Page 107 of Roots of the Wicked

Chapter Forty-Five

Chase

Tony, my security lead’s, desperate tone came through the phone, commanding my immediate attention.

“We can’t find Ms. Saint-Pierre. The surveillance footage showed her on her laptop in the living room before noon, but hasn’t provided us any clues as to when, or how she got off the property. We canvased the neighborhood to see if she’d gone for a walk, but so far nothing. We’ve made several attempts, but she won’t answer her phone.”

Attempting to calm my sparking nerves, I rocked back in my chair.

Don’t overreact,I told myself. Jax wanted alone time. Numerous times, she complained about being cooped up in the house. She was a walking computer, so she probably manipulated the surveillance so she wouldn’t be seen leaving.

“Tony, hold on. I’ll call her.”

After dialing Jax’s number and hearing it go straight to voice mail, three times in a row, the fire lighting my nerves blazed uncontrolled. She always answered me, no matter how much my overprotectiveness pissed her off.

My anxious steps filled the space of my office. I paced, attempting to settle my nerves that had gone haywire. I aimed my desperate words toward the sky. “Please God, let me be overreacting.”

The idea Jax could’ve been taken had me plagued with ideas of all the horrific things someone could do to her and my son simply because she was with me. I called her job, but no one had seen her. Her friend Lena, who I hadn’t met yet was back in Dubai, based on their last chat. I had also heard her speaking to her father on the phone, but I was clueless as to how to contact him.

Think Chase think.

I pulled up the Find My Friends, app that we had installed on our phone the same day I found out she was pregnant.

A glance at my watch showed, twenty minutes past one in the afternoon. I redialed Tony.

“Check the house, thoroughly, and send someone to check the main gate entrance. Her phone is near, so I’m hoping she just went for a walk.”

***

An hour later, me, Tony, and the security team had searched every corner of the house and grounds. The overcast sky hid the sun, projecting a gloominess that spoke to mine.

Tony’s pitying gaze met mine. “I’m sorry, sir. I called as soon as we discovered her gone.”

My gaze lifted past Tony’s shoulder to another member of the security team, Chris. He was approaching with the oversized black purse Jax usually carried. The sight of him with her bag caused my heart to turn to dust in my chest.

“The guards at the main gate said she climbed into a blue sedan that they believe was an Uber. I did a walking search of the area and found her purse just outside the view of the main gates. It appeared to have been tossed from the car,” Chris informed us. “The security team pulled up surveillance, but it only shows her climbing into the car of her own accord. The view of the driver was unclear.”

The information being given, wasn’t translating to her being taken. There had to be an explanation. My arm jerked from the weight of the purse when it was handed to me. Somehow, I found the strength to rifle through it.

The sight of her phone in the small inside pocket, siphoned the last of my strength. My legs threatened to buckle as they wobbled under my weight. The air around me grew thick and my lungs collapsed. My erratic breathing had my chest compressing with choppy movements.

I had never loved someone so deeply, that the idea of losing them could bring about my own demise. The threat of them being taken from me, of something happening to them, was too much. My heart was beating too fast. I couldn’t breathe. I think I was having a panic attack. I clutched my chest with my free hand, my gaze still aimed inside the purse.

“What is it?” Tony questioned.

My throat clenched so tightly with fear; I couldn’t speak. Tony took a careful step closer and followed my stuck gaze. He did what I was too afraid to do. He reached into the purse and retrieved Jax’s phone. With no purse or phone, she had no way to call for help, a clear sign—someone had taken her.

My vision blurred as fear seized me and kicked my anxious energy up to full-blown panic. She had found a way off my property with security on the premises and had been driven away from our guarded, and gated community without setting off any red flags.

This led me to believe the danger we had been flirting with, went far beyond someone leaking pictures and paying off spies. Tony placed the call to the police, as I probed my mind attempting to figure out where else she could have gone besides work.

“Yes. I’d like to report a missing person: Jadzia Saint-Pierre. A twenty-eight-year-old African American female. She’s about five-foot-six, one-hundred and forty pounds; she was wearing a green T-shirt dress, and green and white tennis shoes. She’s five months pregnant. She was taken from the area near, 1252 Jennings Court, Westport. She’s nowhere on the grounds. We found her purse outside the main gates with her phone inside. Will you dispatch someone immediately?”

I kept my eyes on Tony as he spoke with the dispatcher. His lips moved, but I didn’t compute all the words because my brain was overrun with negative thoughts. He shook his head at whatever the dispatcher was saying. When he hung up, his gaze locked with mine.

“They are sending two detectives. When I mentioned Jax’s name, they knew who she was because of the recent news. They usually require more time before they render someone a missing person but based on the media attention you two have recently gotten, that didn’t seem to matter.”

On one hand, if Jax wasn’t missing, she was going to kill us all because Tony had confirmed to the dispatcher she was pregnant, which meant the media would blow up the story.

I could picture the headline:

Billionaire's Pregnant Girlfriend Kidnapped.

On the other hand, if Jax was missing, the media could work in our favor in helping to find her.

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