Chapter Forty-Seven - Ava

When I stepped out of our bedroom, I overheard Duke on the phone. I attempted to listen but he ended the call too swiftly.

He thundered around the room and down the opposite hallway to his bedroom during his stay. When he emerged, there was a deep crease in his forehead

and he looked determined.

Even the quickness of his strides was determined.

He stopped when he noticed me and smiled. It was a pity smile. One that was an attempt at hiding something from me.

“Hey. Fletcher will be here soon. He’s going to pick me up because something came up, and Jones’ is going to take you to the gallery.”

“What came up?” I asked.

Duke rubbed the back of his neck. “Some Capello drama. They found someone to trail and they want me to be with them just in case.”

I wasn’t buying that for a minute. I folded my arms over my chest and glared at him. “Did they find my sister?”

“No,” he said, sliding his hands into his pockets. “They found someone watching them.”

I sighed. Part of me had hoped they found her. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I felt content this morning. I wasn’t sure if that meant Charlotte wasn’t

stressed or they hadn’t hurt her…or something worse.

The front door opened and Fletcher’s quick steps followed. He stopped in the hallway between Duke and me. He looked at both of us and turned to face me.

“What’s wrong?”

“I want to know what you found.”

He looked at his feet for several minutes and then back up at me. I hated how handsome he looked in distress, and how it made me turn to mush when I

should be worried about my sister.

“Someone was watching us this morning, I chased them down the road and then they hit my windshield with something—”

“With what?” I asked.

Fletcher ran his fingers into his hair and then down his face. “They tossed a rock at me with a picture of Charlotte attached to it.”

My breath caught in my lungs. He had a picture of Charlotte. “Where is it? Is she alive? How did she look,” I reached for his pocket, but he braced his palms

on my shoulders.

“Ava. She’s alive. I don’t have it on me. She was tied up and I don’t want you to see it.”

Tears brimmed the corners of my eyes. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Had they hurt her? Who said that was a recent picture? What if they already

hurt her? Were they giving her food or water?

The dam burst and tears traveled down my cheeks. Fletcher pulled me to his chest and I cried silently there for several seconds.

This was a misunderstanding. They meant to get me, hadn’t they? Knowing how the mafia worked, I can’t imagine them keeping her alive for long. They were

roughing her up or not feeding her, I just knew it.

While I was comfortable and fed, she was lying only God knew where in the hands of my husband’s enemy.

“Baby,” Fletcher said, pushing me back to look at me. “We’re going to find her. I promise. One way or another, we’re going to find her.”

He wiped a tear from my cheek and his dark eyes softened around the edges. Kissing my forehead, he looked over his shoulder at Duke awkwardly standing

there.

“You ready?” Fletcher asked.

Duke nodded. “As I’ll ever be.”

Fletcher gestured for Duke to get into the car and turned back to face me. “Everything is going to be okay. I’ll call you if we find anything out. Go with Jones,

decorate with Bree, and don’t panic. I know, easier said than done.”

He was right. It felt easy to say it but to calm my racing heart was another thing. “I’ll try.”

Fletcher kissed me again, this time taking my breath with him, and left me in the hallway.

It felt surreal while grabbing my things and then finding Jones waiting for me on the front porch, that Charlotte was gone.

I felt it in my stomach and body, but mentally it felt foreign. Jones drove me to the gallery where I unlocked the door and waited for Bree.

She showed up around 9 with the wallpaper samples I requested and a giant grin. We spent most of the morning putting on pink and orange squared wallpaper.

For a brief moment, I realized I hadn’t thought about my phone once. Even when I did check it, Fletcher hadn’t called or texted me. Bree looked down at her

watch around lunchtime.

“Oh, I have an appointment soon. Are you okay here by yourself? The artwork should be in within two or three days for the gallery, and the rest for the studio

after that. I’ll call you soon and see where we’re at. Is that okay?”

“Yes, thank you for all of your help. You can just send the invoice to Fletcher whenever you’re ready.”

I helped her gather some of the sample wallpaper she brought with her and watched as she walked to her vehicle.

I cleaned up our mess and motioned for Jones to come inside. “I ordered food for both of us. I hope a burger is okay with you. It’ll be here shortly. I have a

painting I want to work on until then.”

“You got it,” Jones said, shutting the gallery door behind him.

He watched me from the sidewalk as I began to paint. I wanted the front gallery to be wild but have a sense of me. So, I started on a painting that I knew

Charlotte would appreciate when we found her.

Twenty minutes later Jones brought my lunch to me. I ate in silence, ignoring the obvious elephant in the room. My phone that hadn’t rang or dinged with a

notification since arriving.

It was nearly three when my phone finally buzzed beside me.

I blinked, trying to gather a sense of reality, and looked down at Fletcher’s name across my phone.

“Hello,” I hurried to answer.

“Ava. Are you still at the gallery?” Fletcher asked.

I tried to decipher his voice. I couldn’t tell if they’d found anything yet. “Yes, with Jones. Did you find Charlotte?”

He sighed heavily. “No, we didn’t. Duke caught two different guards today who said they didn’t know where they were keeping her. I’m pretty positive they

didn’t know after the beating Duke gave them.”

I closed my eyes and brought my knees to my chest. “That’s not the news I was hoping to hear, Fletcher.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I never meant for this to happen. We’re trying—”

“I know. I’m cleaning up here. I’ll have Jones bring me home.”

“I’m coming to you. I thought we could have dinner brought to the gallery. Maybe have a night to yourselves there since Levi and Duke are going to be at the

house. I’ll have Lucinda cook for them.”

“That sounds fine. I had burgers with Jones for lunch.”

“You tell me what you want.”

“I wouldn't mind some sushi if you’re up for it.”

“Sushi it is.”

I rinsed the paint off my arms and legs in the small sink in the bank. Spraying some perfume on me from my purse, I attempted to make myself look somewhat presentable.

Though I didn’t feel like it mattered.

Fletcher walked in with an array of sushi and a look of discouragement on his face. I knew it had to do with Charlotte. “Smells great,” I said.

His gaze skated down my bare legs in my cut-offs and then back up to my face. “Rough day?” I asked.

I caught sight of his knuckles as he placed the sushi out in front of us. I walked over and touched his cheek. “I thought you said Duke roughed up some

people today?”

Fletcher placed his palm on the outside of mine against his cheek. “He did. What I did was nothing compared to what Duke did.”

“Maybe fighting isn’t the answer,” I said. “Maybe going to the Capellos is what needs to be done.”

He opened the sushi and gestured for me to sit down. I sat down beside him, opened my chopsticks, and grabbed a Philadelphia roll.

“Going to Mr. Capello will land in a deal. One that I’m not sure I’ll want to take, Ava. If we can find her it’ll save us a lot of drama.”

Fletcher popped a sushi into his mouth with his hand, and I smiled. “How much longer are we going to wait? We’re riding the clock,” I said.

Fletcher nodded, his dark brows furrowed over those intense eyes. “I know. Not much longer, I promise. I promised that we would find her, and I’ll find her, no

matter if that means making a deal with the devil.”