Page 22 of Enchant Me

Do you really love her, or is she just one more woman you treat like a whore?

7

“Damien!” Nikki’s shrill cry jarred Damien away from a discussion about a permitting issue on a new real estate project. He caught Ryan’s eye in the same instant that they both sprinted for the stairs, with Jackson right behind them.

“Check the playroom!” Damien called back to Sylvia, who took off running to the first floor room.

Damien reached the landing only seconds before Ryan to find Nikki gaping at him. He yanked her into his arms. “What is it? What happened?”

Her answer was cut off by Sylvia calling out that the kids were fine, and in that moment his terror faded somewhat. Not completely, though. His wife was pale, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and fury “Nikki? What—”

“That!” She thrust her hand toward the painting, and he immediately saw the note taped to the portrait. The note that called his wife a whore.

“Son of a bitch.” The word burst from him, fueled by both fury and fear. Fury that someone had come into the house and violated their personal space. Fear for the children, because Damien knew better than anyone just how vulnerable they were. “Whoever did this—”

“They’re fucking with us in our private space,” she said, the fury in her voice matching his own.

He wanted to rip the damn note down, tear it into pieces, but he couldn’t. It needed to stay where it was until they had the chance to examine it, check for fingerprints, do all of the grunt work that comes with a threat.

Nikki’s hand closed tight in his, and he met her eyes. He saw her fear, and he forced himself to dial back his own. To channel it into control and action. Because he would find whoever did this, and he would make them very, very sorry.

“I didn’t mean to scream and terrify you. I just—well, ugh.” She lashed out, smacking the shit out of the banister. “Fuck. I just wasn’t expecting this in my living room.”

“I know, baby. Believe me, I know.”

“No one expects the Spanish Inquisition,” Jamie said, which was absurd, but had the effect of lightening the moment. And the fact that she didn’t ask who could possibly have done such a thing—as Jackson was asking right then—suggested to Damien that Nikki had told her about the video. And Jamie, of course, had told Ryan.

Jackson held out his hands. “You weren’t expecting this?” he said, repeating back Damien’s words.

“You should have filled me in yourself this afternoon,” Ryan said. “I would have brought in a team.”

Jackson looked between the two of them. “Filled you in? On what? Come on, little brother,” he demanded, his full attention on Damien. “What the hell is going on?”

“I intended to tell you everything tonight once we were all up here with a drink in our hands. Looks like someone stepped on my line,” he added with a glance toward Jamie, who smiled sheepishly and held up her hands in surrender.

“I only told Ryan,” she said. “You still get to be the one to fill Jackson in.”

He fought back a much-needed laugh, then gestured for the sofas. Nikki held back, her attention on the first floor where Sylvia and Bree were hurrying toward them, the latter now barefoot and in a tank top and jeans. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a single ponytail, making her eyes look even wider.

“What happened?” she asked, her question overlapping with Sylvia’s statement that, “The kids are fine. What’s going on?”

“You were downstairs?” Nikki asked Bree. “I thought you were at your place, and Ronnie was playing babysitter.”

“Ronnie’s in charge,” Bree confirmed as both she and Syl climbed the stairs. “I didn’t want to take that away from her. But I felt weird leaving them alone in the house with people here….” She trailed off as she met Damien’s eyes. “I know Alaine’s your friend, but I don’t know his staff, and, well, after everything this morning….”

She shrugged, looking a bit sheepish. Though they hadn’t shown her the video, he and Nikki had told Bree that someone had sent a potentially threatening text. Considering their shared history with the kidnapping, she deserved to be among the first to know.

“You did great,” he told her. “I’d never doubt your judgment about taking care of the kids.”

“Thanks.” She aimed the words at both him and Nikki, her brow furrowing. “But what’s going on.”

Jackson had been standing in front of the note, but now he stepped away. “This. You were in and out with the kids all evening. Any chance you saw someone where they weren’t supposed to be?”

Her eyes went wide as she saw the note, then she slowly shook her head. “I haven’t seen anyone in here. I never even crossed paths with the caterers. But I spent most of my time outside with the kids except to take Bradley to the bathroom.” She looked between Damien and Nikki. “Is there anything on the security feed?”

“Doing that now,” Ryan said, and Damien glanced over, unsurprised to see that his friend and head of security for all of Stark International was on the ball.

“There was a man,” Nikki said, addressing both Damien and Ryan. “Before the wedding, I saw someone sitting in the last row. He was dressed like one of the servers, and although it was odd, I didn’t think too much about it.”