Page 72 of Perfect Composition

“Stop talking.” His voice is eerily calm. Then, I hear him speak to his aide, whom I’ve met on the few times I’ve been up to their offices. “Tony, I want whoever ran the background check and trace for Carys Burke to be in my office in the next five minutes. After I brief Caleb, show them in. While they’re in here, run their personal finances. Make certain if anything is out of place there’s a dead body to back it up.”

I start panicking. “What the hell are you saying, Keene?”

“Nothing. I do not need you freaking out. Right now, I do not suspect there is anything wrong. But I am running a full internal investigation against the analyst who performed the check for Carys. Anything that pulled up your legal name should have been flagged and been sent to me or Caleb.”

“And it wasn’t.” I watch as Kane accepts a phone from one of the other guards. He turns it on and immediately snaps to attention. Kane’s eyes immediately lock onto me before he nods. “What’s happening outside?” I demand.

“Where’s your daughter and her mother?” Keene asks, not answering me.

“Austyn went to her family’s farm to ride horses—Kensington Stables. It’s about twenty minutes away from here.”

“Did she take one of the security team?”

“Mitch,” I reply immediately.

“What about her mother?”

“No, she’s not with her. She’s at the local hospital with her father. Tyson is in the cardiac care unit.” I quickly bring Keene up to speed as to why the three of us are even here in Texas.

“I’m going to send someone down to the Plaza to see if the paps are camped out there. Seeing if they’re at your place is a waste of time since there’s never a time they’re not lurking around. In the meantime, I think it would be best for Kane to send someone down to the hospital to be with Paige.”

“She will never go for it,” I say swiftly, already striding over to the hook where she pointed out her spare house key.

“Make her go for it,” he urges.

“That was my plan.”

“Make it happen.” His voice is cold.

“Christ, Keene.” I scrub my hand over my head.

“Don’t do anything dumb,” he warns.

“Me?” My smile is grim as I exit Paige’s house before I walk directly up to Kane. He shakes his head. I glare at him without speaking until finally he relents and types on his phone. Three other team members come out of nowhere. He points to the rented SUV.

“Yes. Just wait until we find out—”

I press End on the call and hand the phone back to Kane. “Your boss is going to be a douchebag when he calls back.”

Kane shrugs. “Phone etiquette isn’t his thing.”

If it wasn’t for the fact I’m terrified the paparazzi may have already found out about Paige due to a leak at Hudson, I might have busted a gut at Kane’s dry sense of humor about Keene. But there are more pressing matters. “You were briefed?”

“Just enough to be told not to let you out of my sight, but I’m assuming we’re including Paige and Austyn in that order?”

I smile grimly as I slide into the back seat of the eight-person vehicle. “Damn straight.”

“Mitch will secure Austyn. I assume Paige is still at the hospital?” But I know he’s not asking me. He turns to one of the agents, a man named Quinn, who responds, “Yes. I’m tracking her phone. It hasn’t moved from its present location.”

“Then we’re off.” Kane turns on the vehicle and throws it into gear.

It isn’t until we’re a few minutes down the road that he asks me, “Any idea what we’re facing there, Beckett?”

And I answer with complete honesty, “I have no idea.” Because I don’t know what’s going to be worse—my showing up at the hospital because the paparazzi found out or Paige just seeing me after our fight last night.

But I’m about to find out.

When I enter the Heart Specialty Care and Transplant Center at Singer Memorial Hospital with only Kane beside me about twenty minutes later, I’m prepared for anything. What I’m not prepared for is the overwhelming sadness that again engulfs me knowing the long road Tyson Kensington has ahead of him if he makes it past these first few critical days.