Chapter 38 The search
Timothy
The house felt wrong the moment the front door closed behind Hannah and her friend.
Too quiet. Too still.
I stood in the foyer for a second longer than necessary, listening to the echo fade, then turned and headed upstairs. Work was familiar. Work was controlled. I shut himself in my home office and buried the unease beneath calls, numbers, negotiations that required sharpness and distance.
For a while, it worked.
I closed one deal. Deferred another. Issued instructions that would ripple through half a dozen companies by morning. When the last call ended, I leaned back in my chair and realized I had nothing else pressing.
The realization unsettled me more than I liked.
I checked the time. Too early to sleep. Too late to start something new. My jaw tightened as restlessness crept under my skin, the same irritability that had followed me for days now.
I stood abruptly.
The gym.
The in-house gym had always been my answer when my thoughts got loud. I changed into sweats, shoved earbuds into my ears, and let heavy bass flood my head as I started on the treadmill, then weights. My muscles burned, sweat slicked my skin, but the tension refused to leave.
Halfway through a set, my phone vibrated.
I ignored it.
It vibrated again.
Annoyed, I dropped the weights with a sharp clang and snatched the phone up, already scowling.
Dean.
The head of Hannah’s security detail didn’t call unless something was wrong.
I answered immediately. “What is it?”
There was a pause on the line. Too long.
“Sir,” Dean said, and I didn’t miss the strain in his voice, “we’ve… lost sight of Mrs. Blackwood.”
The world tilted.
“What?” I snapped, already moving, adrenaline flooding my system. “Explain.”
Dean exhaled audibly. “We stopped at a burger place on her request. She went inside to eat. We remained outside as instructed. Five minutes passed. Ten. When we checked inside, she was gone.”
Something cold and violent unfurled in my chest.
“Gone how,” I demanded. “Out which exit?”
“That’s the problem,” Dean said tightly. “No one saw her leave. No disturbance. No cameras inside the shop caught her exiting.”
I was already yanking my earbuds out, striding for the door. “You let her out of your sight.”
“Yes, sir,” Dean said grimly. “We’re canvassing the area now. Splitting up. Checking nearby streets.”
“Not good enough,” I barked. “Lock it down. Every direction. Call it in.”
“Yes, sir.”
I didn’t bother changing. I stormed through the house, grabbing my keys, fury sharpening into something else, something hotter. My heart pounded with a ferocity I refused to analyze.
“She doesn’t just wander,” I said harshly into the phone. “She doesn’t just disappear.”
“No, sir.”
“Find her,” I growled. “Now.”
I ended the call and was out the door a second later.
As my car tore down the driveway, I was already dialing. One contact. Then another. The police commissioner owed me favors. So did half the city’s surveillance contractors.
“Activate everything,” I ordered coldly. “Traffic cams. Street cams. Private feeds. I want eyes on every block within a five-mile radius of that location.”
Responses came fast. Assurances. Compliance.
My grip tightened on the steering wheel.
Why is my heart doing this?
I shoved the thought away and focused on the road. I was minutes from the burger place when my phone rang again.
This time, the number was unfamiliar.
He answered anyway. “Yes?.”
“We’ve got something,” a voice said quickly. “Your wife was picked up on a station camera. She boarded a train.”
My breath hitched. “Which line.”
“Outbound. Destination registered as Pennsylvania.”
The word landed like a blow.
“Pennsylvania,” I repeated, incredulous. “That’s impossible.”
“That’s what the footage shows,” the man said. “She boarded alone. Little to no visible distress at the time.”
Alone.
The word echoed darkly.
I swore under my breath and cut the call. My mind raced now, pieces slamming together too fast. Hannah, drunk. Disoriented. Alone in a city she barely knew on her own, let alone….
I didn’t finish the thought.
I dialed another number, this one memorized long ago.
“Martin,” I said the moment the call connected.
“Well, this is a surprise,” Martin drawled. “To what do I owe…”
“I need you,” I cut in sharply. “Now.”
The humor vanished from the other man’s tone. “What’s wrong?”
“My wife is in your jurisdiction,” I said. “Unaccompanied. Possibly injured. I need her located and secured immediately.”
A pause. Then, “Send me what you have.”
I forwarded the footage, the timestamps, the last known coordinates.
“I want eyes on every station exit,” I continued, voice tight with barely leashed urgency. “Hospitals. Shelters. Hotels. Anything and everything .”
“Okay….Is that…?,” Martin echoed faintly.
“Yes,” Timothy snapped. “Just get on it.”
“All right,” Martin said, all business now. “We’ll find her. When we do, we’ll keep her safe until you arrive.”
I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second. “Thank you.”
I ended the call and immediately dialed Dean again.
“I know where she went,” I said the moment Dean answered. “She boarded a train to Pennsylvania.”
“What?” Dean said. “Sir, we can mobilize…”
“No,” Timothy cut in. “You and the rest return to the house.”
“Sir…”
“That’s a fucking order,” I said coldly. “I’m handling this personally.”
A beat. “Yes, sir.”
I hung up as the city blurred past my windows. I took the turn toward the private hangar without slowing, my thoughts dark and relentless now.
How did it get this far?
Images I didn’t want flooded my mind of Hannah lost, frightened, her stubborn compassion leading her into danger. The memory of her laughing with Rowan flashed unbidden, followed by her turning away from me, painting, humming, calling me a coward under her breath.
My jaw clenched.
I should have done better. I should’ve tried to be kinder to her.
The admission surfaced sharp and unwelcome.
By the time the hangar came into view, my pulse was pounding hard enough to ache. The car rolled to a stop, and I was out before the engine fully cut, striding toward the waiting jet.
I didn’t slow.
Didn’t hesitate.
Didn’t question why the thought of her alone in the dark made something in my chest feel like it was cracking apart.
All that mattered was one thing.
I was going to get her.