Chapter 167 CHAPTER 167
Michael’s POV
As soon as I stepped on the porch, I knew something was wrong. I saw the gap between the door and the doorframe even though it was dark inside. When I touched the doorbell, the door pushed open and I stood in front of the emptiness. It wasn’t long after that Evelyn joined me.
“Anna!” I called out..
“Mum!” she called out too.
We stepped in and she found the light switch. The light revealed that things had been tumbled and scattered all over the place. Either there was a struggle or there was a robbery. I hoped that Philly had not gone berserk and attacked Anna Trent. I hoped that we were not going to walk into any of them dead.
There was no answer.
After checking the whole apartment, we concluded that they were not there. It was a temporary relief but then I began to wonder if they had been killed and their bodies moved. Were they kidnapped?
A car’s headlight appeared in the distance, heading towards the house. We watched the car until it pulled up in the compound. Four men stepped out of the car and headed to the security post.
“Wait here,” I said to Evelyn.
I stepped out and walked towards them. They were the security guards who should have taken over.
“Who is in charge?” I asked.
A man with brown hair and a heavy bulletproof vest stepped forward and bowed slightly. “I’m the leader of the team, sir.”
“What time is the changeover scheduled?” I asked.
“9pm sir.”
It was almost 10pm.
“Is there any reason why you are here by 10pm?”
He shifted his weight on one foot and pocketed his hands. “We received orders from the head of operations that the changeover had been moved to 10pm, sir,” he said.
“Orders? Who gave this order?”
He reached for one of the pockets on his vest and pulled out his phone. “The chief of operations at the station,” he replied, showing me the call log.
“This post was left empty for one hour,” I said to him, without looking at the phone. “No one covered from the usual changeover time until your arrival. The women you are supposed to care for are missing.”
The other men had joined us now while he tried to explain that he was working based on orders. It was simple. Someone needed to be at the house between the hours of 9pm and 10pm. They changed the changeover time to create the window, and then sent someone to follow us. It was a well organised plan.
The search started and Evelyn grew more and more agitated. She broke into tears and other times she became angry and cursed. I called Alpha Raymond.
“Someone broke into Anna Trent’s house -”
“What?” he cut me short. “Is she alright?”
I assumed he was referring to my mother, even though I knew he didn’t really care for her in that way.
“No,” I replied. “They are missing.”
“I’ll be on my way. Give me a few minutes.”
We were sitting in the sitting room, with the door locked. Evelyn was leaning against my shoulder, half crying and half cursing.
“I need to find her the only way that’s possible,” she said, suddenly. The search had been going on for about thirty minutes. “I can track her through if we connect with our fox.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Will you be able to stand whatever you find?”
She nodded. “I can.”
She rose up. “I need to do it alone. I’ll be fine.”
I watched her as she walked into one of the rooms in the apartment and shut the door. I allowed myself to be broken by the situation only then. I blamed myself for convincing her to let her mum take care of my mum. I blamed myself for not being careful enough. I didn't know if taking Evelyn out would have saved her, but I blamed myself for taking her out.
He arrived with another set of security personnel who were gathering information from the CCTV footage in the streets leading up to the house. The changeover team was being questioned. I walked out of the house and met him standing alone in the centre of the yard. He didn't look like the confident man I'd always known him to be. I could see that he was shaken, maybe unsure of what to do.
I tried to tease him. “What if they had gone shopping and forgotten about their phones in all the excitement of new clothes and shoes?”
I tried to picture this and I smiled.
His hand remained in his pocket. “No one goes shopping and leaves the door to their house open.”
“Right.”
I pocketed my hand and joined him in his silence. I didn’t tell him that Evelyn was in one of the rooms inside, trying to find her mum and his wife.
Minutes later, the head of the investigating team had his report. He showed us the plate number of a car that had driven in around 9pm. The plate was traced and nothing was found. Until he ran the number to his source who confirmed that the car was registered under Viktor Calderon.
“Calderon,” Alpha Raymond repeated, his face contorting in anger. I knew he had always feared that Calderon would find her once she stepped out of Greywood’s mansion.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I’ll make sure this city is not enough for both of us,” he said, his voice low but unmistakenly dangerous. “He’ll burn slowly until he begs for death.”
I wondered again if this anger he felt was because of my mother or Anna Trent. I had never seen him in this state before. Nothing would normally bring Alpha Raymond out of the house once he has stepped in. Not even if the company is in flames.
“You love her, don’t you?” I asked, looking away. “You weren’t fooling. You really love her.”
He remained silent.