Child of a King

Chapter twenty-six - Missing puzzle piece

Nathaniel:

Staring at the zoom call on the laptop, I twirled my pen around my finger as I listened to the CEO of a rising firm talk about their aspirations for their company. He seemed like a reliable client to fundraise, the only minus of his was how long he dragged this meeting out. He's been talking nonstop the last 40 minutes and I was supposed to be off work 15 minutes ago.

"That is a very good consideration", I cut in when he paused to drink some water. "As I said earlier, I'll contact you in a few days if we decide to fundraise for your company", I added, trying to shut down the conversation for the third time.

"Thank you, sir. That sounds great", the man replied, bowing slightly.

"No worries". I smiled; a bit tighter than normally my patience wearing thin. My patience was usually long and extremely overbearing but only for a certain little someone that I hadn't seen most of the day. I couldn't wait until I saw Estella's full teeth smile and beaming eyes lighting up at me when she would run into my arms. The best part of my day.

"I also have this diagram I would love to show you-"

Rolling my eyes as the CEO rambled on, I was about to text my secretary to come up with an excuse for me to leave, when suddenly the door to my office swung open.

"Estella is gone".

I blinked at my younger brother as he stood in front of me with wild eyes filled with panic.

"What?" I couldn't have heard right. How on earth was my little sister supposed to vanish from a heavily secured mansion. It was impossible. "She's playing in the living room?" I frowned at him like he had grown two heads.

"She's gone", Ray repeated, his chest heaving up and down. "We've looked everywhere. We can't find her".

My stomach dropped as my breath caught in my throat.

Springing to my feet, I ran out of my office, leaving the meeting I wanted to escape from behind. When I prayed for an excuse to leave the meeting, I didn't mean this. Any other excuse than this would have been fine. No this... this was my worst nightmare.

Estella was missing.

My angel was missing.

I don't think I quite comprehended it before all of us stood in the surveillance room, the normally large space feeling claustrophobic as security people and my brothers crowded inside.

"Where's the footage?" I demanded; my voice rushed as my heart pounded against my rib cage. I felt suffocated, not knowing where my sister was. How could the most precious human being to ever exist just disappear under our noses. Under mine... I was officially the worst older brother in history.

"I'm trying to find it".

"Do it faster", Slade seethed, running his hand through his hair as the loose strays coated his sweaty forehead. I could practically see how his pulse drummed against his neck, going abnormally fast.

"It's not that easy. We first need to find our backup footage". My blood ran cold as my gaze pierced into Ezra's eyes as he sat in front of the surveillance tv's. This was reminding me of an awful time five years ago where everything went to shit. Was Sebastian right about coming back to the states? Were the Irish mob still trying to wipe us out? Was this their doing? I would never forgive myself if my family got attacked again all because I decided it was time to head home after so many years.

It made sense at the time to come back. We had completely withdrawn all our cartel related issues out of the states and hadn't been in contact with anything close to the criminal organization since our return. If the Irish mob came after us again, it wouldn't be because of our ancestors' rivalry. It would be because of unfinished business and this time they won't be satisfied if we fled the country again. This time they would want us all dead.