I tried calling Belle the entire journey. She did not pick up.
Not one to be deterred by her lack of availability, I left her voicemails left and right while trudging along the painfully slow traffic of Boston during rush hour.
“Hello, darling, it’s your boyfriend. The one you just left with a fucking note. Yes, the same one whose baby you’re carrying. If you think we aren’t going to talk about it, you’re gravely mistaken. Oh, and by the way, whatever happened to the fact that people are trying to KILL YOU? Ring me back. Kisses. Dev.”
And then:
“Sweven. Hope your evening is going better than mine. Where are you? Also, if this is you telling me in a roundabout way Louisa’s presence is bothering you, may I suggest hiring a life or speech coach to help you with your communication skills? Call me back.”
And finally:
“Emmabelle fucking Penrose. Pick up the bloody phone!”
Things escalated from there.
I arrived at Persy and Cillian’s place, using the lion’s head brass knocker so hard it dislocated and dropped onto the floor. My girlfriend’s (yes, she was still that) sister informed me, rather regretfully, that her sister was not there.
“Are you saying this because you’re hiding the bloody wench, or because she’s really not here?” I stood on her threshold, panting like a dog.
“My wife said her sister’s not here.” Cillian appeared behind Persephone at the door, draping a protective arm over her shoulder. “Are you calling her a liar?”
“No, but I’m calling you an insufferable wanker.” I’d lost all form of etiquette and manners, resorting to hostility. “So I have a good reason to think someone might be hiding something. They’re close. They’d cover for each other.”
“Actually…” Persy squared her shoulders, looking rather haughty, “…I would like to know where she is too. I worry about her. She might not take the threats against her seriously, but I do.”
“Ask Sailor and Aisling,” I instructed her, but I was already pacing back to my car, making my way to Sailor. “Let me know if you hear anything.”
“Will do,” she called from her spot at the door.
Sweven wasn’t at Sailor Fitzpatrick’s house either. She wasn’t at Aisling Brennan’s place. She wasn’t at Madame Mayhem. She wasn’t anywhere.
It was as if a sinkhole swallowed her.
I called Brennan. After all, I paid him to have her followed, the boyfriend of the year that I was. When he didn’t pick up, I decided to pay him a visit. For what I was paying him, Emmabelle should not only be safe but also warm, cozy, and getting regular pedicures and three meals a day.
Bursting into the gambling room at Badlands, I flipped over a poker table. Sam was arranging a game with two senators and a business mogul. The chips fell on the floor with a clank.
He looked up.
“What the fuck?”
“The fuck is you fucked me over. I’m paying you a retainer to keep tabs on my girlfriend. Newsflash: it’s been a second since I hired you, and I have no bloody clue where she is.”
Sam ushered me to his back office. We rushed through a busy, narrow corridor, passing men who wanted desperately to stop and chat with us. I swatted them away like they were flies.
“Would you shut your trap? I have a goddamn reputation to uphold.”
“Where’s Emmabelle?” I bit out. We got to his office and I slammed the door behind us then proceeded to trash the place. I tossed his couch over, tore at a Roman curtain, and punched a hole in a portrait of Troy Brennan—an offense which was likely punishable with death by stoning.
“I’ve been calling and calling your arse. It went straight to voicemail.”
“Was busy buttering up Dumb and Dumber,” Sam said shortly, producing his phone from his back pocket and punching in a number. “Let me call my guys and check.”
The good news was they answered him immediately.
The bad news was that, well, THEY LOST HER.
“What do you mean they lost her?” My voice rose, and I found myself yanking his Apple screen from his desk and crashing it against the wall. “She is not a fucking thought thread. A subplot in a book. A pair of sunglasses. One does not simply lose a thirty-year-old woman.”
“She tricked them,” Sam said, lightly stunned by the revelation. His eyes were wide, his mouth slightly agape. I gathered it didn’t happen to him often.
“She must’ve realized they were following her and tricked them.”
“She’s a smart woman,” I seethed. God, couldn’t she be just a little less perceptive?
Sam scowled. “You were the genius who didn’t want to tell her I was putting surveillance on her. In my entire career, no one I followed has ever managed to slip under the radar.”
“Thanks for the fun fucking fact.” I grabbed the collar of his shirt and jerked him toward me so our noses were crushed together. “Find my girlfriend by the end of tonight or I will personally ensure you and the DA who is covering for your arse are both dragged through court for the rest of your miserable lives to account for every crime you’ve committed over the last two decades.”