Page 86 of Cross Me

Penny shook her copper head. “She did mention that you would be here, Sir.”

“Of course,” I murmured. I was out the door and across the hall, mobile in hand before her words struck me. Clara hadn’t told her to call if she was needed. Instead, she’d shifted the responsibility to me. It wasn’t like my wife. I dialed her number and it went instantly to voicemail.

I tore through our private apartments, my panic ratcheting higher with every empty room I found. When I reached her study and found it deserted, I called her again. But the photo of her, caught in a private moment while she slept, was the closest I came to reaching her.

A pit opened in my stomach, threatening to swallow my heart. I forced myself to dial another number. Norris answered immediately.

“She’s gone,” I mumbled, the words foreign to my lips. “Clara’s gone.”

“Did she say anything?” Brex pressed. “Did you two fight?” He had asked the question at least a dozen times.

I shook my head, still numb. Brex had arrived with Norris nearly an hour ago. My answer hadn’t changed, but he still didn’t seem satisfied. We stood in my bedroom, the last place I’d seen her. We’d yet to find any clue as to where she’d gone. “Something’s wrong. Someone took her.”

“Alexander, no one could have taken her. We would know,” he said gently.

“Goddammit, I was making love to her a few hours ago. She didn’t leave,” I exploded, finally putting to words what everyone else thought.

I sank into a chair, collapsing under the weight of her absence. If only I knew she was safe. If there was a note. But there was nothing. She wasn’t answering calls. I’d called Belle and Edward. Now they were worried, too, and I wasn’t any closer to having answers. A dark thought occurred to me, one that sent my heart racing in my chest, but I forced myself to confront it.

“What’s his number?” I asked Brexton. I didn’t have to say what I was thinking.

He shook his head, dismissing the idea outright. “Alexander, there’s no way.”

“His number,” I barked.

It took a few minutes for Norris to dig it out of a file. I’d never called him before.

“‘Ello?” Anders’ sleepy voice greeted me.

“Is she with you?” I forced myself to ask him, squeezing my eyes shut as unwanted visions of Clara in his bed swam to mind.

“What? Who is this?”

I didn’t have time for this. “Is Clara with you?”

There was a pause and I died a million times in the silence. “What’s the matter, brother? Lost your wife?”

I suddenly understood why so many monarchs executed their siblings. I didn’t care what he was to me or what I’d promised Clara.

“So help me God, do you know where she is?” I growled. “Tell me or there will be a security team ripping your house apart in ten minutes.”

“I haven’t spoken to her,” he said harshly. “I can only hope she scraped together the last bit of willpower she had and left your miserable ass.”

I ended the call without another word. I didn’t care what he thought about me or my marriage. Only one thing mattered to me now.

Brexton threw his mobile on the floor and cursed.

“What is it?” I swallowed, expecting the worst.

He bit his lips as if struggling with what he was about to tell me. “I can’t reach Georgia.”

“Georgia?” I repeated.

Clara wouldn’t leave with Georgia, not given my past with her. But that only left one other possibility. Had I let the devil in through the front door?

“Georgia wouldn’t,” Brex said fiercely.

“Are you sure about that or are you too in love with her to see straight?”