Page 115 of The Billionaire's Virgin

Chapter Thirty-Three

Reed

“Fuck.”

“Still no answer?” Jennifer asked, looking up at me.

“Nope,” I sighed. “She’s not picking up. Why wouldn’t she pick up?”

“Maybe you should just go find her?” Jennifer suggested.

“I would,” I replied. “Only I don’t know exactly where she is. I’d be running around in circles without knowing where to find her.”

“True.” Jennifer nodded. “I’m sure she’s okay…. she just wants to feel like she’s doing something.”

“You don’t sound so confident of that,” I pointed out.

“That she wants to feel like she’s doing something?” Jennifer asked.

“No, that she’s okay,” I said.

Jennifer paused, and that pause was all I needed. It’s not like I needed confirmation to let me know that Taylor was not all right, but it certainly made things a little scarier, and it gave me more to worry about. What if Taylor did something stupid in her devastation?

“Fuck,” I said again, this time under my breath.

“Did you say something?” Jennifer asked.

“No,” I muttered. “I was just… praying.”

I continued to pace across my apartment, checking my phone every two seconds. Sofia’s face was being telecast on the local news. They had started almost six minutes ago, but still, no one had reported having seen her. There was absolutely nothing to go on at the moment. They had tried tracking Sofia through her phone, but she hadn’t used it in the last twenty-four hours.

Her last location put her in her father’s penthouse apartment across the city, but obviously, she was no longer there. She had been using disposable phones and different numbers in the last twenty-four hours and no charges had been made to any of her cards, credit or debit. She was smart enough to know how to fly under the radar, so obviously, there was some logic to her madness. It baffled me how I had refused to see certain things about her personality, however. I had interpreted her aggressive pursuit of me to be interest. But I had never read it as unorthodox or peculiar in any way. I could barely even remember details of my time with Sofia now. It seemed like a dream of a dream, so it shocked me that she was still plaguing my life to this extent.

My phone rang, and I fumbled to get it from my trouser pocket, hoping that it was the police calling to say that Jenna had been found and she was safe. Or at the very least it was Taylor calling to tell me that she was on her way home. But when I looked down at my phone, I couldn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?” I said, with my heart in my chest. Could this possibly be Sofia?

“Reed.”

I felt my blood go hot with anger and I had the illogical urge to fling the phone across the room. “You have some nerve calling me,” I spat.

“Reed, just calm down—”

“Calm down?” I repeated furiously. “Your fucking daughter kidnaps my four-year-old, and you’re telling me to be calm?”

To his credit, Mr. Burton sounded ashamed. But that didn’t appease me one bit. “I never anticipated her taking it this far—”

“Then you don’t know your daughter,” I hissed. “She’s a psychopath. She’s a madwoman with a vendetta against me. And this time, I’m going to make sure she’s locked up for a long time. Nothing you can say is going to stop me this time—”

“Reed, I understand you’re angry—”

“Angry doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling,” I said. “She’s four. She’s a little girl, and she’s with a woman who once threatened to fling her off my balcony. I can’t even imagine how Jenna must be feeling. And there’s nothing I can do…”

“We’re both fathers here—”

“Except that you’re the father of an unhinged kidnapper and I’m the father of an innocent child. Kindly don’t make comparisons between us, Burton. We’re not the same. Not even close.”

“You called the papers,” Burton replied calmly.