Page 94 of Liam
Thirty minutes later, I’m pulling up to the Valeur estate. The sheer size of the property still takes my breath away, a sprawling mansion that stretches across manicured lawns. I park my beat-up Prius next to a line of luxury vehicles, feeling more out of place than ever.
One of the housekeeping staff answers my tentativeknock, ushering me into a foyer that screams old money. Crystal chandeliers, priceless artwork, and antique furniture surround me, a stark reminder of the world Liam comes from—a world so different from my own.
As I follow her deeper into the house, the sounds of urgency grow louder. We enter a vast living room, and I’m struck by the controlled chaos within.
Ryder paces near a window, his phone pressed to his ear. His voice is low and intense as he speaks to someone named Zane. “Use every resource we have. Find him.”
On a plush sofa, Logan has his arm around a sobbing Cora. He murmurs words of comfort, but the worry etched on his face betrays his own fear. Cora looks up as I enter, her mascara streaked down her cheeks. “Aleria,” she chokes out. “Thank God you’re here.”
The elder Valeur sits in a high-backed chair with his head in his hands, and across the room, Lucas is engaged in what sounds like a heated phone conversation. “No, we can’t go to the police yet. Just...keep looking. Call me the moment you find anything.”
At a sleek desk in the corner, Sloane’s fingers fly across her laptop keyboard. She barely glances up as I approach, her eyes fixed on the screen with laser-like focus. “I’m trying to hack into the city’s traffic cam system,” she explains without preamble. “If we can track his car’s movements...”
The opulence of the room feels at odds with the panic in the air. Despite the wealth surrounding us, the Valeurs look as lost and scared as I am.
“Aleria,” Cora says. “You were the last to see Liam, as far as we know. Tell us exactly what happened.”
I recount the interaction, every detail I can remember. With each word, the sense of wrongness grows.
“He kept saying I should leave,” I mumble. “God, how could I have been so stupid? He was trying to warn me.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Logan says, his hand warm on my shoulder. “But now we need to find him.”
The next hour is a blur of activity. Zane tracked Liam’s phone and car, discovering that his phone is in his penthouse apartment and his car is in the garage downstairs. I suggest checking security cameras around his apartment building, and Logan sits at the laptop, remembering that he can access the security feed from inside Liam’s penthouse.
As we wait for the footage, I observe the family. Their concern is palpable, but so is their unity. Sloane hands me a cup of coffee, squeezing my hand as she does.
“We’re going to find him,” she says. “He’s too stubborn to let some asshole get the better of him.”
We crowd around the screen, tension thick in the air as Logan navigates through the footage. The timestamp shows the approximate hour of our breakup.
We see a man entering Liam’s penthouse, but he’s wearing one of those medical masks and keeps his face averted. He seems to know where the cameras are, carefully avoiding clear shots.
“Dammit!” Ryder slams his fist on the table. “This guy knows what he’s doing. He got past the security—all of it—how? How the hell does he know where all the cameras are?”
We see Liam being confronted in the kitchen. The gun, the posture, and Liam talking to me through the slightly open door with the man at his back, aiming the gun in my direction.
We watch as Liam is forced to leave with the man, and everyone bursts into action once again.
The tension in the room ratchets up with each dead end. I feel helpless, my mind replaying my last interaction with Liam over and over. If only I’d realized sooner...
We divide into teams, each tackling a different aspect of the problem. Logan and Sloane hunker down at the computer, their faces illuminated by the screen’s glow as they work on tracing the abductor’s movements through traffic cameras.
“If we can track the car he used to take Liam, we might be able to pinpoint where he’s holding him,” Logan mutters, his eyes never leaving the screen.
Sloane nods, her fingers flying over the keyboard. “I’m accessing the city’s traffic cam network now. We’ll start from Liam’s building and work our way out.”
Ryder and Cora huddle together on the couch, compiling a list of properties this man might be using. “He’d need somewhere isolated,” Cora says, her voice tight with worry. “Somewhere he could hold someone without raising suspicion.”
“I’m checking abandoned buildings, warehouses, anything off the grid,” Ryder responds, scrolling through his tablet.
Meanwhile, Ava and I spread out maps of the city on the large dining table. We pore over them, looking for any location that might match the background we glimpsed in the video.
“It has to be somewhere secluded,” I mutter, more to myself than to Ava. “Somewhere that wouldn’t draw attention.”
Ava circles a few areas on the map. “What about theseindustrial zones on the outskirts? Lots of empty buildings, not much foot traffic.”
I nod. “Good thinking. Let’s cross-reference these with Ryder and Cora’s list.”
