“She’s not in the room,” I said, swallowing past the lump in my throat. My mind raced. “I want every single staff looking for her. Right now!”
Thirty minutes later, the search party was unsuccessful. Julianna was nowhere to be found and apparently no one had seen her.
I scrubbed a shaky hand over my face. “Samuel, I need you to check all the security footage,” I ordered, trying to remain calm, except I felt anything but.
My insides churned and it felt like acid was flowing through my veins. I followed Samuel into the basement, where our security room was. He ran through all the video footage that surrounded the premises of Spencer Manor and my stomach dropped when he rewound through one specific piece of footage. The balcony outside my room – three hours ago.
Terror gripped me when I saw a masked man carrying Julianna over his shoulders. He climbed down from my balcony, almost expertly, as if he had done such a thing many times.
Bile rose in my throat when I saw Julianna’s precarious position. She was limp, hanging dangerously over her captor’s shoulders. She was absolutely helpless to prevent herself from a deadly fall.
My fists clenched at my sides. Samuel rewound through different footage, this one showing the masked man dumping an unconscious Julianna into a black car, with tinted windows.
“Fuck,” Samuel swore. “How did he get through our security?”
“It doesn’t matter how,” I growled, fury burning through my veins. “Too bad for him, I’m one step ahead.”
I fished out my phone and opened the tracking app.
It was her ring. The one I put back on her finger last night. Once I found out that someone was hunting Julianna, I knew I had to take drastic steps.
Which included putting a tracking device on her.
And what better way to hide a tracking device than in a diamond ring?
But it was sheer luck that I replaced her rings last night and she was kidnapped today. What were the odds?
If I were one day later…
I shook my head, refusing to think of the outcome.
Right now, my priority was saving Julianna and my unborn baby. From now on, they were my sole focus.
Two hours later, the car slowed in front of a two-story house, in quite an old neighborhood. I lunged out of the car before it even came to a complete stop and took a quick peek at the tracking app. We were right over the red mark. Julianna had to be here.
“That’s the car,” Samuel barked. “The one from the video footage. I recognize it.”
I was already stalking to the front door, my men following closely behind me. Not bothering to knock, Samuel and I used our combined strength to kick the door open.
A man, with spiky hair and a scarred face, came running at the sound of his door crashing open. His eyes widened at the sight of me and ten more bulky men standing behind me.
“What–”
I lunged forward, not even giving him a chance to finish his thoughts. My fingers wrapped around his throat and I slammed him into the wall.
“Where is Julianna?” I snarled. “What. Did. You. Do. To. Her?”
His face turned purple as he struggled to breathe. My thumbs pressed deeper into his throat, feeling the fragile pulsing veins under my fingertips.
I brought my face closer, staring him down. He watched me with dark, frightened eyes.
“If anything happened to my wife, if she and my baby were harmed in any way possible, I’ll make sure you regret the day you were born,” I hissed into his purple chocking face. “I’ll make your life a living hell. And that’s a Spencer’s vow.”
I released him and he stumbled back, gasping for breath. “I don’t… know what… you’re talking about.”
Samuel rushed back down the stairs. “She’s not here. We looked everywhere. But we checked all the footage carefully. That’s the same car that she was taken away in and the tracking device…”
“Boss,” George called, cutting off Samuel. My head snapped toward him and he was holding…Julianna’s ring between his fingers.
My blood ran cold.
“I found it in the car, under the seat.”
“My car?” the man choked, his face white as a ghost. He slumped against the wall, falling onto his ass. “That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know what you’re taking about.”
His face paled and then he stuttered, looking both panicked and fearful. “W-wait. My brother used… my car today.”
“Who is your brother?” I barked, glaring down at him.
“Simon Jones? He used to work for Bishop Romano, as a bodyguard.”
Simon…
The name was familiar and when realization dawned on me, my heart rate sped up.
Gracelynn’s lover?
He did have a motive for wanting to harm Julianna – an act of vengeance. But was he also behind the accident that night?
That didn’t make any fucking sense.
“Where’s your brother right now?” I asked, my voice cold and low with warning.