Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 49393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
For my part, I headed to the main restaurant to speak with the manager about getting an authentic raclette dinner like I had when I was in Switzerland a few years ago. I knew that Jasmine would freak out over the molten cheese, and I wouldn’t mind it myself. I made arrangements for a private dining room later and selected the wines from their reserve.
I was lured into the gift shop next door by a display of Appenzaller Birweggli—a kind of Swiss fig bar only it’s made of layers of pastry and sweet dried pears. I grabbed five bags of those, a bottle of elderflower syrup, some paprika crisps and a jar of quince jam. Jake was going to laugh his ass off when he saw my haul of Swiss goodies. He loved to tease me about my bougie European preferences.
Armed with my assortment of imported cookies and things, I checked my phone and headed out of the gift shop. I hesitated an instant when I saw him. I knew down in my bones, some near-dormant instinct that I’d honed in the military and let fallow when I went soft with civilian life. But it flared to life at that moment when the hairs on my arms rose in response.
I tapped my camera app, so I could continue looking at my phone unassumingly while monitoring him from across the lobby. He wore cheap khakis and a polo shirt, hair slicked back with gel. He was out of place there despite his attempt to fit in. Even if I hadn’t recognized him from the photos we’d all saved to identify him on sight, I would have flagged him as an aberration in this crowd. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, too eager and ill at ease. Too hungry—wanting something with those avaricious eyes. I snapped a few photos of him and fired them off to my brothers.
I have eyes on this prick, main lobby, I sent.
Wake Jas? Or holding pattern? Ty replied, I’m calling local law.
Call whoever you want. I’d gut him where he stands, Jake said. Jake, my cautious and serious twin, ready to spill blood on the flagstones with no questions asked.
Easy bro, I replied. Wake her up, see what she wants to do.
I’m going in the cabin now to fill her in on what you saw, Jake answered.
Keeping eyes on Chris, I glanced up from my phone and moved to the activities desk. The woman at the desk offered to help me, so I asked for a list of their excursions for the evening. Anything to look busy and have something to do while I observed him. She offered me a tablet so I could flip through the descriptions and the bespoke add-on experiences. As I leaned on the counter to survey the options, I watched the target—God help me, but the military terms came back to me on instinct. He was the target to us as surely as if he’d had crosshairs tattooed on his forehead.
It would be so easy, the devil on my shoulder seemed to whisper. Just approach him, introduce yourself as a resort employee, offer him a free perk and take him for a ride. Take him down one of the winding mountain roads, set him up for a selfie with an impressive view and if he isn’t stupid enough to lean back too far—which he probably was—it’s as simple as a giving him a shove and over he’d go like so many idiot tourists met their death. It would be over and done in fifteen minutes and you could drive off, hands clean and problems over.
While I shook off the urge to commit capital murder, my phone buzzed. Not with the expected text from the group chat, but a call from my twin.
24
JAKE
She was gone.
Impossible.
Two military men in the private cabin with her, and someone managed to take her anyway. Wasn’t Eli supposed to have his eyes on this asshole? There was zero chance this dipshit was a tenth as smart as Eli, and even less possibility that he could take her from under our noses. So she had to be here someplace. It wasn’t a big cabin.
They were searching for her, Drew systematic and ice-cold, Ty with murder in his eyes. He grabbed my arm when I entered.
“She is not in the bath. I thought if she wasn’t still sleeping that’s where she had to be. Drew checked everywhere even in the closets.”
“What about the sauna?” I asked.
“I’ll check again,” Ty said as I dialed her phone.
It rang from the bedside table. I rushed in hoping against hope that she was somewhere in the cabin, but the evidence was right there. It was unlike her to leave it behind, and she wouldn’t have done so voluntarily.
Scenarios raced through my mind. Ty came charging back, still frantic.