When I wake up, I immediately know something is wrong.
January isn’t here. The bed is cold, which means she hasn’t been here for a while.
She’s woken up before in the middle of the night, but she’s always come back to bed at some point. I’ve woken up with her for a week.
But she’s not here now.
I walk through the house toward the office, looking for her. This feeling of mine is irrational—she has to be here. She wouldn’t leave without telling me. And where would she go?
When I get to the office, adrenaline spikes through my veins.
Arranged carefully on her desk are the phone, earrings, and tennis bracelet I got her. She hasn’t taken the jewelry off since I gave it to her, not even in the shower.
Her laptop is gone though. And the room feels… cold, in a way it never did before.
There’s a message here, and when the full impact of it hits me, I stop breathing.
She’s rejected me. Again.
My fist opens and closes, the rest of me utterly paralyzed. I’m hollowed out, empty. I gave her everything of me… and she rejected it.
I don’t understand. Not why she left or how I can hurt like I’ve been hit by a semi. I can’t even get angry at her disappearance.
There’s just… nothing inside.
I somehow make my way around her desk, falling into her chair. She’d sit here, right across from me, typing away on her battered laptop. And now there’s nothing left but the gifts I gave her.
The earrings are cold and hard when I pick them up, not even a hint of her body heat remaining. The stones are dull in the low light from the hallway. They would gleam brightly enough to make me blink when they were in her ears.
I love you.
She said that just tonight. And then she just… fucking left me.
My fist smashes into the desk. Some part of my brain flinches at the pain and noise.
That flinch becomes a crack. And then a fissure, and suddenly I realize how dumb I’m being.
When she rejected me before, January did it right to my face. Yeah, I was hurt and pissed at the time, but she didn’t ghost me or anything.
And she’s kept secrets from me but only to protect her friend. Which means…
I raise my head and stare into the darkness. “Fucking Fuchs. He did this.”
She was frightened when she first came to me. And she’s frightened now. He did something to make her bolt without a word.
The adrenaline jumping through me turns to ice. He must have threatened her. Kidnapped her. He wants her company, and a man like Fuchs doesn’t take no for an answer.
He’s about to find out a man like me isn’t going to let him get away with this. A man like me is going to do everything and anything to find the woman he loves, then utterly ruin the asshole who dared to take her.
I tear outside and jump into the Tesla. Before the car door fully shuts, I’m gunning it down the driveway, rocketing toward the City, praying I make it in time.
Finn is the one to catch me as I careen into Bastard Capital.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Finn clotheslines me as I try to barrel past him toward my office. I’d never let the Tesla drop below a hundred as I raced back to the City and on to Sand Hill Road.
January was gone, all her things left behind. Every second counted now that Fuchs had grabbed her.
“Let go,” I snarl. “He’s got her, and I have to get her back. And then smash that fucker into a million pieces.”
I take a breath and size up Finn. I’m not a small dude, but he’s got a few inches and several pounds of muscle on me. Like, boxer-type muscle, which is good in a fight. “You’re coming with me. I might need backup.”
Finn’s arm tightens around me, squeezing hard on my windpipe. “Dude, you need to chill the fuck out. I’ve got your back any day of the week, but I have no fucking clue what’s going on.”
Like I’ve got the time to explain. “Fuchs has January. I’m getting her back.”
“Is he here?” Logan roars from his office. “Because Mark needs to explain some shit fast.”
When he barrels into the hallway, Anjie is close on his heels, looking worried. “Mark?” she asks in a quavering voice.
Jesus. I was holding it together, but the fear in Anjie’s voice cracks my shell of anger, letting my own fear seep out.
“I’ll make sure she’s fine,” I promise Anjie. “I’ll save her.”
“What the hell is going on with Ultra?” Logan’s put his hands on his hips. “I thought we weren’t selling to Fuchs.”
“What?”
“It’s in TidBytes today,” Finn explains, relaxing his grip on me. “A big story about how Ultra is being sold to Corvus.” He drops his voice. “Along with some pictures of Callie with Julian.”
That explains Logan’s mood, but I don’t have time to deal with it. Logan knows the woman he loves is safe, if not in his arms. Whereas January could be anywhere. Fuchs might have done anything to her.
“Why the hell would TidBytes have the announcement?” I ask. “It’s only a gossip blog.”
Anjie shrugs. “We were hoping you could explain.”
“We had her system working. It was a great test, and I told her we were ready to take it to Pixio… and…”
Logan’s expression falls. “Oh shit. What happened?”
“She was just gone the next morning. Didn’t take anything except her laptop and her phone. I’ve called her phone, her house, her office, even her parents—nobody knows where she is. Somehow Fuchs must have gotten to her. Or kidnapped her. That’s why the sale announcement is already out.”
Finn pushes me toward the conference room. “Anjie, can you make some coffee and call in everyone else? We’ve got some planning to do.”
By the time everyone assembles in the conference room, Anjie included, I’m worked up to a fever pitch again, pacing like a caged wolf.
“We’re wasting too much time,” I say, punching my fist into my palm. “He’s got her, and we have to rescue her. There’s no other explanation.”
Dev raises an eyebrow. “Really? How are you going to rescue her?”
“Storm Corvus’s offices.”
Elliot’s head snaps up. “That’s illegal.”
“I don’t give a shit! I know that fucker has her, and I’m getting her back!”
Dev, that asshole, remains cool as I rant, which only pisses me off more. “So you’re going to charge into Fuchs’s secure building,” he says, “somehow find his office before security tackles you, and demand that he release January?”
“Fucking yes, you cold-blooded bastard!”
“Assuming he has taken her—which you don’t know, maybe she left for some other reason—why would he hold her in his office building? He knows that’s the first place we’ll look. Or the authorities will.”
He’s making sense, which only infuriates me more. “Well, what do you suggest?”
“Was anything wrong before she left?”
I take a sharp, jerking breath as I remember. I love you. I’ll die remembering exactly how January said that. “God, no.”
“Think.”
I try to, but all that comes is memories of her softness, of how close we’d been. How much I loved her and maybe always had.
“There’s nothing,” I say. “But Fuchs can spy on anyone anywhere. Maybe… maybe he found something incriminating. Threatened her with it.”
“But we never found anything in the background check,” Anjie says. “Why wouldn’t she tell you if Fuchs had threatened her? Why disappear?”
“Fuchs found out about her friend sending her those documents.” But even as I say it, it doesn’t make sense. January would have told me about that. “It’s the only thing he could have on her.”
Because maybe Fuchs didn’t threaten her. Maybe he threatened someone close to her. But that still makes no sense. If the threat was to Grace or…
It suddenly dawns on me. “He threatened me.”
“Pardon?” Dev says.
“Me.” I tap my chest. “Fuchs must have threatened me with… something. So January took off to protect me.”
It’s a beautiful gesture that’s equal parts touching and infuriating. I protect her, not the other way around. I’ll have to make that very clear once I find her.
“What could that be?” Finn asks.
I shrug. “Hell if I know. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad. The question now is, has January signed the contracts? And how do we stop her from doing that?”
Elliot looks thoughtful. “If she hasn’t signed yet, that makes it easy. But even if she has, a contract signed under duress isn’t legal. Both parties have to understand what they’re agreeing to. One could argue that January was under such extreme emotional stress she wouldn’t be competent to understand what she’d signed.”
“You mean, you could argue it. And win.”
Elliot chews on that. “Fuchs is going to have some damn good lawyers, but so will we. Then there’s the luck of the draw with judges, but he might not want to risk the exposure of a lawsuit. His company needs the shadows to operate. And his government clients won’t like it either.”
“Do you think he won’t prosecute the documents leak then?” I ask. Not only could he fire Grace and invalidate her visa, he could have her sent to jail for corporate espionage. Maybe even January too.
Elliot’s fingers drum on the table. “We can’t completely rule it out, but my guess would be he’d want to keep that quiet too. It looks bad to his clients, and he can continue to use it as leverage against January if he keeps it quiet.”
A plan begins to form in my mind. There’s a ton of moving parts, things that need to mesh perfectly in order for it to work… but I can see a way out. And a way to defeat Fuchs.
“We need to schedule a meeting with Pixio. Tomorrow.”
Anjie nods and pulls out her phone. Thank God for her.
“Without January?” Logan asks.
“Oh no, we’re definitely getting her out. We need to hit Fuchs back though.” At Elliot’s look, I say, “Not physically. Whatever Fuchs has on January—we need something worse on him.”
Elliot looks like he’s about to protest, but Paul cuts in. “Mark’s right. If we stop Fuchs from buying Ultra, he’ll be pissed. He’ll feel we stole it from him. And he’ll want to strike back.”
“We need a shield then. Do any of you know anything about him? Anything personal?” Even though we move in the same circles, I hardly know anything about Fuchs. He’s not married, has no kids, doesn’t date. I’m beginning to suspect no one knows much about him beyond rumors.
“Blackmail?” Logan sounds skeptical.
“Yeah, blackmail,” I say. Logan doesn’t need to be a Goody Two-shoes about this. “This fucker wants to record everyone in America. Let’s turn the tables on him.”
“Okay, like what?” Finn asks.
“I don’t know him.” Paul lifts his palms. “Nobody I know does either.”
Elliot makes a face when we all turn to him. “How am I supposed to know him? All I know is that his assistant is annoying.”
Logan just shakes his head.
“Fuck,” I mutter. So much for some good old-fashioned social engineering to help us here. We could hack Fuchs’s phone and computer, but we don’t have time for that. So we’re shit out of luck. Except—
“Dev?” As I turn to him, I realize he’s been quiet. Way too quiet. “What do you know about him?”
Dev is doing his usual man-of-mystery bullshit, but I don’t have time for it. He folds his hands and exhales. “I’ve heard rumors,” Dev finally says. “That he’s into… rougher stuff. Dark stuff.”
“Like what, BDSM?” I almost laugh. “That’s practically vanilla these days. He’s not going to care who knows that.”
Dev raises a finger. “But remember who we’re dealing with. It’s not how the public would react to the news—it’s how he would react to it being public.”
“He’d freak out.”
Dev nods. “Also, he’s not the one holding the whip.”
I release a long breath as I sit back. I really don’t give a shit what Fuchs gets up to in his spare time—if a session with a bullwhip on his ass helps him unwind, good for him—but if I can use this against him, I will.
“Do you have any real proof?” I ask. Fuchs will only laugh off rumors. Or maybe not—but I still want something concrete in my hands when I confront him.
Dev shakes his head. “Only whispers.”
“Shit.” I pop my jaw back and forth. “I’ll just have to bullshit my way through then.”
“You’re really good at bullshit,” Finn offers. He turns to Dev. “How the hell did you hear that about Fuchs?”
“I listen,” is all Dev will say.
Anjie sets her phone down, her expression sober. “Jack, the CEO of Pixio, is going to be in a meeting all day tomorrow, then he’s flying out to Aspen for two weeks. The best I could get you is half an hour at lunch tomorrow.”
“I’ll take it. Trust me, January’s demo will only need ten minutes to blow him away.” A wicked thought occurs to me, one way to really twist the knife in Fuchs. “Tell him we’ll meet at Roasted for lunch. Exactly at twelve thirty.”
Anjie raises her brows, but she goes off to call Jack’s assistant back. It’s an odd request, but I’m confident Anjie will make it work.
All the pieces are coming together except for the very last one. The most important one.
“I hate to point out any flaws in your plan,” Paul says, “but you’ve just scheduled a meeting without having found January. You don’t even know if she’s signed the paperwork with Corvus yet. And if she’s not answering her phone…”
“I’ve got a plan for that too.” I get up from the chair and gesture to Finn. “The rest of you keep looking for dirt on Fuchs. Call me if you find anything. Finn, you and I are going to pay a visit to Ultra.”
I just hope the team January put together is as good as it needs to be.