Chapter 182

Cecilia didn’t sleep.

Her mother fell asleep on the couch beside her while they patiently waited for the others to return. It was dawn by the time the door opened and Ryan stepped inside with Sebastian and Grayson trailing at his heels. But no Asher.

“What the hell is going on?” Cecilia asked, hushed so as not to wake her mother. “First I go missing—then Asher? God, don’t tell me Landon is behind this again.”

“I don’t think so,” Ryan replied. He looked tired, deep rings beneath his eyes. “We looked everywhere. The bar, his favorite restaurants, even his parents’ place. No one’s seen him.”

“I’m exhausted,” Grayson muttered. He trudged off toward the elevator, mumbling, “We’ll try again after a nap.”

Once Grayson was gone, Sebastian collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table and ordered one of the servants to bring him a cup of coffee. He sat there, rubbing at his face, his fingers digging up into his hair. “I don’t understand. Asher wouldn’t leave Bella here—he’s obsessed with that cat.”

“He’s obsessed with his work, too,” said Ryan. “It isn’t like him to step away.”

“Did you file a police report?” Cecilia asked.

“We can’t yet,” said Sebastian. “Not for another day or so, since he left the hospital voluntarily.”

“I need a shower,” Ryan muttered. As much as Cecilia feared for Asher, she could also hear the strain in his voice. How desperately he needed rest. She watched him go with a half-hearted goodnight and then it was only Sebastian left.

“Aren’t you tired too?” she asked him.

“Exhausted,” said Sebastian. “I was never one for napping in the day time. Is that odd?”

Cecilia took him by the hand and pulled him from the chair. “Come here,” she said. She dragged Sebastian to the kitchen island and quickly took a pile of supplies out of the fridge.

“Ah, sweetheart. I’m not hungry,” he said as he watched her lay out two pieces of bread.

“Did you eat while you were out?” asked Cecilia.

“Well, no. But—”

“Then you’re hungry.”

She put together a sandwich for him, delicately lining the bread to the very edges with mayo. Then, as she made one for him, she grew hungry and crafted one for himself.

He smiled slightly as she set the sandwich down in front of him. “You’ll make a perfect wife one day,” he said, his voice raspy with sleep. “…To someone.”

Cecilia felt a slight sting. She hadn’t paused to consider if rejecting his proposal had hurt Sebastian at all. He had taken it with such stride, she never stopped to consider…

She rounded the counter and pulled herself up on the edge of the granite, watching as he took a bite from his sandwich. It was only one bite before he put it back down and took a deep breath. “I suppose we went long enough.”

“Long enough with what?” asked Cecilia.

“Long enough without caring. Before you, there was truly nothing to care about. Nothing to consider. We didn’t care about ourselves and we didn’t care about each other. Now…”

“Now, we’re like a family?” Cecilia asked.

Sebastian stood up and took the space between her knees, his arms draped loosely around her. Cecilia brushed back his black locks and pressed a kiss to his handsome face. And then Sebastian slumped there against her, too exhausted not to lean. Not to depend on her for comfort, for affection.

“Alright,” Cecilia said, fingers twisting gently through his hair. “I’m putting you to bed.”

“I’m fine,” Sebastian muttered. But Cecilia knew better.

“I need you energized so you can go find him and bring him back to me.”

“Just let me stay here for a moment,” Sebastian said.

In the end, he fell asleep with his head on Cecilia’s lap as she sat on the floor by the warm fireplace. She stroked through his hair while Bella fell asleep, tucked into her side.

She was beginning to feel helpless. The others had spent all day and night looking for Asher, and what had she done with her time? She’d sat here, hoping the doorbell would ring and being all the more disappointed and worried when it didn’t. She decided to give him a call again. This time, Asher’s phone rang. Cecilia sat up suddenly, surprised that it didn’t go immediately to voice mail. That meant he’d had it, right? That he’d charged it? Turned it on?

Sebastian stirred a little as Cecilia listened to the dial tone. It rang and rang and rang, and then—all of a sudden—it went quiet. There was talking on the other end. Not a hello, but subtle conversation deep in the background. Cecilia listened, and when Sebastian woke and realized what was happening, he sat up and hovered close to the speaker to hear.

Cecilia couldn’t make out the sounds. They were muffled, like maybe the phone was in someone’s pocket. Like they’d answered on accident.

Then she heard it. His voice.

Her heart shot into her throat. Nervously, she hung up the call.

“Why’d you do that?” Sebastian asked.

“I don’t know!” Cecilia said. “I got nervous. Did you hear that voice? That was him, wasn’t it? Tell me that was Asher.”

“It was definitely him,” Sebastian muttered. “But there was another voice on the other end. Did you recognize it?”

Cecilia shook her head. Nervously, she dialed his number again. This time, the phone only rang once before her call cut off. “He’s not answering now.”

“Great,” Sebastian grumbled. He sat up, still tired from his nap and ran his fingers back through his hair. “How the hell are we supposed to figure out where he is if he won’t answer his phone? Did you notice anything that might give us a clue?”

Cecilia shook her head. Just that muffled voice—that quiet, muttered conversation. And…a train? Somewhere faintly in the background, there was a train.

Cecilia couldn’t help but gnaw at her fingernails, the suspense in her growing. What if she was right about Landon? What if he’d gotten back at Asher for ruining the wedding…for the lawsuit. For everything?

He had to of had something to do with the shooting, too…

She couldn’t fight back the tears as she began to sniffle—to dab her eyes with her sleeve. “I’m so worried. I’m just so worried.”

“I know,” Sebastian muttered. He pulled her into his shoulder as the elevator doors opened and Ryan stepped out, fresh from his shower. He looked a little more revitalized now—still exhausted, but functioning. When he saw Cecilia, he paused what he was doing and his face went hard.

“What’s wrong? Did you make her cry?”

“No—” Cecilia manged to say, sniffling so loudly, she woke her mother who stirred and flopped upright on the couch.

“Huh? Wha? Did you find him?” she muttered.

Cecilia ignored her as she quickly fell back to sleep. She tried her best to dry her tears and cleared her throat to explain. “Asher answered my call.”

“He did?” asked Ryan, swiftly moving toward her. “What did he say?”

“He didn’t say anything,” Cecilia replied. “I think he answered on accident. But…there was someone else there.”

“Someone else?” he asked. “A girl or a guy?”

Cecilia shrugged. “I—I don’t know. A girl, I think. And the sound of a train.”

“A girl and a train,” muttered Ryan as he tried to put the clues together. “A girl and a train…”

“Ring any bells?” asked Sebastian.

Ryan began to shake his head—then it was like he’d been struck by something. He froze. His eyes snapped up to Cecilia’s face and he whispered, “I know where he is.”

They were gathering into the car before she could make sense of what was happening. Sebastian sat in the back seat while Ryan drove them deep into the city. Cecilia had never been to these parts, and she was hypnotized by the sheer number of sky-scraping towers clustered around. She had asked Ryan several times where they were going, but he wouldn’t answer. She got the hunch he didn’t want to give her any false hope in case his hypothesis was wrong.

They passed a train track and pulled into the under-ground parking center of a large, concrete apartment complex. The place had to be thirty—forty stories high.

A look of recognition crossed Sebastian’s face as they stepped out of the car and he took in the sight of the parking lot. “No way. You can’t tell me…Was she lying this whole time? She never left the city?”

Cecilia didn’t know just what he was talking about, but she noted the way Ryan’s jaw feathered, tense and furious.

They stepped inside and took an elevator up to the twelfth floor. None of this looked familiar to Cecilia, but they seemed to know exactly where they were headed. Ryan stopped at a door labeled 308 and gave a hard knock on the wood. The door opened to the sight of Clover, standing there in a short silken robe that left little to the imagination.

“Where is he?” Ryan demanded.

Then the door opened a little wider, and Asher was standing there, an expressionless look on his face. “You,” he said when he saw Ryan. “What the hell do you want?”

Tears rushed to Cecilia’s eyes at the sight of him. She clasped a hand to her mouth to keep from crying and whispered, “You’re okay. You’re really okay.”

Asher’s attention shifted to her. His eyes narrowed a bit, his brows pinching together.

Cecilia’s stomach dropped into the depths of oblivion as he asked, “Who the hell are you?”