Page 84 of Reckless Seduction
“I am sure we can work something out, then,” he glances at my lapel. “I see you will be bidding at the auction.”
I nod. “My brother and I are looking for something to share.”
Crowe chuckles. “Then we can discuss business there,” he assures me. “Hammer out all the details.” He glances at Bailey, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “I won’t be bidding, but I have a nice piece being put up on the auction block.”
“I will be sure to keep my eyes open.”
Crowe smirks.
“You do that.”
“Wait—” Bailey tugs at my sleeve, tears welling in her eyes. “Please don’t?—”
I brush her off before she can finish. She stumbles back, her heel catching on the hem of her dress. With a small cry, she lands on the tiled floor in a heap, tears streaming down her face. I have to keep myself from flinching when her father’s men tug her up from the floor and proceed to drag her toward the door.
“Wait, Kiernan. You don’t understand!” She cries as they drag her from the room, her father following closely behind. “Kiernan, please. Let me go! Kiernan, don’t let him take me away. He isn’t who he?—”
Silence falls as the doors slam shut behind them.
The room suddenly feels cavernous and lonely. My chest stings, a sharp ache spreading through me as I struggle to maintain the little composure I have left. I take a cleansing breath, my head tilting toward the ceiling, eyes closed as I tense and relax my muscles.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and for a moment, I consider not answering it. Until I remember that it could be important.
“Yeah?” I answer without bothering to look at the caller ID.
“Kiernan.” Bridgett’s voice is urgent. “Please tell me you haven’t done the trade yet.”
“They just took her away,” I tell her. “Why?”
“I have been doing all the digging I could on Toph Eriksen’s missing daughter,” she rushes. “And you are not going to believe what I stumbled on to.”
My hand clenches around the phone.
“What?”
“Bailey Jameson is Toph Eriksen’s missing daughter,” Bridgett tells me. “Richard Crowe kidnapped her when she was only three years old.”
No. That can’t be true.
“I am running a DNA analysis just to be sure, but everything I have gathered points to her.”
Motherfucker.
What have I done?
THIRTY-FOUR
“Kiernan?”My voice cracks as I say his name into the darkness that surrounds me. My throat is dry, my head heavy, and a weird metallic taste invades my senses. “Kiernan!”
Jesus, did I get run over by a semi-truck?
What happened? The last thing I remember is slipping the USB drive to Kiernan, and then my father?—
My stomach churns, bilious and sour. Groaning, I clutch it, unable to hold back the bile rising in my throat. What have they done to me? I heave into a small bucket until my stomach is empty. There isn’t much in there to start with. I was too nervous to eat before the gala.
The cobwebs in my mind start to fade, and I shake my head a little to clear it. Pushing myself up off the floor, I look around. Hushed voices and the sound of clinking glasses and moving chairs filter through the walls. There aren’t any windows in the small room, and I have to take several deliberate breaths to control the fear that threatens to swallow me whole.
I don’t do well in small spaces.
