Page 28 of His Toy
“My invite?” Serena said, lifting her brow at her. “I got a message from you asking if I wanted to do lunch.”
Her words took Brooke aback for a moment. “Wait, you got an invite from me?”
“Yeah, here,” Serena said, taking out her phone and the second Brooke saw the number, she knew they’d been set up.
“I got the same message from the number, but it said it was from you,” she explained, showing Serena her messages.
“I don’t understand. Why would someone want to set us up for lunch?” Serena asked and reminders of Janet quickly invaded Brooke’s mind.
“A few weeks ago, I went to the campus to meet up with Neil. When I got to his office, Janet was sitting at his desk topless waiting for him,” she said, and Serena’s eyes widened in shock. “She claimed Neil had told her to look him up when she was done with Matthew, but he wants nothing to do with the woman—then or now.”
“Why would she want to get us together for lunch though?” Serena asked and Brooke wasn’t certain, but she didn’t think it was for a good reason.
“I don’t know. I got Ashton to get her to leave campus that day after Neil and I left his office, maybe she’s angry about it and the past. Look, I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Brooke added to Serena with a glance at the time. “We’re both early though, so why don’t you slip out the backway and I’ll wait to see if she shows. Gideon’s out front. Neil has him doing some private security for me until my family’s handled so I’ll be fine. Just tell Max what happened, and I’ll let you all know what happens.”
“Are you sure?” Serena asked as she grabbed her bag, paler than before but Brooke understood. She’d been partners with Janet and Matthew for months, abused in ways that weren’t healthy or consensual.
“I’m sure. It’s probably nothing, but better to be safe than not.”
“Okay, here’s my real number. I’d like to do this for real sometime,” Serena suggested, and Brooke nodded, letting her head through the restaurant to the back entrance.
She ordered water and an appetizer, debating about texting Neil, but she wasn’t scared of Janet. The woman had nothing on her, no power over her, and they were in a public spot.
Five minutes turned to ten and the other woman finally appeared, smirking at her as she settled into the empty seat. “Where’s your friend?”
“She left; we know you were behind this so why the pretense?” Brooke questioned, taking a sip from her water as her ears buzzed.
“To get you here,” Janet stated with a twisted smile. “She means nothing to us but you…you’re killing two birds with one stone.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Brooke asked, moving to stand up, get out of there and home to Neil. Her legs felt like jelly, and she leaned onto the tabletop, her heart racing with panic.
“Revenge…we take something important to Neil away from him the way he took Serena from us, and money,” Janet added, her smile growing wilder. “Someone wants you dead and is willing to pay handsomely for it.”
“That will never happen,” she stated doing her best to remain upright.
“It already is. That feeling rushing through you right now, is from the drugs Janet slipped into your drink and in a few seconds, it’ll be even worse. Everyone in here will see a woman passing out and when I tell them you’re sick and I’m taking you to a doctor, they’ll all forget it and go on with their day,” a new voice said as hands pulled her up. The deep tone of it was crowing with malice and just before everything went black, her gaze met the dark brown stare of an unknown man. The wild look in them matched Janet’s and she knew she was in trouble.
???
Neil began to pack his bag ready to be finished with the day and get home to Brooke. He was ready for the weekend with her, especially after the shit her brothers had attempted to put them through this week. The competency filing had gone nowhere fast thanks to the foundation they’d been laying since they married. With it dead in the water, her brother had tried to claim that their family had taken Brooke, kidnapped her to brainwash her.
It went nowhere again thanks to everything they had documented, but her family wasn’t stopping. They’d been posting constantly on social media attempting to make them look bad, and the invasion into their personal life was his tipping point. He wanted to be able to go out with Brooke without people watching them. Be able to touch her, kiss her without people taking photos of it. A weekend at home sounded like bliss to him right now.
The door to the lecture hall opened and his brow rose seeing Zack headed his way. “You’d better not be here to say her brothers have pulled more shit.”
“I don’t think it’s her brothers behind this one,” Zack stated, and Neil’s brows knitted together at his tone.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Don’t shoot the messenger alright, but…Brooke’s missing,” Zack said, and Neil’s legs went out from under him, sending him down into his chair hard.
“What the hell do you mean she’smissing?” he demanded, his voice getting louder with each word. “Gideon was supposed to be watching her!”
“He was,” Zack said, settling a hand onto his shoulder. “She went to lunch at Castello’s, he was out front in the car, but she never came out. He went to check on her and no one’s seen her. They didn’t have her card as being used either. He found her phone in the dumpster behind the restaurant along with her purse. You didn’t answer your phone, so he called me and while I was on my way over here, I got a call from Max. He said he couldn’t reach you, but Serena wanted to make sure that Brooke was okay. They think that Janet set them up to get them both to the restaurant for some reason. Brooke told Serena to head out, let Max know what happened, and that she’d let her know what happened from there.”
“There’s no way that Janet would have been able to get Brooke out of there by herself,” Neil said, meeting Zack’s stare, seeing the same knowledge there. “If she’d tried to do something to her, Brooke would have raised hell.”
“Which means someone else was there to help her—likely Matthew if they’re looking for a way to get at you,” Zack noted. “If they have her, we need to find her fast.”