Page 5 of Prince of Wrath

“You either come alone, or I’ll burn her alive,” Cole spits as she glances up one last time before he ends the call. Her face. Her eyes. She does not believe I am coming anymore. He is trying to break her, and if I do not make it as soon as I can, she will break.

“We tracked the call,” Alfie says in his monotonous voice.

Calmness descends on me. Ella needs me. And I am coming. I did not lie. When Cole asked for 300 million, I gave it to him. Now he wants me to send more, and I will. Even if it means selling and giving up on my life’s work. Because none of this matters without Ella.

Nate, Maddie, and my mother have savings of their own that I have maxed out in the past; they’ll be fine. As for me, I will always find a way to come back. But Ella is the only element of the equation I cannot risk.

Afterward, all I have left is this house, my car and the inside of my vault. But I could not care less. They branded her. Hurt her. Silence takes possession of the room, like a disease contaminating us from the phone call.

“Tell me you got the location,” I mutter almost to myself as I notice Alfie squirming in his seat.

“Almost got it, boss, almost.” The room holds its breath while I decide whether hiring this teenage boy was worth the six figures I paid him. “Yeah, got it. He called from there.” He points at one of the places we thought could be Cole’s quarters.

“I’m going in. Matt, call Garron. Tell her the location is confirmed, that she has my full cooperation, that I’m sending her live access to everything we have. I want police reinforcements and ambulances moving now.”

“Why not wait for them?”

“They won’t be fast enough,” I grunt as I grab my set of keys, taking the steps two by two as I open the doorway, followed by Matt, and go straight to the garage. “But they need to be there for hostages and everything that comes after.”

“And Cole?” I stop for half a second. The old me would have said we let the police take him. The old me would have said violence is the last option, that I am not my father, that restraint is what separates a man from a beast. But Ella’s burned skin is still glowing behind my eyelids.

“I’ll take care of Cole.” I strapped on my holster the moment she disappeared, which means there is no need to waste another second. The Bugatti Chiron will do. Matt rushes to the other side of the car.

“No. Too risky,” I tell him as he smirks.

“Like hell I’m gonna let you on your own.” I would argue if I had more time, but I am running out of sleep and patience, and actually, having him there could switch the situation from suicidal to manageable. “They’re coming too,” he says, motioning with his chin toward five of his men climbing into a black Land Rover behind us. 6:15. I still have to call Nate. The drive should take thirty minutes, but my car was built for obscene speed, and tonight, I intend to use every last ounce of it. I call him, behind the wheel, already calculating the route. Fifteen minutes.

“Yeah,” he says, his voice tired. Perhaps Maddie had one of those nightmares again.

“Are you sitting?”

“Shit, you found her?” he shouts through the phone as I picture him at breakfast with pancakes and Maddie watching cartoons while he’s reading contracts with a cup of coffee. Giving him a heads-up on the situation, he listens with a mix of hopeful excitement and horror.

“Shit,” he mutters, processing.

“Yeah…I’m on my way to her, but I need you to transfer the money now, just in case he actually lets her go after getting it.”

“Okay, but how? How do I find three hundred million right now?”

“Sell everything. The yacht, the plane, empty all my bank accounts, call Hunter Tisson. He always knows who’s trying to buy for cheap.”

“Cheap?”

“The only way to get the money fast is to sell everything for pocket money.”

“Are you…sure?”

“What if…what if it was Elise ?”

“I…” He stops. “I’ll take care of everything.” A silence stretches. “How…how are you?” Taken aback by his question, I evade. Have you ever had your heart walking outside your body? How would that feel? Empty? Insane? Purposeless? My silence answers for me.

“I’m dropping Maddie at Mom’s, and I’ll be right there.”

“I need you at my place to coordinate everything. Brenton will catch you up on what’s going on.”

“Right,” he says as I hear bowls and a faucet behind him, and a hushed, “Mads, TV’s off, you’ll watch it at Grandma’s,” and a squeak of joy behind the line, telling me there are still innocent souls in this world. All I manage is a dry, “Thanks,” before hanging up, the red dot on my GPS indicating we are getting close.

Gray District, with an ironic fog almost too cinematic to be here. My mind should be filled with adrenaline, a list of tasks longer than my arm of everything that needs to move backstage in my company and security-wise for my family, and still, silence could not be louder. All I hear is this constant, running motion of the car, like a soundtrack in a horror movie. Remembering all the mental prep I had in the last decade of personal coaching with various trainers, I take a deep breath, my hand clutching the wheel harder as if it were Cole’s neck.