Instead, I close my eyes and picture Shelby’s face.Those sharp blue eyes.That rare, devastating smile.The way he looks at me like I’m something precious, something worth protecting.
Come for me, Shelby Boyle,I send the plea out into the universe.
24
Shelby
“That can’t be right.”
The words leave my mouth before I’ve finished processing them, before the logical part of my brain has caught up with what my gut has always known.My brothers exchange a look, but I’m already reaching for my phone, pulling up Serena’s number.
It rings once.Twice.Goes to voicemail.
“Something must’ve happened to her.”
Dave leans back in the seat beside me, Nikolai’s folder now clutched in his hands.“Shelby, the message was pretty clear.Maybe she just needs space.”
“Space?”I almost laugh at the absurdity.“Forty-eight hours ago, we were in Brazil planning our real wedding.She told me she was falling in love with me.She said she’d never leave.And now a text message says she’s done exactly that?She dumps me in a text?No.That’s not Serena.”I shake my head.“Believe me, if she has something to tell me, she’ll do it to my face.”
Tommy catches my eye in the rearview mirror.The twin bond between us means he doesn’t need me to explain further.He’s already pulling over, easing the SUV to the curb on Atlantic Avenue.
“What do you need?”he asks, shifting into park.
“I need to call Mrs.Patterson.”My housekeeper has been with the Boyle family for twenty years.She’s been managing my house since I moved out of Dad’s place.And she runs a tight ship.Fuck, I had drill instructors in boot camp who were softer than her.“She would know what’s going on with Serena.”
I scroll down to her contact, push call, and put it on speaker.No point wasting time retelling the conversation to the others in Dave’s SUV.
The older woman picks up on the second ring.“Mr.Boyle.Is everything all right?”
“Mrs.Patterson, did you see my wife leave this morning?”
A pause filled only by the soft clink of dishes in the background.“Yes, sir.Around eleven.She said she was going to Copley Place for some shoe shopping.Seemed in good spirits.Actually, she was humming,” she comments.Her familiar Dubliner lilt comforts me even as fear claws at my chest.
Humming.My heart aches.I knew something was off about that text message!The Serena I know, the one who was planning our future mere hours ago, wouldn’t leave like that.
“Did she take the town car?”
“Yes, sir.She wanted to drive herself, but I wouldn’t allow that.She took the armored sedan, and Marcus drove her, of course.”
“Marcus is with her.”Relief flickers through me, but it’s quickly extinguished by dread.Marcus is ex-military, trained for precisely this kind of protection detail.If something went wrong, he’d have reached out.
Unless he couldn’t.
Glancing about me, I read the same worry on the men’s expressions.
Fuck!
“Thank you, Mrs.Patterson.”
I end the call and immediately dial Ray Flanagan.He picks up before the first ring finishes.
“Shelby.”His voice is all business, which tells me he already knows something’s wrong.
“What do you know about Serena’s movements today?”
Ray, the head of our security, runs our West Coast operations from San Francisco, but his reach extends across the country.When I married Serena, I put protocols in place.Surveillance.CCTV monitoring.Drone coverage, whenever needed.A security team is always within five minutes of her location, ready to move at a moment’s notice.
Serena doesn’t know about any of it.
