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William

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Two Weeks Later

“She wouldn’t vanish like this,” I say, pacing back and forth in my office. “I don’t believe that damned message for a second. If Taylor really left, why hasn’t her phone pinged anywhere in the country?”

I see Athanasios and L. J. looking at me, and for the first time, I have no idea what they’re thinking. Do they think I’m crazy? Do they pity me? I don’t care. The only thing I need is to find her.

I’ve hired the best investigators in the country, pulled every contact I have to get a lead, and so far, I’ve hit nothing but dead ends. It’s as if she’s disappeared into thin air.

Bonnie—who lives just one door away—didn’t hear or see anything. In fact, nobody’s laid eyes on Taylor since the night I was there.

Her building’s security is terrible, and it doesn’t have any cameras.

In the first few days, I went over the entire place with my detectives and my security team. They concluded that if she was taken against her will, it must have been through the building’s back door, which leads to a dark alley that—like the main entrance—has no street cameras.

When the police visited Taylor’s apartment to do their forensic work, I couldn’t go in because I’d already acknowledged our relationship, so naturally I was considered a suspect. But when a message arrived from her phone about a week ago, telling Bonnie she’d left to start over somewhere else, they just gave up looking.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be found, William. There are dozens of ways to counter your argument,” Athanasios says.

“Taylor isn’t a coward—she’s a fighter. If she wanted me to go to hell, she’d say it to my face, not vanish into thin air. She has a life here and no reason to leave it all behind. She didn’t even take any clothes.”

But she took her documents, some voice warns, but I ignore it.

“You don’t actually know her,” L. J. points out. “A single weekend together doesn’t mean a lifetime. There are couples who learn nothing about each other even after years.”

I run both hands through my hair, desperate. It’s like I’m living in a parallel reality where everyone believes a truth I can’t see. Even Bonnie calmly accepted the idea that Taylor might have dropped everything and left, while only my grandmother and one of her friends from the bar—Jackie—agree with me that it doesn’t fit what we know of Taylor.

“I need to find someone who knows what they’re doing. Clearly, the detectives I hired are incompetent.”

“I’m not trying to play devil’s advocate here, man,” L. J. says, “but even in the twenty-first century, if someone doesn’t want to be found, they won’t be. There’s that famous case of the French engineer, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, who murdered his whole family and buried their bodies under the house. To this day, no one has any idea where he is, even though Interpol and multiple national police forces have been hunting him.”

“You’re talking about a criminal—someone who carefully planned out the eradication of his wife and kids. Taylor is a newly twenty-three-year-old girl. She didn’t run off—I’m certain.”

“Because she wouldn’t need to ‘run.’ She’s free, William. There’s nothing more to say about that,” Athanasios remarks.

“You know what I meant.”

“Here’s some advice: take a vacation.”

“Not until I find her. She doesn’t have anyone else, but she has me.”

* * *

I see the beginnings of her smile and the dimple in her chin appear whenever she tries not to judge me for being a damned arrogant man. Those eyes—which keep avoiding mine—are now seeking me out, just like her hungry mouth.

She crawls over my body, naked, with tangled sheets around her waist. Her firm breasts sway in my direction, and when I extend a hand to touch one nipple, she moans for me.

“You don’t trust me, William.”

“I do, but I’m crazy about you, and I let my jealousy take over.”

“I don’t believe that. All you want is sex.”

She lifts the sheet and sees my erection, proving I can’t resist what she’s offering. Her hand circles my length, and her head inclines to take me in.

“No.” I stop her. “We have to talk. I didn’t tell you what I needed to, when I left your place that day.”

“You lost your chance. Now you’ll never speak to me again. But I’ll give you what you want,” she says, trying once more to take me into her mouth.

I don’t let her, pulling her on top of me again. “I want more.” I finally confess what I’ve been holding back since the last time we met.

She lifts her gaze. “I wanted more too, but now it’s too late. I left forever.”

“No. I’ll never let you go, Taylor. You’re mine.”

She laughs. “Too late, William.”

I wake with a start, bolting upright in bed, cold sweat running down my spine.

Another month has passed, and I still haven’t heard a thing about her. I’m at the point that, since neither the police nor the detectives can find her, I might consider turning to organized crime.

When I said that to my best friends, they laughed, but they have no idea I’d do absolutely anything to bring her back.

I stand and walk to the window of my bedroom, staring blindly into the night outside.

“It’s not too late, Taylor. This time, I’ll do everything right. I’ll bring you back to me.”