Page 70 of Forged in Secrets

He lifted up his phone and looked at it again. Craig Gorsky’s handsome face waited on the screen, which reminded him that he now had two missed calls.

A thought rose in his mind, as sudden and attention-grabbing as a red notification bell.

Could Craig be connected to all of this somehow?

He closed his eyes, as though shutting out the serene decor of his luxury hotel room would help him to concentrate on the puzzle set before him.

He had mentored Craig from the very beginning of his career. He’d watched as he founded Lumen as a new college graduate, bringing the company up to a billion-dollar valuation in record time. He had no motive to kidnap Grace Hinton for ransom, and in any case, no ransom had been demanded for Katie at all. He was far more successful than Donald himself was, especially now.

He released a breath and sat up in bed, rubbing at his temples.

Craig Gorsky had nothing to do with any of this.

Still, he knew that he should have told the team from Forge Brothers Security the truth about their dealings from the start. He supposed he still could, but for what?

It wouldn’t do anything to bring his daughter or Gracehome, and it would probably end in him losing the company he loved forever.

There had to be some piece he was missing, something that brought everything together, but he felt no closer to figuring out what it was.

He glanced over at the suitcase that he’d left near the closet door. He desperately wanted to shove all of his clothes into it and catch the next flight back to Texas. He could pound the sidewalks of South Padre Island until his daughter turned up. At least it would feel like he was doing something to help.

Instead, he moved for the door, scooping up his sleek leather Hermès wallet as he passed by the desk. If he left China now, if this microchip deal didn’t go through before he was able to dump his Lumen stock, AveroTech was finished. He’d be selling the wallet on Facebook marketplace to rustle up some cash, and he’d be getting off easy compared to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs.

Katie would understand why he had to stay. He’d hired the best to find her.

His life was a mess, but everything would work out in the end. There was simply no other option.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-NINE

GRACE

Grace’s eyes shot open.

Somewhere outside of the confines of her cabin, she could hear footsteps.

She hadn’t expected to be able to fall asleep, but apparently, her exhaustion had outweighed her anxiety. As she sat up on the narrow mattress, she realized she could see a little. The porthole revealed a slight hint of light. The sun would rise soon. She’d been gone for almost twenty-four hours.

She swallowed the fresh tears that threatened to escape. Her parents would be so worried about her.

And so would Ben.

He’d blame himself for letting her walk away, but how could he have known that someone was stalking her movements while wielding a syringe full of sedatives?

They both could have made better decisions, but it was too late now to take anything back. She hoped that God would lead him and Asher in the right direction,but it wasn’t like she’d had a chance to leave behind a clue.

Before she could ponder the issue further, she heard a knock at the door. The overhead light flicked on.

A well-dressed man in his early forties strode in, carrying a large plate with an omelet, three slices of bacon, and some toast. All at once, she realized she was ravenous, but she stayed where she sat, eyeing the food warily as he set it down on the small desk.

“You can eat,” the man said. “If we–if I was going to poison you, I would have made sure the poison was in the syringe already.”

He had a point.

As she sat down at the desk and took several bites of the hot meal, he watched her, the light of the rising sun gleaming on his deep copper skin. She knew she should be afraid of him, but there was something in his demeanor that allowed her to let her guard down just a little.

“Thank you,” Grace said after nibbling through her final piece of toast.

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