Page 77 of Lone King


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“Okay, thanks, Conrad. I appreciate it.”

I hurry over to the elevator and punch in my code. As I wait, I pull out my phone and search through my messages to find the last one Sam sent me.

“What’s going on? Is Samantha the same girl you brought to the party?” Matthias asks as the elevator doors open.

We hurry inside, and I press the button for the penthouse as I search through my messages. I finally find the last one Sam sent me and turn my phone toward my brother.

“Same thing. No punctuation. No capitalization like Eden always uses. But if Sam used my wife’s phone to send me a text, the question is why?”

“My guess is we’re about to find out.”

Just as he utters that ominous sentence, we stop on the top floor and the elevator doors open. We step out into the entryway and look around, but nothing seems out of the ordinary. The wrought iron table with the glass top and huge flower arrangement with those white calla lilies Eden loves still sits right in front of the elevator as we walk out, and those two fake trees she claims give the place some life are still flanking that table.

I look down at the floor, not really sure what I’m looking for, but it seems fine. Same white marble as usual. The entire entry with the white walls Eden always corrects me about look the same as always (they’re not white—they’re white smoke, although I’d bet you wouldn’t know the difference either).

The place is deathly quiet, but that’s nothing abnormal for this place. We can be watching TV upstairs in the bedroom, andif I come down to the kitchen to get a snack, I can’t hear a sound from up there.

Matthias and I walk into the kitchen, and my brother stops dead as he looks around. “Damn, Marius. This place is nice.”

“Yeah, yeah. Compliment me later. For now, let’s separate and search the entire apartment. You take down here. I’ll handle upstairs. Call me if you find anything.”

He gives me a strange look and asks, “Why can’t I just yell out that I found something?”

“Because I can’t hear you. It’s a big place, okay? Just call my damn phone, all right?” I say, my patience completely gone now.

“Jeez, okay. I’ll call.”

I race upstairs and stop at the area Eden calls the mezzanine where we talked the other day. Everything here looks normal.

To be honest, I’m looking for blood. Thankfully, I guess, this penthouse hasn’t been redone, so it’s all bare bones furniture that’s incredibly fucking uncomfortable to sit in and white (sorry, white smoke) walls that would show blood splatter if someone had…

I don’t let my mind go where it wants to. Shaking my head, I repeat over and over in my head, “Eden is okay. She’s fine, and when she sees me, she’s going to explain what the fuck that message was all about.”

When I finish thinking that a third time, I turn and start walking down the hallway, stopping at each room to look for her. I’d call out for her, but since that’s the same thing every person in the movies does just before they find who they’re looking for dead in a pool of blood, I’m not going to do that.

After checking the second bedroom and finding nothing, I walk into the upstairs living room, or what I’ve been secretly referring to as my future mancave. Eden would roll her eyes if she heard me say that. I can hear her already. “Mancave? What the hell does a grown man need a cave for? It’s the twenty-first century, Marius. The world has decided. We aren’t doing immature men anymore.”

That’s my Duck. She doesn’t put up with any nonsense. It’s one of the million reasons why I love her.

I walk back out to the hallway and a noise hits my ears that makes my heart skip a beat. Eden’s muffled voice is coming from our bedroom.

Quickly, I walk down the hall and stop in front of the closed door. Something is very wrong. Eden never closes the door. She told me one time that whoever built this penthouse didn’t understand it’s so big that it gets cold when you shut the doors to the rooms. So she leaves them open all the time.

Christ. She’s in there. But is she alone? Is Sam still here, or did the doorman make a mistake?

I touch the doorknob and look down to see my hand shaking. I’ve never been this fucking terrified in my life. If I walk in there and she’s bleeding out like Ronan was when I found him, I’m going to lose my fucking mind.

Slowly, I push the door open and hear Eden sobbing. As soon as I step into the room, I see her sitting on the bed with a gag in her mouth. Her wrists and ankles are bound, so she doesn’t move when she sees me.

“Duck, what the hell is going on? Are you okay?” I ask her as my emotions threaten to overwhelm me.

Whatever’s happened, at least she’s alive and safe.

And then, out of the corner of my eye, I see something move. I turn to find out what it is, and I see my assistant standing there with a gun.

“Sam, what’s going on? Put that gun down. What the fuck are you thinking?”

She frowns and walks around the bed behind Eden, pointing the gun at the back of her head. “No, Marius. I wanted you tocome here for me, and you did. Now I want you to do something else.”