Page 14

The house felt eerily quiet when I stepped out of my office. It was almost seven p.m., and I’d worked so much that I skipped breakfast and dinner.

I also hadn’t caught a glimpse of Giselle despite being in the same house, which was unusual. As much as she was avoiding me, I’d usually see her hurrying upstairs or to the garden outside or find her fast asleep when I came home from work.

But I had been so buried in work that I hadn’t even stepped out until now.

I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I saw the food arranged on a console near my office door. There were pancakes topped with berries, honey, and sour cream on the side, which was strange because Miss Pushkin wouldn’t leave my food outside the office, especially uncovered, and she wouldn’t serve me this for breakfast or lunch.

There was a cup of black coffee next to the pancakes. I liked my coffee hot enough to burn the tongue, but seeing as there was no steam pouring from it, I guessed it had gone cold.

I lifted the tray and inspected the food on it.

Yeah, the coffee was room-temperature cold, the pancakes had dried out, and the berries were soft from being left outside the fridge for long.

Whoever left the food here must have done so hours ago, and it definitely couldn’t be Miss Pushkin or any of the maids. Unless it was—

Giselle.

It had to be her, but why would she bring food to me only to abandon it outside my door?

Dread crept into my chest as the pieces started to click together. Seeing as it was breakfast, she’d brought it earlier, and then she must have overheard my conversation with Egor.

Shit, that was it.

She’d left the food out here in rage over what she heard.

I needed to find her and explain things.

I set the food back on the console and hurried to her room, swinging the door open and striding in. “Giselle?”

She wasn’t on her bed or in the bathroom. She was probably in the kitchen or the living area; at least, I hoped she was.

I jogged down the stairs and made my way to the living area. She wasn’t there either.

Miss Pushkin was making dinner when I entered the kitchen. The air smelled like beef curry.

“Have you seen Giselle?” I asked.

Miss Pushkin shook her head. “I haven’t seen her since she made your breakfast and took it to your office this morning.”

My fists clenched, and my chest constricted with fear. Where the hell was she?

I stalked through the house, my heart pounding faster with each empty room I searched.

“Giselle,” I called out, my voice firm as it echoed through the halls.

There was no response. No sign of her anywhere.

She wasn’t inside the mansion; I could tell that much by now. There was only one way to find out where she was. There were CCTV cameras everywhere. One of them must’ve caught her leaving or something.

My patience was razor-thin by the time I reached the security room. Dimitri, the deputy head of security, was standing near the monitors, his arms crossed, but he straightened the moment he saw my face.

“Where is she?” I asked, my tone sharp enough to cut.

He blinked rapidly. “Who’re you looking for, sir?”

“Giselle,” I bit out, gritting my teeth. “She’s not anywhere in the house.” I glanced at the monitors. “Did you see her leave the building?”

He shook his head. “No, sir.”

I took a step closer, my muscles coiled tight. “Check every video that was recorded between morning and now. Check every corner of this property, and don’t stop checking until you tell me where exactly she went.”

“Yes, sir.” He turned to the screens, and as his fingers tapped on the keyboard, one camera after another flickered to life, displaying various angles of the estate. Every room, every hall, every possible exit- no sign of her.

He replayed the videos from today and found Giselle leaving the front gate hours ago.

Cold anger settled in my bones.

“How the fuck did she slip past you?” My voice was low, deadly, and filled with rage.

He turned ashen from head to toe, his throat bobbing as he forced himself to swallow. “I didn’t see her leave, sir.”

“And that is the fucking problem. What the hell do I pay you for if anyone can just come and go as they please?” I barked.

This would’ve never happened with Dobryn here. He was vigilant, and not even an insect could fly past him without him noticing. Everyone else here was useless.

I stalked up to Dimitri and grabbed the collar of his shirt. “Pray I find her, or you’re a dead man.”

Tossing him away like he weighed nothing, I stormed back to the house. I was angry at myself, angry at the security men who couldn’t do their jobs properly.

I didn’t have the right to be angry at Giselle, not after what I knew she’d heard outside my door, but still, I was. She’d just thrown herself to the wolves by leaving.

Just as I reached the foyer, one of the maids stood by the hallway, her jaw shivering as if she’d just been pulled out from an icy lake.

“What is it?” I asked.

I wasn’t in the mood for a chat, but she might’ve had an idea where Giselle was or went to.

She scratched the back of her head, her hands trembling. “It’s about Miss Rae,” she said in a barely audible voice.

I didn’t like suspense. “Speak.”

“Well, yesterday, she asked me to get her a pregnancy test strip,” the maid said nervously. “I think Miss Rae might be pregnant.”

A shockwave rippled through me.

My blood thundered in my ears, and everything else ceased to matter.

“Did she get it?” I asked, my voice eerily calm, which was a perfect contrast to the storm brewing beneath.

The maid nodded. “Yes, sir. I got it and gave it to her.”

I tilted my head. “Do you know what the result was?”

She shook her head. “She didn’t tell me, and I couldn’t ask. I had no right to as it was a matter of her privacy, but she wouldn’t have asked unless she was—”

“Pregnant,” I helped complete.

Realization slammed into the pit of my stomach like a train. It was exactly seventeen days since we made love; if she’d been ovulating, then there was a good chance she was pregnant, considering we didn’t use any protection.

The possibility that she was pregnant made me even angrier because now she wasn’t just putting herself in danger; she was also risking our child.

I needed to find her and bring her home. It was even riskier for her out there if she was pregnant.

Hurrying to the security room, I wrote down Giselle’s number on a piece of paper. “Find out where she is immediately; we don’t have time to waste.”

He nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Order the other men to get ready. Tell me the minute you can trace her address.”

Dimitri sat down on one of the computers in the room and got to work. He was one of the best hackers I had.

As I returned to the main building, I pulled out my phone from my pocket and called Dobryn.

He answered on the first ring.

“Giselle’s gone missing.” I broke the news before he could utter his first word on the call.

“How the hell did she get past security, and why did she even leave?”

“As for how she managed to slip past security, you’ll have to ask Dimitri yourself.” I raked a hand through my hair and sighed from the frustration I was feeling. “As for why, she overheard my conversation with the Pakhan . It’s been hours since she left, and I have no freaking idea where she could be.”

“We’ll have to find her before someone else does,” Dobryn said. “It’ll cause a lot of trouble if she gets into the wrong hands and gives them information about the shipment.”

I couldn’t give two shits about the damn shipment right now. All I wanted was for Giselle to be back home and unharmed. The shipment could wait; it didn’t matter nearly as much as she did to me.

“Dimitri is trying to track her location now. Take the men with you and comb the city as much as you can. I’ll tell you if we find her first.”

“What are you going to do when you find her?”

I couldn’t tell him about the pregnancy until I knew for certain that the result was positive. “I’m bringing my girl back home.”