“Let’s hope you can keep up the scared act for a while. I think it will prove to be an incentive for Bastion.” He laughs and shares a look with the driver in the rearview mirror.
My eyes widen. This has to do with Bastion. My stomach sinks, finally realizing who this might be. “Are you… Sean?”
His eyes narrow. “I see Bastion’s spoken about me to you. What did he have to say?”
I shake my head. “Nothing. I swear.”
He gives me a sadistic grin. “Lying bitch.”
The hand holding the gun barrels toward me, and everything goes black.
49
BASTION
Iwalk 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.
