“Hello,” I called again, my voice rising into a high-pitched shriek. “Help me, please! I’m lost!”
Sniffling, I wiped my nose on the back of my hand and pressed on. The sky was dark and full of clouds, but a strong wind was blowing them across the night sky with alarming speed. I caught glimpses of the bright, bone-white moon looming in the sky and the sight filled me with hope.
“Danielle,” I yelled. “Are you there? It’s me, Hanna!”
There was no reply. By now, my feet were so cold that I felt like pins and needles were running up and down my legs each time I took a step. My hands were frozen and clammy and I wrapped my arms around my body, tucking my hands into my armpits in a desperate bid for warmth.
“Why didn’t I wear something warmer,” I muttered under my breath as I stumbled and nearly fell over a downed tree. “I’m going to freeze to death if I don’t find someone soon!”
That was when I saw him.
James was standing there, his unruly hair ruffling in the breeze. He was wearing a warm winter coat over a dark suit, and save for the dim light of the moon, I could barely make out his features.
“James?” I asked quietly, stepping closer.
James didn’t say anything. His face looked cold and arrogant, with his strong jaw clenched in the moonlight.
“James, it’s me,” I said hesitantly, taking another small step towards him.
“I don’t know you,” James said in a chill, monotonous voice.
“It’s me,” I insisted. “Hanna! Hanna Parker!”
James only stared at me with steely eyes. “I don’t know you,” he repeated. “Now, leave me alone.”
The trees began to shake and twist as the wind howled around them. My hair was blowing in relentless tangles across my face and I had to push it away with both hands. Dust and dirt swirled in the tempestuous breeze, making it hard for me to breathe and stinging my eyes. I began to cough and choke, covering my mouth with both hands as my eyes filled with tears.
“James,” I gasped. “Please, James – you have to help me, I’m in trouble!”
But when I opened my eyes, James was gone.
***
The pain in my head was staggering – it was so intense that when I tried to open
my eyes, I immediately cried out in agony. I couldn’t remember ever being in such pain before: it was like I’d died, and somehow come back from the other side, battle wounds intact. Everything hurt. My arms hurt, my legs hurt – even my hair seemed to hurt. And most frustratingly of all, I couldn’t move. My arms were useless limbs at my sides, and my legs were twisted together underneath my body.
God, Hanna, you really overdid it with the drinking, I thought, swinging my body and trying to move my feet underneath me. But it didn’t work – something was wrong. For a horrible moment, I wondered if I’d been the victim of some cruel and tragic accident resulting in my paralysis.
That was when I looked down and shrieked as real fear took hold of my chest and gripped me hard.
My legs were bound underneath of me, tied at the knee and ankle with soft rope that was twisted over and over and knotted. My skin was darker than usual, and blotchy with bruises. I uttered a low moan at the sight of my feet – they were covered with blue and purple spots that looked dangerous. And worst of all, they were completely numb.
My arms were bound to my sides, with my wrists tied underneath my body. Like my legs, my arms were mostly numb. But when I gritted my teeth and rolled my shoulders back, I felt the ghost of sensation in my thumbs and hands. And the clothes I was wearing were unfamiliar – someone had changed me out of my red satin dress and into a pair of worn cotton shirts and a plain t-shirt.
The Xmas Conquest Page 14
