Chapter 52

Julian

Damn her to hell and then back again. Every time I tried to do something nice she always threw it back in my face and I was fed up with it.

Stupidly I had thought she was going to make an effort this morning when I had driven her to work and yet here I was. Waiting outside work in the car as I watched person after person leave the hospital and not one of them was her.

It was almost like she purposely pissed me off just to get a rise out of me and boy was she going to get a rise tonight because I had been here for hours.

Almost bloody three of them to be exact. And at first I had been fine to wait for her because I had been late myself. Not majorly so but enough for her to notice and that's what the flowers languishing on the passenger seat was for. My way of an apology. But there was a difference between a late and fucking three hours late.

I wasn't known as a patient man and the little patience I had had not just waned thin it had completely disappeared.

Muttering some choice swear words that I wouldn't even utter out loud I pressed the button that connected my phone to my Bluetooth and rang Ian.

He answered before it had even finished ringing once. But then I knew he would. Just like I knew he was waiting in a dark suv somewhere close by. Watching me but never hovering unless I needed him to.

"Julian."

"Find out where the fuck she is." I snapped.

There was a silence but it wasn't a stunned one. Ian knew me better than anyone else and he knew how short my patience was especially when it came to Cassie.

"Julian." He said and I knew from his tone that he was trying to calm me down before I did something stupid like rush in there and make a scene and honestly it was tempting. No doubt I would find her with some man. Being friendly, flirting a little. Giving out soft little touches that meant nothing to her but everything to the man she was touching.

I would rip them all apart for being close to her and then I would make her pay.

"She's probably just been held up. Cassie doesn't exactly have a regular nine to five job."

I knew that but it didn't matter to me. Even if she had been working she had known I would be out here waiting and she should have sent word. It was the polite thing to do.

Not that being polite or proper protocol mattered to my damn wife. All that mattered to her was pissing me off. And damn she was good at it.

"Just get in there and find out where she is. Drag her ass out here by the hair if she's with another man because I've had enough-"

"That's a little hypocritical Julian." Ian said quietly and I roared down the phone. I knew I was being a hypocrite but I just didn't care.

"Fine." He said tiredly. "I'll be right back."

I didn't bother to tell him thanks because I didn't owe him any thanks. He was just doing his job and that was it. Staring straight ahead I watched as he rushed passed , a tall figure dressed in black that shot through the heavy grey rain.

All this waiting was killing me. First waiting for my wife and now waiting for my beta was driving me crazy. Reaching out I gripped the thick stems of the bright flowers I had bought her and in a rage smashed them against the seat.

Soft petals flew in all directions like the sweetest smelling confetti but I still didn't stop. Finally when not one bud was left on its stem I let the now limp bouquet fall onto the floor.

Staring at them I frowned and it as like looking at the ruins of my own relationship with my wife because that was ruined as well.

"Damn it. And damn you Cassie." Blowing out a breath I let my head fall into my hands. "And most of all damn me."

Because I could blame everyone else but in reality I was the one to blame for almost everything that had happened recently. I was the one who messed up and now I could see no way out of it.

I had never wanted Cassie as a wife. A woman I had never met before she had moved into my life. I didn't know anything about her and I hadn't tried to-

There was a sharp rap of knuckles on the window and I jumped up.

"What?" Pressing a button the window slid down and Ian's face came more into focus. "Where is she?"

He swallowed hard. And that was always Ian's biggest tell. He was nervous. Nervous and worried.

"She's not here Julian." His voice was strangled. "She's not been seen for hours. No one has any idea where she is. I'm having the cctv pulled up to go over and I have some of the others checking local businesses but-"

I was out of the car in a second. Leaving the door open I ran towards the hospital entrance with a sinking feeling in my gut.

Because now I was worried too.

I watched the screen with my eyes squinting. Although I didn't need to squint at all. The video was really clear. Technology had come a long way and I could clearly see my wife as she stood on the pavement with her head down against the torrential rain.

She waited for a long time.

"So she was there for almost an hour." Ian's voice spoke from behind my shoulder. "Can we track her from here?"

I bristled. Ok so I had been more than a little late but did he really have to keep bringing it up like all of this was my fault. Knowing Cassie she had just taken herself off somewhere to punish me. It sounded like something she would do.

"Yeah, there's a few but these two are the most -" a heavily muscled arm reached around me. Usually I wouldn't have allowed such insolence but the reprimand died on my lips as I watched a man smash into Cassie's shoulder. She didn't go down but if she was human she would have. There was some kind of heated exchange between them.

"Does it have any sound?" I wanted to know what was being said badly.

"No." Ian said curtly. "But you don't need sound to see she scared the shit out of him." He gave a mirthless chuckle.

I turned my eyes back to the screen and there it was the terror in the humans eyes. Whatever she had said or did had him scuttling away like a beaten puppy.

I beamed with pride. "That's my girl."

"It's what happens next that has me worried." Another hand quickly typed out commands on the keyboard and my elation evaporated.

"Where is she going?" I asked again leaning forward as she appeared in the entrance of an alleyway and headed across a deserted street.

"No idea." Ian admitted from behind my shoulder. "But she clearly knows where she's going."

I frowned. "Does she? How do you know that?"

He shook his head. "The way she is walking. It's purposeful. She is a woman with a plan. Now-"

Everyone froze.

Every single one of us because it was like she disappeared. One second she was walking along and then the next boom gone.

She didn't reappear from behind the lorry she was walking alongside.

"How long before the truck leaves?" I asked with a sinking heart. I already knew it would be soon just like I already knew she was in the back of it.

Someone had taken her. Kidnapped my wife because I had been sloppy with her security and left her to wander around a city on her own knowing my enemies would target her.

"Two and half minutes." Ian's voice was quiet. But it was filled with anger. Barely contained anger at that. He had come to the same conclusion as I did.

On the screen a man appeared and jumped in the drivers seat.

Reaching forward I paused the video. Staring at the screen I memorised his face. He would die soon and I would be the one to end his miserable life. He was nothing but a dead man walking. Because no one took what was mine.

"What do you want us to do?"

Not looking away from the screen I pushed myself upwards. And the anger in me seemed to swell my muscles until I filled the small office. Power flowed through me until my wolf felt like it was going to rip itself from my skin and murder the whole world.

"I want you to find my damn wife."