Page 49 of Ruthless Savior
“Maybe I want to know.” His voice is slightly teasing again. “Annie mentioned you’ve been preoccupied, but not why.”
I let out a long breath. "It's complicated."
"It always is, with you." There's affection in his voice now. "But maybe complicated isn't always bad."
“For me, it is. Right now, especially.”
After I hang up, I stare at the papers on my desk, working until the sun is down and it’s well past dinner. A knock on my door just after nine startles me, and I look up, realizing the time has gotten away from me.
“Come in.”
Finn steps in, his expression grim. "We have a problem, boss."
Fuck."What now?"
"It's the girl. She's gone."
My eyes go wide, and my blood turns to ice. I’m on my feet in an instant. “What do you mean, gone?"
Finn shifts uncomfortably. "She's not in the house. Tommy checked all the rooms, and she's nowhere to be found. Ida doesn’t know where she went. She let me know that Leila wasn’t in her room after asking to have dinner up there."
I’m striding toward the door before he finishes speaking. "How long?"
“Maybe twenty minutes since Ida said something?”
Twenty minutes. In twenty minutes, Rocco's men could have taken her, could have spirited her away to God knows where. The thought makes something violent claw at my chest.But how? How would he have gotten to her? Did she run off despite our agreement? Was my refusal to let her see her friend the last straw?
"Search the grounds," I bark as I push past him. "Every inch. And get me the security footage from the last hour."
We spread out across the property, moving through the gardens and outbuildings, across the property, with military efficiency. My men know how to conduct a search, but I can see the tension in their movements, the awareness that if something has happened to Leila on their watch, there will be consequences. They all remember too clearly what happened to the guards who abandoned Siobhan at her request. I wouldn’tkill my men over a mistake, but there’s a clear undercurrent of fear.
And then I catch sight of a flash of dark green against the snow near the back gate—her heavy winter coat, I realize. She’s talking to one of the perimeter guards. I stride quickly toward them, relief flooding me, but it's quickly replaced by anger when I see how close the guard is standing to her. As well as who it is—a new recruit who I don’t know all that well.
He’s young, maybe twenty-five, with the kind of pretty-boy looks that probably have women falling all over him. Right now he's standing close enough to Leila that he could reach out and touch her, his head bent toward hers in an intimate gesture that makes something dark and violent unfurl in my chest.
"—dangerous to wander around out here alone," he's saying as I approach. "There are bad men who want to hurt you. You need to stay near the house or inside it." There’s something almost patronizing in his voice that makes me want to punch him, even though he’s repeating the same things to her that I’ve said.
"I know," Leila replies, and I can hear frustration in her voice. "I just needed some air. I felt like I was suffocating in that house."
"I get it, but you can't just?—"
"Step away from her." The words come out as a growl, low and threatening.
The boy jumps back like he's been burned, his hand instinctively moving toward his weapon before he recognizes me. "Boss! I was just?—"
"I can see what you were doing." I move between them, an alarmingly possessive instinct screaming through me at the sight of another man so close to her. "Get back to your post."
"Sir, I was just explaining to Miss?—"
"Now."
The command brooks no argument. The boy nods quickly and hurries back toward the gate, but not before I see the way his eyes linger on Leila's face. The sight makes me want to put my fist through his.
"Ronan," Leila says behind me, "he was just?—"
I turn on her, and whatever she sees in my face makes her take a step back. "What the hell were you thinking, wandering around out here alone?"
"I needed air. I felt trapped in the house."
