There were no words to really put into perspective the agony I had felt in the hours of that evening. With every call that went through to voicemail, I was a little more convinced that my wife was dead. With every text that was ignored, I was a little more sure that Fitzgerald’s men had already dropped her in the river or kicked her into a ditch. My heart was aching, my head was throbbing, and my feet were in pain from all of my pacing.

I made security play back the tapes again, and again, tying to spot any way people could have come in. It didn’t occur to me until one of the guys mentioned it.

Hannah could have left of her own free will. It was seeming the more likely option. Especially considering what had taken place that morning, but she was out in the world without knowing she was in imminent danger. What if she was just walking around and Fitzgerald and his men found her?

It was when I went to ask Kristen if she knew where Hannah would be, when I realized she wasn’t home. I had the men check for her leaving, and she never did. They had to have found a blindspot in the cameras.

I was furious, but I would have to just deal with it. I could flare my nostrils and pound my chest and scream, but it wouldn’t do any good toward getting my wife back.

Besides, I knew she hadn’t left with the knowledge that she was in danger. She wasn’t doing it out of ill-will, I knew her better than to think that. She went out to get away.

And when she did come back, the moment I saw her, part of me melted. What can I say? I was a sucker for her. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

How could I have stayed upset with Hannah? I couldn’t imagine any realm of reality where my anger would have managed to last past seeing her beautiful face, alive and well. Besides, I could see the guilt and shame radiating off her from a mile away.

Thankfully, after our time in the family room, all seemed to be forgiven and forgotten. After stopping to take care to make sure we looked presentable, we walked out of the room and back to the den where the bodyguards stayed posted up. Kristen was there, though she had changed into lounge-wear.

"We can talk later. Especially so you can point out to me the route you took my wife to sneak off the property virtually unseen," I stated to her.

Kristen would have protested, I knew she would have, if there hadn’t been contracts out on Hannah and me. She knew that it was important to cover every entrance and route. After a reluctant moment of reflection, Kristen nodded.

With my arm around Hannah, I then turned my attention to the body guards. "Can you contact your boss and see how many guys they can spare?" I asked.

"How many are you thinking?" Richards asked.

I did some quick mental math. "At least four more. One for Kristen, one for Lori, and two extra for the house."

"I don’t need a bodyguard," Kristen protested.

I glanced over at her. "If you are going to be going in and out of this house, you do."

Before Kristen could began whatever argument she was trying to cook up, Richards interjected. "Don’t worry, miss. We can do it as hands-off as you like. We will keep our distance if you want. Trust me when I say that our guys don’t wanna be in your business any more than you want them there."

"Fine," Kristen muttered.

"I want more cameras installed. Every window and door gets one. Maybe even look into some guard dogs," I said to Richards.

He nodded. "I’ll make some calls."

I sighed and rubbed my face. "I need some coffee."

"Me too," Hannah chimed in.

We moved into the kitchen together. I went about the task of grinding the beans, boiling water in a kettle, and making us each a mug of pour over coffee. We sat down at the counter and basked in the silence. There was so much to do, so much to prepare for, it was almost too much.

"What do we do now?" Hannah asked.

"Well," I sighed. "I’ll have to work only from home for the time being. I think it’s best if we all just stick to being at home as much as we can. And I mean it when I say that, if you go out, even on the deck, you need to let me and security know. We never know who is watching, or even how many people are watching." I scratched my chin. "Ed and Marcus should be here any minute. They will want to know everything that happened with that Rex guy, all that."

She nodded and rested her head on my shoulder. "Roman?"

"Mhm?" I replied.

"Do you ever wonder what life would have been like if you didn’t go to the Auction House that day?" she asked.

I blinked and rubbed her arm. "I try not to. Even with how crazy things are, I’m happy with the life I have. This is just the storm before the calm."

She giggled and peered up at me with her big, beautiful eyes. "Silly, that’s not how that phrase goes."

I smiled at her, "Maybe it’s how it should go for us."

After sharing a brief kiss, a throat cleared from behind us. The familiar faces of Marcus and Ed walked into the room. I gestured for them to help themselves to the coffee. "We got here as fast as we could," Ed sighed.

"All good," I commented.

They opened their folders on the counter and looked up at us. "Okay... Where do we start?"

All eyes fell to Hannah. They had been the ones to inform me of the contracts put out on us. Hannah was the one who also had information. She rubbed her hands together anxiously. "Well, Kristen and I sneaked out. We went out to a club called Proximity. We had a nice time, but then this guy cornered me and tossed me into this back room. I was sure he was going to kill me, but then Kristen walked in. She seemed to know him. I learned that he was like a vigilante PI?"

It pissed me off to hear how that man had treated her. In fact, my blood was nearly boiling.

"Vigilante, aye?" Marcus muttered, sounding amused.

"Christ Almighty, have we woken up in a comic book?" Ed exclaimed before looking back at Hannah.

"Well, he’s the one that told Kristen and me that there were contracts out on us," Hannah added. "He drove us home."

"Do you know this guy’s name?" Marcus asked.

Hannah replied, "Rex. That’s all I know. He gave me a card."

"Can we have it?" Ed asked.

Hannah got up and went to go get it.

Ed shot me a look and I nodded. "I know, just when you think things can’t get worse, huh?"

"This is turning into a real shit show, Roman," Ed muttered.

"I know," I replied meekly.

Hannah returned and slid the card over to the investigators. The two looked at it and then each other. "Well?" I asked.

Ed jotted down some things before turning back to me. "He’s someone that’s... been on our radar. Not a person of interest or anything, but we will be looking into him for sure."

"Thank you," I sighed, and pulled Hannah into my side.

After they finished taking her statement, the two left again, and I finished my coffee. "I have some work to do, but I can do it from bed if you’d like to go lay down?" I suggested.

Hannah nodded. "I’ll have a shower while you set up."

We got up and walked over to the elevator. When we got to the second floor, Hannah headed for the bedroom, and I stopped into my study to grab my computer. Getting back into the room, I settled in and began the tedious task of going through my emails.

I still hadn’t told Hannah about the hit the company took. It wasn’t that I was hiding it or even protecting her. It just didn’t feel important yet. I was confident that it would recover, it would just take time.

I was lost in my task until Hannah scampered out. She curled up next to me, and I kissed her head. We settled in, and I let out a breath. Even though I was of course happy to be there with my wife, it was definitely going to be a learning curve to be home all of the time. I only hoped that no one got too stir-crazy.

It wouldn’t be all bad, but I would just be happy when it was all over. I told myself that it was not much longer, that in just a little more time, things would be done.