Page 61 of Forged in Secrets

“Whatever I should or shouldn’t have done about Senera, it’s too late now. Getting ransom money in exchange for Grace Hinton is the only way we get out of this without spilling blood.”

BEN

The elevator ride felt like it took forever.

When the doors finally opened, Ben nearly sprinted toward Grace’s hotel room door. He knocked, but there was no answer, and he noticed that the ‘no housekeeping’ sign was still in place. She’d left it that way earlier that morning, claiming that she wanted to organize her makeup in the bathroom before subjecting one of the maids to her chaos.

He took out his phone and tried to call her again, but this time, instead of ringing, the computerized voice on the other end of the line informed him that her phone was no longer in service.

He knocked on the door several more times, with increasing intensity. Still nothing.

He felt the panic he’d tried to push down growing once again. Asher’s optimism was misplaced. Clearly, something had gone wrong.

Ben dialed Asher’s phone as he rushed down the hall, skipping the elevator and heading for the stairs instead. “Meet me in the security office in building C. She’s not answering my knocks and her phone is off.”

By the time he got downstairs, went outside, and reached the smaller building, Patrick and Asher were already standing outside waiting for him.

“You need to unlock Grace Hinton’s room,” he said, not bothering to say hello. To his credit, the head of security did not look offended by Ben’s brusque tone.

“Look, I know you’re worried, but with management gone–” Patrick started.

“Grace is like a sister to me,” Asher said, cutting the man off before he could say more. “I swear on my life thatshe would be absolutely fine with an invasion of her privacy under these circumstances.”

Ben shot him a grateful glance, glad he didn’t say like a sister to ‘us’. His feelings for Grace definitely ruled out referring to her as his sister, except maybe inside a church.

“If anyone ever asks, I’ll tell them we broke in,” Ben added, hoping he’d never have to tell the promised lie. “I’ll take full responsibility.”

Patrick looked between the two brothers before finally relenting with a long sigh, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a ring of keys. “I’ll stay here and check out the camera footage of her hallway from this morning. You two go and see if anything is amiss upstairs.”

“Thank you, man,” Asher said, shoving the keys into his pocket and heading out of the office with Ben at his heels.

As he’d suspected, Grace’s room was empty, with clothes half-folded on the bed and several piles of cosmetic products littering the bathroom counter.

“Okay. She didn’t vaporize into thin air,” Asher said. “So there must be some indication of where she went. Probably somewhere in this room. We can’t freak out and miss something important, so stay cool, okay?”

Ben nodded wordlessly and started rifling through the clothes in the closet, trying to see if maybe she’d changed into another outfit and left the room voluntarily.

He may as well keep his hands busy.

It was the only way he’d be able to stop himself from spiraling completely out of control.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FOUR

BEN

“Just eat, all right?”

Ben gripped the fork more tightly as he stared down at his bowl of pasta. He wasn’t hungry in the least, but Asher was right. They’d been looking for Grace for most of the day, and so far, they hadn’t turned up anything useful. Starving his already frazzled brain of nutrients wouldn’t do her any good.

He stabbed at a few pieces of garlic-butter-soaked rotini and shoved them into his mouth, hardly tasting the Mistflower’s delicious dish.

“So, we’ve searched the resort buildings from top to bottom. Nothing,” Asher said.

Ben nodded, swallowing a bite of food.

He peered at Ben as though waiting for confirmation to continue. Ben’s glare delivered a sufficient hint for him to get on with it.

---