Page 68 of Unravel You

Thinking of them together made me want to punch something. Valentina didn’t care about him, but the fact that this messed-up note got her to leave the house alone and without telling me spoke of how much influence he still had over her. Whether she’d left because she feared Alex or because she was afraid for Max, it didn’t matter. How far was she willing to go to save Max? For Christ’s sake, this was the asshole who made her swear off men for six years.

The head of the security team knocked once and then entered the library with Tyler on his heels.

“Do you have visual of Valentina leaving the house? Where the fuck is she? What about the guard? Is he awake yet?”

“Calm down.” Tyler came to stand by me. “Let the man answer the question.”

“Mrs. Cole did leave the property about an hour ago. We tracked her phone, but we lost the signal near the BeltLine. The guard says he was knocked out by a woman. It was dark, but he believes it was Ms. Bridget. We checked the cameras. She was never inside the house.” Even if I didn’t like the news he had, he was making an effort to deliver it quickly.

“Then how the hell was this note left on Valentina’s vanity? We need to go get her now.”

Of course, Bridget was in on this. She was helping Alex, or rather Alex was helping her, just as he’d done a few months ago. When Bridget first found out about my relationship with Valentina, she went out and dug up the asshole. He’d done a bang-up job for her. With a few well-chosen words, he’d created enough doubt in my mind to punch a chasm between Valentina and me. I was over that, but this was something new. Valentina went to him of her own accord.

Tyler gripped my arm. “Yes, we can do that. But first we need a plan. We can’t just go out there and start throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.” He took the note from my hand. Unlike me, he didn’t stand there analyzing every line, trying to figure out Valentina’s reasoning.

He read it quickly and gave it to the guard. “Did she have access tofive Gs?” Tyler asked.

“She went to him.” I spat the words.

“Does he even know Bridget?”

“He does. It makes sense now. When Bridget couldn’t get what she wanted, she went back to the one guy she knew could get under my skin. Bridget brought him here. No doubt Alex was more than happy to oblige just to mess with Valentina again.”

“Okay. Is she really that strapped for money?”

“I doubt it. She walked away from the divorce with five million dollars. And that was after I paid off all her debts. There’s no way she gambled all that in a month.”

“Got it. You think she’s going for half of everything now?”

“Why else?”

We’d been at this for hours. Tyler paced the room, rubbing the stubble on his face. “The five thousand dollars was to give Valentina the illusion that she could save Max. They gave her an amount they knew she’d have access to.”

“Bridget knows exactly how much money I keep around the house. She went low on purpose, to give Valentina an easy task.”

Tyler met the guard’s gaze for a beat. “So we know Valentina went after Alex to pay him off. I think we can safely assume Bridget was the rendezvous point.”

“Who left the note?” I glared at the guard. None of this was his fault, but I still wanted him to have all the answers already.

“We’re working on that. We believe Ms. Bridget left it in the gardens for someone to deliver it for her.”

“One of the guests?” Of course, no matter how much they all smile and make polite conversation, I couldn’t make everyone turn their backs on Bridget. Some of them were her friends once.

“Possibly. There are too many people with access to pretty much every room in the house.” Tyler’s tone said he didn’t agree with parties that left us wide open.

After I ran into Alex earlier today, I doubled security. But Tyler was right. What good were a hundred guards when someone inside our circle of trust was ready to betray us?

“We need to go now. You don’t understand. This guy isn’t right. Bridget isn’t right. If they’re working together…I don’t know what they’ll do to her.” I had a pretty good idea, but I couldn’t get myself to say the words aloud. “I’m not going to sit here and wait for a plan to magically appear in front of me. We’re going to Valentina’s last known location and work from there.”

“Yes, sir.”

As soon as the guard left, I picked up the phone on my desk. I made a mistake before, assuming Bridget needed a second chance and Alex could be bought out. The only way to get them to leave us alone was to get the proper authorities involved and make sure they went to jail. I couldn’t exactly call 911 and ask them to send one police car to help me find my missing fiancée who’d left the house of her own accord with five thousand dollars.

Even if I showed them the note, it wasn’t enough to prove kidnapping, extortion, or any other kind of crime. No one gave a shit, and I didn’t want just one cop. I wanted a fucking army. I was done playing nice. Bridget and Alex were about to find out how far I was willing to go to protect my family.

I called the governor’s office instead.

Chapter19

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