Blackmailing the Virgin (Alexa Riley Promises #2)(11)

“Hey, Bill. Just wanted to come by and say thanks again for the drinks before New Year’s.”

I knew Bill had no knowledge of what happened between Felicity and me because I feel sure he would have ripped my throat out the first time I saw him afterwards.

“Sure, Calder. Anytime. Were you able to make it on New Year’s Eve? There were so many people I didn’t catch if you and Sidney had been able to stop by.”

“Yes, I did actually.” I stop, not knowing how to continue, then try to make an easy transition to my desired objective. “I looked for you and Felicity but didn’t see you before we left.”

“Ah.” He looks away and then looks back to me. “I was around, mingling as usual, but unfortunately Felicity had to leave for school earlier than expected.”

I can see the disappointed look on his face, and I hate that I may have put it there. It’s obvious his daughter is important to him, and it just adds another layer of * to the pile I already feel.

“Where does she go to school again?” I know exactly where she goes to school, I just need some details.

“Cambridge in England. She comes home when she can, but she’s busy with her studies. She’s set to graduate this semester and she’s working overtime. She’s got her whole life to work. And if you ask me, she’s taking on too much. She’s young. She should be falling in love and having a good time. But instead she keeps her music to herself, closed off from everyone.”

I absorb all of his words, thinking that she’s old enough to know what she wants, and if she should be falling in love with anyone, it should be me.

He shakes his head and looks apologetic. “Sorry, that might have been over-sharing. I just worry. She’s my only little girl.”

“You said before she was just like her mother. But you said that Felicity is introverted?” I ask, wanting to get to the bottom of his comparison.

“Oh.” He looks at me like he forgot he mentioned it. “I must have said that in passing. Yes, she’s so much like her at times. She’s so passionate about her music, the way Ruthie was about life. My ex-wife may have had her faults.” He lets out a dark laugh. “A lot more than I realized to begin with, but there was an air about her. People flocked to Ruthie. She loved attention and grabbed onto it everywhere she went, but she turned it into something nasty. But sweet Felicity has that draw and doesn’t even know it. She’s like the glow of a sunset that people gather around to watch. She commands attention without lifting a finger.” He shakes his head and looks off into the distance. “That was the reason I fell for Ruthie to begin with. Felicity is cut from the same cloth, but she has her own path. She’s just as beautiful as Ruthie, and I don’t think she even realizes it.”

“I know,” I whisper, and he turns to look at me. I clear my throat and make a mumbling sound, trying to make it sound like I was trying to stifle a cough instead of agreeing with him. “So she’s coming home for spring break then?” I ask, hopeful that she’s headed this way sometime soon.

Bill sighs and shrugs his shoulder. “She sent me a text last night saying she’ll let me know. Oh well. At some point I have to let her live her life. Right?”

I give him a tight smile and change over to work talk. It’s the last thing on my mind, but I can’t walk out of his office having only talked about Felicity. I need to stay under the radar with him and hide my feelings for her until I can come up with a way of talking to her.

I go back to my office and kick myself for the workload I have lying before me. I have so much I need to be doing, but all I can think about is making a trip to England. We have consultants there, and I could use it as an excuse to pop in, but would it be obvious to Bill? Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I need to see her. I need to find a way to talk to her.

Just as I’m about to book a flight, I get an email detailing a long list of problems with one of our projects here in New York. It’s the kind of shit I will have to deal with myself and will keep my ass firmly planted in the Big Apple for quite a few weeks.

Handling as much as I can while I’m in the office, I work until the sun is long set and the moon is telling me to get my ass home. It’s dark by the time I walk into my penthouse, and the feeling I’ve been trying to avoid all day creeps in.

Felicity.

I go to my room and strip off my clothes, climbing into the cool sheets. I grab my phone and see what I can find on social media. Anything. A girl her age has to have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Right?

Wrong. She’s nowhere to be found. I find an old account, but it only has a single picture on it, and it’s long since been forgotten, without so much as one post.

I decide to dig deeper and look into her college orchestra’s social media. There, I luck out and find a scrap of information. It lists names and dates for some of their social outings, but I don’t see Felicity's name mentioned on them. When I click through some of the classroom pictures, I catch a few glimpses of her in the back. At least knowing where she is eases some of the pain. Knowing that she’s safe is better than not knowing anything.

After my search through her school, I look up one of my contacts who’s done some work for me in the past. I make a quick phone call across the pond to Edward Odom and have him find out all he can on Felicity. I need someone to get eyes on her, and I need it starting yesterday.