Voice hoarse, I sat down on the bed and gazed around the room, letting my rational mind take over. I was Wesley Howard’s daughter, and I was North Hunter’s one and only.
Between the two of them, they’d find me.
And if they didn’t and I had to face Caitlyn tomorrow, I had to come up with a plan to disarm her so I could save my damn self.
Forty
NORTH
Aria’s phone had been abandoned somewhere on the Santa Monica Freeway. I was done waiting around after discovering that. I called the rental car company to track her rental while Wesley called the police.
The company had just called to tell us the car was found, abandoned in Glendale.
Standing in the hotel suite we’d commandeered, I stared hard at Wesley, Walker, and Wesley’s private security team, trying like hell not to succumb to that splintering feeling in my head and chest.
Aria had been missing for twenty-four hours.
The first few hours I’d tried not to panic.
My gut told me something had happened to her, and I felt like a useless prick waiting around, doing nothing.
Wesley had contacts in the LAPD. He chartered his private plane to fly him and his team over from Scotland. Walker had insisted on coming too.
A knock on the hotel room door had me rushing toward it. Wesley hurried at my back and greeted the two men in suits on the other side.
“Frank, Pete, thanks for coming.” Wesley ushered them in. Aria’s father’s eyes met mine. “These are the detectives I told you about.”
“Any news?” I barked.
The taller of the two raised an eyebrow, but the shorter man shook his head. “We’ve sent officers out to Glendale. They’ll canvas the area while we pursue leads elsewhere. According to Wesley, Aria told you she was shopping on Rodeo Drive?”
I nodded.
“We’re pulling footage from traffic cameras and parking garages in the area. We’ll hopefully hear something soon.” The short man turned to Wesley. “We’re looking into Caitlyn Branch. We have officers out interviewing colleagues at her last job, a restaurant called Curiosity.”
“So you really think if we find Caitlyn, we’ll find Aria?” I couldn’t even think about what that woman could be doing to Aria while we stood around in this fucking hotel room.
“It’s our only lead at the moment until we get the footage from the parking garage. So far, we haven’t been able to track Caitlyn down. She’s unemployed and was evicted from her apartment a month ago. We’ve got men staking out both places in case—” A shrill beep cut Pete off, and he whipped out his phone. We waited with rising fucking impatience as he swiped at the screen. Then, “Got her.”
My heart lurched into my throat. “Aria?”
Pete nodded and passed around the phone. “Parking garage camera picked her up walking to her car.”
Wesley and I looked at the screen together. Pain and fear and longing filled me at the sight of Aria rounding her car to the driver’s side. She seemed to be doing something at the side of the car for a few seconds and didn’t notice the woman approaching the passenger side. My breathing stopped as the woman turned to look over her shoulder, as if making sure no one was watching, and then she got into the car.
Wesley tapped the screen, rewinding it a few seconds before pausing it on the woman’s face. “That’s her,” he snarled angrily. “That’s Caitlyn Branch.”
“What now?” I demanded.
Pete took his phone back and replied with too much calmness, “Our guys are already using traffic cameras to follow the car.”
“Fuck!” Wesley spat in a fury. “I will fucking destroy this bitch if she hurts my girl!” His gaze seared through Pete. “You might want to find her before I do.”
Or before I did. I felt almost numb with fear as I reassured him, “We’ll get her back. She’ll be okay.”
Because there wasn’t another option.
If anything happened to Aria, I’d never get over it.
Walker gave me a stoic nod before he turned to Pete. “I’m Walker Ironside, private security.”
Pete nodded. “I’ve heard of you, Mr. Ironside.”
“I take it you have officers out there, following the information analysts are sending them from the traffic cameras?”
The detective nodded.
“Me and Wesley’s team are going out there, and I want you to patch us in.”
“Our officers are on it.”
“No offense, but your officers are not military trained. We are.” Walker gestured to the security guys at his back. “We’re going to be the ones who recover Aria Howard.”
Frank opened his mouth to protest, but Walker cut him off. “If the LAPD fucks up this rescue, you’ll be dragged over the coals for it.”
Pete sighed and nodded.
Walker looked back at Wesley. “I’ll get her back safe and sound,” he vowed.
“I’m coming,” I insisted.
“You’re not trained.”
Fury filled me, my accent thickening with it. “Ah’ve just spent the last six months training with men who have elite military background. Ah ken ye think Ah’m just a stupid fuckin’ actor, but I ken how tae handle maself.”
“You’re also emotionally involved,” Walker stated with annoying calm. “If you get in the way, this could go tits up.”
“And you’re no’ emotionally involved? This is Aria, for fuck’s sake.”
“It’s different. I can compartmentalize.”
“Aye, and if you come home with another bullet wound, Sloane will have ma arse. So I’m coming.”
“Let him go,” Wesley said wearily. “Please … just … just get out there and find my damn daughter.”
Walker glowered at me for a few seconds, then bit out, “Fine. But if you get in my way, I will knock you out for your own good.”
Heart pounding with anticipation and adrenaline, I nodded. “That’s fair.”
Forty-One
ARIA
There was no way in hell I could sleep. I’d been afraid to drink any of the water or eat any of the food Caitlyn had supplied in case it was drugged. Instead, I’d sat curled up on the bed for hours until the pressure on my bladder was too much, and I had to use the Porta Potti.
The storage facility was cold, so I’d drawn the blankets around me and stared at the garage door, my mind whirring with a plan. As soon as I heard her approaching the next day, I’d brace myself at that garage door and lunge at her before she had a chance to draw her weapon.
It was a stupid plan, but it was the only one I had.
I attempted not to think about North and my family, about how worried they were. If it was North or Allegra or my parents who had gone missing, I’d be losing my goddamn mind.
There was no way to know what time it was when I heard the slam of a door and the footsteps out in the corridor. Caitlyn had brought me here around noon, and if I were to guess by the gnawing hunger in my stomach, I’d say more than twenty-four hours had passed since then.
“It’s me!” Caitlyn called, her steps slowing.
I pushed off the bed and hurried over to the door, bending my knees ever so slightly, bracing to tackle her.