Page 52 of Ruining Hattie

BASTION

I walk into the lobby, giving Jeffery a quick wave on my way to the elevator bank. He rushes around the desk.

“Sir.” There’s an urgent note to his voice that I’ve never heard from him before.

I frown and stop. “Jeffery?”

“I’m glad you’re here. I was going to call you, but one of the residents called me.” Sweat beads along his hairline, and the panicked look on his face alerts me that something is very wrong.

“What’s the matter?” Unease settles in my stomach, and it’s not from the booze I imbibed last night.

“I haven’t seen Miss Sinclair around lately, so when I saw her exit a car and step up to the sidewalk, I was pleased to see her.”

My chest expands with hope. “Hattie is here?”

He shakes his head, concern filling his eyes. “Before she came in the building, something must have caught her attention because she looked to her right and headed that way.”

My eyebrows draw down. “Who was she talking to?” Hattie doesn’t know many people in Seattle, and not anyone who lives by me.

“I don’t know, sir. I couldn’t see from behind my desk.”

“And she didn’t return?”

He shakes his head. “No. I thought maybe it was you she’d seen and you’d gone off together, but… I don’t know. Something about the interaction just seemed off. She didn’t look entirely comfortable with whoever she was talking to.”

Fear punches me in the gut, and panic presses at my sternum, but I can’t let my emotions override my thinking right now. “I need the footage from the security cameras outside.”

“Yes, sir, though I don’t know what angles they cover. It’s all monitored remotely.”

I clamp Jeffery on the shoulder. “I need you to get the video from the front of the building. How long ago did this happen?”

He thinks about it for a moment. “Maybe half an hour ago.”

So much could have happened between then and now.

No. Don’t go there.

“Get me that footage. I don’t care what it takes. I don’t care if you have to bribe people. Get it and send it to my email.” I walk over to the desk, grab a piece of paper, and jot down the email address.

“Yes, sir. I’m on it.”

I stalk toward the elevator and stab the button, trying to keep my shit together. I’m certain it was Sean who’s taken Hattie. But I need to see for sure before I act.

When I arrive at my apartment, I pace around with my hands in my hair, picturing my poor, innocent Hattie and how scared she must be.

If she’s still alive.

She’s alive. He’d only take her to get to me, there’d be no other purpose, and if I had to guess, he’s going to use her to draw me out.

Twenty minutes pass before my phone dings, and when I pull it out, I see a text from the admin account for the front desk, telling me that the email has been forwarded to me.

With shaking hands, I open my email and refresh it. There are a few videos, all from different angles outside. When I hit Play on the first one, my phone slips from my grasp, but I catch it before it shatters on the floor.

Steph.

What the hell?

She and Hattie have a brief conversation, and although I know Hattie has never felt comfortable around Steph, her body language says it’s much more than an argument over my attention.

Whatever Steph says, Hattie follows her to the waiting car.

When she peers in, she draws back, but Steph shoves her in the back seat.

The car speeds off into traffic. My eyes veer to the time stamp.

Fucking hell. An hour has passed already.

“Fuck!” I almost toss my phone, but all that would ensure is that Sean can’t contact me.

After shoving my phone in my back pocket, I slide both hands through my hair, pulling hard at the strands. Wanting to be prepared, I rush to my office and open the safe, where I remove two of my guns and tuck the holsters into my waistband.

Then I stand and wait because there’s nothing else I can do.

Maybe a minute passes before the rage takes control. Sean has taken something precious from me, and if he hurts one hair on her head, I will draw out his death until he wishes he’d never been born.

In need of an outlet for my fury, I swipe everything off my desk until it crashes to the floor.

Then I rip the paintings off the walls and destroy them until they’re in shreds.

My desk chair bounces off the wall, leaving a dent, and I clear my bookcases.

When there isn’t one item left standing in my office, I stop and stare at the destruction, my chest heaving.

I need to be smart about this. I need to prepare for when Sean calls, so I fish my phone out of my back pocket and dial up my contact in the Vitale family.

“Change of plans.”

***

The call comes from Gabriele Vitale that evening to let me know that his people found Steph while she was attempting to run.

Apparently she was pissed about me setting her aside for Hattie, so when Sean approached her and offered to pay her to lead Hattie to him, she was more than happy to take his offer and get the hell out of Dodge.

Gabriele also tells me that she didn’t know where Sean was keeping Hattie. I didn’t bother to ask how he knew for sure she wasn’t lying. I’m sure the Mafia has their ways, and the less I know, the better.

Gabriele is the head of the Vitale crime family, and when I questioned why he himself was involved, he told me that he doesn’t take kindly to men who use the women in their enemy’s lives as leverage. Apparently, someone once took his now-wife from him, so he knows how I feel.

Before we hang up, he tells me to keep him in the loop when I hear from Sean.

There’s no sense asking what became of Steph. I can guess at the answer. Some sick part of me takes pleasure in the fact that she has paid for her part in kidnapping Hattie.

I don’t let my phone leave my sight for the rest of the evening and into the morning as I sit on my couch and wait. All I can picture is how scared Hattie must be and how they might be mistreating her.

I’ll never forgive myself if something happens to her.

I’m pacing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living area when the phone rings in my hand. When I look at the screen, I see a number I don’t recognize, and I know it’s him.

“You must not value your life.”

Sean’s sadistic chuckle rings through my ear, and he tsks. “Careful now, I’m the one holding all the cards now.”

“What do you want?”

“Well, I told you what I wanted months ago, but you refused to give it to me. And then you had the nerve to sever ties altogether. If I had any feelings, they’d be hurt.”

I made a grave mistake underestimating Sean. I’d thought he was some lackey or someone who could at least see the big picture. I can’t imagine what he thinks he stands to gain once this is all said and done, besides revenge.

The irony isn’t lost on me when I think of my own situation with Hattie.

“I’ll ask again, what do you want?” It’s a struggle to maintain my cool, but I have to for Hattie’s sake.

“The same thing I’ve always wanted. You see, my bosses didn’t like it when I came back to them and told them what happened. It’s my ass on the line, which makes me a very desperate man, Bastion.”

“That can’t be all.” I push my hand through my hair and pace again, just to relieve some of the anxious energy running through me.

Sean chuckles again, and the sound makes me want to reach through the phone and rip out his vocal cords with my bare hands. “Now you’re a smart man. Too bad you weren’t smart before. We could have avoided all this unpleasantness.”

“Just spit it out.”

“I want a lump sum payment for my troubles. Bring two million in cash to the address I text you at noon. Do that and let me run the drugs through your club at the newly negotiated rate I spoke about, and you can have your princess back.”

“Done.” I don’t even have to think about it. I’d pay anything to ensure Hattie’s safety.

“Come by yourself. If I see even a hint of someone with you, the girl is dead.”

“How do I know Hattie is still alive?” The words feel like shards of glass coming up my throat.

“C’mon, say something, sweetheart.”

I stop breathing while I wait to hear her, so I know she’s okay. And then her small, frightened voice comes over the line. “Bastion?”

“There, you know she’s alive. See you at noon.”

He ends the call. I practically roar into the vastness of my apartment, then punch the glass.

I split my knuckles, but I’m lucky enough not to break my hand.

Then I spring into action, checking my safe for how much cash I have on hand.

I get on the phone with my banker before calling Gabriele Vitale.

I will gut Sean like a fish if there’s one hair out of place on Hattie’s head.