Page 81 of Release Me

“He had connections in LAPD that helped him keep it all under wraps. In exchange for their protection, he’d make girls available to them free of charge.”

“Fuck.” The folder turns in on itself when my hand tries to become a fist. “Everybody failed her. At every fucking turn, they failed her.”

But I won’t. I won’t fail her. I won’t let another person in this world hurt her, especially not Beau Montgomery.

I return to my seat and push the folder back to Russ. I don’t need to look at those photos, to see Nadia battered and bruised, that would be too much like looking backward, and I need all of my attention on a path forward, on finding the man that hurt her and ensuring he never gets the chance to do so again.

“Where is he?”

Russ grimaces, and I already know I’m going to hate what he says next. “His current address shows him living in a bungalow in the Cypress Park area. We know that he likes to frequent a few clubs in?—”

“Russ, I don’t give a fuck about any of that. I want to know where he is right now.”

He sighs and clasps his hands together. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” I slam my fist down on the table. “You can pull bank statements and emails from fifteen fucking years ago, but you can’t find him? You can’t tell me where the fuck he is today?! He could be in New Haven right now.”

“I don’t think he’s in New Haven.”

“But you don’t know!” My blood is boiling, and I’m seething as I push up from the table again. I’m done with this meeting. “Find him.”

I leave my office and head straight for Nadia’s, nearly putting my fist through the wall when I walk in and find it empty. I need to see her. That’s the only thought in my head as I storm through Elle’s kitchen, the indoor dining area, and the roof where I finally find her. She’s up here all alone, her elbows resting against the glass and metal panels that line the roof’s edge, brown eyes studying New Haven’s skyline. Slowing my steps is a hard task when the need to touch her is an urgent thrumming in my veins, but I force myself to do so because I don’t want to alarm her. The last thing she needs is the stress of helping me process traumas she endured. When I’m sure that I won’t raise any red flags, I move towards her.

“Penny for your thoughts.”

Nadia doesn’t jump or scream or do any of the things people usually do when they’ve been caught off guard, which means she knew I was here and probably gave me the time I needed to gather myself before I came to her. She glances at me over her shoulder, her eyes cautious as they skate across my face.

“I was actually thinking of you,” she says, turning back to the view in front of her. “How was your meeting with Russ?”

I step up behind her, wrapping my arms around her middle and folding my front over her back. She sighs like she needed this moment as much as I did, and I bury my nose in her hair, pulling in deep lungfuls of that combination of bergamot and amber I’ve come to love.

“Difficult,” I admit on an exhale. “But nothing I can’t handle.”

“You don’t know him Sebastian. Beau is…” she pauses, shakes her head. “Beau is a snake, and you never see him coming until he’s close enough to strike. Close enough to hurt you.”

The fear wrapped around her words breaks something inside of me. I hear it shatter, feel the shards piercing my heart and my lungs making each breath I pull in ragged and uncertain. I hate this. I hate that she’s afraid. I hate that she thinks I can’t protect her when I’d die doing so.

“He won’t ever get close enough to hurt you, precious.”

She turns around and the tears in her eyes when she wraps her arms around my neck threaten to unravel me completely. “I’m not worried about me, Sebastian. I’m worried about you. If I stay here, Beau will find me, and you’ll try to put yourself between me and him, and I don’t…if something ever happened to you because of me, I’d never forgive myself.”

When the tears start to fall, she buries her face in my chest, and I cradle the back of her head with tender hands that tremble with the need to destroy something.

If I stay.

The words play in my head on an endless loop that sends flares of panic reverberating down my spine. I’ve never been as afraid of losing anything—wealth, property, connections, resources—as I am of losing Nadia.

“Don’t cry. Nothing is going to happen to me or you. I promise.” It’s not enough to convince her or soothe the ache caused by the fear clawing at my chest.

“You can’t promise that, Sebastian.”

“Yes, I can.” Leaning back, I slip my fingers under her chin and urge her to look at me. “Have I ever broken a promise to you? Have I ever told you I was going to do something and didn’t follow through?”

She shakes her head, teeth digging into the flesh of her bottom lip. “No, but?—”

“No buts,” I say, cutting her attempt at expressing doubt short. “I will take care of you. I will keep you safe. Tell me you believe me.”

Nadia pulls in a shaky breath. “I believe you.”

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