Page 67 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 3

He inhaled, his nostrils flaring as he snapped his fingers. “You”—he pointed at window man—“look into this and ready the ‘copter.” He turned and faced the lead guy. “Dimitri, take the girls out the back and meet at location C in an hour.”

“Get up!” The man I now knew was Dimitri demanded. He grabbed my elbow and tugged me from the couch, Emily following. “What about my wife?” he rumbled, his focus on Angus.

“I take care of my own,” Angus sneered. “She’ll arrive in France soon. Now do as I say,” Angus commanded.

Dimitri yanked my arm, dragging us to the front of the suite and out into the hallway. We half-ran to the staff door we’d used earlier. I knew this was going to be our one and only chance to escape. I squeezed Emily’s hand and kept her close, my mind running through a thousand possible scenarios and coming up with nothing.

We entered the freight elevator and went down to the ground level. The second the doors opened, six policemen with guns and protective shields came into view. Red dots pointed at all of our chests.

“Hands up! Now!”

Episode 78

Safe

MAIA

“We’re so close now,” Rhodes barked at our driver.

We were following the dot on Emily’s phone tracker. It hadn’t moved in the last ten minutes, leaving us to believe that the attackers were holding them somewhere not far from where we’d been when we found out they were missing.

“It says we’re here. Stop the car!” Rhodes hollered and shoved the passenger door of the SUV open before the vehicle even came to a complete stop.

Rhodes alighted from the car in a blur of movement. I scrambled after him and found that we were in what could only be described as a business area next to a busy street, one that included a roundabout where cars were zooming through at high speeds. There were cars and people everywhere. I scanned the roads, and the park across the street from where we’d stopped, looking for anything that might be familiar or look out of place.

“Where is she?” He pointed to his phone. “It says she should be right fucking here.” He smashed his finger on the cell’s display screen, his voice harried and gruff. Each moment that passed without him finding his daughter was shaving off another layer of his patience.

“Let me see, Rhodes,” I asked, coming closer. He shoved the phone into my hand.

“Emmmmiiiilllyyyyy!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “Aaaallllaaaaannnaaaa!” He continued as I followed the blinking dot, moving super slow until I saw something white in the gutter, standing up against the edge of the curb. I ran over to it and found not only one phone but an obliterated sleek black one.

“Over here!” I called out to Rhodes and the guards that were scanning the area. The three of them ran toward me.

“It’s both of their phones,” I gulped, the initial excitement of finding the phone completely lost when I realized that whoever had taken them must have tossed their phones out of the car window.

They could be anywhere.

Rhodes saw the phones, closed his eyes, and fell to his knees right there on the side of a busy road in the heart of Paris.

He cupped the top of his head as he curled in on himself.

“Rhodes.” I went to my knees and wrapped my arms around him the best I could.

“She’s gone! They’re fucking gone. Our one lead…” He finally let out a torn sob. “My God…” He shook his head as his shoulders convulsed. “They could be hurting her.”

“Don’t think like that. She wasn’t the intended target. We’re going to find her. Hope is not lost.” I knew better than most that the second you lost hope, it was a deep dive into heartache and fear.

Suddenly, Rhodes’ phone pinged with a new message. I still held it in my hand as the display lit up with Emily’s name.

“Rhodes!” I shoved the phone in front of his face. “It’s Emily!”

He scanned the message.

“What does it say?” I blurted, my heart pounding a mile a minute as anticipation flooded my system.

“4th floor, the Ritz. Call 112,” he stated as he read.

“What’s 112?”

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