Some would say it serves him right. You reap what you sow. He’d gotten too greedy. He disagreed. He didn’t deserve to have his business burned to the ground. Sykes was a businessman. It wasn’t anything personal.
He’d been running drugs and women out of that building for years and never had any problems. Shay had been the perfect hostage. Kept quiet and did what she was told. Who knew a tiger laid under that mouse. If she weren’t worth so much money, he’d kill her.
He’d had to flee like a rat in a sinking ship once the sprinklers started. He and a few of his most trusted men were in one of his safe houses waiting for things to blow over. Soon those he’d invited to the auction would be calling. Some had come overseas for her. People would be coming after him for blood now. Especially who he kidnapped Shay for. He needed to get her back and fast. She was his only insurance now.
“Calm yourself, Kent.” He said though he himself was anything calm. Not many things rattled him. The growing list of people would be coming after him now was unsettling.
“Sorry, Mr. Sykes.” Kent said after a deep breath.
“Did anyone see anything?”
“None that I questioned.”
“What about Bridget?” The woman had been the last one to see Shay.
“No one’s seen her.”
She was probably dead or missing. He was no closer to answers. Someone had to of seen something. The woman couldn’t have just vanished into thin air. The fire had meant to be a distraction for her to sneak out. Several buyers cars had been at the back and side. That left the front door. She could have just blended in with the crowd.
“Gino,” He snapped at his head of security.
“Sir,” The man poked his head above his two computer screens.
“Pull up the footage from tonight. I bet she walked right out of the front door.”
“She wouldn’t have the balls.” Someone chuckled behind him.
Sykes whirled around to see his cousin Jimmy who sobered when Sykes looked at him. Sykes drove his fist into Jimmy’s stomach. Jimmy hunched over in pain and Sykes punched him again in the face.
He looked around at everyone in the room. No one would meet his eye. “That woman with no balls as my cousin so delicately put it, burned my business to the ground. She humiliated me.”
“Got it,” Gino called out.
Sykes took a puff of his cigar giving one final glare at his men before looking at the computers. “Go a few minutes before the sprinklers went off.” Shay had been in a bright white dress, it shouldn’t’ be hard to spot her.
After a few seconds he spotted her coming down the stairs and disappeared into the crowd. He had trouble keeping track of her as she moved amongst the crowd. “Isn’t there any better footage than this?” His frustration rose. He had to get that woman back or he was a dead man.
“One moment, sir.” Gino stuttered before a new image came up. This angle from the other side.
Sykes leaned closer to get a better look. She was with someone. “Can you enhance that?” He pointed to her image. Who was she with? Had they helped her in escaping?
The image became larger but there wasn’t a clear view of the man’s face. It was as if he’d known the cameras were there and kept his face out of every possible angle.
Which meant he was lucky or a professional. Since Sykes didn’t believe in luck he was going with the latter.
The two parted and Shay ran outside. The man stayed behind a moment before exiting with everyone else.
“She disappears after that down the block. We don’t have cameras down that far.”
Sykes barely heard Gino. He took another puff of his cigar, and slowly blew the smoke out. The calmness that eluded him earlier came back. A plan formulated in his mind. He pulled out his cellphone from his suit pant pocket and hit a number on speed dial.
Chapter 7
Shay arched and stretched out with a yawn. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept so well. The past few days of living in terror and afraid to sleep had caught up with her. She’d waited for Drew to get off his phone call to take her home and the next thing she knew she fell asleep.
Shay shot up looking around. She wasn’t where she’d fallen asleep but in a bedroom. Drew’s bedroom. It didn’t take a genius to figure out how she’d gotten there.
Shay flopped back down cursing herself for letting down her guard to fall asleep. Or had the food been drugged like she feared? The guy had a wristband, she reminded herself. He could be a buyer. She thought if she only ate a few small bites drugs couldn’t affect her. She’d stupidly let her guard down.
