My dad is an evil man, and my Sir outsmarted him.
Chapter twenty-six
Mac
SinceDidoesn’thaveany visible injuries or blood on her, I decide the hospital isn’t necessary. My driver is surprisingly helpful as I tell him a story of how I stopped a man from hurting my friend in the nick of time, but that she fainted. He drives as fast as possible to my place, helping me get her out of the car and holding the building door for me.
Asking Di to rest is a losing battle once she wakes up in my apartment. She jerks awake with a whimper, and I hurry back out from the bathroom. Approaching her on the coach, I don’t get there in time to stop Di from sitting up.
“Where’s my laptop?” she demands, rubbing her eyes where glasses would normally sit. I pull the pair I grabbed from her place out and hand them over.
“You’ve just been through days of torture. You need rest,” I insist, sitting on the coffee table in front of her, conveniently blocking thecomputer. “If you have a concussion, you shouldn’t be looking at screens.”
“I don’t have a damn concussion, Mac. I’ve been through this before, remember?” Di spits out and then sighs. “They only fed me twice a day, so I am hungry.”
Getting up and walking quickly to my kitchen, I know she’s picking up her laptop. That can’t be helped, but I can feed her. I had some groceries delivered when E and I got here, so I grab a banana to bring to her until I can make a sandwich or something.
“What’s the app for the collar?” Stopping short with the banana outstretched, she takes it from me with one hand, logging in to her side of the laptop with the other.
“What do you mean?”
Di rolls her eyes and starts to peel the banana while the screen loads. “Don’t get cute with me, Mac. I monitor your purchases to make sure none will get flagged. You bought him a high end titanium collar with a tracking device.”
“I did.” I confirm, moving back into the open-concept kitchen where I can make Di food and still keep an eye on her. “But why do you need to know the app?”
“I thought I said not to get cute. You put a tracker on him for a reason. We can find Ethan and get him back.”
“There is no we,” I say in a low, warning voice. Cutting the lettuce more aggressively than necessary, I pause to take a breath. “You will stay here until I take you home. And you’re moving into my guest house.”
“I will do no such thing, Owen Theodore MacKenzie.”
Di’s stern tone and use of my full name has me looking up to find my assistant glaring my way. She’s frail, under a blanket and still sitting, but I can sense her strength of conviction across the room.
Plating the sandwich without another word, I bring it to her and sit on the coffee table again. “I need you safe, Di.”
“Why?” She asks, a challenge in her tone. “Why do you care if I live or die?”
“Because,” I start, searching for the words. “Becuase you're my assistant and I need you.” When she humphs in disapproval I go on. “I care about you, Di. You’re one of the only people or things in the world I would be sad to see gone from it.”
“That’s better,” she nods and takes the sandwich plate from me. “So you don’t care if Ethan dies?”
“E will not die,” I insist, standing to pace the room. “I know where he is.”
“For now. But what if he cuts the collar off?”
“He wouldn’t,” I practically growl, then a thought occurs to me, sending a thrill of something like fear through me. “But his father might remove it if he suspects the tracker.”
“Exactly,” Di nods and sets the half-eaten sandwich aside to look at her laptop. “I have a better chance of tracking his father if I start as soon as possible.”
“And?”
“The Hamptons house has more activity than usual. I think they’re going out there, next.”
Letting Di get to work, we stay up planning the next move until she can’t keep her eyes open. I take the laptop from her, moving Di toher side and covering her with the throw blanket from the back of the couch.
Slipping out close to dusk, I know she’ll back me up on comms. When she wakes up, I’ll move. Until then, I have a drive to make, and the trip will take a couple hours.
The Miller house in the Hamptons is fenced on three sides, but it only takes hopping the fence two mansions over and trekking down the beach under the cloud cover of darkness to find a place to hide my bag.