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The men jerk me up, the lady brings a shovel to the side of my face, pain exploding along my temple and jaw, radiating all over my body as I fall sideways. My body smacks into the wood. I grip my jaw as my eyes begin to close. I hear noise around me, feel the air become thin, the weight that lands on top of the box, the hammering, but I can’t focus with the pain spreading throughout my skull.
And then I hear nothing.
I open my eyes.
Darkness.
CHAPTER 30
EASTON
It’s been days since I’ve seen Jasmine. I haven’t slept a wink as we search New York, the whole family pulling strings to get information from anyone. I crack my neck, sitting in my living room that’s been turned into an investigation room. Everett has multiple computer screens pulled up, searching every square inch, nowhere left untraced.
“How did she even get in the building?” I ask, running my hands over my unshaved face. “Security is top-notch.”
Everett frowns, typing fast on his computer until video footage of the night of Jasmine’s disappearance pops up on the screen, and then he goes back to twenty-four hours before that. We speed through time, until six p.m. on the night of Jasmine’s kidnapping. “Stop. There.” I point to the man and a woman walking in. She laughs, red hair reflecting off the lobby’s chandelier as she clutches the man’s arm, walking to the elevator. We watch the numbers rise until they reach level five and step off to that floor. They begin undressing, barely making it into the room.
We watch as she reappears fifty minutes later, stopping to smooth her hair down using the hallway mirror, reapplying her lipstick. She walks to the elevator, and we switch to Jasmine’s floor, just two floors under my own. She walks off the elevator, hands brushing along the walls and doors as she goes, until she reaches Jasmine’s. They seem to have some altercation, the mystery woman pulling out a gun and shoving her way in. They are in there for minutes before I walk in and then, moments later, she walks out, a dress bag slung over her shoulder. “Oh my God,” Makenna whispers from behind me.
“What?” I turn around.
She stumbles over her words for a moment. My patience begins to run fucking thin. “Spit it the fuck out,” Everett barks.
“That… that’s my sister.”
“Your family is fucking crazy,” I lash out, pushing away from her, needing space.
“What the fuck is wrong with you guys?” Everett asks, shaking his head as he types more on the computer.
Makenna’s eyes are glassy as she watches him. “We may be ruthless, but the Irish mafia is soulless,” she whispers. “Why do you think I escaped?”
We ignore her. “She had to get out somehow.” I sigh, tucking a joint in my mouth.
“Through the basement exit, but after that?” He sighs. “I don’t fucking know, East. I can’t track any vehicles that register on the database.”
“Could she have stolen the man’s?”
Everett sighs. “No, I checked. It’s still parked.”
“Fuck,” I growl, sending my coffee flying to the wall across from me.
We have all the money in the world, and we couldn’t even find one of our own. What’s the fucking point if everything isn’t at our fingertips? Fuck this. The whole room grows quiet as we come to a dead end. All I can think about is how much pain she might be in. How scared she is. Makenna’s phone rings, and she answers it desperately. “Hello?”
A soft, cold laugh filters through her phone as Everett taps into the call, bringing it over the speakers. “Makenna, love, how are you?”
“Where’s my daughter?” Makenna squeezes her phone in her hand as Jackson comes up behind her.
“Now, now. Don’t you miss me? Want to catch up with one another?”
“No!” Makenna shouts, voicing shaking in anger.
“You always were rude, Makenna. Very unbecoming. Very well. I’m going to send you a number. I want that exact amount transferred into my account and then I will send you the location of your daughter. You have an hour. Bye-bye, little sister.”
The room goes silent as we all stare at Makenna’s phone. When the call ends, she jumps, punching her code in and swiping it open quickly. “She wants ten million.”
“Fucking send it,” my mom barks, snatching my joint from me and shoving it between her lips.
Makenna gives Everett the banking account number as he quickly types in the information, making the transfer. “It’ll only take a minute. While we wait, I’m going to try to hack into her phone.”
