In Bed With Her Shithead Boss (By Ellie Wynters) novel Chapter 250

"Prince Alexei and Miss Warner argued last night and against policy, the prince sent his personal guard away, leaving him unprotected. We needed to make sure Miss Warner wasn't involved with the kidnappers."

Sutton stood so abruptly her chair nearly toppled, and Luca grabbed her arm, stopping her from advancing on Mitchell. Sutton glared at her husband, her eyes blazing. "You can let me go. I'm not going to kill him… yet." Luca didn't look so sure but let her go, staying close enough to intervene if needed.

"You have to understand money is a strong motivator," Mitchell continued, seemingly oblivious to the danger he was in.

"So what—you went diving into our sister's financials? Was that the real reason we weren't contacted?" Blair demanded, her own anger boiling over. The thought of them investigating Keira while she was in danger made her sick.

Mitchell had the decency to look uncomfortable. "We had to rule out all possibilities. Your sister was observed having a heated argument with the prince shortly before they both disappeared. Protocol dictated we investigate all angles."

"And what did your investigation reveal?" Roman asked, his voice dangerously calm, though Blair could see the white-knuckled grip he had on the back of a chair.

"That Ms. Warner is clearly a victim, not an accomplice," Mitchell admitted. "Her financial records show no suspicious activity, and her background check came back clean."

"I could have told you that," Blair snapped, protectively cradling her baby bump. "Instead of wasting valuable time that could have been spent looking for them."

Sutton was already back at her computer, fingers flying across the keyboard, channeling her rage into action. "While we waited for you jokers to turn up, I ran the photo they sent us though some software. The image embedded metadata that wasn't properly scrubbed. Amateurs." She glanced up, a fierce gleam in her eye. "The image was taken with an iPhone 13, and…" she zoomed in on a portion of the background, "there. Now what is that?"

Luca leaned over her shoulder, his face inches from the screen. "What are you seeing?"

"A window behind Keira. And through that window..." Sutton enhanced the image further with her software, her breath catching, "...It looks like a crane of sorts..."

"That's a gantry crane. That narrows it down," Luca said, moving to a map one of Roman's security team had spread across the table. "Gantry cranes are used to load shipping containers. They are only found at ports. There isn't enough detail to figure out the company the crane belongs to."

The doorbell went. Everyone looked around, tension instantly crackling in the air. "Are we waiting on anyone else?" Sutton asked, reaching for Luca's hand as he moved to her side.

Blair and Roman shook their heads and moved toward their front door, Roman positioning himself slightly in front of his pregnant wife. Upon opening the door, there was a huge bunch of red roses. Blair was guessing around three dozen. The delivery person was completely hidden behind the huge bouquet. "Where do you want them?" came a muffled voice.

She didn't want them, they may be lovely but right now her only concern was her sister's life. Blair and Roman stepped back, letting the delivery guy in the door. The man instantly shut the door and dropped the flowers.

Standing in front of them was FBI Agent Rogers who they had met when Blair had faked her funeral.

"I would like to know why I wasn't invited to the party," were the first words out of his mouth as they stood there, shocked and dismayed that he should turn up now.