I squeeze her shoulder. I forgot how much I enjoyed doing this when I was young.
"This is where I had my first kiss," I say, kissing her forehead.
"Was she your girlfriend?" Her cheek moves against my chest, and I know she"s smiling.
"I was six. I thought she was my girlfriend, so when we came for a field trip, I kissed her when we got to this part of the museum."
"What did she do?" She giggles, making me smile.
"She hit me then ran off and told the teacher."
"Your poor ego." She tilts her head back, and the soft look in her eyes makes me realize that this is the spot I will ask her to marry me once the ring I"m having made for her is complete.
"I survived," I mutter, pulling her face up towards mine.
She instantly rises up on her elbow and lowers her mouth down to mine, nibbling my bottom lip before licking it. My hand moves to hold her face to take over the kiss, but we"re suddenly interrupted.
"Dere kissin"!" a kid yells, and a bunch of giggles break out around us.
Both Chloe"s face and mine turn at the same time to see that there is a group of kids who are all wearing matching shirts and look to be around five standing around us and laughing.
"Oh my G.o.d," Chloe whispers and hides her face in my chest.
I lay my head back down, break out into laughter, and can feel Chloe shaking from doing the same.
"I think we need to get up," I tell her, sitting up and seeing that the children have moved on.
We spend the next few hours walking around the museum, checking out different displays before heading out of the building. Once on the street, I signal to Ricket as we walk towards the park.
"This is nice," Chloe mutters.
I look down at her as she takes a bite of the pretzel I just bought her. I forget sometimes to step back from work to just enjoy the little moments.
"It has been nice," I agree, bending my head to take a bite of her pretzel, making her laugh.
By the time we arrive back at my penthouse, it is dark. There is a chill in the air, and Chloe is shivering. She insisted we walk instead of taking the car, so I sent Ricket ahead of us, telling him that he could have the night off. That"s why I"m surprised to find him waiting in the lobby of the building along with Bernard.
"Sir," Ricket says when he spots me.
"Is everything okay?" I ask, rubbing Chloe"s arm, trying to warm her up. We both dressed light to go out, and now, I wish I would have brought a jacket or demanded we take the car home.
"Evening," Bernard says to Chloe before moving his eyes to mine. "We need to meet."
I nod. "Let me get Chloe upstairs and warmed up, and then we can talk," I tell him, watching as he lifts his chin and follows us to the elevator.
Once I have Chloe in the bath, I make my way out to the living room, where Bernard and Ricket are both speaking quietly.
"Tell me what"s going on," I say, pouring a gla.s.s of scotch.
"I have gone over the videos from the club again from the night Chloe was drugged and still have not found even one moment when she could have been slipped the drug. Throughout the evening, she was never away from the other women at the event, she never went to the bar alone, and the party she was with had pitchers of drinks brought to them, and none of the other women ever showed any signs of having been given the same thing as Chloe."
"The drug was in her system, and I know she has never taken sleeping medication, so at some point during that party, she was given the drug," I growl.
"I agree," Bernard says then looks at Ricket. "What I"m thinking is one of the women at the party slipped it into her drink. They are the only ones who would have had the opportunity to do so. My men were watching her the entire evening, and at no point was anyone who wasn"t part of the bachelorette party even within sneezing distance of her."
"So you believe one of the women she was with drugged her?" I shake my head. "That makes no sense at all."
"I don"t know why someone did it, but women from the party are the only ones who would have had the opportunity to do so."
"So, what"s the plan?" I look in the direction of the bathroom, not wanting Chloe to come out during this talk. I don"t want her to even know there is something going on or what they suspect. I don"t know how she would react if she knew they believe that her friends had something to do with her being drugged.
"Right now, I"m gathering all the information I can on the women who attended the party. So far, they are all coming up as a bunch of well-to-do trophy wives, and I cannot find any link that would lead me to believe they would hold a grudge against her."
"Chloe is innocent. I believe whatever"s going on here has more to do with me than her."
"You think someone is using her to get to you?" Bernard replies, and I nod. "That would make sense. I have been going the ex-boyfriend route, but even he has been a dead end."
"What do you mean?"
"He went home. He hasn"t even tried to contact her."
"So why did he show up here?"
"I have my guy looking into his phone records. I want to find out how he knew Chloe was in the hospital. Someone had to have contacted him to give him that information."
"For what purpose?"
"Sir, if I may," Ricket speaks, and I turn to look at my old friend. "You"re very possessive of Ms. Kasters. Perhaps whomever did this believed you would do something rash."
"Like what?"
"Perhaps leave, sir," Ricket says.
Memories of my marriage come back to me. I never even asked my ex if she was having an affair-not that I needed to. But even if all of the evidence hadn"t been right there in front of me, I still wouldn"t have given her a chance to explain.
I have never been the most understanding person. Chloe hasn"t been in my life for long, so if someone were trying to make me believe she was playing me, was having a relationship with someone else, and didn"t understand the depth of emotions I feel for her, they may have thought they could make me believe them.
What they don"t know is I"m obsessed with her, and there is nothing anyone can do, including her, that would deter me from keeping her.
"How long will it take to get the phone records?"
"It will take a few days. Phone records are a little more difficult."
"Let me know what you find out as soon as you have the information."
"You know I will," Bernard answers, patting my arm before heading towards the front door.
"Would you like me to do anything, sir?" Ricket inquires.
"No. Just have a good night. Tomorrow, I will need to go into the office for a few hours. I"ll call when I"m ready to leave," I tell him, and he nods once before heading towards the front door.
Once I know they are gone, I head towards the bedroom to check on Chloe. There is a lot to think about, but I know that my men will be able to handle it.
Chapter 4.
"Nolan!" Chloe yells, and I lean my head back to look at the ceiling before letting out a long breath.
She has been on a rampage since coming home a few hours ago, and I"m ready to spank her a.s.s. This morning, I told her not to go to work, and I believed she agreed with me and was going to stay home. But it seems my beautiful girl has become hard of hearing, because an hour after I arrived at my office, I received a phone call from Bernard informing me that Chloe had been spotted leaving the building by one of his men, who had then proceeded to follow her, making sure she arrived at the bakery safely before posting up outside until I could meet him there.
As soon as I received this information, I ended my meeting early and met Ricket downstairs so I could pick Chloe up myself. Even if she didn"t care about her safety, I did, and there was no f.u.c.king way I was taking a chance with her being at a location that is completely open where, at any time, anyone could get to her.
After I arrived at the bakery, Chloe ran into the back kitchen. At that point, I should have known she wasn"t going to make it easy. It took ten minutes to corner her. I have to say that, even if she is tiny, she is fast. It didn"t end with me catching her; no, I ended up carrying her kicking and screaming out of the bakery and into the back of my car. I was surprised the police didn"t show up after the scene she"d caused. If it hadn"t been for her injuries, I would have spanked her a.s.s for the stunt she"d pulled.
"Nolan!" she yells again.
This time, I hear her stomping down the hall. I sit back against the couch and wait to see what happens.
"I know you can hear me," she huffs, coming to stand in front of me.
"It"s hard not to hear you when you"re yelling, Angel," I mutter flatly, closing up my computer.
"Don"t "Angel" me," she growls, throwing her hands up in the air. "Where are my clothes?"
"In the closet," I say slowly, wondering if she"s really lost it.
"No, they"re not," she huffs, blowing a piece of hair out of her face.
"Angel."
"Don"t freakin" "Angel" me! What? Did you take them so I wouldn"t have anything to wear or have a way to leave the house again unless I was willing to go naked?"
"Though that does sound like a win-win, no."
"Well then, someone has stolen my clothes." She throws up her hands again before lowering them to her hips.
"Chloe, you must really want a spanking. You have been doing things all day to provoke me." I rub between my eyes and look up at her only after she has been quiet for far too long.
"I"m not lying. All of my clothes, everything of mine, is gone," she whispers.
Seeing the panicked look on her face has me standing and heading to the bedroom and into the closet. As soon as I hit the bedroom, a familiar smell hits my nose, but it"s gone before I can place it. I storm to the closet and see that all of her hangers are empty. I open and close drawers, coming up with nothing. Everything is gone. My angel has a lot of clothes, and there is nothing left-not even a stray pair of panties.
I leave her standing in the closet and go to the bathroom where she keeps all her girly s.h.i.t. It"s all gone as well. I search our home from top to bottom, but everything of hers is gone. There is not even a sign of her left. If she weren"t standing right in front of me, I would think she had disappeared. When I turn around, Chloe is standing in the middle of the kitchen with her hands covering her mouth. That"s when I realize what I must look like. I can tell that my face is red-hot with anger and my body has expanded. I have no idea who the f.u.c.k came into our home, but when I find out, they are going to f.u.c.king pay.
"Come here," I demand.
She walks across the marble floors. As soon as she is within reach, I pick her up and carry her with me into the living room, where I sit down with her in my lap before pulling out my phone and calling Bernard.
"Shhhh, Angel," I whisper to the top of her head and pull her firmly against me when I hear her sob.
"Boss?" Bernard answers.
"Get your a.s.s up to my place now," I order then hang up. "We"ll get you all new clothes," I tell her, and she shakes her head, causing her face to slide against my shirt.
"Why would someone take my stuff?"
"Let"s not talk about that right now," I say softly, kissing the top of her head.
My mind is traveling rapidly, and I don"t want to explore the reason why until Bernard gets here. All I can think about is the fact that she left this morning, and that is when the people must have come in to take all of her stuff. I wonder what they would have done if she had been here alone. There is no telling what would have happened then. My building is secure, but just like any location, there is always room for improvement.
It takes three minutes for the phone to ring and them to tell me that they are sending a guest up. Chloe jumps at the noise and I shush her again before sitting her on the couch next to me so I can meet Bernard at the entryway.
"I"ll be right around the corner. Sit here until I come back," I tell her, kissing her forehead. "Look at me, Beautiful." I place two fingers under her chin, raising her eyes to mine. "It will all be okay."
"I know," she whispers and then looks over my shoulder when the bell goes off again.
"I"ll be right back."
She nods, and I kiss her lips before heading towards the door.
"What"s going on?" Bernard asks as soon as I open the front door.
I lead him back down the hall towards the living room, not wanting Chloe to be out of sight for more than a moment.
"All of Chloe"s belongings are gone," I tell him over my shoulder.
"How is that possible?"
"I would like to know the same thing." I run a hand through my hair and walk to the living room, finding Chloe where I left her, but now, her eyes are on her phone in her hand, her face white as a ghost.
"What"s wrong?"
"I just got an e-mail," she whispers and then lifts her eyes to meet mine. "What happened when you were in j.a.pan?" Her bottom lip trembles and tears fill her eyes.
My stomach twists as I wonder what she could possibly be talking about. "What"s in the e-mail?" I coax.
She lifts her phone up towards me. The image on the screen is of me from the night I flew home when I found out she was in the hospital. I"m sitting in one of the chairs, and the angle the picture was taken makes it appear like the waitress and I are kissing.
I remember that moment. I had been taking a drink from the waitress, and she had bent down towards me to ask a question, so I had leaned forward to hear her more clearly.