Page 61 of It Destroys Me

I’d failed her.

Chapter 11

Astrid

I was awake all night.

Couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t sit. My phone was always in my grasp as I wandered past the windows. I eventually went downstairs because my room started to feel suffocating. I’d visited other parts of the house, like the study and the kitchen, so I assumed I was welcome to do so.

When I walked into the study, Axel was there.

He sat in one of the armchairs, dressed in the same shirt and sweatpants I’d seen him wearing earlier. His ball cap was gone because he’d left it in my bedroom. He didn’t notice me right away, not until I took a seat in the other armchair, the one I’d seen Theo occupy.

His eyes flicked to me.

“Have you heard from him?”

Axel shook his head.

That was the answer I expected, but it disappointed me anyway. I set my phone on the table beside me and tapped the screen to check the time. It was almost five in the morning. Theo had dropped me off seven hours ago, but now that felt like days in the past.

Axel stared at the cold fireplace.

“You said you weren’t worried. But you look worried.”

“Just anxious,” he said.

It was dark, so I hadn’t noticed the rifle leaned up against the opposite side of his chair. My heart dropped at the sight. “Why do you have that?”

“I told you I was anxious.”

“Axel, do you know something?”

He kept his eyes on the fireplace.

Sheer, raw panic burst inside me. “Axel.”

He continued to ignore me.

“Did something happen to Theo?—”

“I haven’t heard from Theo or heard anything about him.”

“Then why are you on guard with that gun?”

He finally turned to look at me. “Because Theo synced my phone with his alarm system. I can see all the activity in the computer log. His gate opened around three in the morning. And then the front door.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It wasn’t Theo. He would have told me if he was on his way back from Rome.”

A profound sense of doom hit me.

“So, I think Bolton called his guys once he spotted Theo. And I think his butler is the one who let them in.”

Another burst of panic exploded inside me.

“Otherwise, the alarm would have been tripped. It was deactivated by a keypad password, meaning it wasn’t hacked. There’s only one person besides Theo who has that code.”