Free Web NovelChapter 136: Chapter 136 Ezekiel opened their eyes
_Ezekiel’s POV_
We landed at six in the morning.
Pierre had barely slept on the flight. I could tell because he spent most of it reading through everything Kasper had sent over, page by page, going through it the way he went through everything, carefully and without rushing. I had watched him from across the aisle and said nothing because he didn’t need me to say anything. He needed to read.
Larry had a car waiting when we touched down.
We drove straight to where Alaric was running things.
The operational center was set up in a hotel conference room that had been cleared of its original furniture and replaced with laptops and printed maps and people moving around from one place to another that I felt in an instant.
Alaric was at the central table.
He looked up when we walked in. freёwebnoѵel.com
The moment his eyes met mine, they darkened, as if I’d stolen something from him.
I had expected the look, I had prepared for it on the flight over. The Alpha King’s version of attention was different from most people’s. It didn’t move around the room. It landed on you and stayed there and it was very direct and very patient and most people found it uncomfortable.
I walked in anyway, I stole nothing.
His eyes moved to me and stayed again.
I could see two things in them. The first was the exhaustion and urgency of someone who had been running a search for days without finding what they were looking for. The second was something sharper and more specific.
He’d definitely seen the proposal news.
“Before you say anything,” I began.....taking a sigh.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” he gritted out.
“Your face was,” I smiled wickedly.
Beside me Pierre made a small sound that he covered quickly.
Alaric looked at me steadily. “The damn proposal your family sent to the Ashthorne household.”
“My father moved without my full instruction, King.” I said. “I gave him a name in a moment of bad judgment and he acted on it before I could stop him.” I held his gaze. “It won’t be going forward. I’m not here to compete with you. I’m here because Rowena pulled me out of a ditch in the dark when she didn’t know who I was and I owe her. That’s all.”
Alaric held the moment.
“Pierre can confirm it,” I turned to poor Pierre who looked startled when he was mentioned.
Alaric looked at Pierre.
Pierre looked back at him calmly. “He’s telling the truth.”
One more second. Then Alaric turned back to the table and said, “This is where we are, Prince.” The sarcasm wasn’t lost. freёwebnovel.com
He walked us through everything. The van plates had led to a company registered eighteen months ago, one named director, the name connecting loosely to old Ridgeline Medical paperwork. Drake Ashford’s network had been mapped across seven contacts in the city. Three questioned and released. Two still being found. Two completely dark. In conclusion, it had nothing to do with Drake actually.
The industrial district lead Kasper had flagged had come back clean that morning.
Reid added the morning updates. Nothing new had broken.
I stood at the table and looked at the map and everything that had been built on it. The lines connecting Drake to Ridgeline to the historical investigation. Not the vehicle.
Something was missing from the middle of it.
Not missing because nobody had found it. Missing because nobody had looked for it. Everyone in this room had built their picture of what happened around Drake and the investigation into Rowena’s father. It made sense. I mean it was logical. Drake had motive and history and capability. His father was a dickhead who made everyone stress, Rowena did well killing him.
But I had a photo on my phone that nobody in this room knew about, it made me somewhat proud that I hadn’t ignored those two that night.
And I had been sitting with that picture since the night I took it, turning it over, and the more I looked at the full picture the more I kept coming back to the same place.
“There’s something we’re all missing,” I said.
Everyone at the table looked at me.
Reid, Kasper, who was standing near the door with his arm still in a partial wrap from maybe a concussion, Pierre, who turned from the map to look at me with that attention of his that meant he was already three steps into whatever I was about to say.
Alaric looked at me without speaking. He too was waiting for my reveal.
“You detained Kaelen?” I asked.
“Obviously, I’m sure you have eyes.” The brute of a King still hated me. Look at his arrogant response.
“You detained him because the timeline fit and because he had motive and because he made that public statement the night before she was taken,” I said. “All of that is reasonable.”
“Very,” Alaric said. “What exactly are you onto?”
“But again, Kaelen is falling apart,” I said. “His club is frozen. His accounts are locked. His operations manager disappeared. He’s been calling your office asking for help, right?” I paused but no one exactly replied. Although Pierre nodded. “That is not the behavior of a man who has Rowena and is holding all the cards. That is the behavior of a man who is also being played. He’s literally in deep shit. Plus, where’s he supposed to get the money for paying the men?”
The room went quiet at my words.
“Someone has been building something around Kaelen,” I said. “Not with him. Around him. Using him as a distraction. Pointing attention at him so attention stays off someone else.” I looked at the table. “Drake is real, definitely. The Ridgeline connection is real. But Drake has been running for weeks and he has one objective which is Rowena’s investigation. He wants the investigation stopped. He doesn’t need her alive for that.”
I let that sit.
“Whoever has her needs her alive, or dead after a while.” I said. “Whoever planned this took her and kept her and is managing the situation carefully. That’s not Drake. Drake’s objective is removal. This is something else. This is leverage. This same person is messing with Kaelen’s resources. Think about it, the so called company with trademark infringement issue isn’t even real.”
“So, who has leverage to gain from holding her?” Reid asked.
“Someone who wants to control something connected to her,” I said. “Or someone who wants to punish her and needs her present and breathing to do it properly.” I paused. “Someone who has been closer to the situation than any of us have been looking.”
I turned to look at Alaric.
“You’ve been looking at Kaelen,” I said. “I think you should look at who’s standing right next to Kaelen and has been this whole time.”
Everyone looked confused. Gosh, they were so slow.
But Alaric looked at me with steady eyes.
“You have something specific,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“I even have a photo,” I smiled. “Taken four nights ago. And I’ve been trying to figure out when the right moment was to show it to someone.” I took my phone out. “I think this is the moment.”
I put the phone on the table.
Everyone looked at it.
The photo was clear. The alley lighting had been poor but not poor enough for my iPhone.
Two people making out, one of them was unmistakable.
Alaric picked up the phone.
He looked at it for a long moment.
Then he looked up at me.
“Virella,” he said.
“And the man with her, I’ve seen him somewhere.” I said. “Find out who he is and I think you’ll find Rowena.”
