‘I’m on my way back to the hotel, Boss. I’ll find her.’
‘No. Go check at the shelter. Or any other place she might be. And you’d better pray that we find her soon, and that she’s fucking okay!’
‘Of course, Boss,’ he said as he ended the call.
I turned my anger on Lorenzo then, grabbing him by the throat and pushing him against the wall. ‘How the fuck could you let her just walk down to the lobby on her own? Especially with everything that’s going on with the Ortegas! What the fuck do I pay you for?’
‘I’m sorry, Boss. But she said …’ I squeezed his throat so hard, he couldn’t finish the sentence.
‘I don’t care what she said. It is your fucking job to protect me and my family. She is my family. If anything has happened to her!’ I let him go and he gasped for air as he rubbed his throat.
I stepped back and ran my hands through my hair. My heart raced. Adrenaline coursed around my body as though it was my lifeblood.
I was wondering what to do next when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun around to see Jax. ‘Hey, amigo. What the hell is going on?’
I paced up and down my office. Alana wasn’t at the house or the hotel. She wasn’t at the shelter. She wasn’t answering her cell. Security cameras had recorded her leaving the hotel and getting into a cab. I couldn’t get hold of anyone who knew where she might be. It seemed like even Lucia was avoiding me.
I had men out looking for Alana every place I thought she might be. Jax sat watching me. I was about to suggest we go and do something useful when my cell phone rang.
‘It’s Lucia,’ I said. Thank fuck! She had to know something.
‘Hey, Alejandro,’ she said breezily. ‘I was taking a nap and I left my cell on silent. Sorry. Is everything okay?’
‘Have you seen Alana?’
‘No. But she sent me a text a couple of hours ago.’
‘What did it say?’
‘Hang on. I didn’t read it. Let me check.’
There was a few seconds silence as she checked her phone.
‘It says.Hey sweetie. I’m going away for a couple of days. Alejandro and Magda will look after you. Take care of you and that baby. I’ll call you tomorrow.’
‘That’s all?’ I snapped.
‘Yes. What’s going on, Alejandro. Where is she? Why has she gone away? What did you do?’
‘She got some bad news this morning, that’s all. She just needs some space.’
‘So, why hasn’t she told you where she’s gone?’ she asked in a snarky tone that made me want to remind her who she was speaking to.
‘Look, Lucia. She’s pissed at me. She’s pissed at everything. But, I’ll find her.’
‘Well, there’s only one place she would have gone if she’s gone for a few days, isn’t there?’
‘Where?’
She sighed dramatically. ‘Back to New York!’ she never actually said dumbass, but I heard it anyway.
Fuck. Of course she‘d go there. ‘Listen, tell me if you hear from her again, okay?’
‘Yes, and Alejandro,’ she said, sounding like a child again instead of a snarky teenager.
‘What?’
‘Please bring her home soon.’
‘I will. Bye, Lucia.’
I put the phone down and Jax stared at me. ‘She might be in New York. Speak to our friends at LAX and see if she got on a plane.’
‘Will do,’ Jax replied. ‘But where would she go? She wouldn’t go and see her folks, would she?’
‘No. I don’t think so. But she has a friend there. Kelly?’ I said as I tried to recall one of our many conversations about Alana’s life in New York ‘No, Kelsey. She lived in the same apartment building in Manhattan.’
‘I’m on it, amigo,’ Jax said as he pulled his cell out of his pocket. ‘We’ll have her back home within the next twenty-four hours.’