The destruction doesn’t help as I walk into the office. A storm is raging inside my head, in my chest. She’s already escaped once, so I wouldn’t put it past her to leave again. But Soo is also right. There’s no way she walked out of here without help or coercion. Celia is smart, but I seriously doubt she’d be able to pull this off on her own. So, the question remains, did she get help, or was she stolen?
Both thoughts send me into another tailspin of anger. Clenching my fists, I press them into Soo’s countertop, letting the cold from the stone sink into my skin. Of course, it doesn’t help. I just need a minute to rein in the heat coating my bones, the need to destroy, to burn, to kill anyone standing between her and me.
The noise of the crowd is dimming, and the air stirs behind me as Soo enters.
“What the hell was that?” he demands, his tone hard.
He’s the only man in the world who can speak to me like that, but he better tread lightly because I’m still on the edge of slamming his head into the granite beneath my hands.
“I think someone took her. Despite how angry she is at me or how much she hates me, I doubt she’d have been able to escape on her own.”
The click of Soo’s keyboard keys garners my attention. He’s pulled up the cameras from every angle, and his eyes glide between each one, inspecting them for any clues. “I don’t see her in any of these frames.”
I move behind him and stare at the screen, hunting for a flash of red, her glossy dark hair, anything, but I see nothing but rich assholes drinking too much. Even on the outside camera feed, there is nothing.
“Where the fuck did she go? How could someone steal her without us noticing?”
Soo’s brow furrows, his wheels spinning. “No one could unless they know where our cameras are.”
I jab at the keyboard. “Pull it all up, everything we have from your arrival until right this fucking moment.”
Soo’s fingers move quickly, loading the monitors with every camera angle. At least a dozen of them. “You know we don’t have time for this. The five families should know by now that we were auctioning one of theirs off. They will probably act swiftly. Maybe even make a move tonight, a possible emergency meeting. We need to focus on them, watch and be prepared to strike at any moment.”
His words cut through some of the fog in my brain. “I need to find her.”
“You won’t get another chance like this,” Soo reminds me cautiously.
The rage boils over. Of course, he is right, but I can’t seem to care. “Do I look like I give a shit right now? I want you to fucking find her! I want you to stop trying to manage my rage. If I want to kill someone, I will, and nothing you say will stop me.”
Before I take a swipe at the computers helping us, I pound my fist into the doorframe. The solid wood doesn’t give, and pain shoots up my arm from the contact. I let myself breathe it in, assimilate it, allow it to beat back the monster. I’m not calm, but I’m not in danger of killing Soo, which is the point of my bruised knuckles.
The doubt I’ve been fighting creeps back in under my defenses, wiggling through the resolve I’ve latched on to. What if I can’t find her? What if the person who stole her is closer than I think? If someone can slip her out without either of us seeing, without even registering on the cameras, then they work on the inside of my organization, or they’ve been watching us for a long time. The idea of someone who works alongside me betraying me, stealing what is mine, intensifies my rage.
“Find her, Soo,” I grate, staring down at the blood welling across the already purple ridges of my knuckles.
As I expect, he says nothing but continues typing at a furious pace while his eyes track across the six monitors mounted above his desk.
When the ticks stop, I swing around and study the screens. “What is it?”
Soo points to one screen, where a white van is parked near the back exit. It’s usually locked during events, so people can’t sneak in behind us. A figure dressed in black, hood up, exits the van and walks right in the back door.
I rush out into the main warehouse and charge toward the door. It’s closed, and when I shove it open, it glides outward and slams into the wall behind with a heavy thump.
“Motherfucker.”
Soo peeks out the door from beside me. “I take it you didn’t unlock it.”
“No, you?”
He shakes his head and goes back to his terminal. I follow and watch as he fast forwards through the feed. A little while after the van parks, a figure exits the building with a large black bag slung over his shoulder. He loads the bag into the back of the van and slams the door. Then goes around to the driver’s side, climbs in, and pulls away.