Page 139 of Angel

Her designated parking slot was empty, and no lights glowed behind her third-floor windows.

I rang her bell a couple of times but got no answer.

Where the hell was she?

I got back in my ride and sat in it, mind racing.

I thought about calling her stepmother Elsa, but I nixed the idea fast.

That move would loop Reese into the mix.

Given my father-in-law’s ongoing threats, I couldn’t risk him flexing his legal and business muscles and sabotaging us further.

So where the hell was she?

Roxy was my entire world.

My life wasn’t worth living if I couldn’t be with her.

I called her phone, my hand shaking as the line rang out until the automated voicemail kicked in.

I hung up, cursing.

Deacon’s name flashed on my dashboard screen a minute later, his voice coming through the speakers.

‘You find Rox, mate?’

‘Nah. I fucked up. Evangeline escaped her detail,’ I rasped, rubbing my throbbing forehead. ‘She cornered Roxy at the venue. Now Roxy’s ghosted me, hell, taking all her shit and leaving her wedding ring on the kitchen bench. She also left a note; in essence she doesn’t want to see me.’

‘Man, that’s messed up,’ Deacon sighed.

‘I’m losing my freakin’ mind,’ I snarled. ‘I’ve no clue what toxic garbage Evangeline fed her.’

‘Let things chill for at least a few weeks,’ Deacon counseled. ‘Give her time to breathe, then try hitting her up again.’

‘I can’t just sit on my hands,’ I muttered. ‘I have to talk it out with her.’

‘Mate, if she’s asked for space, give it to her.’

‘Noted, but I still need to know where she is.’

We hung up, and I fired off an encrypted text to Amos, the Waring Partners’ investigator.

Angel: Mate, my wife, Roxy Rosedale Forrest, is missing. Please find her. Keep it low-key. Don’t approach her, but let me know when you locate her.

I tried Roxy’s mobile one last time, but it went straight to voicemail.

I drove home, defeated.

Grabbing a snifter of whiskey, I slumped into a chair beside my pool, staring into the night sky.

The lack of clarity around why Roxy left me and where she was ate at me, causing the deepest agony.

My ex must have spilled pure venom, making Roxy think we were hooking up.

Torment, worse than that of Evangeline leaving me, washed over me as my soul struggled with being blindsided by yet another Rosedale sister walking out on me.

I stayed awake for hours, sitting under the stars, shattered by the emptiness in my home without her.