Impulse (Billionaire Secrets 5)

“No, you don’t know,” Simon said, cutting him off. “I want to find them and make them pay for this. Jail is too good for them. I want to make them suffer.”

She reached over to place her hand over his fist, still balled up with rage. If he went down this destructive path, she was going to lose him. Lose him to the darkness until he was a totally different person. Hate had never been an emotion that Simon indulged in, but right now the darkness of it was radiating off him. Already she could feel it. Feel the dark chill of it as it swallowed everything in the room. This wasn’t who he was. She wasn’t going to let this nightmare destroy him.

“The only way to do that is to figure out who did this,” Jake said. “Or, at the very least, figure out where they’re keeping your father.”

“What about the surveillance footage?” Heather asked.

“The hotel was good enough to send us hundreds of files of footage.”

“I’ll get my laptop,” Simon said. “We can watch the footage and see if anything jumps out at us.”

Five minutes later they were all sitting on the sofa, hunched over Simon’s laptop as footage from that evening played. Jake fast-forwarded to footage of Heather walking into the ballroom with Simon, Onslow on the other side of his son.

As the moments went by her heart started to sink. She had argued with Onslow. Which meant that she might have been the last person to see him. Guilt didn’t even begin to describe the emotion that was making her break out in a cold sweat. That argument had made Onslow storm off and she hadn’t told Simon about it. In the chaos of the kidnapping, she hadn’t gotten the chance to tell Simon the truth.

Biting her lip, she turned to Simon. “I need to tell you something.”

Concern flashed in his eyes and that only made the guilt worse. She thought that he might get angry or sad. Instead, he was still concerned about her even while he was going through the worst thing imaginable. “I had an argument with your dad tonight.” She shut her eyes, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall again. This wasn’t about her. Simon was suffering and she didn’t have the right to start crying at a time like this.

Taking a huge gulp of air, she opened her eyes again. “We argued and he walked away. I said he went to the bathroom because I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t want to ruin your night, so I lied. Your dad didn’t come back and it’s my fault. I’m so sorry.”

“Heather.” He cupped her face. “This isn’t your fault. You didn’t kidnap my dad.”

“If I hadn’t been so harsh with him, maybe he wouldn’t have walked away,” she said. “They wouldn’t have taken him.”

“If you hadn’t argued, my dad would have gone to the bathroom. Or gone to get something to eat.” He leaned closer and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Don’t blame yourself for this.”

The guilt hadn’t ebbed at all. If anything, his kindness and understanding was just making her feel worse. “It was a bad fight. You wanted me to give him a chance and I didn’t.”

“I think this is it,” Jake said, interrupting them. “Looks like Simon’s father was really angry.”

She glanced at the laptop screen, footage of her facing off with Onslow in front of all those people. Watching herself look so upset didn’t sit well with her at all.

Simon pulled his hands away. “What was the fight about?”

A painful tug in her stomach made her realize that there was a chance that Simon wouldn’t be so understanding when she gave him the details of the argument. Conscious that Jake was also going to hear the truth, she took another deep breath and went over the details of her argument with Onslow. She made sure to leave nothing out, including the fact that she had reminded Onslow that he hadn’t supported Simon when he first invested in Dover.

When she was finished she clasped her hands together, already filled with remorse. “If I hadn’t said that to him, maybe he wouldn’t have walked away from me like that.”

“You did nothing wrong,” Simon said. “Dad shouldn’t have said those things to you.”

“Please, don’t think badly of him,” she pleaded. “I’m sure he regrets it, and getting him back safely is what matters most.”

“Honestly, this is my fault,” Simon said.

“How is any of this your fault?” she asked in surprise.

“If I had listened to you and confronted Dad about our past, maybe he wouldn’t have taken things out on you,” Simon explained. “It’s obvious that there were some unresolved issues between us, and he decided to focus on you instead of me. Instead of seeing that, I put this burden on you to accept him immediately. I expected you to pretend and act like everything was fine, when it wasn’t.”

She unlaced her fingers and took his hand in hers to give it a comforting squeeze. “You wanted me and your father to get along. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Yes, but I forced it,” he said. “You had every right to be upset with him, and now...” He rubbed his eyes. “Now Dad is gone because I didn’t want to face the past. If I had faced it, he might be safe right now.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” she said gently. “Let’s both focus on getting your dad back. We can do that. I know we can.”

“I want to get him back safely. But all I can see is me breaking the neck of whoever did this.”

She felt him stiffen beneath her fingertips, his angry energy starting to return. “Jake, is there any more footage of Onslow after the argument?”