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Maxwell sat up and frowned. “What do you mean, no?”
“She’s already left the country, but I believe I have her boyfriend.”
He sat back, considering this turn of events.
It would be ideal to have the woman herself, but a boyfriend was a good second. If she cared about him. He didn’t know enough about this woman to know.
“That’s not at all what I wanted,” Maxwell said slowly.
“I thought that might be the case, sir. So, I also have her laptop.”
Now that was interesting. “Bring them to me. All of it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Maxwell ended the call, his good mood soured.
It wasn’t all bad news, that much he needed to remind himself.
The Americans had been soundly routed in their endeavor to give the Armsman hell. It was downright comical. Maxwell had greatly enjoyed watching from afar, all while knowing that their precious chancellor was no doubt spinning out of control.
So many years of biding his time and playing the board, and it was all about to fall into his lap.
What a time to be alive.
Wednesday. Safe House, London, UK.
Jessica had never felt this helpless before. She’d seen this moment on clients’ faces. She’d always felt for them and made it her mission to figure out how to make the situation better. This time she wasn’t sure if that was possible.
What the hell were they going to do?
Samuel had been missing for over eight hours.
What was it people on TV said?
Every hour a person was gone decreased their chances of survival by ten percent? Or was she making numbers up out of thin air?
Fuck.
She didn’t know and she should.
She hugged the blanket tighter around herself and stared out at the London skyline. The horizon was just beginning to turn gray. Soon enough, the sun would rise on a new day, and Samuel wasn’t with her.
This was all her fucking fault. If Jessica could go back, if she could change things, she’d beg them to take her and not him.
Her eyes were puffy and irritated from the tears she’d already shed. By now she was all cried out. Her body was numb. Her emotions locked away. Getting hysterical wasn’t going to help Samuel. It hadn’t.
Kelsey had taken Jessica’s phone shortly after arriving at the safe house. The lawyer in Jessica thought that was smart, but the woman who wanted to be Samuel’s girlfriend was enraged by the betrayal.
She knew nothing good would come from blowing up her contacts in a desperate act to get through to Maxwell Edward. He had all the power here. She shouldn’t give him more.
All this time she’d watched TV shows where someone gets kidnapped or is being hunted, and she’d scoffed at the idiotic women. Now it was happening to her, and she had to face a hard reality.
She was no better.
Despite knowing the best course of action was to settle in, wait, and make a plan, she was ready to scorch the earth and sacrifice everything in an effort to find her man.
Samuel didn’t deserve this. She’d dragged him into a mess she’d created. He could tell her all day long that this wasn’t a direct result of her actions, but it was. They could argue until they were blue in the face that they couldn’t choose in-action because of the actions of bad people. None of that changed the fact that her decisions and actions had put them here and now. Her intent didn’t matter.