I woke up the next morning to someone vigorously shaking me awake. Groaning, I pulled the covers of the hospital bed over my face and told the other party to impolitely go away.

I very rarely had time to properly fall asleep even in the hospital. Whether it was because of the cleaning crew that had been starting to work outside in the hallways or the way the blasted sun bared down at me through the blinds, sleep was hard to find.

It had been especially difficult to fall asleep last night, as a horrible feeling seemed to have made its way into my stomach and left me unable to fall asleep many hours after Hannah had left.

I had thought about texting her and forcing her to keep me company over the phone. But she had looked just as tired as I felt on the inside, and I pushed the thought away and stopped messaging her when her replies ceased as well.

I figured she had gotten into the shower and fallen into bed immediately. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

My assumptions turned out to be wrong, however—as I would soon find out.

The shaking became more incessant the more I ignored it. I eventually groaned as I pushed the blankets away.

Automatically, I came face to face with the worried look of Marcus staring down at me. I looked to him and then to Ed standing behind him and gave them both a look.

"What is it?" I asked slowly. "What happened?"

They were both quiet for a moment as they looked at each other, each of them not knowing how to break the apparent bad news they had to me. I demanded it from them again.

"One of you better get to talking or I swear to God–" But I was cut off from my threatening statement when Marcus spoke up.

The looks on their faces made me feel even worse. Not only was I tired beyond measure but the dread that had settled into my stomach from the previous night was beginning to grow in my stomach the more the silence in the room persisted.

"Hannah is missing."

Now that was a statement that would freeze my heart.

I thought about the moments before she left and the uneasy feeling I had felt in my chest. I was so close to begging her to stay with me that night, and it looked like she wouldn’t have objected either, if only I had persisted in my request.

I remembered the way she left kisses on my face and the way she slowly left the room. Damn it.

My teeth gritted together as my mind rushed over the if’s and almost’s of the situation that had now presented itself before me, and before I knew it, I was getting out of bed despite the bullet injury I still was healing from at my side.

I was detaching the IV drip and the monitoring equipment from my hands and arms before they began speaking again. To their credit, neither Marcus nor Ed looked like they were going to stop me.

I demanded to know everything they had discovered so far. "How are you sure?"

I ripped the hospital gown from my body and immediately started dressing myself with the clothes Hannah had brought for me just the day before. They were meant to be worn when I had gotten out—when she was going to be the one to check me out of this hospital.

We were supposed to go home and be done with this entire situation. I swore in my head.

"We know she left the hospital last night." I nodded my head. "And we’re sure she made it back to the mansion because her car is there."

Tying my shoes, I listened intently to the clues they had gathered so far. "We also found her cell phone, as well, as the clothes she wore the previous day on the floor."

My blood froze at that last statement. I looked up to Marcus as he spoke, asking the question with my eyes instead of out loud.

He shook his head at me. "Evidence suggests that she was grabbed after she had come from the shower." I breathed out. "There were definitely signs of struggle, but it seemed there were two attackers in her bedroom."

Trying to quell the rage within in me, I took deeper and longer breaths as I walked toward the front counter and began checking myself out of this dreaded place.

Marcus continued to talk about the situation to me as Ed followed us out of the hospital building and into the car. "She put up quite a fight it seemed. A DNA report came back from the blood we found in her room, which was not hers. Whoever it was that attacked her got a beating."

A small part of me felt relieved that she was well enough to inflict damage on someone else. The other part of me was roaring that she ever had to be in that sort of position again. I clutched the steering wheel tighter in my hands until my knuckles turned white.

"What do we know?" I demanded from Marcus, who was sat in the passenger seat of the car. He shook his head at me.

"Not much right now, unfortunately. Lori was the one who discovered it. She noticed the guard who had been stationed at the front door the night before was missing and called me immediately."

"Would Hannah have noticed that?" I asked him slowly.

There was a pause before he answered, "Yes."

That information only made me grit my teeth tighter. I could feel my jaw beginning to throb, but I paid it no mind.

If Hannah had noticed something like that, why didn’t she call it in? Why didn’t she let Marcus or Ed know something was off? Why didn’t she call me?

The throbbing that began to grow at my side gave me my answer. She didn’t want to bother me. I was in the hospital healing from a stupid bullet wound that I never should have gotten. God, I felt useless.

Driving up the long driveway of the mansion and then turning into the parking way nearest to the front door, I ignored the pain building up at my side and flew to the bedroom.

Immediately upon me entering, I noticed things were awry. Not only were so many things knocked over from the vanity and the chest of drawers, but the bloodstains on the carpet were also hard to miss. I remembered Marcus telling me it didn’t belong to Hannah but her attacker.

I calmed down a bit and made a point to ask Marcus who the attacker had been identified as later on. I walked around the room and into the bathroom. The bathroom, unlike the bedroom, had remained untouched.

It looked the way it normally looked after Hannah had been showering, which meant cream bottles and towels were spread all over. I laughed lightly, albeit bitterly, at how her bad habits had somehow contributed to clues in a crime scene.

This meant that either her attacker had been waiting for her to get out of the shower and had entered the house while she was in there, or they had been inside all along and were waiting on the perfect opportunity to strike.

Either way, it told me this wasn’t an inside job. The attackers clearly didn’t know the proper layout of the mansion and had to do some inspecting before they were able to grab Hannah and take her wherever they had her now.

I crumbled the towel I had in my hand up and threw it in the tub out of frustration.

I walked back into the room and went about clearing things up a bit, picking up perfume bottles that had been knocked to the ground and jewelry that was thrown across the floor. That was when I noticed it.

Tucked in the drawer of one of the jewelry boxes was a sleek black and white business card that I had long forgotten about.

I ran my mind over what to do with this new piece of information. Calling this number would mean so much and so little at the same time, however, I didn’t have many options now.

Taking out my phone from my pocket and wincing slightly as the movement caused my side to hurt, I unlocked it and looked at the number on the card.

Typing the letters R E X into the add contact option, I added the number to my phone and waited patiently as it began ringing.

My breath was held in my throat as the line on the other end stayed silent if only for the ringing tune in my ear and frustration slowly began to build within me.

"Thank you for calling," the other line said and I shut my eyes from anger. "We will get back to you as soon as we can. Please stay available."