by Tia Siren
“I know that,” I said crossly. “I’m aware of it. I’ve been aware of it for a while, but this is Joanna. I love her.”
Ashton held up a hand to cut me off. His eyes grew wide, and I realized I had just admitted out loud that I loved Joanna. Again. He shook his head with a whistle of amazement.
“You really do then. I never thought I’d see the day you would fall in love,” he said. “Good for you, though, man. I’m happy that you’re finally stopping your mistrust of women after all these years.”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”
I glanced up at the clock before rising from my chair. Smoothing out the wrinkles in my shirt, I did my best to put on a smile. I didn’t want my future contracts to see my anxiety playing out on my face. Ashton stopped me before we could step out together. He grasped me firmly by the shoulder to look me straight in the eye.
“Don’t hurt Joanna,” he said. “She’s a good woman. I wouldn’t be able to maintain a friendship with you if anything happened to her.”
“I know,” I said, reaching up to squeeze him on the forearm. “I promise you that I am going to do it right this time.”
Chapter 34
Joanna
The sound of my phone vibrating from the living room drew me out of a peaceful sleep. Frowning, I stretched sleepily before kicking away the blankets and sheets with a sigh of reluctance. I had spent the past two hours drifting in and out while curled up in bed with the pillow that still smelled like Bastian.
Dread filled me as I treaded cautiously through the bedroom to the living room. There were only two people who had my new number: my mother and Sid. The only possible way that Bastian could get ahold of me was through the hotel phone. I rifled through my purse to pull it out. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or not to see that it was my mother calling.
“Where the hell are you, Joanna?”
I grimaced at the shrieked question. The panic lacing her voice filled me with guilt as I sat down on the couch to face the windows that overlooked the mountains and Salt Lake.
“I’m sorry. Let me explain.”
“I am not going to let you explain a damn thing,” she said crossly. “Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to find your child’s bedroom empty? To realize that she snuck out in the middle of the night?”
“I had to leave, Mom. I couldn’t stay there anymore. You don’t understand.”
“Explain it then,” she said. “I’d like to hear your reasons behind everything you do.”
“I can’t be with Sid,” I said, my voice trembling. “You don’t get it, Mom. He’s manipulated you into thinking he’s the good guy. He’s not. He’s not a good guy at all.”
“And your boss is the good guy here?” she asked. “He convinced you to leave here last night, didn’t he? What sort of man convinces a woman to pull that type of stunt on her mother?”
“Sid hits me, Mom. He hurts me. He would hurt me so badly sometimes that I couldn’t even face other people at work because I was afraid they would see the bruises from it. That’s why I couldn’t stay with him.”
“He apologized to you, Joanna. He apologized to me for taking his anger out on you. I think that takes a big man to do something like that. This boss of yours hasn’t even once explained himself to me.”
I bit the tip of my tongue because I got a strange feeling then that Sid was listening in on this conversation. Either that or waiting to hear back from my mother about where I had gone. Loneliness crashed down over me. I couldn’t even force myself to be angry with her for taking his side over mine. I knew what Sid was like. He could charm anyone he came into contact with. The more power he felt he was losing, the more he turned up the charm a few notches.
“I have to go,” I said. “I’m sorry, Mom. I’ll call you when this is all over with, when it’s safe to call you.”
“Joanna—”
I ended the call with a watery breath. Twenty-two missed calls throughout the night from Sid. Only a few missed calls were from my mother this morning. Sighing, I turned the phone off before placing it on the coffee table. I picked up the hotel phone to dial Sabrina’s landline at the office.
“This is Sabrina,” she said cheerfully. “How can I help you?”
“It’s me,” I said, twisting the curled cord anxiously around my finger. “Sabrina, I need a huge favor. I know that Bastian is probably in a meeting right now.”
“You’d be correct. He stepped into a meeting about five minutes ago.” She lowered her voice then to whisper into the phone. “Are you okay, Jo? I’m freaking out over here. Bastian won’t tell me a thing about what is going on around here.”
“It’s better that you don’t know,” I said. “It’s for your safety, Sabrina. Keep your eyes peeled out for Sid, because he’s been using my mom as a tool to get through to me.”
“My god,” she breathed into the phone in disbelief. “It’s not ever going to stop, is it?”
“It will. I’m going to turn him in after Bastian talks with his lawyers today.”
“Good. I’m so glad to hear that. You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you standing up for yourself against this motherfucker who is trying to ruin your life.”
I smiled at the venom dripping off Sabrina’s tongue. At least I knew Sid would never be able to convince my one and only friend to turn her back against me. Sabrina had been the first one to point out that Sid was too controlling over my life.
“What was the favor you needed?” Sabrina asked.
“Tell Bastian when he is out of his meeting that I need him to have his driver check up on my mom,” I said. “I was just on the phone with her, and I got a feeling that he was there, egging her on to find out where I am.”
“I’ll tell him as soon as he gets out. You know how pissy he can get if you interrupt meetings.”
“Yeah, I know. Don’t interrupt the meeting for it. We don’t want to draw any more attention to what is going on at the moment.”
“Of course,” she said. “I’ll be discreet about it. I promise.”
“Thank you. I’ll be in touch soon.”
I hung the phone up after Sabrina bid me good-bye. The silence of the hotel suite was too much, and I got up to gaze out across the city and the mountains. It was a nice place, the fanciest place you could get a room in. I knew that judging by the fancy furniture and spacious floorplan, along with the expensive menu I had no intention of ordering anything off of. I couldn’t get past the knots in my stomach, so I took a hot shower in the vain hope that it would quell my anxiety a bit until Bastian called me back on the hotel phone.
After sorting through my clothes, I settled on relaxing in the hotel’s bathrobe while I waited for Bastian’s phone call. An hour stretched by slowly while I gazed out at the city numbly before an abrupt knock on the door startled me out of my thoughts.
“Who is it?” I called out nervously.
“Room service,” a friendly male voice called out. “We have a breakfast here, ordered for a Joanna Lind staying in this suite.”
Adjusting the belt of my robe, I rose to my feet and frowned at the door. “I didn’t order anything from downstairs. You must have gotten my room number wrong or something, because I didn’t—”
“A Bastian Burke called it in,” he said, still cheerful. “He said that you would like some breakfast to keep you occupied until he was able to call you back.”
I approached the door to look through the peephole. A bell hop stood there with a tray of food in hand, along with a cup of hot coffee. He smiled into the peephole when he sensed that I was looking through. Uneasy, I slowly undid the chain on the door before cracking it open.
“I’m sorry,” I started, shaking my head. “I don’t think—”
The door pushed back against me violently. Pain erupted in my arm when the door handle slammed into my right elbow. I stumbled back with a gasp of pain, clutching my elbow while Sid shut the door behind him. Sheer terror ripped through me as I darted in the
direction of the master bedroom for the phone to call for help. A hand gripped my hair before I could reach the bedroom door, though. That hand yanked my head back so hard that my neck popped, followed by a wave of crushing pain. I crumpled to the floor with a cry, clasping the back of my neck where Sid had pinched me.
“Stupid bitch,” Sid said calmly as he walked into the room to yank the phone cord out. “Did you honestly think that you could run away from me?”
He brushed by me to grab my cell phone from where I had set it on the coffee table. He pocketed it with a sigh before turning to approach me again. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe properly, either, while black dots popped in my line of sight.
“H-how did you find me?” I managed to squeak out through the pain.
“It’s not that difficult, sweetheart,” he drawled, crouching in front of me. “Your mother was nice enough to allow me to trace your last cell phone ping. She’s a bit worried about you, you know?”
I looked up through the tears welling in my eyes. “You manipulated her into thinking you are the good guy here. What did you do to her?”
“Nothing. Scout’s honor.” He held up his hand with a dark laugh. “Not yet at least. She’s been very useful. I can’t say I feel the same way about your boss, though.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure you do,” he said cheerfully.
Reaching out, he clasped the back of my aching neck again. I winced as pain flashed through me, but he forced me to look up into his eyes. Black rage danced there. The type of rage that told me death was most likely around the corner if I struggled.
“A wonderful friend of mine in the Internal Affair’s office informed me that a case had been opened against me.” Sid continued on, his voice growing dangerously soft. “He opened up an investigation against me for the one I pushed at him. An eye for an eye. He’s a businessman. I’ll give him that.”
“Sid, please,” I pleaded, crying. “Don’t do this. Just let me go. Leave us alone.”
The sting of his palm against my cheek stunned me. I reached up to numbly touch the welt rising there. I gazed up at Sid, and he pinched down on my neck again.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Sid said.
“What do you want then?” I asked. The taste of blood stunned me when I realized that my upper lip was split. “You can have anyone in the world. Why do you want me?”
“I don’t want anyone else in the world,” he said. “I just want you, and only you. You’re coming with me.”
I reached up in a futile attempt to try to swat his hand away from my neck. The gesture only made him laugh as he pulled me up roughly by the back of my neck. Pain shot up my back while Sid dragged me along the floor. He pulled out his gun when I opened my mouth to scream for help. He pressed the barrel against my collarbone and he leaned up against me to press a hot kiss to my lips.
I froze underneath the feeling of a steel barrel against me. Sid leaned back to look at me with an arched eyebrow.
“Not in the mood yet, darling?” he questioned, waving the gun at me. “I dare you to scream. I will take both of us out the second you make a fucking noise. In fact, I’ll take you out first before I take out the rest of your family and friends. Catch my drift, sweetling?”
I nodded mutely as he pulled something out of his pocket. I looked in horror at the bottle and rag. Shaking my head, I tried to back away from him while he poured a hefty amount of liquid on the rag.
“On second thought,” Sid said, sneering as he turned to me, “better keep you quiet through this. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure that you’ll wake up at the end of the day.”
He shoved the rag over my mouth when I let out a scream. In a matter of seconds, darkness took ahold of me, and I felt my legs give out beneath me.
Chapter 35
Bastian
I knew something was wrong the second Sabrina rushed up to my side when I stepped out of the conference room with Ashton right behind me.
“It’s Joanna,” she whispered urgently. “She needs you to call your driver to check up on her mother.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Ashton, who frowned in concern. Panic started to claw its way up my back while I pulled both of them into the filing room full of employee records. Ashton closed the door behind us.
“What’s going on?” I demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me she called?”
“She told me not to interrupt the meeting,” Sabrina said, eyes flickering back and forth in distress. “Something isn’t right, Bastian. I can feel it. She told me that her mother called to try to get information about where she was.”
“She didn’t say where she was, right?”
Sabrina shook her head at me. “No, she didn’t. She knew it was Sid using her mom to get information, but she asked me to have you call the driver. I don’t know what she meant by that, but to call him.”
“Shit,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. “Okay, Sabrina. Thank you for giving me the message.”
She glanced anxiously between Ashton and me. “Do either of you know anything about what is going on?”
I didn’t know what to say to Sabrina to calm her nerves. It was Ashton who stepped in to soothe Sabrina before he ushered her out of the room. He turned to look at me as I fished through my pocket for my cell phone. No missed calls from Joe. No missed calls from the hotel room.
“What do you think is going on?” Ashton asked. “Something with Sid?”
“Something along those lines,” I said darkly. “Listen, if I call you—”
“I’ll call my lawyers and yours,” he finished for me. “I know this guy has connections throughout the force. All crooked cops do. Just do the right thing, Bastian. Call them to get everything documented if something comes up.”
“I’ll do it right. I called Internal Affairs earlier.”
I couldn’t get the queasy feeling out of my stomach. Would Marcus Flannagan investigate everything that quickly? I didn’t once think it would happen that swiftly, unless someone from Internal Affairs had tipped off Sid about my phone call.
“That might be what is going on,” Ashton said, concern thick in his voice now. “Jesus, man. Get the hell out of this office to see if Joanna is okay. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out here.”
“Thank you,” I said, grateful at that moment that I had at least one friend in the world I could trust everything with. “I’ll call you the second I know what is going on.”
I left after locking up my office. Mindful of the cars parked in the garage, I waited until I was driving away from the parking garage before I called Joe’s cell phone. He picked up on the second ring.
“What the hell is going on?” I demanded.
“Nothing is going on,” Joe said, confusion tinging his voice. “I’ve been sitting here the entire time. Nobody has come to the house. Not once.”
“Are you sure about that? Nobody at all?”
“Nothing, boss. No one has come by. I’ve been watching the front door this entire time. No one has come up.”
I didn’t feel an ounce of relief. Something was off if Joanna had called from the hotel, concerned about her mother’s well-being. I focused on the interstate as I merged onto the off-ramp that led to the hotel. It was still at least ten minutes away.
“Keep an eye on the house,” I said. “I’ll be by in the next hour if I can’t find Joanna at the hotel.”
“You think something happened to her?” Joe asked.
“I hope not,” I said, my heart constricting in cold fear. “I really hope not, Joe. Stay put until I tell you to move.”
The phone back in my hotel suite rang nonstop. It didn’t even go to voice mail. I pushed down harder on the gas pedal.
The front lobby was buzzing with people when I dropped my SUV off in valet parking. I pushed past a few people in line, who grumbled behind my back. I braced my hands on the front counter.
“Has anyone been in my suite?” I snapped out. “Has anyone come by
looking for me, or for the person who is staying in my suite?”
The front desk clerk drew back in fear at the look in my eye. “Not that I’m aware of, sir. You left specific messages to let no visitors go up there.”
“Why is no one answering in my room?” I demanded.
“I’m not sure, sir. I can send someone up there to check.”
“I’ll check myself,” I snarled, thoroughly panicked. “Don’t you dare call the police, either, until I say to do so. Do you fucking understand me?”
The question echoed loudly in the front lobby. A few people shrank back when I turned to glower at them before I hurried to the elevators. My hands were trembling with anger as I punched the top floor button. Once I made it to the floor and exited the elevator, I burst through the suite door the second the key slot showed green.
I scanned the living room for any signs of disruption. Nothing was out of place. The maids had come through the room at some point to clean and tidy up everything, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Joanna’s bags were still on the bedroom floor, but that only added to my anxiety.
Joanna wouldn’t have left without her purse, which was on the living room table. I sucked in a deep breath while I tried to calm the rising fear inside me. There were only two people who could possibly know where Joanna was—Sid and Joanna’s mother.
I drummed my hands on the steering wheel while I drove another twenty minutes to Joanna’s mother’s house. I parked behind Joe, who immediately hopped out to greet me.
“She wasn’t there?” he asked, reading the anxiety on my face. “I can call a few resources if you need me to.”
“I might need you to do that,” I said. “I’m going to go up to the door. Keep an eye peeled for trouble.”
Joe nodded as he leaned up against the side of his SUV. “I’ve got your six.”
I tucked my hands inside my coat pockets after knocking on the front door. After holding my breath as the locks clicked back, I was greeted by an older woman with fair blond hair the same color as Joanna’s.
