Page 50 of The Kiss that Captured a Billionaire
Her fingers drifted to her throat before she remembered—there was no locket there anymore. Theo had taken it. Her vision blurred, but she blinked the tears back. She had other pictures of her parents. She’d make a new locket.
Her hand slipped to her left arm, rubbing absently over the birthmark beneath the sleeve of her coat. She focused on the steady motion, grounding herself in the feel of the knit and the muted hum of the road beneath the truck tires.
Time and distance, that was the cure.Time for the wound to scab and distance to keep Theo Kallistratos from ever finding me again.
She kept her eyes fixed on the horizon until the skyline disappeared completely, willing her heart to harden. This was her fresh start—and she’d burn every bridge to keep it.
Three days.
Three infuriating, sleepless, gut-twisting days since Rose had vanished without a trace. From the moment she slipped out, he’d been ready to strangle himself for letting her get away. Now the frustration had hardened into a gnawing impatience.
Her friend Kerry had been no help.
When Kerry had finally answered one of his calls, she’d greeted him in a tone dripping with false sweetness:‘Why don’t you jump in a pot of boiling water—oh, and while you’re at it, drop dead. I can put the pot on the stove if you’d like.’
Then she hung up and blocked his number.
Nikos had laughed for a solid thirty seconds when Theo told him. Theo didn’t think it was nearly as funny.
Mimi had eventually, reluctantly, given up Rose’s phone number. Not that it mattered—every call went straight to voicemail. Every message, unanswered.
He stood at the window now, his jaw tight, the city sprawling endlessly beneath him. He had London and Paris meetings he should have been attending this week, but Nikos had handed those off to his twin, Markos, so he could stay here and focus on what actually mattered—finding Rose.
The sound of the office door opening pulled him from his thoughts. Nikos strolled in like a man returning from a holiday, not three days of hunting a missing woman.
“What have you found?” Theo asked.
Nikos held up a folder. “Special delivery.”
Theo pivoted, his hand snapping out to take it. Inside, a neatly clipped report waited. His eyes landed on the heading, his pulse thudding harder as he flipped it open.
DNA Results.
The breath he pulled in was slow and deliberate, as though steadying himself before a fight. The familiar ache of anticipation tightened in his chest. A sample of Rose’s blood, taken when she nicked her finger in the kitchen and discarded her Band-Aid before her shower, had been enough to confirm what he already knew in his bones—Rose was Livia’s daughter.
He closed his eyes for a moment, his head bowed over the file. The proof should have brought him peace. Instead, it brought fire—because the woman he’d betrayed was the very one he’d been searching for all along.
When he looked up again, Nikos was lounging in the chair opposite him, legs stretched out like a man without a care in the world and a smug smile pulling at his mouth.
“What the hell are you so happy about? This doesn’t change the fact that she’s disappeared,” Theo asked, his tone sharper than intended.
Nikos nodded toward the folder. “Keep reading.”
Theo’s brow furrowed as he turned the page—and froze. A grainy traffic cam image stared back at him, a box truck caught mid-frame. The words Evans Classic Furniture were stenciled across the side in bold script, along with a colorful design that looked like custom-made furnishings. A phone number and location: Nebraska.
“What does this have to do with Rose?” he demanded.
Nikos stretched his arms overhead, catlike, and grinned. “Kerry’s last name is Evans.” He jabbed a finger toward the picture. “That’s her brother’s business. He owns a custom furniture store outside of Omaha. That shot was taken three days ago, right outside Kerry’s apartment.”
Theo’s fingers tightened around the page. “Where’s the rest?”
“Ah,” Nikos drawled, the sound stretching like he had all the time in the world. “Go on. Turn the page. You’ll like this.”
Theo did—and his breath caught. Another image, this one clearer, closer. Two women embracing on the sidewalk. One of them—hair falling over her shoulder, face tilted up in a sad smile—was Rose.
Nikos leaned back, utterly pleased with himself. “Cost us a couple VIP tickets to the club and the promise of a blind date with the traffic controller’s sister, but if it works out, it was worth it.”
Theo’s eyes never left the photograph. “Can we prove she left with him?”
