Chapter 63 The search
Chapter 63 The search
Jocelyn’s POV
Lauren’s grip was iron as she pulled me through the crowd, weaving between guests and waitstaff with a determination that left no room for hesitation.
She didn’t slow down, neither did she explain. All she did was pull.
I wrenched my hand free and stopped abruptly.
“What’s going on?” She turned, taken aback.
“I should be asking you that.” I struggled to keep my voice from rising. “You ghost me for weeks, block my calls, and then suddenly appear tonight acting like nothing happened? Like you’re just here to help?”
Lauren looked at me for a long moment. Then the carefully composed expression she’d been wearing since she slapped Kylie cracked open just slightly.
“I love you, Jocelyn,” she said simply, and the genuineness in her eyes made my chest tighten against my will.
“I know that,” I said, pulling my composure back firmly. “And the last time we had this conversation, it didn’t end well for either of us.”
“I know.” She exhaled. “I’ve had a lot of time to think. About us. About what love actually means.” She sniffed, blinking quickly. “How could I call it love if it means watching you be destroyed by people I could have helped you fight?”
I folded my arms and said nothing.
“Wherever you find happiness, Jocelyn, I want to stand behind you. Not in front of you. Behind you.” Her voice steadied. “I know what Colton and Kylie are capable of. I couldn’t let you face them alone.”
“I’m not alone, Lauren,” I said sharply.
She held my gaze without flinching. “Then let me add to your army. Please.”
I looked at her for a beat longer than necessary.
That face. That infuriating, irresistible face she made whenever she knew she was winning an argument.
“Fine,” I said firmly.
The ghost of a smile crossed her lips before she caught it.
“Good. Because this is genuinely the worst possible moment for a heart-to-heart.” She grabbed my hand again, gentler this time. “We have to find Richard before Colton does whatever he came here to do. Everything else can wait.”
“Agreed,” I said, and we moved.
We started with the obvious places.
The hallway leading to the private dining rooms.
Everywhere was empty.
The VIP lounge near the eastern wing, yet we saw nothing but abandoned champagne glasses and a confused waiter.
The corridor behind the main stage where staff moved back and forth. Still no sign of Richard, Colton, or the two strangers I’d seen flanking him.
With every dead end, the knot in my stomach pulled tighter.
“Lauren,” I said as we doubled back from a third fruitless corridor. “What if they’ve already taken him out of the building?”
“Then we’d have heard something by now,” she said without breaking stride. “Colton is too calculated to create a scene outside. He wants control, and control means keeping things contained.”
“How do you know how Colton thinks?”
She shot me a sideways glance. “Because I’ve been watching him since you told me about your past life.”
I stopped walking. “You believed me?”
She kept moving. “Keep up.”
I stared at her back for exactly one second, then followed.
“So you’ve been watching him,” I pressed.
“Quietly. From a distance. You’re not the only one who’s been paying attention, Jocelyn.” Her voice dropped slightly. “I saw things. Things that made me realize you weren’t exaggerating about any of it.”
“Lauren—”
“Later,” she said firmly. “Focus.”
I pressed my lips together and focused.
We tried the conference rooms along the northern corridor. Locked. The private bar section that had been reserved for senior Asher associates, it was occupied by oblivious guests who looked up at us with mild curiosity as we pushed the door open and immediately pulled it shut again.
“This is impossible,” I muttered, pressing a hand to my bump instinctively.
Lauren noticed immediately. “Are you alright? Is the baby—”
“We’re fine. I just…” I exhaled. “We need Wade.”
Her eyes lit up. “Yes. Exactly. Where is he?”
“He should be here somewhere.” I was already pulling out my phone. “Richard told him to attend tonight.”
I dialed.
It rang twice.
“Miss Jocelyn?” Wade’s voice came through, slightly raised above the background noise of the event.
“Wade, where are you right now?”
“Near the main entrance. Is everything—”
“Come to the northern corridor. Now. Don’t make it obvious.” I ended the call before he could ask questions.
He arrived in under three minutes, dressed sharply, his expression already shifting from composed to alert the moment he saw our faces.
“What happened?” he asked, his eyes moving between Lauren and me.
“Colton is here,” I said.
His jaw tightened. “He was suspended.”
“He’s here, Wade. And Richard—” My voice nearly broke. I steadied it. “Richard looks drugged. Colton and two others were carrying him out of the main hall. We lost them somewhere in this building.”
Wade went very still in the way that men do when they’re rapidly processing information and suppressing their reaction to it simultaneously.
“How long ago?” he asked.
“Twenty minutes. Maybe twenty-five,” Lauren said.
He nodded once, then reached into his jacket and produced his own phone, pulling up what appeared to be a floor plan of the venue.
“The event management company sent this to all senior staff for tonight’s coordination,” he said, tilting the screen so we could see. “There are three areas in this building not included in the public event space.” He pointed. “A private holding suite on the second floor, a staff rest area near the kitchen on the ground floor, and a storage corridor that connects to the rear parking lot.”
“The rear parking lot,” I said immediately. “If they’re planning to move him out—”
“They haven’t moved him yet,” Lauren said with quiet certainty. “They need time for whatever they gave him to take full effect.”
Wade looked at her carefully. “You are?”
“Lauren. I’m with Jocelyn.”
He held her gaze for a moment, then accepted this without further question.
“Then we check the second floor suite first,” he said.
We were already moving toward the staircase when Lauren grabbed both our arms and pulled us sharply to a stop behind a wide decorative pillar.
“What—” I started.
She pressed one finger to her lips.
Then I heard it.
Colton’s voice.
Smooth, low, unhurried—coming from somewhere just around the curve of the corridor ahead.
“It’s working faster than expected,” he was saying. “Give it another twenty minutes and he won’t remember a thing. Just make sure she doesn’t—”
A pause. He was on the phone.
“I know, Kylie. I handled her.” Another pause. “Just be ready.”
Then the sound of a door clicking shut.
Silence.
The three of us stood completely still behind the pillar, barely breathing.
Then slowly, we turned to face each other.
Wade’s expression was unreadable but his eyes were sharp and deliberate. Lauren’s jaw was set with the particular resolve of someone who had already decided what they were willing to do. And I felt something settle inside me—cold and clear and focused.
They had Richard. They had a plan. And they thought they had neutralized me.
They were wrong.
“Okay,” I whispered, looking between Lauren and Wade. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”
Lauren placed her hands gently on my shoulders.
“You actually don’t need to get involved in this. I and Wade can handle it.” She tried persuading me
But there’s no way I would leave.
“I can do this” I said firmly
“Your baby-“
“Lauren, I’m fine” I assured her