Breaking Her Rules(22)

Good because he couldn’t even pretend to be okay with letting her go. Not now.

Twenty minutes later, Ellie returned to the waiting room. With all her makeup gone from crying so much, her eyes puffy, she looked exhausted but also relieved. Definitely a good sign.

“He wants to see you,” Ellie said softly before giving Wyatt a bear hug.

He was surprised by the sudden show of affection, but returned it before heading to see his friend. As he left, he looked over his shoulder at Iris who was still sitting. “You better be here when I get back.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she promised, her expression serious.

Something niggled at his gut, but he nodded and left. She’d said she wouldn’t leave and he had to trust her. They couldn’t spend their marriage second-guessing each other.





Chapter 13



Wyatt walked into the waiting room feeling a hundred times lighter. Jay was going to be all right and he didn’t hate him. Wyatt had been fearful that because of his mistake Jay wouldn’t want anything to do with him. The thought of losing his friend shredded him.

He didn’t make friends easily because half the time he wondered what angle someone was working. Wyatt wished he wasn’t so cynical, but life had taught him to be. And since he’d become successful, he’d had to be even more careful who he trusted. Jay was different though. They’d worked missions together when the other man had been a SEAL and Wyatt had been Force Recon in the Marines. Being in firefights alongside someone else wasn’t something easily forgotten. Especially since Jay had saved his ass more than once. Not only was he paying his medical bills, but Wyatt was going to send him on a long paid vacation once he was fully healed. The man definitely deserved it.

The second he stepped inside the waiting room everything around him funneled out. Iris wasn’t there. Vincent was on the phone with someone, his expression dark and when those pale blue eyes met Wyatt’s, he knew something had happened to her.

Ignoring everyone else he covered the distance between him and Vincent. “Where the f*ck is she?”

“Hold on,” Vincent murmured into the phone before holding it away from his ear. “We don’t know but we’re going to find her.” There was a deadly promise in his words.

Find her? Had she been taken? His entire world tilted on its axis as he tried to digest Vincent’s words. Before he could ask the question, Vincent continued. “She went to grab us food from the cafeteria and never came back. I went to find her and the f*cking place was closed. I’m…hold on.” He held the phone up to his ear again, his gaze on Wyatt as he spoke. “All right. I’m on my way.”

Vincent slid the phone into his pocket and nodded his head toward the exit. “One of the guys will take Ellie back to your place. You’re coming with us.”

Wyatt didn’t give a shit where they were going. He’d walk into hell to find Iris. Even though a dozen questions burned against his brain, he held himself in check, waiting to see where Vincent and the two other security men took him. Even so, he couldn’t fight the panic humming through him. Iris wouldn’t have just left without telling him. No way in hell. That meant she hadn’t left on her own. His throat tightened as emotions bubbled up inside him, but he shoved everything back. It wouldn’t help him now. They rode an elevator three floors down, one floor above where the morgue was. He’d never been on this floor before, wasn’t even sure what it was.

When the doors whooshed open, a beautiful petite black woman wearing green scrubs greeted them. She eyed all of them then looked at Vincent, her dark eyes assessing. “You owe me for this, Vincent. I had to agree to go on a date with someone for this and if I wind up losing my job for what you’re about to do, you’re explaining to mom why.”

Mom? Holy shit. This was Vincent’s sister.

Without another word, the woman spun on her heel and led them down three quiet, deserted hallways. Eventually they stopped in front of a plain metal door. She knocked once and it immediately flew open. In addition to the man holding the door open, two men wearing security uniforms sat behind desks filled with live-streaming video feeds.

Wyatt’s heart lodged in his throat when he realized why they were there. They might have footage of Iris.

“Just you, Vincent.” The woman nodded at her brother.

“Please, my wife is missing. I need…” Wyatt was unable to finish the thought or hide the desperation in his voice. Right now he was barely keeping it together.

Her eyes softened and she nodded. Then she grabbed the hand of the man holding the door. “You can stand guard out here with me and the others,” she said bossily.

“Whatever you say, Zoe,” the man murmured as she dragged him from the room.

One of the men at the desk spoke to Vincent. “On these computers I’ve got the feeds for the timeframe your sister told us your friend went missing. I’ve reviewed them and none of us have left our posts. Sorry man, I haven’t found anything.”

That didn’t mean shit, Wyatt thought.

Vincent apparently agreed because he just grunted. “You mind?” He motioned to the seat and though the security guard hesitated, he sighed and stood.

“Only because you’re Dr. Hansen’s brother and she’s scary as shit,” he muttered.

Vincent sat down and Wyatt watched in awe as his fingers flew over the keyboard. He typed in commands, fast-forwarding, then rewinding, then repeating it a few more times before letting one of the videos stream.

Wyatt barely managed to keep his shit together as he watched the color feed of Iris getting into an elevator. Then she exited on another floor and disappeared from sight. He wanted to reach out and touch the screen but stayed rooted to the spot. The feed picked her up again in front of the gated off cafeteria. She looked frustrated as she eyed the giant metal gate blocking the place. Glancing around, she paused before turning to her left then heading toward an opening into…somewhere.

“What’s in there?” he asked.

The man still sitting answered. “It’s just a small nook with a soda and vending machine. There aren’t any doors or exits there. She’ll come back out in a second.”

As they watched, a man with gray hair in a wheelchair rolled himself into the opening too. What was taking her so long? Blood rushed in his ears as he watched the clock in the right hand corner of the screen tick away the seconds. Thirty seconds later the man with the gray hair came out of the blocked off area pushing the wheelchair. A woman was in the seat, a shawl wrapped around her head which was tilted to the side as if she was asleep.

Iris.

Wyatt’s hands balled into fists. Raw rage hummed through him, shooting out to all his nerve endings like battering rams. He wanted to punch something, to tear apart the man who’d dared take his wife. Though his insides raged out of control he kept his gaze on the man, trying to get a clear shot of the guy’s face.

“Holy shit,” Vincent muttered. “He had to have drugged her.”

Yeah, Iris wouldn’t have gone down without a fight. Not his wife. “Can you get a better angle of his face?”

Vincent muttered to himself as he zoomed in on the man, but it was as if the guy was purposefully avoiding the cameras. Which meant he’d been here before. Had likely learned the layout of everything.

As he continued to watch the video feed, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text from Iris.

“Vincent,” he managed to rasp out as he opened the message.

Sending you a live video of your wife. Bring five million in cash to the following address. You have two hours. She’s alive for now. Come alone or she’s dead. Don’t bother trying to trace this phone, I’m trashing it after I hit send.

His heart beat an erratic tattoo as he read the message again. She’d been taken, but she was alive. He focused on that one thought.

Iris was still alive.

He wasn’t familiar with most of Miami except the well-known hotspots. “You recognize the address?”

“Yeah,” Vincent muttered. “Abandoned neighborhood twenty minutes from here. Some so-called urban explorers did a documentary on it a while ago…” He trailed off as the video feed popped up.

Wyatt’s gut twisted as he watched. Iris’s arms and legs were cuffed to a chair and though she still wore her jeans, her only other clothing was a lacy black bra. Her head lolled to the side but he could see the rise and fall of her chest.

She was breathing and that was the only thing that gave him hope. Fury popped inside him at the sight of her half-dressed but he shoved his anger back down. That emotion wouldn’t do him any good. He had to stay focused.

Getting the money wouldn’t be a problem. He could get it and be at the address in two hours. Something the man who’d sent the video had to realize. He’d timed this perfectly.

“You know you’re not going alone, right?” Vincent asked quietly.