Page 89 of Taming Scarlet

“Does…” I started, but stopped when my phone started to ring in my pocket. “Excuse me,” I said, reaching for it. “It’s Eric,” I added before answering. “Eric, not a great—“

“We can’t find Scarlet.”

“What?” I hissed. “What the fuck do you mean you can’t find Scarlet? She’s at the spa with the girls.”

“The girls said she had a visitor. They all assumed it was you.”

“It wasn’t me. I’m with her father right now. How long ago was this?”

“Forty-five minutes or so,” Eric said. “The girls—“

“Julian,” a woman’s voice cut him off. No-nonsense. That was Di, not Drea. “The staff said she went to meet someone out the back entrance. But she’s not there. And the staff won’t let us see the cameras.”

A growl escaped me.

“I will be there in ten minutes.”

“Should we call the police?” Drea asked.

“You can try. I don’t know if the cops will come for this if there’s no proof she is missing,” I said, striding out of Marcus’s office.

“Okay. I’ll try.”

I was hanging up as I got in the elevator, Marcus right at my side.

“I only caught half of that, but when I hear the wordcopsin the same conversation as my daughter, I have to assume that it’s bad.”

“She’s missing. The girls said she had a visitor and everyone assumed it was me. She went out the back door… and hasn’t been seen since.”

“Christ,” Marcus said, reaching for his phone. “My driver is down the block.”

I didn’t object to that. It would be easier to make his driver speed than it would some random cabbie.

I’d been involved in a bunch of shit in my life. Life or death shit. But I’d never been as panicked as I was then. My heart seemed to take up residence in my throat, and my stomach was twisting into knots, tightening with each moment that passed.

Thankfully, most of Scarlet’s life existed in a twenty-block radius. So it was a quick drive from Marcus’s building to the spa, where we found Di in the front, pitching a fucking fit at the staff.

“You bring up the camera feed right now, or I will sue this place and every single one of you until your children’s children are in my debt,” Marcus said, and I felt my lips twitch a bit at the threat I knew he was more than willing to make good on if they didn’t give in.

Luckily, the manager decided to not wait for the owner, bringing Marcus and I into the back room, and rolling back the footage.

And there it was.

A car pulling out of the drive.

A man getting in the car.

A man slamming the trunk.

A man throwing a woman in the trunk.

It was rewinding too fast to make out faces, but I felt my heartbeat hammering against the confines of my ribcage as I saw the moment Scarlet was snatched off the fucking street.

It was far worse watching it in real-time, though.

The excitement on her face. Because she’d been expecting me. Then the confusion. Surprise. And, finally, fear.

But it was too late.

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