Holding up my index finger, I silently convey I’ll be one minute.
Slipping inside the penthouse, I pull on yesterday’s jeans and an oversized hoody, all the while wondering what the fuck type of event I’m supposed to be dressing for?
Sasha moans in her sleep but doesn’t stir. Should I leave a note? No, that’s fucking stupid. Who do I think I am? Romeo Montague? I have my fucking phone for Christ sake. The second she wakes, she’ll call me.
I shoot her a fleeting apologetic glance before slipping out of the room.
‘What the fuck is going on?’ My irritation’s increasingly evident with every syllable.
‘It’s Dad.’ Jayden rolls his eyes.
‘What’s he done now?’
An image of his lifeless body being hauled out of a ditch flashes across my brain along with a ripple of guilt. Perhaps I should have taken his calls? Perhaps this was the one fucking time he really was ready to open up, and now it’s too late?
I don’t have time to contemplate for too long before Jayden speaks. ‘He’s here.’
‘Here?’ I’m aware my mouth is opening and closing like the proverbial goldfish but I can do nothing to stop it. ‘What the fuck is he doing here? You know as well as I do it’s not safe.’
My gaze flits around the castle walls, as if I suddenly expect him to step out from the shadows.
Jayden’s got his I-mean-business-so-don’t-even-think-about-trying-get-one-past-me face. ‘Come on. I’ll explain in the car. Shit’s about to get real, brother.’
CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE
SASHA
23rdDecember
The familiar, soothing thrum of gentle but incessant rain finally drags me from slumber. The second my conscious mind stirs, an innate warning resonates from the tips of my fingers all the way to my immaculately pedicured toes.
Palming the cool sheets beside me, my eyelids prise open, squinting through the bleak sunrise. A chill reverberates over my spine and every minute hair pricks on my neck.
Ryan’s gone.
I know with certainty.
His absence permeates the air surrounding me and no matter how much of it I desperately gulp in, the tightening in my chest intensifies.
Flinging the covers back, my feet hit the floor with a spring-like pounce. The fact his clothes remain hanging pristinely in his cupboards does nothing to reassure me of his whereabouts, after all, it’s not the first time he’s abandoned everything and walked out.
He didn’t abandon you, he had no choice.
Maybe, but where the fuck is he this morning? And why does his absence instil such panic?
Nike runners glare at me from across the room. It shouldn’t come as a surprise. My instincts have been screaming at me from the second I woke. Innately, I know he hasn’t simply gone for a run.
Enveloping myself in one of the castle’s fluffy robes, I open the door to the penthouse in search of security.
There are none. Which only heightens my anxiety.
Where has everybody gone?
It’s the day of the Christmas ball. There’s more than me just counting on him.
He’s been acting weird as fuck since Jayden got here but surely he wouldn’t just up sticks and go?
At the far end of the corridor I spot two chambermaids starting their rounds. Darting inside to avoid embarrassing myself, I scrutinise every inch of his suite in search for a note, a clue or something that might indicate his whereabouts.
