One week. In one week, every single person who had laid a hand on my children would pay.
Bertram's secretary came sprinting toward him, face drained of color.
"Mr. Delgado, Miss Pruitt has been kidnapped!"
In an instant, all the blood left Bertram's face.
Before I could even react, he was already tearing past me. I looked up and caught a flash of his dark eyes, wild with panic.
But his gaze barely grazed me before he bolted past, heading for the stairwell behind me.
In that split second as our paths crossed, his shoulder slammed into me and sent me crashing to the floor.
The bodyguard trailing him stepped on the back of my hand without breaking stride.
I winced against the sharp bite of pain and watched Bertram's retreating figure, stumbling in his desperation, growing smaller down the hallway. Something inside my chest seized and went still.
I'd already heard the panic in his voice over the phone. I'd known. But seeing it with my own eyes still sent a blade twisting through my heart.
After a moment, I tugged weakly at the corners of my mouth.
Of course. Bertram had always been this way.
The second anything involved Alexis, nothing else in the world existed for him.