Page 38 of The CEO

He turned back toward his housekeeper. “Don’t give up yet. My men will find her. They have contacts even I can’t imagine.”

Carole stood wringing her hands in front of her. “I hope so. I just wish I’d come back five minutes sooner; this wouldn’t have happened. I would have been the one to answer the door and?—”

“You can’t think that way. You couldn’t have done anything to change it. For those men to take her, in broad daylight, like they did, they were probably desperate, and you might have been injured or killed if you’d gotten in their way.” Adam placed an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, we’ll find her. I won’t stop until I do. Nothing is as important to me as Bree and Lilly.” He squeezed her shoulders. “I need to ask a favor of you. Will you take care of Lilly for me? I need to go to the office to coordinate the search. It’s much easier to do it from there where we have all the equipment needed.”

She looked up at him. “Of course, I’ll take care of her. I’ll protect her with my life.”

“I hope that will never happen. Keep all the doors locked and don’t open them for anyone but me. Even then I’ll come in through the garage. Set the alarm system after I leave. I can monitor it from work.”

“I will. I promise.” Carole’s mouth formed a flat line. “I’ll lock the front door now.”

“Good. I need to say goodbye to Lilly.”

Carole nodded and left to do her errand.

Adam stalked to the playpen and picked up Lilly. “Sweetheart, I have to leave for a while. Auntie Carole will be here and taking care of you. I have to go get your mommy back.” He kissed her forehead.

She slapped his face with her wet left hand and a slobber-covered teething ring in her right hand.

Both seemed sticky, too, but he couldn’t figure out from what. It didn’t matter. He kissed her again and returned her to the playpen.

Lilly began to cry.

Carole came into the room from the kitchen behind him. “Don’t worry about her. I’ll make sure she’s okay.” She picked up Lilly.

The baby stopped crying and grinned at Carole.

The woman laughed.

Adam wanted to, as well, but the thought of being unable to share it with Bree dampened his mirth. He hurried out of the kitchen to the six-car garage, got in the Corvette, and drove to his downtown Denver office.

His office was in a thirty-two story building known as The Kincaid Tower. His office was on the thirty-first floor. The thirty-second floor was an open area with two bars, several seating areas with beige couches and dark brown leather chairs.

The elevator opened directly to his administrative assistant, Emily’s desk.

Emily looked up.

“All the men are here and ready to report to you.”

“Thank you. Hold my calls unless it’s about Bree.”

“Of course.” Emily went back to her work.

Adam entered his office and saw his three top security employees waiting. Two were in the chairs directly in front of his desk. The third was on the sofa on the right side of the room. Adam sat behind his desk.

“Tell me what you have. Jesse, you first.”

Jesse was a dark-haired man with a Van Dyke beard. He looked down at the tablet in his lap. “We pulled traffic footage and found the white van as it was leaving your neighborhood. We tracked it until it stopped in an industrial area. Two men got out of the van, and they had a woman with them. The people went inside a warehouse owned by Simon Chandler. Seven minutes later the two men returned to the van and drove away. “

Adam slammed his fist on his desk and leaned back in his chair. “This has something to do with the Danvers account. Simon wants it, and he’s taken Bree to stop me from getting it by making me back off.”

The blond, clean-shaven man sitting next to the dark-haired man crossed his right leg on his left knee. “I believe we can free her. It appeared that the men just dropped her off and left. The van was tracked back to a flower shop where the men abandoned it and got into a black SUV.”

Adam stood and paced behind his desk. He stopped and stared at the blond man. “Well, Sid, did you track the SUV?”

Sid shook his head. “We figured we should keep an eye on the warehouse where Bree is.”

“You’re right. That’s the important thing.” Adam looked at the third man. He had dark, curly hair that was almost black. His skin was olive, he had a small gold hoop earring in his left ear and a plain gold wedding band on his left ring finger. “What do you think, Tony?”