Page 21 of Come Alive
“Where are you?” My concern bypassed niceties.
“What’s wrong?” Izzy asked in confusion.
“Where are you?” I repeated.
“I’m with Maddox and Oliver. What’s going on? You’re starting to scare me.”
Thank fuck.“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know. I had my go-to guy check him out, but then I just had this FEELING, and I wish I acted sooner.”
“Yara, you’re scaring me,” Izzy’s expelled.
“Izzy, you need to leave that hotel. Tell Oliver and Maddox. That man from last night wasn’t who he said he was. You know him! He was in the reunion photos! Leave now. Go home, get away!”
But Izzy didn’t reply, I heard another voice, distinctly male but unfamiliar, and I realized she had lied. Shewasn’twith Oliver and Maddox.
The call disconnected.
Internally, I was panicking. I was too far away. What could I possibly do?
Against every voice in my head, I called Oliver.
“You can kill me later, but Izzy’s in trouble. We were talking, but then I heard noises and the phone disconnected,” I spit out.
There was a delay before he responded.
“Speak,” Oliver demanded.
“I fucked up.” I quickly explained to Oliver what happened.
How the man that Izzy met up with knew her.
“Something isn’t right! My security team has never failed before, I even ran it past Emil. There’s more to this.” There was. And I had a sinking suspicion Kazi and Mateo were involved.
Oliver swore. “We will find her, but you better hope it’s in time. She is mine. Nobody else is allowed to have her.”
Regret and understanding slapped me in the face. The years of Oliver’s disgusting tendencies storming together. “I fucking knew it. You obsessive freak! You’re no good for her either!” I screamed, but it was no use.
He hung up on me, and just an instant later, my office door slammed open.
A red-faced Mateo standing on the other side.
Chapter 10
Yara
“Get us back there. We need to leave tonight,” I spoke evenly, but inside, my emotions were a washing machine of unease and distrust.
Did Mateo have something to do with this? Why was Kazi not with us? How was Izzy part of this? Why is her file missing? Who is Johnson Hall?
“Yara—” Mateo began, but then James came up behind him.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Panic was filling my throat with painful grit. “James, I need you to promise not to ask any questions.”
He stepped around the frozen Mateo, putting himself between us. He shifted his attention back and forth. “I don’t like this.”
“Promise.Please?” I walked around the desk, moving until I was in James’s space. I pressed my hand over his heart, looking up at him through my lashes.
