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I tried not to think about how fucking scared I was that she’d been taken from us. If I did that, I’d fall apart.
Quinn was holding it together. He’d gone into full hacker mode and was talking to some shady dude he knew about getting access to the street cams around the stadium.
Brax, on the other hand, was losing his shit.
“Calm down, or we’ll get thrown out of this place.” We’d found another hotel while we tried to figure out what had happened. So far, Brax had broken a coffee table after flinging it across the room and then punched a hole in the wall. It was pretty clear we weren’t getting our security deposit back.
Oh well. That was a Quinn problem, not a me problem, as it was his credit card on file.
“I can’t,” he said, clenching his fists. “What if whoever took her is hurting her? She’s already been shot! These people are not messing around!”
I squeezed his shoulder. He was right. Stella could be in danger; anything might be happening to her right now. “I know but you trashing the hotel room isn’t helping,” I pointed out.”
“Yeah, sorry.” He sank down onto the chair by the window and stared at the floor. “I can’t believe it. Just as I reconcile how I feel about her, she’s gone. How fucked up is that?”
“It’s not fucked up, it’s just bad luck. We knew she was in danger. One of us should have gone with her to the restroom.”
Quinn looked up for a moment and I saw the guilt flash across his face. I knew he blamed himself for not going with her.
“However, she’s stubborn and even if we had insisted, she still would have refused an escort,” I added. “Besides, we were in a crowded stadium with 80,000 people, none of us believed there was any real danger.”
“We must have been followed,” Quinn said as his fingers flew over the keyboard. He wasn’t even looking at it. How the fuck did he do that? “Or someone knew we were going to be there and had people watching the entrances and exits.”
“But nobody knew our plans?” I pointed out.
The three of us went silent. Then Brax spoke. “My grandmother did.”
“Surely you don’t think she’s involved?” I scoffed. “I mean, she’s an evil old bag but she’s not criminally inclined.”
“Isn’t she?” Brax raked his hands through his messy hair and looked at the two of us. “The family business is legit, sure, but that guy she was with at the gallery is not legit.”
“The Mexican dude?” Quinn asked.
“Yeah, Mateo Silvo. He’s been around a lot over the years. I’ve looked into him before and couldn’t find anything, but there’s something about him I don’t like. He smiles and acts all polite but it’s like there’s nothing behind his eyes, just dead space.”
“Textbook sociopath,” I told them. “I’ve seen Silence of the Lambs and American Psycho.” I was only 13 at the time and frankly, they scared the shit out of me. I’d had fucking nightmares for weeks.
Quinn scoffed at my armchair psychoanalysis before looking thoughtful. “I’ll do some digging via my online contacts.”
“Did you hear back from your dad about the files on the drive?” Brax asked him and I perked up. In all the excitement, I’d forgotten about the files.
“Not yet, but it could take a while. There was a fuck ton of stuff on there.”
I sighed with disappointment. If we knew what Daniel Cancello was hiding, we might have a strong lead on who’d taken Stella.
“Maybe we would contact that FBI dude?” Brax suggested. “I know Stella didn’t trust him, but he’s in a better position to find her than us. What was his name again?”
“Agent Norcross,” Quinn replied. “Yeah. He has resources we don’t. I’ll see if I can dig up his contact details.”
Chapter 102
Brax
My head pounded and I was desperate for something to take the edge off my stress. Punching the wall hadn’t helped. Alcohol probably would but I’d resolved not to resort to my usual drug of choice. Me being off my face on booze wouldn’t help Stella. I was a better man because of her. She needed me and I was determined to be there for her. In any capacity.
I would do anything for her. Literally anything. I was ready to burn the entire world down to bring her back to me. To us. Whatever it took. I was done pretending Stella and I couldn’t be together.
I no longer cared if my grandmother cut me out of the family trust and gave my seat in the business to someone else.
