Daddy Dearest

Chapter Fifty

Ben

I couldn’t worry about Melody because my twins were gravely ill. Charlotte had an adverse reaction to the knockout drug, suffered a seizure, and is now in a coma. Charlie, who is also in ICU, hasn’t woken up yet, either, even though his scans came back clean.

Thankfully, none of the other students had adverse reactions and woke up on their own one by one, though some suffered some slight memory loss of what happened during the previous evening. Mrs. Chambers stormed in looking like the wrath of God, demanding to see the person responsible.

Winston, Alex Chambers’ assistant (what the fuck, the little prick has an assistant?!), explained to the furious mother that it wasn’t a school-sanctioned event and Alex was responsible for it. That seemed to calm the woman somewhat, though she was looking for someone to blame and unwilling to accept that her baby boy was at the center of all this.

The Chambers boy was one of the first to wake up and demanded to see Melody. His mother told him she was in another room recuperating and Alex should be really concentrating on getting better himself, but the boy was adamant about seeing her. Waverly and I had to intervene.

“Alex,” said Waverly in her gentle, placating voice. “Melody isn’t here. She’s been…” Her voice broke and she brought her hand to her mouth.

Chambers looked ready to jump out of his bed, but a nurse, his assistant, and his mother held him down. “Where is she?” he demanded through clenched teeth. He glared at me. “Davenport, tell me where she is.”

Signal jammers were used on the CCTV, so they couldn’t broadcast clear images. But it looked like a large male dressed in black grabbed an unconscious Melody and escaped with her. The security posted on the floor had been incapacitated with tranquilizers, which was why they couldn’t help.

Before Noriko and her team could make it to the penthouse, Melody was gone along with her abductor.

God, where is she right now? She must be so scared. I can’t even imagine what kind of hell she’s going through.

“She was abducted. The guards were knocked out. Everyone in the party was drugged as a distraction and in the chaos, Melody was taken,” I answered in a matter-of-fact manner even though I felt like punching something until both of my fists bled.

“Drugged?” Chambers clutched his head. “I don’t understand. What could have been drugged? Everyone went out like a light at the same time. It must have been some kind of… gas.”

His head came up and his hazel eyes were wide with fear and awareness. “Oh, God, Melody. We have to find her. My little cricket. She’d be defenseless.”

“Not too defenseless,” said Noriko coming up behind me. “She has a brown belt in Brazilian jujitsu and proficiency in weapons. She’s good with knives and guns.”

Waverly looked at Noriko in surprise. “Wait, what? Was Nancy training her to be a Black Widow?”

“You know what Nancy went through.” I ran my hand through my hair. “She wanted to make sure Melody could take care of herself. Noriko, have you been able to get ahold of Nancy?”

The bodyguard frowned. “No, this is highly unusual, actually. Whenever Nancy goes out, she texts Melody at least twice in an hour and calls her twice: to let her know she’s reached her destination and when she’s on her way home.”

“Ben,” said my wife with a worried expression. “Do you think Nancy might be in danger as well? You know how solicitous she is of Melody. It’s unusual of her not to contact us like this.”