Scorch (Virtues & Lies 2)

art, and the longer she’s missing, the more sluggish each thrum gets.

Is that a sign? Does that mean she’s hurt…or worse?

Shouldn’t I know all this? Feel it in my bones or have some kind of sixth sense?

“I can’t hack into the traffic cameras with this piece of shit.” Freddie stands, overturning the keyboard and all the shit on the desk in one fell swoop.

For that loud, chaotic moment my heart gongs, inflating me with something I need. It doesn’t matter that it pounds violence through my bloodstream. The need for blood. The need to hurt. To crush bones and tear muscle.

If it brings her back, that’s what I’ll do. Even if it destroys me.

“I’ve already called in a few favours on that. Nothing came back on the NPR system.” Dad sighs, defeat seeping into his tone.

“Don’t fucking do that!” My hoarse voice breaks.

How dare he break his promise this quickly.

Freddie walks circles around the crowded room, muttering to himself, hands pulling at his hair.

“NPR doesn’t recognise the car,” I tell him when he pauses beside me. “We need to check the cameras in the surrounding area.”

“I’ve had an alert sent to border control. Even if they try to get her out with a fake passport, the facial recognition camera will set off a notification pinpointing her location,” Benedict informs us. It now makes sense why he keeps checking his phone.

“If they try to take her out of the country.” Mum’s clearly got it in for him. She might have a point, but I wish she’d pack it in.

“We can’t do anything from here.” I don’t want to leave the hotel. It’s the last place I set eyes on my wife. But I’m sure she’s not here; her absence scorches my insides. “We need to be out there. We need to be doing something!”

“If I can just check the footage for the last two hours…we could follow them through most of London on street cams. You know I could,” he tells Dad. “Uncle Francis, that’s our best shot.”

“You really think you could find her like that?” Benedict stands in front of the wall of screens showing empty hallways and a quiet lobby.

My eyes draw to Leo and Cassie, marching down the corridor we’re off of. He’s practically dragging her on the teetering heels she’s wearing. Wayne and Rosalind follow them with Ryan at their side.

“Yes.” Freddie’s answer draws my attention back.

“Fine. Let’s go, Fred.”

The door opens just as we all start moving.

“What’s the plan?” They’re Leo’s first and only words.

“We’ve sent everyone on their way,” Cassie says when no one replies.

“We manned the doors. Every guy we had here was on watch,” Ryan tells me. “No sign of Charles or Mrs. Sinclair.”

“So? What are we doing to find Arabella?” Leo asks again, irritation grating his words.

“CCTV footage is useless. The cameras had to be tampered with. Wayne walks away, and she walks out of the toilet. There’s nothing else. No footage of her entering the room or going back into the toilet,” Freddie replies.

“Get Fleur on the phone.” He tips his chin at Casper.

“Why?”

“Because Fred needs to get into Charles’ office. He can search his drives for anything that might help us. She needs to find his passport, that way we can get a better idea of their plan.”

“Lucian’s on that,” Dad tells him at the same time as Mum says, “Leave her out of this.”

“Her father has my wife and you want her to be left out of this?”