“Okay. Okay,” I said. “So, I’ve said it a few times before. This time was different.”
“Different how?”
I closed my laptop and got up to pace the room. “I got close to her, I saw her face.” I turned to look at him. “I mean, I really saw her face. It wasn’t a mirage across the room sort of thing. She was right there. Right in front of me. Damn it, it was her, Ace,” I whispered as I sank into the armchair. “I just know it was.”
“Okay,” he said with a little more compassion. “So, let’s say that it really was her. Did she see you? Did she recognize you?”
“No,” I said. “But you know there’s no way she could. I mean, even if she did get her memory back, I’ve changed so much since I last saw her.”
“All right,” Ace said calmly. “Now what?”
I looked up at him. “I want to know where she is. I want to know what became of Summer Jones.”
“Okay,” Ace said as he sat behind my laptop and opened it again. “Why didn’t you say so?”
After thinking it over a second, he started tapping away.
“Anything?” I said after a brief moment.
“Give me a minute, will you?” he said. He continued to tap away. “If she’s still out of it, she has no profiles anywhere. No pages, no accounts, no photos. Nothing under the name Summer Jones.”
“Hey,” I thought suddenly as I bolted up from my chair. I opened my phone and found the photo of Summer. “Do you think you can do anything with this?”
Ace looked at the photo. “Don’t you have anything a little clearer?”
“No,” I said. “This is all I have.”
He took my phone, sent the photo to a file on the laptop then opened the photo on the laptop. “I’ll give it a try, but no guarantees. This is pretty fuzzy.”
I waited patiently as he put the photo through a face recognition program, but as the minutes ticked by, I began pacing again. The sense that this would bring me nowhere grew, intensified and played on my last nerve.
“Damn it, Ace,” I hissed after an eternal five minutes. “Do you have anything or don’t you?”
“Calm down, Parker,” he said. “I think I may… have… wait a minute… wait a minute…. There we go.” He gave the laptop keyboard a final dramatic tap. “There she is.”
I ran up behind him and looked at the screen. My heart stopped. There she was, so beautiful, glamorous and fashionable. Her long caramel hair flowed around her face and over her shoulders in luxurious curls.
“Where is this photo from?” I said. “Where was it taken?”
Ace leaned into the screen to read. “Some sort of charity event.”
He clicked to another photo; a close-up of her and a handsome blonde guy who looked familiar.
“Who is he?”
“Ash Fairway,” Ace said as he continued to dig deeper. “Appears to be a well-known action movie star.”
“Well-known?” I said with a smirk. “I’ve never heard of him. Have you?”
“No,” Ace said. “But action movies aren’t really my thing. I get enough action in real life.”
I snorted my agreement.
“Here she is at a movie premier with him.”
“So, it’s not just a one-time deal,” I said solemnly. “They’re an item.”
“Hey, it’s Hollywood. You never know what’s what.” He turned away from the screen and looked at me. “So, do you think the couple you saw last night was them?”
“A different hair color, but he looked like he could be him if he changed his hair color and style like he was under disguise. Remember a few nights ago,” I said. “There was a fuss over a new film out. There was a fuss because one of the actors had snuck into the movie theater to see people’s honest reaction to the movie. Someone spotted him and called him out.”
Ace nodded. “Yeah. I heard about that. Fans kept him there for over an hour signing autographs.”
“That was here, Ace,” I said. “In London. It all adds up. He was in town promoting a film and he was at the fundraiser last night. And that gorgeous woman on his arm was Summer.”
“I think you might be right.”
I stared at the photo, taking it in, looking at her face and remembering the times we’d had together. I leaned in closer and noticed that there was something else about the photo that struck me. Something in the background. Something I should put more focus on. But the need to find out more about Summer was more important and I tucked that bit of curious information aside.
I slapped him on the shoulder, urging him to turn back to the laptop. “Find out where they’re staying.”
He glanced up at me. “You know they don’t readily let that kind of information out.”
“I know,” I said with a smile. “But I also know that you are just devious and cunning enough to find out anyway.”
With a proud grin, he got to work. “The Regency,” he said as he continued to investigate.
“What room?” I said, already set to go out there and find her.
“Sorry,” he said as he looked up at me. “They’ve already checked out.”
“Check all the flights leaving London today,” I said.
“All of them?” Ace said. “Parker, are you aware that Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world?”
I huffed. “All right, then. Check those heading to LAX first… then maybe New York.”
“Again,” he said as he rapidly tapped on the keys. “You’re asking me to put my nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“That’s right. That’s what you do best, Hacker.”
“Ex-hacker, now right hand man to the mysterious Parker James.” Ace grinned. “Bingo,” Ace said triumphantly only moments later.
“You found them?”
“Well…” Ace said. “I found him. A charter flight. He reserved it and signed for it, but I can’t access the passenger list. I have to assume that she’s with him.”
“And the flight? It’s to LAX?” I said, my excitement coming out by way of a shrill cry.
“It appears so.”
“So, Mr. Movie Star is on a charter flight…” I said with a cocky smirk.
Nodding, Ace looked up at me. “They should be landing in time for lunch.”
“Good work,” I said as I slapped his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
“Go?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We’re going to Hollywood.”
“But the mission to end the Inner Circle… Stanley, Worth, Claire… all of them.”
I shrugged. “I might have something better.” I headed out to start packing. “Get my private jet ready. We take off in two hours.”
Chapter 5
Dante Black/Parker James
“So, Parker,” Ace said as we prepared to land in Los Angeles. “Are you going to tell me what this other ‘better’ mission is? Or am I going to have to beat it out of you?”