Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

I pick up a paperweight and throw it across my office. It hits the minibar. Numerous bottles smash and fall to the floor, the amber contents spilling out and staining the carpet.

“Fuck!” I yell. It’s been a week, a whole fucking week, and I have no idea where the fuck Dani is. I don’t know if she’s hurt? If she’s sick? If something unthinkable has happened to her…

I’ve been to her apartment every day. I’ve broken in—screw the consequences—and she hasn’t been back there. I’ve been calling, leaving messages for her every hour on the hour for the past week. She hasn’t read a single thing I’ve sent. I’ve gone as far as to call every fucking hospital in the city to make sure she isn’t in one of them. No one here has heard from her. I need to find her. I need her to fucking come back.

The more I think about it, the angrier I get. She fucking left without talking to me, without giving me a chance to explain. She should have more faith in me than to believe I’d ever cheat on her.

“Fuck her!” I yell out, picking up my iMac and chucking it across the room. The cord rips out of the back just before it hits the wall.

“Feel better?” Xavier asks me from where he’s leaning against the doorframe.

“No. Fuck off. I’m not in the mood,” I tell him.

“Too bad. Because we’re not letting you destroy this office any more than you already have. Your little temper tantrum isn’t going to get you results. Nor are you setting a good example for the rest of the staff,” Nathan says, stepping inside and shutting the door.

“You wouldn’t understand,” I tell them.

“You’re right. We don’t understand because you won’t fucking tell us what happened between you two in the first place.” Xavier swipes a heap of papers off the sofa and takes a seat.

I look around my once-impeccable office, which is now in shambles. Fucking hell. This is why I knew better than to let myself get too involved with anyone. It always ends, and it’s never fucking pretty when it does. I wonder if this is how my father felt when my mother up and left him out of the blue…

He became a shell of the man he was when they were married. She cheated on him. Took seventy percent of his money, his business, and basically destroyed his self-worth.

I was meant to learn from his mistakes. I should have fucking learnt from his mistakes. I’m smarter than this. I’m too fucking smart to allow a woman—any woman—to creep in and fucking destroy me. She might not have taken my financial freedom, but I’d rather give her every cent than endure the torture of feeling like my heart is shattering from the inside out.

It fucking hurts. It fucking sucks. Unlike any pain I’ve ever felt.

Dani somehow slinked into my life, under my skin, and injected herself right into my bloodstream. Without her, it feels like my whole body is shutting down. I know it’s not. I’m being dramatic. But, fuck, I want her to walk back through that fucking door. I want those innocent eyes of hers to look up at me as if I’m her reason for breathing—like they did just a week ago.

“Okay, out with it. What’d you do?” Nathan asks, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes laser-focused on me.

“What the fuck makes you think it was me? How do you know it wasn’t her?” I counter.

“Was it?” Xavier lifts a brow in question.

“No. It was a misunderstanding,” I huff out, my hands raking through my hair of their own accord.

“What kind of misunderstanding?” Nathan pushes.

“The kind where she walked in when Mrs Dalmore was attempting to give me a fucking blow job,” I growl out while pulling at the ends of my hair. I didn’t even get my dick sucked and I’m paying the price as if I had. Not that I wanted it. Dani is the only one I want on her knees in front of me.

“Did you…?” Xavier asks.

“No, it wasn’t my fault. I was telling her no. I told her to get up, and I was trying to pry her hands off my pants when Dani opened the door,” I attempt to explain.

“Have you told this to Dani?” Xavier questions, like I haven’t thought of it myself.

“How the fuck am I meant to tell her when she won’t answer my calls? Won’t even read a fucking text message with my name on it?” I grunt at him.

“Want me to find out where she is?” Xavier smirks.

“How the fuck can you find her when I can’t?” I point a finger at my chest.

“Because I have connections you don’t,” he says simply.

“Find her,” I tell him.

“Done.” He pulls his phone out of his pocket, presses a button, and puts the device to his ear. “LuLu, I need a favour from that no-good boyfriend of yours,” he says. I don’t hear his sister’s reply, but moments later, Xavier puts the phone on speaker.

“Xavier, what can I do for you?” a deep male voice asks.

“Dom, I need you to put those stalking skills of yours to use and find someone for me,” Xavier explains.

“Who and why?” Dom replies.

“Danielle Hutchinson, an employee. She’s, ah, missing,” Xavier says.

“Fine, give me five.” The phone cuts off.

“Guess having your sister date a psychopath does come in handy.” Xavier laughs.

“Not funny. Lucy could do a lot fucking better,” I tell him.

“She could,” he agrees.

Five minutes later, the phone rings. “Xavier, how exactly do you know this girl?” Dom says in greeting. The guy isn’t one for pleasantries—that much is evident.

“Why? I told you. She’s an employee.”

“No reason. Couldn’t find her. Sorry, mate.” Dom cuts the call again.

“What the fuck was that about?” I ask Xavier.

“No idea.” He shrugs. “Have you tried contacting any of her friends?”

“If I knew where they lived or their numbers, I would. I’ve been to her apartment. She hasn’t been back there all week.”

His phone rings a second time. “Lucy?” he answers. Once again, I don’t hear what his sister says to him. Xavier nods his head and verbalizes his agreement before hanging up.

“What’d she say?” I ask.

“Dani’s at her friend Eloise’s house. Lucy’s going to go see her.”

“What’s the address? I’ll tag along.”

“You can’t,” Xavier says.

“Why the fuck not?”

“Because her friend lives with Gio De Bellis. Dani has been staying at their house.”

It clicks. I know the name. And I remember Dani saying something about Eloise having a new boyfriend. I don’t’ recall her mentioning who he was though. “I don’t give a fuck. I want my girlfriend back,” I yell louder than I need to in the enclosed space.

“Girlfriend? What happened to this is just two consenting adults having fun ?” Nathan asks with a raised brow.

“Shut up,” I tell him, my eyes dropping to my computer screen and my mind working overtime.

“Look, Lucy will call back after she stops in to see Dani. Just give her a few hours.”

“And why are we okay with Lucy visiting the De Bellis house?” I ask.

“She’s going with Dom. Do you really think that guy is going to let anyone touch a hair on my sister’s head? Please, he could be up against a whole army and my money would still be on him. When it comes to Lucy, the bastard’s unhinged,” Xavier says with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Two hours and half a bottle of whiskey later, Xavier’s phone rings from its spot on the coffee table. “Lucy, is she okay?” I swipe up the device before Xavier can get to it.

“She’s fine, Alistair. And you didn’t hear this from me, because girl code and all, but she is heading over to her apartment now,” Lucy tells me.

“She’s going to be at her apartment?” I clarify.

“Yep,” she says, popping the P.

I need to get there first. I need to be there when Dani arrives. I may have gone overboard with the flowers. I’ve been having them delivered every day, bringing them inside for her every night. Her apartment is filled to the brim with various floral arrangements.

“Give her space, Alistair. She really loves you. She will listen when she’s ready. I think she’s just hurt, and if you really did what she thinks you did—well, I’m going to have Dom rip your dick off and feed it to his uncle’s pigs,” Lucy says.

“I didn’t do anything, Lucy,” I tell her.

“I know. I know you wouldn’t do that. Besides, you like this one a lot. I can tell. I gotta go. Good luck,” she says.

“Thanks, LuLu. I owe you one.” I sigh before hanging up.