Page 60 of Mountain Challenge

Me?

“Me? What do you mean, me?”

“The sedan we found, the one caught by the speed cameras in the tunnels. It’s registered in Paul Getty’s name.”

“I don’t know any Paul—“ The words died in his throat. “Did you say Getty?”

Alex made as if to open his laptop, but Hugo waved him aside. “I already checked. Paul Getty is Miles Getty’s uncle.”

All the coffee he’d consumed soured in Ry’s belly, making him retch.

My fault. I brought this on Isla.

“I’m—“ He looked around at the growing circle of people around them.

“Sit down,” Beau said. He was one of the new arrivals. “Sit before you fall down. You’re looking yellow.”

Ry was feeling all sorts of colors. The world around him receded, leaving him alone. Completely alone. It was getting colder, too. He felt someone push him gently onto a waiting chair, and let it happen. He let it happen, because he couldn’t move, he couldn’t?—

Someone placed a waste-paper basket in front of him, just in time for Ry to vomit an ocean of murky dark liquid. When he was done, Alex handed him a napkin and a glass of water.

“Snap out of it, Ry. Isla needs you now, more than ever.”

Isla needs me …The words burned and ripped through his mind. “Isla needs me? I fucking brought this on her. On them.” His lungs burned, and he pulled in some air. “I fucking did this.”

“Okay. Enough whining.” That voice could only be Beau. Only Beau would speak that way to him. But the words had their intended effect. Ry looked up. And he was back in the office again, no longer standing outside, no longer alone. He was in the office, surrounded by his team, surrounded by the only people in the world who could help him get Isla back.

For the first time since he’d heard the name, a sliver of hope rushed through him. It was enough. Ry stood to his full height. “You’re right. I’m here.” He didn’t apologize. He knew his friends didn’t need an apology. “What else do we know?”

“Not much else,” Hugo said, frowning.

“Yet.” That came from Alex, who was already typing furiously on his laptop.

There was steel in Beau’s voice this time around. “We need all of Vincent’s team on this.”

Tristan took a step forward. “I’m on it.”

Twelve p.m.Fuck. Another day half-gone. But he would not allow himself to focus on that. He couldn’t turn back time. All he could do now was focus on the future.

“Forget thehow. We can worry about that later. Focus on thewhere,” Beau said. “We need to know everything about this man. Bring out his file. Even better, get his fucking lawyer up here. I want to know everything he’s done since he stepped out of this office the day his complaint was thrown out. I want to know where he’s slept, what he’s bought, what he’s eaten.”

Lorenz stood up. “I have a good friend at thepolice nationalewho might help.”

“Call her.”

“His friend. We need to look at his friend as well. The other hiker,” Hugo said.

A voice inside whispered in Ry’s ear.Your fault. But this time, he didn’t let it pull him down. He shoved the voice in a tight corner of his mind, where it belonged until they got Isla andher friend back. He’d have plenty of time to wallow in his guilt after. After they got them back.

Please let them both be safe.That was the only thing that mattered now.

“I have an address,” Alex said. “In Les Tines.”

Ry swallowed back his disappointment. Les Tines was a small hamlet between Chamonix and Argentière, miles away from the tunnel where Miles’s car had been seen. Les Tines was a residential area—not crowded, by any means, but not a place where one could stash two women against their will without neighbors hearing anything.

Beau stood up. “Tristan, you’re with me. Let’s go check it out.”

“I’m coming with you,” Ry said, daring his boss to refuse him. Ready to fight, if necessary, because he was fucking well not staying here. Not if there was a chance Isla was there.

---