When I stood, I swayed on my feet. The bed was awful, but it called out to me after only sleeping on the plane a little bit before putting in all that overtime at the office. Waiting for my husband to get back from whatever he was up to with all those guns.
“Just don’t think about it,” I mumbled as I slipped out of my room and glanced nervously up and down the hall.
The carpet was dark red and mustard swirls, and it made me dizzy, so I focused on the vending machines at the end of the hall, seemingly miles away. Every door I passed, I expected someone to jump out at me, and I was on the verge of hysterical laughter by the time I reached the snacks.
After getting a bag of chips, a candy bar, and a bottle of water, I sighed with relief, once again second-guessing everything. For God’s sake, Rurik was probably at home, worried sick about me, not sending some elite team out to hunt me down.
I was so focused on Rurik finding me that I had to blink twice when I turned away from the machine with my food. Funny how I forgot so easily, but it all came rushing back as Jordie loomed in front of me. This wasn’t a nightmare; I hadn’t fallen asleep in the room.
Before I could scream, he slapped his hand over my mouth and dragged me back down the hall. I kicked out at the doors as they sped past, his fingers digging into my scalp as he gripped a handful of my hair. Where were all those people I thought were going to jump out at me now that I needed them?
He slammed my face into my door and wrested the old-fashioned key out of my hand, slamming it into the lock. I managed to bite him and let out a yelp when he jerked his hand from my mouth, but by then, he had the door open and shoved me inside.
Losing my balance, I careened forward and landed on the floor. A heavy foot came down on my back as the door slammed and locked behind me. I was caught, trapped. No going home now.
Chapter 36 - Rurik
It didn’t take much effort to commandeer the security office, barely a few bribes. The people who worked there weren’t the sort I’d hire to be on any of my teams, and they only wanted to get the crazy guy out so they could go home.
By that time, my team had arrived and were scouring the mall, inside and out. The individual shops were all closed, so that made it easier, though I wasn’t at all assured that Clem wouldn’t have been able to hide in one of them until morning. Clem was capable of a lot, I had seen it firsthand. It was one of the things that made her so special.
“There,” I said, pointing to an image of her at an ATM.
The somewhat frightened but mostly impatient security guard pulled up the images from the surrounding cameras to try to follow Clem’s movements, but she had disappeared like a ghost. Or more likely, shitty camera coverage, with vast swathes of the place just big blank spots where she could have slipped away.
Without having any more useful information, I let the underpaid guards close up and go, and met with the head of my own team, who was keeping tabs on all his guys around the perimeter.
“She might have just left by another exit,” he said, since my original guard swore up and down that Clem never came out the way she went in.
The poor woman was afraid I would lose it in her direction, and while I was on the verge of losing it, I kept it together enough not to explode on my subordinates.
“So why wasn’t she on any of those cameras?” I asked, knowing full well that one at the east exit was completely down.
I tried calling her phone again, and this time it went straight to voicemail. Off. Now what? I was on the verge of panic and not sure why. I never panicked, not even when a gun was pointing straight at my face, and yes, that had happened before. But this wasn’t me, this was Clem, and for some reason I couldn’t explain, I knew my wife needed me. Even if she didn’t know it herself yet, she did. And I would always be there for her.
If I could find her.
I got a call from the security guard at my office, and I almost ignored it, but with the attack at my warehouse and Clem going missing, the timing seemed too perfect. Once again, my heart plummeted as thoughts that she might have set this up to distract me from an attack on the office crowded past my worry.
“What?” I demanded, ready to dispatch a team that way if necessary.
“Listen, Boss,” he said. “I’m not at the office.”
“Where the hell are you?” I asked.
He cleared his throat. “I was meaning to put this in my weekly report,” he stammered.
“I would have told you sooner if I thought it was a big deal.”
“Cut to the chase,” I snapped. “I’m not exactly concerned about the building right now.”
“Yeah, okay. So, this guy showed up on the cameras outside the front doors twice now, a couple of days ago, just kind of lurking around. I figured he was a druggie or something at first, but then I spotted him when Mrs. Fokin left earlier. He followed her down the street.”
“What?” I bellowed.
“Daniela was on her, right?” he asked, then hurried on. “So, anyway, this guy goes flying past the office again, probably a half an hour or so after Mrs. Fokin left, so I got curious and went down to try and grab him. You know, ask some questions.”
“Tell me you’ve got him,” I said, all my irritation disappearing and vowing to give him a raise if he did.