He looks at said guy, then quickly shakes his head. “Nope, not him.” He then glances over my shoulder and smiles. “Safiya.”
“Chris,” she greets him with a smile of her own.
“Did you guys find him yet?” Varsha questions as her and Alex make their way to us.
“Nope.” I face Solo. “What did the valets say?”
He leans his hip against the railing and crosses one ankle over the other. “His car’s still here, but they haven’t seen him leave yet. They said he didn’t show up to receive the delivery his father brought in, when he was clearly expected to be there. And yeah, I checked his car. Looked pretty standard to me; nothing of importance that could help us track him.”
“Wait, Fredrick is here?”
“Aras did say he brought in the delivery himself,” Varsha states. “Maybe he’s the one who got to his son first?”
I let go of a breath and run a hand over my jaw. “Did you check the room we last saw him enter?”
“That’s the first place we looked,” Alex provides. “Found nothing except for a few condom wrappers under the bed, and a bunch of burnt joints.”
“No wonder the room smelled so fucking bad,” I mumble, and as my eyes drift sideways, I find Magner and Aras jogging up the stairway with grim expressions on their faces.
Next to me, Safiya stiffens, and makes as if to leave, but I stop her by saying, “Please stay.”
She works her jaw as she stares at me, but then relents and gives me a quick nod, making sure to keep her attention on anything but Aras as he finally reaches us.
“Timothy is dead,” Magner announces, darkening our already sour moods.
It takes a few seconds for his words to register, and even though I knew what his fate was going to be, it’s still surprising to hear that he’s dead, especially since none of us here were the ones responsible for it.
“You sure?” I question.
“Positive.”
“And how, exactly, did that happen?”
Aras sighs, glancing briefly at Safiya before looking at me. “No idea. But we saw a couple of the Byron security personneldragging his, and another man’s body out of the back garden in the live CCTV footage. My team is still working on fixing all the channels, but we were lucky they could get this one to work in time.”
“Wait.” I swallow. “Cigs said she’s in the back gardens. She asked me to join her there a few minutes ago.”
“Where is she now?” Alex asks.
“I–” I stop when my phone pings in my pant pocket – once, and then a second time. With everyone watching me, I quickly pull it out, only to find two text messages from an unknown number flashing across the screen.
I click on them, and a sudden chill covers my face when I read the message that’s written under an attached video.
Unknown:At least I’m being courteous enough to grant her a chance, whereas she didn’t even think twice before killing my son. If you wish to see her alive, then come and find me.
My hand shakes as I press play on the video, and realize that I’m grinding my teeth so hard that it has caused my temples to throb in pain.
On the screen, Cignette is struggling against a guard who has her hands held behind her back. There’s a white cloth stretched tight between her lips and wrapped tightly behind her head. Her nose is bleeding, and there’s a bruised bump on her right temple. Some of her hair is matted down and stained with blood and dirt, and her face is smudged with them as well. Her eyes are red-rimmed, and it burns every fucking vein in my body to see her like this.
I know the others are watching the video with me, but somehow, I feel like I’m standing all alone; like I’m weightless and about to fall into an unending loop of my rage.
Cignette groans and jerks against the guard again, and he uses her defiance to his advantage by yanking at her hair to pull her back against him. A man I’ve never seen before enters theframe, and cups her chin in a rough grip before pushing her face sideways. There’s laughter in the background as she tries to pull herself out of the guard’s hold, followed by the screen suddenly going black.
My vision blurs, and my hands itch to cut open some flesh, just so I can cause these motherfuckers ten times the amount of pain they’re causing my Cignette.
“Where the fuck is this place?” I ask Aras. “Is this a part of your estate grounds?”
His expression is grave as he nods. “Yeah, it’s the–”
