Chapter 5

Jake

I had barely turned the corner in my Aston Martin before Todd was blowing up my cell. I canceled the call, but he just kept ringing. After the fifth time, I picked up.

"WHAT?" I pinched my brow. My stress levels were through the roof, and despite the early morning, traffic was gridlocked. Typical.

"Jake... don't do anything stupid. We will find her." Todd was unnaturally calm whilst I had blood roaring in my ears. My gaze stared blankly out the window as I watched the hoards of people cross the street on their way to work. My eyes landed on a couple as they came out of a coffee shop together. He kissed her cheek and they parted ways, a smile lighting up her face as she left. Looking at them, something so normal—would I ever have that again?

The haunting image of my wife filled my mind. Those big blue doe eyes she had crushed me. Todd was probably right, but as a red haze continued to fill me up, all I could focus on was finding a way to get her back. First, I just needed confirmation he had her. I needed to hear the words from the horse's mouth.

"...her in danger. Jake, are you even listening to me?" Todd breathed a heavy sigh as the lights changed and I charged the car forward.

"Todd, you have your orders. I appreciate the advice, but this is my wife. You don't have to live with the consequences. I do." I gritted out, taking a corner too fast. I was thirty minutes away from my penthouse. I hit another load of lights as I came to a standstill. Fuck.

"I get that. I want to get Stephanie back as much as you do." Doubtful. I ignored the way his words grated on me. "If you do anything illegal, he will use that against you. Just don't do anything where you risk losing her forever." My breath held in my lungs. A thousand images flooded my brain, each one worse than the last. Carter's hands on her, blood over her porcelain skin, her fearful eyes—tortured, hurt, afraid.

My gut twisted knowing all the ways Carter would hurt her. What if he trafficked her? Some fucker would buy her, use her. I could never live with myself if anything like that happened. A stone formed in the pit of my stomach, weighing me down.

"I won't provoke him, Todd. I know the risks. She is my wife, and I'm getting her back. Now get me the intel I need." I growled out, cutting the call as the traffic started to clear and I was getting closer and closer to home.

I finally parked the car in the underground lot. Memories of Stephanie exiting the car, her devious smile as I claimed her lips against my favorite sports car. How she screamed for me pressed up against my Rolls-Royce. The elevator came, misting into new memories—the way she bit her full lip, those uncertain eyes when she came to my penthouse for the first time, how I always knew she would be mine.

The penthouse felt lifeless without her. Her stuff was everywhere, haunting me as if any moment she might appear from out of the bedroom or bathroom. My chest ached. I had never felt so powerless before, so lost and unsure. I wasn't typically a violent man. I preferred words and cutting people down in the courtroom, letting justice take its course, but in that moment I would burn the world until it ran with blood to get her back.

I headed to my office. Everything was too painful. Stephanie lingered everywhere, even her scent.

I sunk into my leather chair. The cold seeped into my bones. I hadn't slept. I could barely focus. The only thing keeping me up was the adrenaline pumping through my body. I opened my desk drawer, searching through all the different business cards I had accumulated over the years until I found the one I was looking for.

It was simple, elegant, classic. But looks could be deceptive.

I picked up my phone. Part of me knew I should call the police, but until I knew how many police were under Carter's hold, it wasn't safe.

"I wondered when you would call me?" His mocking tone pissed me off even more.

"If you touch even a hair on her head, I will—" His mocking laugh silenced the rest of my threat.

"Oh, Jakey, I'm going to do far more than that." I could picture his sickening grin, and my blood turned to ice. There was a lump in my throat as his words continued with every sick and depraved thing a person could do. Panic roared in my body and fear so potent I could taste it.

"By the time I'm done, you won't want her back." He chuckled as I tried to remember to breathe. It was going to be okay. I had no idea how, but it would.

"That's where you're wrong, Carter. Stephanie is mine. You may temporarily have her in your possession, but you will never have her the way I do. She loves me. You're not capable of getting someone like her to love you. Every time she looks at you, she will be thinking about me." I gritted out, wanting to wipe that smug look off his face. I could picture the corners of his mouth dipping with every word.

"You will lose, Jake. I can guarantee it. If you do manage to get her back..." He chuckled darkly, setting the hairs up on the back of my neck. "It will cost you everything." The line went dead as I sat back in my chair.

I thought after I spoke with him I would feel better, that I knew where she was, or at least who she was with. But as the clock ticked over and over, I suddenly had this sinking sensation I made things worse. I provoked him.

But when I heard all those sick things he wanted from her... I snapped. I couldn't bear to hear anymore of it, to know how much she would suffer.

Carter could just be baiting me though, trying to get a rise out of me so he knows all my buttons and how to press them just right. He also knows Stephanie is my biggest weakness. Years and years he has tried and failed to get a rise out of me. The second he mentions my wife, I lose it.

But whilst Stephanie is my weakness, she is also Carter's as well. He needs her to enact whatever plan he wants and to get a rise out of me. It might give me a little more time to figure out exactly where she is and how to get her back. Carter will know I'll come for her. He is probably hoping for it. I just can't play into his hand again. I fell for it so easily.

I scraped a hand over my face, feeling dead to the world. I wouldn't sleep though. I couldn't, and yet until Todd could get me the information I needed, my hands were tied.

I looked at his business card once again before crushing it with my fist. Perhaps I should have waited for the police. We could have tapped the line, traced the call, done something. Fuck. I needed to know it was true though. Now I'm wondering if my impulsiveness has made things worse for everyone. Have I actually put Stephanie in more harm by calling Carter out? The walls of my office started to press in on me.

Fuck. Carter was right about one thing. Whatever price I will pay to get her back—even if it costs me body, heart, and soul, I'll do it.