Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 309 - 47

Chapter 309: Chapter 47

Rayne’s apartment was across her restaurant and it was a stylish, modern space with large windows letting in plenty of light. The living room was tastefully decorated with soft, neutral colors and cozy furniture.

Rayne moved swiftly through the room, picking up her handbag and car keys from the sleek coffee table. She turned to her son, Ethan, and kissed his chubby cheek.

"Mommy, see you later," Ethan said, hugging her neck and planting a kiss on her cheek.

Rayne smiled at his words. "I’ll see you later, sweetheart." She glanced at his nanny. "Elizabeth, please bring Ethan over to the restaurant after his outing in the park."

"I will, Ms. Wallace," Elizabeth replied warmly.

Rayne had a lot to get done at the restaurant and needed to leave early. Her son also liked his day at the park, so she’d arranged for her driver to take him there with his nanny while she headed to work to get things done before he returned.

She kissed Ethan’s chubby cheek again and handed him over to Elizabeth. Turning to leave, she paused at the door, waving at Ethan, who was grinning and waving back excitedly from Elizabeth’s arms.

"I love you, Mommy!" he called out in his baby voice.

"I love you too, darling." She blew him a kiss, and his grin grew wider, his eyes glimmering brighter—those eyes that would forever remind her of a certain someone, whom she’d decided to put in the back of her memories and forget.

Rayne walked out of the apartment, her heart swelling with pride and love for her son, the only family she had now. She considered her brother dead and her mom, who was with her new family in Mirage Mesa, non-existent. Ethan Wallace was her only love and life; she couldn’t imagine a life without him now. Her charming little prince.

As Rayne walked away from the apartment hallway, a young woman emerged from the apartment next door. She looked like a teenager with blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and a black choker around her neck. Her dress was stark black with dark lipstick on her lips, and she held a flashy green balloon in her hand. She rang the bell to the Wallace apartment.

Elizabeth, holding Ethan, opened the door. Ethan laughed in excitement at the sight of his next-door friend.

"Good morning, Elizabeth," the girl greeted with a bright, innocent smile.

Elizabeth smiled, stepping back to welcome her inside. "Good morning, Jessi. How have you been?"

"I’m good. Just came here to say hi to Ethan," said the girl.

Jessi, who worked part-time as a babysitter next door was Ethan’s best friend. The moment she walked in, Ethan wiggled down from Elizabeth’s arms and clambered to the floor.

"Jessi!" he exclaimed, reaching for the balloon she was holding. "Balloon for me! Give me!"

Jessi held out the balloon. "Look, the balloon matches your pajamas. What color is it?"

Ethan looked from the balloon to his clothes, his eyes brightening. "Color green. Just like Mommy’s eyes!"

A slow smile graced Jessi’s face. "Good boy. Now, if you can catch the balloon, it’s all yours."

As she spoke those words, she opened the door to the apartment. Before Elizabeth could react, a man in a mask walked in, wielding an iron bat. He smashed it against Elizabeth’s head, and the world immediately began to fade.

Before everything went black, she heard Jessi yelling, "Be careful with the boy! You promised not to hurt anyone!"

In her dimming consciousness, Elizabeth felt a piece of paper being slipped into her dress pocket. The door to the apartment slammed shut, and the last thing she heard was Ethan’s cries dying down in the background.

---

Hours later, after Rayne arrived at the restaurant, she did what was needed and then went up to her office to wait for her son’s and Elizabeth’s arrival. However, even after a few more hours passed, there was no sign of them.

Rayne thought perhaps Ethan was keeping his nanny from leaving the park as usual and relaxed a bit. However, she reached for her phone to call the nanny when she heard a knock on her office door.

Believing it to be one of the workers or her assistant, she called them in while dialing the nanny’s number but stopped mid-action of taking the phone to her ear at the sight of four men in detective uniforms who walked into her office.

"Mrs. Wallace, I’m Detective Parker, and this is my assistant, Ivan."

Rayne took one look at the detectives’ grave faces, and an awakening terror, unlike anything she had ever known, sent her slowly to her feet.

"My son?" she said, automatically naming the most terrifying reason of all for their visit. "Where’s Ethan? What’s happened? Where’s Elizabeth?"

"Ethan was kidnapped from your apartment building few hours ago—"

"Oh, my God. No. Please!" she cried. "Not Ethan. Please, not my son!"

"Where’s Elizabeth?" Rayne asked in tones of rising hysteria. "Is she with Ethan? He won’t be as scared if—"

"The nanny was knocked unconscious by the kidnappers," Detective Parker said, "but she regained consciousness few hours later and managed to attract notice and get help. She was taken by an ambulance to the City hospital with a suspected skull fracture. However, she was able to give us a pretty detailed description of a young woman who we think was part of the plot."

In her mind, Rayne was screaming in tormented fear, but all she could do was stand there with her knees knocking together and her body trembling so violently that she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold herself still.

Detective Parker continued in a calm, reassuring voice. "We stand an excellent chance of getting Ethan back safely, but we need to move very quickly now, and we need your help."

Rayne nodded jerkily, her teeth chattering. "What?" she asked. "What do you need?"

"We’re going to issue a Crimson Alert right away," Detective Parker said urgently. The only way to find the child quickly was by announcing a Crimson Alert, a system used to notify the public about missing or kidnapped children.

The alert would be broadcast on every social network, television, radio, and social media, as well as sent directly to citizens’ devices.

"We need a recent picture of Ethan, a description of his clothing, his age, weight, and height," Parker continued.

Rayne picked up a framed picture of Ethan from her desk, started to hand it to Detective Parker, then pulled it back, clutching it to her heart and wrapping her arms around it. "My baby," she whispered brokenly. "My baby!"

"I’ll get his pictures from upstairs," Rayne’s assistant volunteered, already on the way at a run.

"Please try to stay calm for the next few minutes so we can get the alert out," Parker said. "We need your son’s height and weight."

Rayne made a valiant effort to comply and turned to her phone to dial Ethan’s pediatrician’s number.

"Ethan just went to the pediatrician for his checkup yesterday," she babbled. "He’ll know Ethan’s height and weight exactly."

"What was he wearing?" Detective Parker’s assistant asked from behind her, his notebook and pencil poised.

Rayne glanced over her shoulder. The assistant was younger than Parker and not quite as good at pretending everything was going to be fine.

"Ethan was w-wearing green pajamas..."

An image of Ethan grinning at her in his pajamas just a little while ago broke down her fragile barrier of control, and she began crying while she tried to find the pediatrician’s number on her phone.

"I can’t—"

"I’ll get it for you, Rayne," one of her workers volunteered, squeezing past the detectives and coming around her desk. "What name am I looking for?"

When Rayne told him, he found the phone number, made the call for her, and explained the situation to the receptionist who answered. Two minutes later, he hung up and gave the detectives the details.

"Miss Wallace, stay calm," Parker said, feeling sympathy for the distraught woman. From the pictures he had seen years ago, he knew she had once had an affair with Liam Thompson. Given the boy’s age and circumstances, it was probable that Liam was Ethan’s father. Parker, who had a son himself, couldn’t imagine what it would be like if his child went missing.

"This is going to be okay. You’ve got the best detectives in the country on the case, and a task force is already being organized." Will assured.

Parker’s assistant, Ivan paused in the doorway, talking on his phone.

When he hung up, he looked at Will and said with what sounded like relief, "There’s a ransom note. The paramedics found it stuffed down the front of Elizabeth dress. The kidnappers said they’ll make contact here at nine o’clock tonight with instructions of how to deliver the money."

Rayne sank onto a sofa, letting the conversation swirl around her, dimly aware that word had spread downstairs and the doorway was filling up with worried faces of her workers.

"Good," Will said.

"Good?" Rayne repeated numbly, but hopefully, trying to understand what was good about the situation where her son has been kidnapped.

"Kidnapping for ransom has a much better outcome than other types of child abduction,"Will told her, and looked back at his assistant. "Anything significant about the ransom note?"

"Nothing that’s apparent, all I know right now is that it’s printed from a computer on white paper." He looked at another detective in the room and said, "Go ahead and get the wheels in motion for an Crimson Alert."

To Rayne’s assistant, he said, "Please give the most recent photograph of Ethan to the detective."

Rayne’s assistant handed it over, rubbed her hands on the sides of her skirt, and whirled on her heel, heading for the door. "I’ll make some coffee for everyone."

"Good idea," Will said, then he exchanged a speaking glance with Ivan, who followed her and stopped her near the entrance.

Sitting on the sofa, Rayne watched her assistant nod in reply to whatever Ivan said, then she asked him a question, and his answer made her cover her mouth as if she was stifling a cry.

"What’s wrong?" Rayne cried, half rising from the sofa as her assistant headed for Ethan’s playroom in her office.

Parker put his hand on her arm and drew her back down. "We need to get a sample of Ethan’s DNA from his hairbrush or toothbrush."

"Why?" Rayne demanded, unable to think as clearly as her assistant had.

"After the Crimson Alert goes out, we’ll start getting calls from all over the country that children matching Ethan’s description have turned up. We can avoid false alarms if we have Ethan’s DNA to send to the authorities for a match."

In her heart, Rayne knew there was some other reason, other than healthy children turning up and needing to be ruled out, for the police to want a sample of Ethan’s DNA, but her brain refused to follow that terrifying path. Parker’s next words distracted her from all of that.

"The kidnappers ransom demand is for 1 billion dollars in cash, ready to be handed over at 10 o’clock tonight."

Gaping at him in disbelief, Rayne said, "1 billion dollars? But I don’t have that kind of money. I could raise a few million dollars if they’ll give me a little time to arrange for loans and—"

"The kidnappers aren’t going to give you that time."

Nausea welled up in Rayne’s throat, and she got up to make a dash for the bathroom.