At the pinnacle of her career, orthopedic surgeon Ava King conquers the lucrative medical field of London.
A wild and intimate night with competitive Formula One driver James Ellis ends with Ava being stood up. The rejection leads her straight into...
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After Gianna's mind-fuck of a conversation telling me about Maya, I'm in a right spin.
I can't make head or tail about anything she's just told me.
Maya found safely—thank God! But with Ava's phone—what the fuck?! And then 'they got her'—Who the fuck are they??
Jess the copper agrees it's all too coincidental. She's heading from Richmond to the police station in Camden. It's an all hands on deck situation, which I'm happy about, but still leaves me doing absolutely fuck all.
If Maya was found around here then what if Ava is close by? What if she got away? What if she's hurt and needs help?
I ignore Gianna's request of 'just stay put or so help me God, James!' and hop into my car, driving around Camden, Primrose Hill and towards Regents Park, back to the market street and on my second loop around, I see a bunch of police vehicles parked in the street of a few fancy looking apartment blocks in Regents Park.
And then it clicks.
"He lives in Regents Park, doesn't he?" I yell into the receiver end of my phone as I walk towards the barricaded area.
"What? Where are you James?" Gianna whispers. She's still at the police station, helping Iris.
"Where do you think? There's coppers everywhere. Is this where they found Maya?"
"A few blocks from there, yes."
"He fucking has her. He has Ava."
"They're searching his house. Ava's fucking phone died, so they're trying to hack it. We have the passcode just not the pin."
"Why's that important?"
"They think Gabriel reached out and arranged to make an exchange for Maya."
"What sort of exchange? This is a triple storey apartment, he doesn't need money."
"More of a direct exchange."
"Ava for Maya. Fuck. Why wouldn't she tell us she was coming here?" I groan in frustration. But I know why... he probably threatened Maya's safety.
"Just go home. Her phone only died while we were at the precinct. That means there's a chance she saw our messages before she gave her phone to Maya, and knows you're home. Stay there, James. I'll call you if anything else comes up."
Whatever. There's a small chance in hell that she saw those messages.
Using the old Scottish charm, I sweet-talk one of the coppers standing outside Cockface's home; she confirms that no one is home and the owner is wanted in connection with a missing girl's case. She doesn't mention anything about Ava.
I drive around aimlessly for another half an hour or so before heading back to my apartment.
I've missed my flight and I'm probably going to get sacked if I don't pitch in Bahrain for practice tomorrow but what else am I supposed to do?
