Page 34 of Mysterious

All I know is I’ve never needed Liam more. Where is he? Is he coming to take me out of this place?

“And if you’re thinking where is your new head of security when you need him most, my partner has taken care of that. Settle in, sweetheart. You’re here for the duration.”

Michael walks away, leaving me sitting in that chair and more terrified than ever. His partner has taken care of Liam? What does he mean?

An ache settles into my chest at the thought that Liam’s been hurt. Or worse, he’s dead at the hands of Michael’s partner, whoever he is.

CHAPTERSIXTEEN

Liam

I waketo the sound of my phone ringing and grab it off the nightstand to see it’s right after eight in the morning. So much for sleeping in a little today. My eyes focus a little bit more so I can see it’s Andrea calling.

Not the person I ever want to wake up to.

After scrubbing my face of the last vestiges of sleep, I answer the call. “What’s up, Andrea?”

“Mia’s been taken! Those two men you sent with her to protect her didn’t do their job, and now she’s God only knows where!”

She begins to cry hysterically while I sit upright in bed and immediately launch into work mode. My mind’s racing with questions about where Mia could be, who could have done this, and where the hell Brett and Kip are in this whole thing.

“Tell me everything you know. I need to know every detail right now,” I say as I swing my legs out of bed.

From the second my feet hit the floor, I’m running one hundred percent on adrenaline. The woman I’ve fallen in love with is missing and who knows where, and two of my men are unaccounted for. None of this is good. Every minute I waste waiting for Andrea to get her shit together and stop crying is a minute any of them may be hurt.

Or worse.

She continues to sob as she tries to tell me what she knows, but I can’t understand a goddamned word of it. “Andrea, calm down. I need to be able to figure out how to go from here, but I can’t find out where here is if you keep crying.”

I listen to her slowly stop her wailing, and then she sniffles a few times before saying, “I got a call about ten minutes ago. It was someone saying they took Mia. They want a ransom for her.”

So it’s a kidnapping. That she waited ten minutes to tell me about. Okay, focus, Liam. That means they want something in exchange for Mia, so they’re going to keep her alive.

At least until they get paid.

“How much do they want?” I ask as I yank my pants up my legs.

“What?”

“How much is the ransom?” I ask again while I button my pants and walk over to the closet to find a shirt.

“I don’t know. I mean, I can’t remember,” Andrea says.

What the fuck does she mean she can’t remember?

Ripping my grey dress shirt off the hanger, I try to find the patience to deal with this woman right now. “Okay, let’s go over what happened, step-by-step. What did they say?”

“They said they have her and they want five million. That’s it. That’s how much they said they want. I guess in all of this I just forgot. They want five million dollars for her.”

“Okay,” I say as I let out a sigh, happy to be getting somewhere with her finally. “When do they want it by?”

“Today!” she squeals, like I should have known that answer without even asking the question. “They want it today or they’re going to kill her. We have to get it to them immediately!”

“I agree, but they don’t want to kill her, Andrea. Trust me. This is for money. Kidnappers rarely want to be murderers. They want money so they can go live the life they want to live. Being charged with a capital crime in the state of Florida is not what they got into this for, so they’re going to keep her alive.”

At least I hope so.

“Did they say where they want us to drop off the money? How is it to go down?” I ask as I finish putting my shoes on.

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