Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Dominic was trying to determine which offshore account they’d utilized. It wasn’t a matter of if they had, he explained. It was just a matter of where. I trusted he knew what he was talking about since he was a financial advisor to the wealthiest people in the country. Unlike the rest of us, he paced while he worked. His immaculate silver-gray hair smoothed back, his dark, hawk-like gaze fixed on some invisible horizon, his voice ranged from intent to menacing as he called his contacts at various banking institutes across the world.
I tried to focus on my own task. I was using every resource I had to track Cami, including shit I would lose my license for. I’d blurred the line between legal and illegal, but this was more egregious. The line I shouldn’t cross was a distant memory in my rear-view mirror. I would hack her, tap her, track her in any way I could.
If only I could.
It was like she’d vanished rather than left Croatia. None of us could find a single clue to explain why she had left, how she had left, or where she had gone with my daughter.
Every time I heard one of my friends hit a dead end, another needle of pain stabbed into my chest. I gritted my teeth so hard my jaw ached. The first time Cami disappeared, it hit me like a punch in the gut. I’d been surprised and then, strangely, pissed. How could she just leave? But then I’d had to let it go. I’d told her a dozen times we could never be anything serious? I’d told her I didn’t want her to waste her time on us because there couldn’t ever really be an us?
This time was different. I had been different. I’d been willing to give her everything. I’d let myself fall in love with her, and I’d even fucking told her. And even if she didn’t want it, that wasn’t a good enough explanation for why she had taken my daughter away again.
This time I was pissed for a good reason, and I held onto it tightly. It was a buffer against the stabbing pain of knowing that Emma was out there somewhere, but I had no idea where. It insulated against the fear that was pounding just outside of my skull. The fear that, if I let it in, would swamp me and flood out my ability to do the one thing that would defeat it – find Emma.
And make Cami regret thinking she could walk away again so easily.
Toward the end of the flight, we started packing up our computers and gear. After nearly ten hours, we all needed a break. The dead ends were starting to hit back, and exhaustion showed on every one of my friends’ faces.
Though it wasn’t even noon yet in LA, Garrett sifted through the bottles in the bar until he found the best whiskey the plane had to offer. He poured us each a finger, and we all drank. Even Julian, who hated whiskey, put it back. No one tried to toast or say a single placating word. We were all frustrated and baffled by our inability to find a single clue.
“It’s like they’re just fucking gone,” Garrett lamented. “Where is Big Brother when you need him?”
Dominic, Julian, and Garrett lived on the same side of town, so they shared a car. Con lived closest to me. He tried to invite himself over, but I wanted to be alone.
“You sure?” he asked. “I know a little about what it’s like.”
I knew he did. He and Lily had had their share of speed bumps along the way to matrimony. She was younger than him. His oldest daughter’s best friend. It hadn’t been pretty, but it hadn’t been anything like this either. There hadn’t been lawsuits and stalkers and a three-year-old daughter who was just starting to call him 'Daddy’ involved.
“I’m sure,” I said shortly.
Con didn’t take offense. That was the good thing about having friends who exhibited their own share of asshole behavior. They didn’t hold it against you. They didn’t think it meant you didn’t fucking care about them. It didn’t make them assume things, like that you’d be grateful if they left. I knew if I got back to my place and couldn’t take the silence, Con would still come over. He might say that he told me so, but he’d be there.
He probably even knew why I wanted to go home alone. That as wildly improbable as it was, I hoped Cami would be there. I had this picture in my head of walking through the front door and finding her and Emma in the kitchen, or maybe out on the terrace. She’d have an explanation. I didn’t care what it was. I made sure that the ring I bought her was in my pocket because in my mind, after she told me what the hell had happened, I’d propose. For real this time, not in that half assed way that had made her think I was doing it out of a sense of obligation. The rest of it was a blur. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, whether we’d be able to move into the house yet or how long it would take to neutralize the stalker. I just knew we’d be together, and everything would feel right again.