Page 63 of Kidnapped By the Boss

“I don’t know, after what you displayed yesterday, I’m pretty confident they’re safest here with you. I think our whole estate is safest here with you.” He crossed his arms. “We just need to find her before she does anything dangerous. I gave the crew some things to do, but…” He then gave me a nervous look. “Well, you tell me, what do you want to do?”

I knew what this question meant. It was time for me to make a decision. I’d pay to know what Vincent thought, but I didn’t want him to think me asking was swaying me one way or another, especially because it wasmydecision. But did he have a preference? Was there something he was hoping for?

“Um—”

Vincent’s phone rang again in his hand and he hissed, “Fuck. Hang on.” He answered it and set it to his ear. “Yeah, Dev, what’s up?” And then Vincent’s face went white as a ghost. His pupils widened to the size of saucers and it almost looked like he was going to pass out. “Are you sure?” He sunk down onto the bed and looked up at me with a worried expression. “Uh, okay. I need you to gather everyone at my office immediately. No, no, don’t worry about her for now. Keep some soldiers looking. I need everyone in the upper ranks there to figure this out. Okay. Bye.”

He hung up his phone and then looked up at me. “When it rains, it pours.”

“What’s wrong now?” I asked.

“Devrick hadn’t heard from the guys he sent to dump Antonio’s body, so he tracked their car and went to investigate.”

My heart started to beat faster. “And?”

“And the car is off the road, both soldiers have bullets in their brains, and Antonio’s body bag is empty,” he replied.

“That couldn’t be Lyn,” I hummed. “Devrick would have checked that car inside and out before he sent Antonio away in it.”

Vincent nodded. “And he checked the security cameras to see exactly when she escaped, but it was after.”

I almost felt like crying at the implication. “I shot him. Twice. I watched him bleeding out. He couldn’t have survived.”

“I don’t know how he did it either, but it sounds like Antonio is still alive, and now we have no clue how to find him,” Vincent said.

I folded my head into my hands, feeling sick to my stomach like I was going to puke. This man had been tormenting my life for the past four months. He’d caused me and my family so much pain in such a short period of time. How did he keep coming up Aces? How was he remaining one step ahead of us?

“Lyn knew somehow,” I concluded. “She had to have. She probably escaped to go find him.”

“That’s my guess too. For now, we need to go and meet with the others and figure out what we need to do next.” He started towards the door and then stopped and looked back at me. “Oh. Um. Well… If you want to come, that is. It’s totally your decision. I’ll support you whatever you decide.”

I thought about leaving the house and going with Vincent. A month ago, it wouldn’t have even been a question. It was my job, and so when it was time for me to turn off my personal life and turn on my professional one, I would have done it, no questions asked. For some reason now, though, knowing Antonio was alive and that Lyn had escaped, it was all giving me a brand new perspective. Suddenly I was feeling like it wasn’t a matter of me beingstuckhere, it was a matter of me beingneededhere. This was my home. This was my family. Someone needed to be dedicated to making sure this place and everyone in it stayed safe, and after last night, I believed that I was the person who could do that.

The thought of leaving my son’s side with that maniac out there, or not being able to get to my mom in an instant with Lyn on the loose just didn’t sit well with me. I felt like I had no other choice except to stay here and protect my family and my home.

“You go,” I said. “I think I serve us both better here.”

Vincent’s jaw dropped a little. “Are you sure? You… You’re done?”

I took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. Our lives are divided into these two halves, the world out there and the world in here, but they’re inevitably intertwined, which means we need to protect them both equally. While you’re doing the work out there, I’ll do the work in here. I’ll make sure our family and our home stay safe.”

A smile crossed Vincent’s face. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.”

He closed in on me quickly, giving me a quick but passionate kiss, then he rubbed my cheek a little before saying, “I really have to go.”

“I know,” I said. “Just make sure you come back.”

He shook his head. “You never have to worry about that,” and with that, he left the room and was off to deal with the problems the life brought him without me at his side.

But in a way, I was fighting with him, I was just doing it from this side of the fence, and that felt perfectly okay with me.

I walked back into Sascha’s room and looked down at him sleeping and knew that I’d made the right decision.

“You never have to be afraid, my sweet boy. Mommy will make sure thatnothinghappens to you. Ever.”