The restaurant smelled of coffee and fresh pastries. I was supposed to be finishing a lunch meeting with one potential investor, but my mind had been elsewhere all day. Calm, collected, and feeling fulfilled. I liked to think that I controlled everything. I always did. Until my phone buzzed.
I didn’t need to check the screen to know what it was. My assistant rarely texted me during lunch, not for trivial things. My thumb hovered over the message before I could even unlock the screen.
“Jayden has been kidnapped.”
My calmness shattered in an instant. My hand jerked, and the glass of water in front of me tipped over, spilling across the table, soaking important documents and the crisp linen napkin below the table. The investor, Mr. Barns stared, open-mouthed, but I didn’t care. Nothing m
