Page 54 of Heart Like Yours
He normally only calls to update me on appeals my parents try to submit pleading their cases for an early release. Or the one time that my dad got in a fight and was hospitalized. I might not have any love left for them, nor have I seen or spoken to them since I was a kid, but there’s always been a lingering curiosity for how they’re doing.
“Your mom got her sentence reduced. She was released on parole,” he tells me and all I can do is stare blankly across my kitchen as he continues on. “There was new evidence brought forward claiming it was all your father’s operation and that the child endangerment was out of her control.”
“That’s bullshit,” I grind out between clenched teeth. I was only in third grade when the police busted into the house one day and broke up my parents’ extensive drug ring. There’s not much I remember from my time with them. Years of therapy and being around the Mikelsons helped, but that day is seared into my brain.
My mom fully believed that just because she locked me in the closet when they had buyers over, that I would never hear or seeanything. And while she’s not wrong, I never saw mich, she also wasn’t right because I understood enough to know that it washerin charge.
“I know it’s bullshit. But that’s not the real problem,” Hank tells me.
“Then what is?” I pinch the brim of my nose. My gaze lands on the time on the oven and my brows scrunch together. Paige said she’d be back in five minutes and is now going on thirty.
“No one’s seen her since her release.”
My stomach drops. “You think she’s gone underground?”
Between the news and Paige’s absence, I’m immediately heading down the hall toward the elevator and smash the button impatiently.
“No one knows where she is. Your father isn’t saying anything against her, even though she completely threw him under the bus and all her old contacts claim to have not heard from her.” Hank sighs. “Just…be on the lookout. I saw the news about your success, so it wouldn’t be surprising if she did too and tried to weasel her way back into your life. If she does?—”
“I’ll be on the phone with the police to bring her back.”
We finish up saying goodbye and I save his new number in my phone as the elevator brings me down to the office.
Eerie silence greets me as I reach our floor. My nerves are shot thanks to the news, but I focus on finding Paige and dragging her back upstairs.
My pace falters when I come across a chair from one of the editor’s desks knocked over. Deciding to fix it on my way out, I continue down the hallway toward our offices.
I call out for her, ready to make a joke about her being a workaholic, except the sight of Paige’s office nearly brings me to my knees.
Police and detectives rush about,taking pictures and seeming to mark everything they pass. It all looks the same to me from where I stand in my doorway watching.
Her office was completely trashed, the contents of her desk strewn everywhere and the phone ripped from the cord.
But it was her sweater in the middle of the floor that told me all I needed to know. I didn’t need to be a detective to know what happened.
Someone took her.
“Sir, you’re not allowed in here,” one of the officers says, pulling me from my spiral. I look over my shoulder to find two intimidatingly giant men staring down at the man in uniform like they might squash him. A man that I can only assume is Emmett Dalton spots me and raises a single brow.
I push off the doorframe, crossing down the hall and step up behind the officer.
“They’re with me,” I say, motioning to let them in. “They’re a part of my security team.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. It just wasn’t official yet either.
While I waited for the police to get here, I felt…useless. Calling Emmett was a long shot and I wasn’t even sure if they could do anything. One of his passing comments when we wereon the phone bounced around my head while I stood staring at the mess.
“Security protection and recovery” is what he had described some of the company’s services as. This might not have been what he meant, but I needed to do something that wasn’t just standing around.
The cop rolls his eyes. “This is a crime scene. I can’t just let people in becauseyoucalled them.”
The man beside Emmett leans down, saying something that’s too low for me to hear. The officer pales, scrambling to step aside and let them through.
I nod back down the hall and they follow, pausing only to look around Paige’s office.
“You should have called us first,” the other man grumbles while passing me to plop himself on my couch. He pulls his laptop from a bag I hadn’t noticed earlier and makes himself comfortable.
“Normal people like to follow the law, Park.” Emmett turns to me, offering me a tattooed hand. “Nice to officially meet you. Circumstances are less than ideal though.”
The other man huffs out a laugh while I quickly shake Emmett’s hand.