Ineffable (23 page)

Something was wrong. She sat up in the dark. Suddenly she was sure of it. For the first time since her aborted wedding day, she called his cell. It went straight to voicemail. She called Lado. He picked up, sleepy, but not upset to hear from her.

“How you holding up?”

“Fine. You heard from him?”

“No. I haven’t.”

And there it was, the confirmation she needed. Lado thought his absence was strange too. She could hear it in his voice.

“I’ve called a dozen times, gone by his place, called him at work, nothing. I’ll call you when I hear something, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Margot.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.”

“When he left here on your wedding day he seemed so happy. He got into the car, rolled down the window and said, “This is it, my friend. Wish me happy. And I did. I never thought, not in a million years –”

Neither had she. “Goodnight, Lado.”

Nori’s best friend sighed sadly. “Goodnight.”

There was no going back to sleep now. She paced around her room for a while, then she crept out past Tommy and Lani sleeping in their respective beds and went into the living room. Tommy had a great view. The city looked beautiful at this time of night. Sluggish, but still moving, a thousand lights twinkling like there was nothing wrong, but she knew there was.

She began to pace. Why had no one heard from him? It was one thing to change your mind about marriage. Ditching someone at the altar, even it is the courthouse’s altar was bad enough, but Nori hadn’t been near his apartment or his office. He hadn’t called her, his best friend hadn’t heard from him, he wasn’t answering his phone for anyone else she knew. Candace didn’t know anything either. Aro she wouldn’t try since he was probably still dancing a jig that they were finally apart.

Something was wrong. She could feel it. He wouldn’t just walk away without saying a word to anyone. It wasn’t his style. Even under extreme pressure, Nori wasn’t a punk.

And why the sudden about face? He’d showed absolutely no signs of hesitating over their upcoming marriage, and she’d watched for them. He seemed happy, looking forward to it, excited about their honeymoon in St. Barth’s. He’d been working long hours to clear his plate so he could focus solely on her, he said.

He’d watched with ill-concealed pride as she packed her trousseau. He’d even bought her a pre-wedding wedding ring, he called it. A huge, diamond shaped pink sapphire surrounded by enough diamonds to blind someone if the sun hit them the wrong way. Tommy had smacked her lips over it and gazed with a hilarious mix of greed and appreciation and said, “That mother fucker loves you.”

He tried to get a peek at the ring she’d designed for him. Of course she hadn’t let him see it. She regretted that now, which was probably fucking stupid. It’s not like seeing the ring would have kept him from leaving her. But her churning gut was no longer sure that’s what happened.

Margot had no illusions left about love at this point, but there was no way he’d have left her alone like that, humiliated, without a word. His French ass would consider it the height of rudeness and bad taste.

And Nori didn’t text. He didn’t like messing with those tiny buttons, said he preferred to hear her voice live.

“You wouldn’t respond anyway,” he’d once teased her. “You’d never know, you’re so rarely on your phone.”

Where was he? She’d even called his apartment in Paris. The housekeeper hadn’t seen or heard from him in months. She’d even broken down and called his father; Aro didn’t bother to return her calls. Not that she’d really expected him to. He was probably thrilled Nori had backed out, that he was relieved from the disgusting need to welcome her into his rarified family.

She stopped pacing. His father. She had to see him. They weren’t close, but if anyone knew where Nori was, it was him. She looked at the clock. It was almost five. The sun would be up soon. Nori was usually on his way to the gym by now. She’d start there. Maybe she could run into him and end this thing one way or another.

She wasn’t trying to get him back. She just needed to see that he was okay. She just needed to know for sure that this weird urgency she suddenly felt over his safety was just hurt, some warped ass reaction to being duped and dumped. And not her spidey sense trying to tell her that her baby needed help.

Chapter sixteen

No one at the gym had seen Nori in days.

“I was starting to worry,” said Ralph, the locker room attendant. “It’s not like him to miss his workouts. You don’t think anything’s happened to him, do you?”

Margot promised to call when she found out anything. That proved it. Something was definitely wrong. Hell would freeze over before Nori missed a workout. He claimed he needed them to feel sane, to metabolize a crazy baseline energy, otherwise he’d bounce off the walls.

She called Lado and told him the gym was a bust.

“Jesus,” said the lawyer. “I’ll go and see Aro. He hasn’t returned any of my calls. If he’s not in the office, I’ll bust into his house if I have to.”

“I’m coming with you.”

He hesitated. “Alright, I’ll pick you up in –”

“No,” she interrupted, not trusting him not to leave without her. “I’m near your place, I’ll come to you.”

“I’ll be down in 10.”

Margot was there in three, waiting for him when he entered the lobby a few minutes later.

“I had my car brought around.”

They got into the Benz, and he put a hand on her leg and squeezed. “We’ll find him.”

“Yeah.”

Aro wasn’t in the office, and no one had seen him for days either. It seemed a little too coincidental that Nori and his father should both be missing for the same amount of time. The only difference was, people had heard from Aro, who claimed to be working from home while shaking off a bug.

His secretary seemed skeptical. “In the past Mr. James has always disapproved of those who work from home. But I’ve gotten several work related emails from him over the past few days.”

Back in the Benz Margot asked Lado, “Do you know how to get to his house?”

“Yup.”

“Who are you calling?”

“Nori and then Aro. Just in case.” But again no one answered. “No matter. We’ll be there shortly. Somebody knows something, and I’m gonna goddamn well find out what.”

“Get down,” he told her 35 minutes later when they turned the corner onto Aro’s street. “If he’s watching, we don’t want to get his guard up, and if he sees you it will be. I’ll get in, make sure I leave the front door unlocked, and see what’s what.”

“If there’s something up, he’s not just gonna tell you,” Margot said, folding herself onto the floor.

Lado laughed as he swung the car around the drive and stopped in front of the door. “I have no intention of taking that pretentious old bastard’s word for anything. I’m going to look around and see for myself, whether he wants me too or not, and you’re gonna help me.”

Crouched on the floor of the Benz, Margot listened.

“Lado. What a surprise.”

“It shouldn’t be Aro. I’ve been calling you for days. Calls you ignored. Where’s Nori?”

“He’s away for a few days, I’m afraid. He needed some quiet to recover from this, unfortunate incident.”

“Bullshit. Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Lado pushed his way past the older man. “I must say, I’m quite shocked at your behavior, keeping a friend standing out here on the stoop like a peddler.”

Margot couldn’t hear anything else. A few minutes later she crept from the car and tried the door. It opened soundlessly. Good job, Lado. She peaked in. Aro and Lado were nowhere around.

Quickly but silently she ran through the house. Praying Lado kept Aro busy, she opened the door Nori had pointed out as Aro’s office. He’d known she was looking into some new book shelves, and he’d wanted to show her his father’s, custom made and beautiful. He’d wanted to adapt a similar idea for her tools and materials.

She didn’t know what she was looking for, but Margot rifled quickly through the drawers and poked through the papers on top of the desk. There was no computer.

One part of her couldn’t fathom Nori’s stuck up father keeping him here against his will, potentially staging some sort of psychotic intervention just to keep him from marrying her. But the other part of her remembered the look she’d caught on the old man’s face after she clowned his ass at that dinner party. He hated her.

He’d done nothing but bad mouth her from the moment she entered Nori’s life. He’d even cornered Nori at the gym. Then Aro tried to get Candace to back out of her contract with Ineffable. Nori got wind of it, and as far as she knew, that was the last time the two of them spoke.

Fuck it. She’d look around upstairs. Better to know than to wonder. She took the stairs two at a time on silent feet, pausing at the top to listen. Suddenly she heard Aro speaking.

“Lado, you’re being ridiculous. You seriously want to inspect the bowels of my home? What do you think? I’ve got my son chained to the wall in some secret room?”

Apparently she and Lado were thinking the exact same thing. All of the doors were closed and there was a bunch of them. She’d start at one end and work her way down.

The first three were empty. The fourth was a bathroom. She crossed the hall. What she saw behind the fifth door nearly stopped her heart. Nori.

“Baby!” she rushed to his side.

He was so pale, and he didn’t respond to her voice. She slapped his face gently, and his eyelids fluttered. He moaned softly. She saw why. There were several syringes on the night stand.

“Lado!” She screamed and kept screaming as her eyes took in the restraints attached to the headboard of the bed, the ligature marks around Nori’s wrists where he’d obviously struggled.

She heard someone pounding up the steps.

“In here!”

The door flew open, and Lado’s mouth gaped.

“My God,” he whispered, falling to his knees beside the bed. “Nori? Nori, say something, man.”

“You!”

They turned to find Aro in the doorway, glaring at Margot.

“Get the hell out of my house, you slut.”

“You perverted old freak,” Lado choked, pulling a gun from the back of his pants Margot hadn’t known was there. He pointed it at Aro. “Go sit in that chair. If you move an inch I will take great pleasure in blowing out one of your knees.”

Aro held his hands up, a gesture meant to indicate supplication, but all it conveyed was disdain and arrogance.

“You can’t take my son from here.”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Lado promised. “You know how to handle this.” He gave Margot the gun.

“I sure do,” she confirmed, accepting the Glock easily. “This slut has a lot of bad ass friends. Most of whom carry toys just like this.”

“It’s okay, buddy,” Lado told Nori, who’s eyelids were still fluttering. He was trying to wake up.

Maneuvering him into a fireman’s hold over one broad shoulder, Lado told Margot, “I’ll go out first. Keep him here until I get down the stairs and get him into the car. I’ll yell for you to follow.”

“Go,” she said, not taking her eyes or the snub of that pistol off the silent Aro.

“I’m going to call the police,” he promised as soon as Lado was gone.

“No, you won’t. Then you’d have to explain why you drugged your own son, and appearances being your razon d’tre you’ll keep your mouth shut. I can’t wait until my baby recovers. I hope I’m there when he tells you that he never wants to see you again. Did you really think you could get away with this? What the fuck was your play? You were just gonna keep him drugged and locked in this room forever?”

“If that’s what it took,” Aro said solemnly. “He would have forgotten you eventually. Once removed from your whore’s tricks, he’d have realized you’re not good enough for him, that you – ”

“I’m not a whore, you crazy mother fucker. And the only tricks I know are the one’s your son taught me.”

“Come on, Margot! Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Bye, daddy,” she whispered, saluting him with the gun and her middle finger. “God willing, I’ll never see your little ass again in life. Bitch.”

Aro’s curses followed them as they sped away. He looked demonic standing on the front step waving his arms like a lunatic.

Margot looked in the back seat. Nori’s eyes were closed. Thank God. Bastard Aro might be, he didn’t need to see his father like that.

She wanted to go straight to the hospital, but Lado said no. “I’ll have my personal physician come to your place. Nori wouldn’t want the publicity, and in this shape, the police would almost certainly be involved. If it looks like it’s gonna be too much for him to handle, we’ll go, I promise. But Aro wouldn’t hurt Nori. He’s probably just got him sedated out of his mind.”

Reluctantly she agreed. She called Tommy, told her what had happened and asked her to go to her house and open it for the physician, who thankfully agreed to go at once to wait for them.

“You hear that, baby? The doctor’s waiting for you at my house. You’re gonna be alright,” she told Nori, squeezing his hand, praying she wasn’t lying.

“How’s his breathing?” Lado asked, trying to get around someone driving the speed limit.

“Shallow, but steady. But I think he just squeezed my hand! Go around this fucking prick.”

Lado did. Five minutes later he pulled in front of Margot’s. ”Go open the doors.”

Margot leapt from the car, but Tommy must have been watching from the windows and had the door open before she could clear the stairs. Lado was right behind her.

“Jesus H. Christ and all the saints,” Tommy breathed, hand to her throat as she watched Lado stretch Nori out on the couch.

The doctor was already taking his vitals. “What was he given?”

“I don’t know,” Lado said.

“Here,” said Margot. “I took one of the vials by the bed.”

“Good girl. Nori, it’s me Tomas,” said the doctor, shining a pen light into his eyes. “Nori, say something, old boy. Push that tall chair over here. I need you to set up the IV so we can try to stabilize him. His blood pressure is too low, and I don’t like his breathing. How long has he been sedated?”

“Days. Maybe five,” Lado answered. “He was most likely snatched on the way to his wedding almost six days ago.”

“Too long,” Tomas said grimly.

“If we need to go to the hospital, then we go,” Margot said. “I don’t give a damn about bad publicity.”

Tomas had already set up the IV and was swabbing Nori’s arm with antiseptic cotton. “Get me a sheet to cover him with, and let’s make him more comfortable.”

Tommy took off Nori’s socks while Margot loosened his upper shirt buttons. “Get me that light blue coverlet from the hall closet?”

Tommy nodded and ran. She came back almost instantly, and handed it off after Margot unfastened Nori’s slacks and pulled them off.

Margot covered him up to waist. “Now what?” she asked the doctor.

“Hold tight. He seems to be breathing a bit better. He was probably dehydrated, and he’s recovering now that he has fluids.” He adjusted the flow of the IV. “His color’s improving. Christ, where was he, Lado? Were they starving him? He looks gaunt as hell.”

“Don’t fucking ask,” Lado said angrily. “You think he’ll make it okay, Tomas?”

“As long as there’s nothing wrong internally. There’s no other injuries I don’t know about?”

“Nothing that I know of.”

“He needs to wake up,” Tomas said, monitoring Nori’s pulse. “Pulse is stronger. That’s a good sign. Nori. Nori, wake up for me, man. I need you to tell me what happened.”

Nori moaned and his eyes opened briefly, but then he sighed and seemed to fall asleep.

“Well, he responds to his name, that’s good.” Tomas stuck a thermometer in Nori’s ear. A few seconds later it beeped and he nodded. “No fever. Let’s give the fluids a chance to revive him. It won’t kill him to rest for 20 minutes; then we’ll see where we are. Let’s get this shirt off him and tuck him in.”

Margot handled that with the doctor’s help. She didn’t want to hurt the arm with the IV. Then she tucked the coverlet around him and went to get a warm wash cloth. Gently she washed Nori’s face and neck. She kissed his cheek and whispered his name.

He turned toward her voice and a tiny smile came and went on his lips.

Tomas grinned. “Well, that’s definitely a good sign.”

Tommy laughed and clapped in relief. “He’s coming out of it. Kiss him again, girl.”

Margot did. Twenty minutes later Nori woke reluctantly.

“What happened?” he whispered, eyes and hands searching for Margot.

“I think your dad snatched you up right before the wedding,” Lado supplied.

Nori nodded slowly. “I got into the car. I sat back. Then I noticed the driver was going the wrong way. I knocked on the window, but he ignored me. I couldn’t unlock the doors. And,” he paused to lick his lips. Margot took off for the kitchen. “My cell wouldn’t work. We drove for about 35 minutes. I looked out the window and we were pulling up front of my dad’s place.” He paused to sip the water Margot held to his lips.

She grinned when his eyes found hers over the rim of the glass; he looked so happy to see her. When she sat down their hands clasped again.

“I got out, intending to give my dad a piece of my mind, but when I stepped out, there was a sharp pain in my neck. The driver must have shot me with something. Things are pretty spotty after that.”