Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 313 - 51

Chapter 313: Chapter 51

Rayne paced slowly back and forth across the living room of her apartment where her son had been taken, watching the clock on the wall tick off the seconds of each tormenting minute that passed without a return call from Liam. Nearly four hours had passed since she’d spoken to Neil, and there hadn’t been a word from the heartless man she had once thought she loved.

Perhaps he didn’t even care enough for his son to try and help him out. She thought as different thoughts swirled around her mind.

At the other part of the room, Will Parker was standing at the floor to ceiling window overlooking the street in front of the Complex Apartment that was just across the street of her restaurant where police cars with flashing lights were jammed together at crazy angles.

The sidewalk was packed with reporters, concerned citizens, and curiosity seekers, who were hoping for firsthand information. Rayne wasn’t sure what Will was thinking, but he kept glancing at his phone as if willing it to ring. He was probably hoping for a tip, Rayne thought, a lead that would send all those police cars racing away with sirens wailing to rescue Ethan.

The fact that her son had been taken in a building that was just across from her restaurant was baffling and frightening, no one, despite the high securities in the building, had been able to protect her poor son, and that made her more angry at herself for not taking Ethan with her to the restaurant in the morning. She shouldn’t have left him and the nanny behind...

Rayne dismissed her guilt and tried to focus on something else. She’d finally gotten to Mia an hour ago and her friend had left Switzerland in the middle of a set and was on her way to Zen.

A task force had been set up downstairs in the lobby, and calls resulting from the Crimson alert were starting to come in on the newly installed phone lines.

Rayne had ordered the restaurant closed within minutes of learning Ethan was gone, but most of the staff had followed her home and where sitting in the lobby, keeping a silent watch for the little dark-eyed boy with the bright grin who had long ago captured their hearts.

Will Parker’s phone gave out a sharp ring in the silent room, and he snapped it to his ear so swiftly that the motion was blurred.

A moment later, he turned around and looked from Rayne to the other detectives. "Three lawyers are downstairs. They represent Liam Thompson." He said to Rayne then turned to his assistant. "Tell the officers at the front elevator to let them in and bring them up here," he added. "Hopefully they aren’t here to threaten Miss Wallace with a lawsuit for claiming Thompson is Ethan’s father."

Ellison, who was already at the front door, heard what the detective said and announced the actual reason for their appearance as he strode swiftly into the living room, with men in black suits carrying several black duffle bags trailing behind him and the other two lawyers.

"Mr. Thompson has instructed us to deliver 1 billion dollars in cash and to remain here awaiting further developments on the kidnapping."

Rayne’s arms dropped to her sides and she stared at them, overwhelmed with shock and relief, her eyes flooding with tears.

If Liam had been there, she would have fallen to her knees in front of him and cried with inexpressible gratitude. Instead, she turned away and covered her face with her hands, weeping helplessly, alternately thanking Liam in her heart over and over again.

---

"I’ll have you at Wallace’s restaurant street in a few more minutes," Neil’s driver, who’d come all the way from Mirage Mesa to pick Liam and Dante up from Zen airport, promised as he hammered on the limousine’s horn, ran a red light, and turned down a side street packed with rush-hour traffic.

Too tense to reply, Liam glanced at his watch. It was already 7 P.M. As soon as his flight landed in Zen, he’d called Ellison, who was waiting at the restaurant with the other lawyers, the ransom money with them.

Ellison had no new information to report about the kidnapping. All he could add was that he’d seen the actual DNA report confirming that Liam was the father of Rayne’s little boy, and that Liam’s son’s name was Ethan—Ethan Wallace, not Ethan Thompson, a fact that further antagonized Liam.

He added that issue to the others he intended to hand over to his attorneys in the morning when his little son was safely home.

Not once, not even for a second, did Liam allow himself to consider any other outcome of the kidnapping. That would have given fear an opening, and that he could not, dared not, allow. His son would be back safely before tomorrow.

Beyond that, all he’d learned from Ellison was that Rayne had apparently been raising Ethan on her own. Until he said that, Liam had been braced for the unpardonable likelihood that she was married to that bastard Max and had been raising his son as if he were another man’s child!

But who would have thought she never got married to that son of a bitch?

Liam looked again at his watch, and then he reached for the remote of the flat screen TV in the car and began changing the channels, hoping to find a channel that was broadcasting information about the kidnapping.

He found what he’d been searching for, but the reporter’s words sent a chill crawling up his spine.

"This morning, the two years old son of restaurateur Rayne Wallace was kidnapped from the High Tower Complex Apartment building at the Wallace restaurant street after his nanny, Elizabeth Wagger, was struck in the head and left unconscious. The authorities department has issued a Crimson alert..."

Liam’s control over his fright began to break as he listened to the reporter. The thought of his son being in the hands of some cruel bastards sent his heart racing and his stomach twisting into knots.

The limo was in the left-hand lane, inching along at a crawl toward a red light. "I can walk faster than this traffic is moving," he said, reaching for the door handle. "Tell me where the Wallace restaurant street is and I’ll walk there."

"Remain calm, sir," the driver urged as the red light turned into a green arrow and their lane began moving forward. "It’s a mile away and there’s a break in traffic up ahead."

As he spoke, the driver handed a contact card over his shoulder to Dante, who was sitting directly behind him, facing Liam. "This is my contact card," he told Liam. "Mr. Wayner gave me his orders to stick with you until everything is resolved. I’ll wait for you as close to Wallace’s as I can get, but if you don’t see me when you come out, call me at this number. I’ll be nearby."

"Don’t bother to wait," Liam said, his attention on the traffic, which was moving more steadily now. "I’ll call an Uber driver to the hotel when I’m finished."

"Mr. Wayner gave me strict orders to wait for you," the driver said emphatically, "and he also told your secretary to have your suitcases delivered to his condo in the city of Zen, where he lived when he disguised as a university professor. He said you are not allowed to refuse his help."

"Fine," Liam replied absently, scanning the streets ahead. "Where in hell is this street?" he demanded after what seemed like at least a mile.

"It’s just around the next corner, a block and a half up the street."

Liam reached for his briefcase on the floor as the driver flipped on the turn signal, made a left, and then Dante swore under his breath at what he saw ahead. "What’s up with the crowd?" he said lamely.

In grim silence, Liam took in the chaotic scene—a barricaded intersection with cops redirecting vehicles away from it, and beyond the barricades, a street packed with police cars, news channel vans, and crowds of pedestrians who couldn’t find standing room on the sidewalk.

And in the middle of it all was the huge five-star elegant restaurant that took up most of a city block, and across from it stood another Complex Apartment building where Rayne was obviously staying.

Liam flung the car door open and got out with Dante close behind, vigilant and watchful. "There’s a news channel camera aiming at you from the top of that white van," Dante said as they walked around the barricade and began wending their way around the mass of vehicles and humanity.

"I hope they don’t recognize me," Liam muttered as he tried his best to hide his face away from the cameras. He knew there was little chance of getting all the way to the apartment building without being identified and having microphones shoved in his face.

"Shit! They’re coming this way," Dante gritted.

"Ignore them and keep walking." Liam turned sideways in order to squeeze between the bumpers of two police cars and added, "No more English when you’re inside the building. You have to speak in Mandarin and pretend you don’t understand English. I want to know what’s going on, and people will talk more freely in front of someone they think can’t understand their language."

--

From his post at a floor to ceiling window in Rayne Wallace’s apartment, Will Parker’s assistant, Ivan watched a very tall man and a shorter man get out of a limousine together.

Both men looked lean and athletically built, both had dark hair, and both were wearing suits, but the taller one was carrying a briefcase, and he moved with the long strides and squared shoulders of a man who was supremely confident of himself.

Ivan didn’t need to see his face; he identified Liam Thompson by his height, his walk, the width and set of his broad shoulders, and his casual indifference to the crowds on the sidewalk and the reporters and photographers rushing toward him.

In contrast with Thompson’s aloofness, the man with him was sharply alert and subtly aggressive in his movements. Had he been carrying a briefcase, it would have looked out of place. He looked as if he ought to be carrying something else ...like a handgun? Which meant he was probably... a bodyguard?

Ivan watched both men a moment longer; then he looked over his shoulder and announced his conclusion to the rest of the people in the room, who happened to be Will Parker and the other detectives.

"Thompson is here," he said.

Will Parker looked sharply at Ivan; none of them had expected Liam to come after he’d sent his lawyers and the money. But since he was here already, he said to his men,

"Call down to the men outside the building and tell them to get Thompson through the crowd as quickly as possible and without drawing unnecessary attention to him. If the media recognize him, his arrival tonight will start an uproar of conjecture, and I don’t want anything distracting public attention from Ethan’s kidnapping."

Ivan nodded, and Will continued, "However, I agree he’s done a great job today by coming all the way here in person, but Miss Wallace is in a highly emotional and difficult situation. When Thompson gets here, he’s likely going to be very angry, and when he’s angry..." Will paused, unable to find the right words to describe Liam’s behavior when angered.

"Then we should keep him in a separate place from Miss Wallace, I mean he can stay down in the fancy lobby with his lawyers," Ivan suggested thoughtfully.

"Believe me," Parker replied seriously, "I know Liam Thompson isn’t going to take the fact that Miss Wallace hid his son from him well. But that doesn’t change the fact that he has the legal, moral, and ethical right—and responsibility—to be here with us and to be treated with the respect he deserves as Ethan’s father. Let him in."