Page 60 of Power

Icouldn’t find Amelia. I had left her for a few minutes to wish some of my employees well before they left for the holidays.I usually hated these formalities, but it was important to maintain a good relationship with my board members to ensure they continued to do a good job. If I wanted Sethi Tech to remain the top tech company in the world, then I needed to make sure my employees felt appreciated.

She had been waiting by the Christmas tree for me. I tried texting and calling her phone multiple times, but no answer. I was worried. She knew how important it was to me that she answered my calls.

I found Jai surrounded by a group of female new hires. The women hung on his every word, laughing every so often at jokes he told—likely stupid jokes. I tore him away from his harem and asked him if he had seen her.

“I haven’t seen her since I danced with her,” he said.

“Shit.” I grabbed my hair in frustration. Where could she be?

“What’s wrong?” he asked, growing more concerned.

“She’s not answering her phone.” I checked my phone again to make sure I hadn’t missed her calls or texts in the meantime.

“Well, maybe she just stepped out to get some air?” he suggested.

“It’s freezing outside.” It was too cold for her to have been waiting outside.

“Good point. Let’s get security to see if they can find her. And we’ll get Saran to help if she really is missing.” Jai took out his phone and called Saran to fill him in on the situation and tell him to stand by.

I was on my way to talk to the security guard monitoring the party when I bumped into that dipshit who had been trying to hit on Amelia at her birthday. I hadn’t even seen him.

I wasn’t planning on apologizing because I had a bigger problem on my hands, but he stopped me to talk.Fucking hell.

“Oh, hey, Mr. Sethi. Sorry about bumping into you.”

I kept walking, ignoring him.

He was really shitty at taking a hint, so he kept talking. “Are you okay? You seem to be in a rush like Amelia was. Is something happening?”

I turned back around and approached him, hovering over him. “You saw her?” I demanded.

He backed up, scared by my tone. “Yeah, she was on her way up to her office. Something about checking on work stuff.”

“How long ago was this?” I lowered my face in front of his and studied his eyes. It was a habit I had attained from interrogating traitors.

Blake drew his eyes to the ground to avoid my stare. “About thirty minutes ago,” he answered quickly to get me to leave him alone.

I ran to the elevator and took it all the way up to our floor. I ran to her office. The lights were off, and it looked empty. I hit the light switch, illuminating the room. I saw her phone on the floor behind her desk. I picked it up and found all my messages and calls on her lock screen. She had never received them. Her computer was locked. Why had she been up here?

I noticed something else by my foot. I bent down to the floor by the leg of her desk. Just then, Jai showed up in the doorway. “What is it?”

My heart pounded so hard in my chest that I couldn’t hear anything. Time slowed as I held up the red scrap of fabric.Her dress.

“Tarun has her.” My voice was broken with panic.

Chapter XXXI

Amelia

Everything was blurry. I blinked quickly to clear my vision. I was lying on something that felt like it was moving. I tried to sit up, but my hands were bound together under my stomach. I used my hands to press into the cushion I was lying on. My head pounded.

I looked around to get my bearings. I was in the back seat of a car. My memory came rushing back to me when I saw the man sitting across from me. He was the one who had flipped me over in my office. He stared me in my eye, warning me to sit still, with his gun fixed in my direction.

“Where are you taking me?” My voice was hoarse. I was afraid of saying something that might cause him to pull the trigger.

“You’ll see,” he said gruffly. I was betting I wasn’t going to get anything more out of him without pissing him off.

I looked out the window to see if I could figure it out myself. The sky seemed hazy like there was tons of smog in the air. The street was filled with people walking or riding on bikes with carriages. I saw cows with horns walking down the street too. The buildings seemed old and ornate. Women in colorful outfits and bracelets shopped at vendors outside and men in shirts and cotton skirts prepared food in street carts. I was in India.Holy shit.

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