“That information wouldn’t have fucking mattered if Julia had been taken to the right car with the right damn driver.”
My heart leapt as my telephone vibrated.
Please be Julia.
Disappointment washed through me at the sight of my assistant’s name. Sighing, I hit the icon.
Andrew called from the airport. Is there a delay?
I replied:
Julia is missing. Contact Sherman and Madison PR. If any videos appear with me as the subject, get them the fuck down. If anything regarding me or Julia hits social media or any news outlet, shut it down. I want everyone in that department watching every possible outlet. Twenty-four seven. If they see anything with Julia, notify me.
Connie replied immediately:
Sir?
I hit the call button. As soon as Connie answered, I began speaking. “Phillip has her.”
“Oh no,” she gasped. “He has Julia?” Connie’s voice grew higher with each word. “I was afraid—”
Fear.
It wasn’t an emotion I was used to having, and yet Connie wasn’t alone. The depraved possibilities of Phillip’s plans were eating away at my resolve. Revenge was a bitch I was used to courting not battling.
With Connie, I responded truthfully. “This is my fault. I underestimated him. I never imagined that he—”
“Mr. Sherman, you’ll find her. What can I do to help?”
“Tell Andrew to delay the flight and to call if that loser has the fucking balls to show up at the airport as me.”
“Would he do that?”
Though my gaze was set out the window, I was no longer seeing the entry to the Waldorf or the people. Instead, my thoughts were racing with the options of Phillip’s next move. “No. It’s too risky. I know it’s Phillip who has her even if Julia doesn’t. I don’t think that he’d risk my plane. He’d take her somewhere where no one will know.”
“Airlines?”
Fuck.
“Airlines, trains, fucking boats leaving the Chicago harbor,” I replied. “I want Sherman and Madison’s security detail on this and this alone.” I peered forward. “The firm you hired in Chicago will be in contact with Leonard.”
“Leonard is on vacation. Flora Brooks is currently overseeing security.”
“Contact her and tell her to drop everything else.”
“Mr. Sherman,” Connie said, her voice brimming with her calm reassurance, “your fiancée will know that Phillip isn’t you.”
“I never told her that I have an identical triplet.”
Fuck.
That was on me.
“That won’t matter. A woman knows the man she loves.”
My thoughts went to a scene from nearly fifteen years ago. Madison knew that Phillip and I were identical, and yet she didn’t know it was me—or that I wasn’t him—at least not at first. With all the tools I’d tried to provide to Julia, knowledge on how to succeed at Wade, I’d failed to give her the basic information she needed now.
I wanted to believe what Connie said. “I hope you’re right…before it’s too late.”