Apprentice (The Gentlemens' Society for Alchemy, #1)

Chapter 20 - So Tied Up

I can't focus on work for the life of me.

I hear my inbox pinging with emails from coworkers, all wanting to know what the Mayor was doing here this morning, and I don't want to see if Ezra Roman has emailed me again. I can't think about him, and I definitely can't see him again. The effect he has on me makes all rational thought fly out the window, and right now I need to be rational. To protect Cam, Emily, and Cora. They are my main priority, my only priority, and I need to figure out how to keep them safe. Hopefully without getting stuck with a power-hungry Alchemist calling the shots.

It's 11 AM and I'm about to ring Cora to see if she'll have lunch with me, when there's a knock on my door.

Normally I'd just tell whoever it was to come in, but my nerves are on edge.

"Yes?" I call out.

"Um, Olivia, darlin? Can I bother you for a quick second?"

I'd recognize that Southern twang anywhere. My hands start shaking, worrying that this is just some kind of play by Roman, when I hear a cough outside the door. I wring out my hands, forcing them to be still.

"Come in!" I call out again.

Sam Hudson steps into my office. He looks nervous, almost uncomfortable, but very handsome in his dark, perfectly tailored jeans and smart navy blazer over a fitted white button up.

He rubs a sheepish hand behind his neck.

"It's nice to see you again," he says, smiling weakly.

"Nice to see you too, Hudson. Did Ezra send you?" I ask, folding my arms over my chest.

He holds his hands up in sheepish denial.

"No, of course not. But - I was actually hoping that you know where he is."

Sam rubs his neck, looking so unsure of himself, which just doesn't seem like him at all. I'm immediately suspicious. "He didn't show up to work today and no one from the office has been able to reach him for three nights - not since he left his party with you on Friday. It's very unlike him."

I narrow my eyes warily.

"And why would I know where the Prince of One Night Stands is? NOT that I slept with him." It was common knowledge. Ezra Roman didn't keep women around for more than one night. Until me, that is. And we didn't even sleep together.

Sam sighs. It's a guilty sigh. My senses are still on high alert, probing for any sign of Alchemist power, but finding none. My heart has been crushed enough this week, and the last thing I need is to be tricked again.

"Don't kill her, okay?" Sam begins. "But Cora might have told me that you were staying with him..."

He looks like he's expecting me to explode. But instead, my vision goes black and I take a deep, calming breath.

So Ezra is missing. Where could he be?

"Did you check his penthouse?" I ask, trying to keep my rage in check. WHY does this man keep becoming my problem?

"Yes, of course. We checked all his usual haunts... except your place."

"My place was broken into two nights ago and I've been staying with someone who isn't Ezra," I say pointedly.

Sam looks utterly defeated, and it hits me again that no one knows in the real world knows what a vicious bastard Roman is but people like me. Like us, I think, gloomily. Alchemists. I feel bad suddenly, for taking my beef with the Prince of Liars out on sweet, charming, Sam Hudson, even if my best friend did betray me by telling him I'd been staying with Ezra. I can't expect that everyone that walks into my office is out to get me.