“I mean she went out last night and I’m petrified something may have happened to her. She lives in a flat in London, so I know she’s more accustomed to cities and nightlife than I am, but?—”
I broke off my sentence when he stepped inside without hesitation, his posture suddenly rigid and his full attention onme. “Okay, look. Just breathe. We’re going to figure this out, okay?”
Managing to jerk my head in a nod, I shut the door behind him, but I still couldn’t quite fill my lungs with oxygen. Jesse didn’t even look around the suite, his gaze focused intently on mine. “When did you last see her?”
“Yesterday,” I said. “After dinner with your family, we came back here. I went to bed, but it looks like she went clubbing.”
“It looks like?” He frowned. “I, uh?—”
Suddenly realizing that he had no idea what I was talking about, I held up my phone, showing him the videos. He watched one, then scrolled to another. The corners of his mouth tightened slightly before I let out a deep sigh from his nostrils.
“Unfortunately, I know this place,” he said.
Relief flooded through me so intensely, it left me a touch lightheaded. “You do? Hang on, why is that unfortunate?”
He was already moving back to the door. “It’s unfortunate because you’re about to see it in the daytime and that’s going to make you wonder why I recognized it so fast, but let’s just say it’s a lot less gross at night. Come on.”
“I’ll just grab my shoes.” I spun around and hurried back to my room, shoving my feet into a pair of trainers, barely even tying the laces before I was back on my feet.
Jesse had already opened the door and he was waiting beside it, one hand on the frame and the other slid into his pocket to the first knuckle. He was obviously ready to jump into action, and yet, he seemed so calm and confident that I felt my own heartbeat slow in response.
We were in his car a few minutes later, the city sliding past in bright flashes of sunlight on glass while I called Winnie over and over again. She still wasn’t picking up, though.
It wasn’t long before Jesse pulled up outside the club he’d apparently recognized from the videos, neon signs dim in thedaylight. The place certainly looked far less glamorous than it had in Winnie’s footage, but Jesse, having already warned me about this, didn’t even seem to notice.
“Do you mind waiting here while I go talk to the owner?” he asked as he reached for his door. “You’re welcome to walk with me, of course, but I figure you might want to keep trying her?”
“I do. Thank you.” I gripped my phone like that might somehow help her sense the urgency behind the ringing.
He nodded and disappeared inside. As soon as the heavy door swung shut behind him, I tried calling again. And again. And again.
Finally, just as I was becoming certain she’d been kidnapped—or worse—she finally answered. “What?”
I almost cried at the sound of her voice, annoyed but certainly not in pain or muffled by some kind of chloroform-drenched gag. “Winnie! Where are you?”
“I was sleeping,” she said furiously. “Why are you calling me?”
“I’ve been trying to reach you for hours!”
“I just told you, I wassleeping,” she snapped. “What iswrongwith you?”
“You disappeared. In a foreign city. With no word of your whereabouts. Where are you, Winnifred?”
I didn’t scold her often, and the fact that I was doing it now seemed to make her realize how genuinely worried I’d been. “Fine. I’m at the Regent Hotel. Room two-oh-four.”
“We’ll be there soon. Get ready.”
“We? Who?—”
Suddenly livid myself, I hung up on her and inhaled a deep breath through my nose, waiting impatiently for Jesse to come jogging back out of the club a few minutes later. He winced as he dropped back into the driver’s seat. “Bad news. They have her on the cameras from last night, but not who she lef?—”
“She’s at the Regent Hotel,” I said curtly. “Would you mind taking me there?”
“Not at all,” he replied without skipping a beat. “It’s just down the block.”
Firing up the engine again, he drove us only a few hundred yards, as promised, before we parked outside of an upscale hotel. Winnie was waiting for us when we got to her room, but she wasn’t alone.
A shirtless man stood behind her, eyeing Jesse suspiciously when we stormed in. My sister looked like she’d had a crazy night, eye makeup smudged across her cheeks and her hair an absolute disaster, but at least she was alive—and clothed.
