Page 98 of Rejected By My Stepbrother Alpha
“Ivy! Ivy! Wake up! Adrian’s gone. He…”
The rest of my words stuck in my throat. I couldn’t say it. If I said it out loud, that would make it true. And my son couldn’t have been kidnapped. He couldn’t be gone. Not after I just got to know him. Not after he just told me he loved me.
With trembling hands, I shook her awake, and her eyes sprang open, immediately alert as only a parent could be after being dead asleep.
She sat up, frantically shoving her hair away from her face.
“What do you mean Adrian’s gone?” she said, her voice low and filled with dread.
Her face was drained of all color. She was paler than the white blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Even her lips were white as they quivered with fear.
My Mate’s terrified expression was what made the truth finally slam into me like a speeding truck. The room around me spun as my stomach turned.
But I grabbed onto the bed in front of me, forcing my panic attack to stop. I had to be strong right now. For my son and for Ivy.
“She took him,” I told Ivy. “Your mother took our son.”
Immediately, we sprang out of bed. As we raced down the stairs—because the elevator was too slow—I called my head guard, demanding to know how this had happened. He said to meet him in the hotel surveillance room and he could show me.
We sprinted into a room filled with large monitors displaying every inch of the hotel. Mason and Damian were already there. Their terrified expressions mirrored my own.
“I’m so sorry,” Damian started when he saw Ivy and me. “I only went out on the balcony of his room for a moment because I didn’t want to wake him up when I called—“
I raised my hands to stop him and nodded. I didn’t blame him. I should have been there to protect my son. But I wasn’t going to waste time comforting him by telling him it wasn’t his fault. That wouldn’t help bring my son back.
“Show me,” I demanded to my head guard, who was sitting at the largest monitor.
“Adrian was able to leave through Ivy’s room,” my guard explained as the monitor showed Adrian slipping out of Ivy’s door when the guard in front of his room had his back turned.
Ivy put her hands to her mouth and gasped. “He must have used the door that connects our rooms. But why would he leave his room? We’ve told him a million times we were in lockdown. He knows he’s not allowed to leave the hotel under any circumstances.”
“He never actually leaves the hotel,” my guard said and nodded toward the monitor. “Watch.”
Everyone was silent as we watched the tape of Adrian in the elevator. His face seemed determined. When the camera angle changed again, Adrian was walking onto the dark rooftop.
“Isn’t there a guard up there?” I demanded.
My head guard froze, and his eyes went wide. “Yes, usually. But this was during a shift change…”
A growl ripped from my mouth. I’d deal with him later.
On the monitor, my son headed for the table where we usually putour stuff. He got onto his hands and knees as if he was searching underneath the chairs and tables.
“What is he looking for?” Mason asked.
Ivy gasped again. “He must have left one of his cars up there when we were swimming earlier!” She turned to me. “That’s why I reminded him to grab all his cars before he left. He’s very particular about having all of his cars with him. He must have remembered before he fell asleep and went to grab it. He probably knew he shouldn’t be out of bed, but justified it because he wasn’t technically leaving the hotel.”
At this point, her eyes were wild as she tried to make sense of the situation.
I put my arm around her and pulled her to my side. “I think you're right.”
The video continued to play, and as Adrian was searching the pool deck, a bright light illuminated him from above. Adrian put his hand in front of his face to shield his eyes and blinked up at the light.
“What the hell is that?” I demanded, my stomach sinking with dread, even though I already knew how this ended.
“We think that the kidnappers were lying in wait for an opportunity like that,” the guard explained as the video showed a large black helicopter lowering down in front of Adrian, his brown hair whipping from the wind.
Ivy’s hands were trembling by her sides as she watched the video with wide, frantic eyes.
