She Was Never Just the Billionaire’s Wife (Natasha and Chase) novel Chapter 186

(Mason)

The Stein conference room currently has four men in it who, in any normal arrangement of the universe, would not be in the same room, unless it was at an event.

Chase is at the head of the table because no one told him not to be, and he just assumed that was his designated place.

I’m not arguing about bullshit right now. He can stay there.

He's on the phone, giving directions to a private security firm out of Vegas.

The half-million he wired them an hour ago is making sure they listen.

They’re already in the air, on their way to LA.

Nathanial is at the window.

His posture suggests brute-force self-control.

He hasn't sat down once.

In fact, he’s been pacing since he got here.

I want to snap at him to just sit the fuck down, but I get why he’s strung so tight.

We’re all right on the edge of panic.

The only thing keeping us from going over the edge is the fact that Natasha needs us.

Then there's Julian.

I think we all expected him to be completely and utterly useless.

I’m not even sure who the hell let him know, but he showed up here shortly after Chase and refused to leave.

Right now he has his sleeves rolled up, tie missing, and is on speaker with a paparazzo named Felix who owes him a favor.

He's asking, in his real voice and not his cocktail voice, whether Felix's contact at the airfield off Fourteen has logged any unscheduled charters since six.

He hasn't said darling once.

Which is how you know he’s really not himself right now.

We know Jeffrey Bauer took Natasha.

The garage tape made the case for us in the first hour.

Two men in the bay next to hers in a white van registered to an affiliate of the Bauer holding company.

I remember the name from the financial files we compiled at the beginning of this cursed merger.

Chase drove out to Bauer’s house in Pacific Heights. Empty.

Julian went to his office, but it was all locked up.

I tried calling, but his phone goes to voicemail.

Every one of us has known since the very beginning that Bauer has a thing for Natasha.

We didn’t know he was obsessed.

We finally convinced the cops to get off their asses at half past eight.

They refused to do anything without proof that she wasn’t just ‘taking a breather’.

I was pretty sure Chase was going to punch the guy at the desk when he said that.

Once we got back to them with the security footage they went to Bauer’s office first.

Forced the door and found a file on his desk with three weeks of Natasha's movements in it.

They’re currently looking for Natasha too, but we’re not leaving it up to them.

I'm at the whiteboard, which has three columns.

Owns. Family owns. Visited.

A man about to commit a felony is unlikely to do it from a deed in his own name.

Even one who’s lost the plot.

So the third column is the real work, and I'm running out of space for it.

Calistoga.

Healdsburg.

A boutique inn in Sonoma.

A friend's vineyard near Geyserville where Bauer attended a harvest festival in March.

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