Chapter 299
Chapter 299:
Cole rubbed his temples. A sickening knot of anxiety had been lodged in his stomach since he left Boston. He had ordered his intelligence team to dig into June’s background, but the results were delayed. The uncertainty was driving him to the edge of his composure.
On the far wall, a massive eighty-inch monitor silently played the Bloomberg financial news network — standard background noise for Cole’s meetings.
Then the screen flashed bright red.
A BREAKING NEWS banner scrolled across the bottom. The anchor’s face was replaced by a breaking news graphic displaying a grainy photograph taken by a first responder. The camera zoomed in on the image of a catastrophic car crash. The scrolling ticker read: BREAKING: LOVE GROUP CEO CRAWFORD LOVE INVOLVED IN SEVERE COLLISION IN BOSTON. CONDITION UNKNOWN.
Cole’s heart skipped a beat. He sat up straighter.
The camera panned across the wreckage. Cole saw the crushed, smoking remains of a matte black Cadillac Escalade.
The air left his lungs completely.
і𝗻s𝗍𝗮𝘯𝗍 𝗮𝗰сe𝘴𝘴 𝗼𝗻 g𝖺𝗅n𝗼𝘃еl𝗌.со𝘮
He knew that car. Crawford had bragged about the custom armor plating on that exact vehicle just last month.
His brain instantly connected the dots. Crawford was in Boston. June was with Crawford. They had left the hotel together.
June was in that car.
A freezing, paralyzing terror shot straight down Cole’s spine. His hands began to shake. He reached into his suit pocket, pulled out his phone, and dialed June’s number.
He pressed the phone to his ear. Three agonizing seconds of silence passed.
“The subscriber you have dialed is currently unavailable or outside the coverage area p>
The mechanical, soulless voice of the automated operator echoed in his ear.
Unavailable.
Cole stared at the screen. He studied the driver’s side of the Escalade — completely obliterated. He looked at the passenger side, crumpled against the concrete barrier.
A horrific equation formed in his panicked mind. The severity of the crash, plus the unreachable phone, equaled one absolute, irreversible conclusion.
She was gone.
The realization struck him like a wrecking ball to the chest. The physical pain was so intense he actually gasped for air. The burns on his back were nothing — nothing — compared to the sensation of his heart being torn from his ribcage.
He had spent months tormenting her, pushing her away, convincing himself she was a nuisance. And now the universe had taken her away permanently, before he could even begin to understand what she meant to him.
“Mr. Compton? Are you alright?” the European executive asked, noticing Cole’s terrifying pallor.
Cole did not answer. The civilized, rational billionaire died in that chair.
He shot to his feet. His legs struck the heavy leather chair behind him, sending it flying backward. It crashed to the floor with a sharp, resonant bang.
Every executive in the room flinched. They stared in collective horror as their cold, calculating CEO stood trembling at the head of the table — his face completely white, his eyes wide and manic, his chest heaving as though he were drowning.
Cole turned and sprinted for the door.
“Get the helicopter!” he roared at his terrified executive assistant, his voice cracking with raw, undisguised panic. “Get the chopper on the roof right now! We are flying to Boston p>