Chapter Six
The last time Bryan had been this anxious was when Chloe and Donovan were kidnapped a few months earlier. The hours had passed with excruciating slowness during that ordeal when he hadn’t known the whereabouts of his friends, or if he would ever see them again. This evening seemed to creep by just as slowly while he paced Grace’s apartment, wondering where the hell she had gone.
When he’d phoned Chloe immediately after being notified that Grace was missing, she had downplayed his fears. She had assured him that slipping off for a few hours—or even for a few days—was nothing new for Grace. She had been doing so on an irregular and unpredictable basis since she’d finished college. She didn’t even tell Chloe where she went during those absences, only that sometimes she just had to “escape the cage,” whatever that meant.
Bryan’s concerns had not been assuaged by that information. “You think she deliberately gave my security guy the slip? Even though she’s well aware of the reason for the extra precautions at present?”
“I think that’s exactly what she did,” Chloe had answered, her tone resigned. “I thought she acted a little funny earlier when I asked if she wanted to spend the evening with Donovan and me. She was very evasive about her plans. I should have realized then that she was up to something.”
“You have no suggestions of where to look for her?”
“I’m afraid not. Besides, she would be livid if we track her down when she wants to be left alone.”
“I’m not really worried about annoying her right now. I’m more concerned about her safety.”
“I’m sure she’s fine, Bryan. She just needed some time to herself. The past few weeks haven’t been easy for her.”
She spoke confidently about Grace’s safety, but Bryan thought he heard just a hint of anxiety in her voice. Chloe, of all people, knew the risks of being publicly involved with a multimillionaire. The very wealthy always had to be mindful of security, and as long as the mastermind behind the earlier kidnapping was at large, there was added reason for Grace to be careful. The chances were slim that Childers would risk pulling the same criminal stunt a second time, but Bryan considered the possibility just credible enough to warrant extra precautions. Wandering off at night on her own without telling anyone her whereabouts was no way for Grace to cooperate.
“I’m going to wait at her apartment while Jason and his men look for her,” he announced abruptly into the phone.
Chloe made no effort to hide the reservation in her voice. “She won’t like that.”
He was already moving toward his door, his car keys in the hand that wasn’t clutching the wireless phone. “Tough. You want me to call you when we find her?”
“Please. No matter what hour it is. Even though I’m sure she’s fine.”
If Grace really had deliberately shaken the bodyguard he’d assigned to her just to prove she could, she wouldn’t be fine by the time Bryan finished with her. She would have several strips of hide missing—at least figuratively.
He just hoped he would have the opportunity to yell at her.
Two hours after completing that phone call, he prowled the few rooms of Grace’s apartment, his temper increasing in direct proportion to his concern. It was after 1:00 a.m.; where the hell was she?
More to the point, who was with her?
Needing to do something at least semiproductive, he pushed the send button on his phone, which redialed the last number he’d called only twenty minutes earlier. Jason Colby, head of security for Bryan Falcon Enterprises, answered on the first ring.
“I still haven’t found her,” Colby said without waiting for his employer to identify himself.
Bryan knew Jason was impatient with this assignment. Bryan had pulled his security chief off another project as soon as he’d been notified that Grace was missing. Jason had suggested that his subordinates could look for Bryan’s AWOL faux-girlfriend. Bryan had suggested in return that Jason could look for another job—a threat that was only partially bluff.
Jason had take
n over the search for Grace without further protest—as Bryan had known he would.
After being updated on the details of the search, Bryan ordered Jason to keep looking, then disconnected and resumed his pacing. He was tempted to call the local authorities and ask for assistance—an APB on Grace’s car, maybe—but he knew that wasn’t warranted at this point. Grace had only been gone for a few hours, and there was no evidence that she hadn’t simply taken off on her own.
He had an equally strong urge to go out looking for her himself. But his place was here, coordinating the search from behind the scenes. Here, where he would be on hand to greet her if—when—she wandered back in. And that had damned well better be soon, he thought, tossing the phone on the couch in a fit of pique.
He snatched it up again when it rang half an hour earlier. “What?”
“We’ve found her car,” Jason announced.
“Where?”
“She’s driving it into her parking space right now.”
“Do you know where she’s been?”