This time she got a small giggle in response and her heart lifted. ‘Is that you, Miss McGregor?’
* * *
‘I don’t have time for this, Connor. Why wasn’t it on our radar?’
Jack scowled at the hotel doorman. It wasn’t intentional—his mind was on the call—but it got the door opened promptly and he was off, striding across the foyer. He pressed the button to call the lift and threw his focus down the line, surveying the room with unseeing eyes.
‘We hadn’t even heard of them before today,’ Connor was saying. ‘Apparently it’s some new start-up that’s done well enough to outbid us.’
Fantastic. This was all he needed. The plan had been to fly into London, stay for a week—two at most—get the takeover signed and get out again. He hated the city at the best of times. Too cold, too grey, too loaded with the past.
‘Well, get digging. I want to know all there is by close of play t—’
‘Er...excuse me, Mr McGregor.’
Jack frowned and turned towards the voice. A quick appraisal of the man’s uniform and badge told him he was the assistant manager and he looked nervous, his hands wringing before him.
‘Hang on, Connor... Yes?’
‘I’m afraid, sir...’ he bowed his head slightly ‘...we have a...situation.’
The guy had to be kidding. Was this really going to be his life today? Connor had used the exact same words not twenty minutes ago.
‘What kind of situation?’ He couldn’t think for a second what it would be. Was his room not ready? Had there been a double booking? Nothing could be worse than Connor’s unwelcome news. ‘Well?’
The guy stopped wringing his hands and placed them behind his back, his chin lifting. ‘It’s your daughter... I’m afraid she’s gone—’
His walkie-talkie sounded as Jack’s stomach took a dive, and the manager jolted as he scrambled to pull the device out of the pocket of his hotel-issue blazer. ‘Yes?’
Jack couldn’t catch what was said over the blood ringing in his ears, his patience hanging by a thread. What the devil was going on? What had Lily done now?
The guy physically relaxed before him, his body deflating as he blew out a gust of air. ‘That’s great news. Thank you!’
He repocketed the device and smiled up at him. ‘I’m very happy to report all is well.’
Jack just frowned. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Sorry, Jack,’ Connor piped down the phone line, ‘like I was saying—’
‘Not you...you.’ He glared at the manager, now flushing crimson.
‘Pardon me, sir. It’s just...it seems your daughter decided to play a little hide-and-seek with Ms Archer this afternoon. However, she has now been found and—’
He cursed, his head and heart racing with a multitude of what-ifs that didn’t even matter now that she was found, but they existed anyway. ‘How long was she missing?’
‘Well... I... It was...’ He started to wring his hands again. ‘I’m not sure. Perhaps Ms Archer can explain. I’ll take you to your daughter, shall I? She’s with Ms Lambert, our hotel manager.’
Jack gave him a brusque nod. ‘Connor, I’ll call you back.’ He cut the line and followed after the manager, who was already walking away faster than his advancing years would suggest possible.
Jack shook his head and pulled at his tie, easing it away from his neck as his skin prickled and perspired, the stress building in spite of her safety. This really was not his day. And as far as Lily’s nanny-cum-tutor went, maybe it was time to find another—something Lily would no doubt appreciate.
But he paid her to look after Lily twenty-four-seven and in the last two weeks alone she had misplaced her a dozen times. He really was at his wits’ end, let alone his nerves.
Finding another would take time—time he didn’t have. What he really should be doing was explaining the dangers to his daughter, making her realise her safety was more important than whatever distraction she had sought out this time. And he could just imagine how much of that she would take on board. She was too much like her mother: free-spirited, impulsive, a sitting target for another hit-and-run or, heaven forbid, a kidnapper seeking a ridiculous ransom sum.
And how exactly did he tell his five-year-old daughter that her father’s success made her a target? That for all he worked to ensure their financial stability and a quality of life that far exceeded anything he had ever known, she was to be caged by it too. Maybe it was high time he employed a security detail. He’d avoided it thus far, trying to retain some normality for his daughter, but he wasn’t sure how many more of these incidents, these disappearing acts, he could take.
‘They’re just this way, Mr McGregor...’ the manager said, ending Jack’s troubled inner ramblings as he pushed open a door and gestured for him to enter.