Rebels and Lovers Read Online Free PDF Page B

daughters, but chances were excellent the man had nieces. “Then we’d be one big happy family.”
    Something flashed in J.M.’s eyes. “Your sarcasm is not appreciated.”
    “I’m sorry, but your plan is flawed. If Tage has made direct threats against us, then not only do I need to know that, but our
security people
need to know that. I sincerely doubt that anything Tage plans will be halted by my being put out to stud to the Embersons. And if—”
    His father slammed his hand against the table, rattling dishes and glassware. “Do not take that tone with me, Devin Jonathan!”
    Well. His father
could
raise his voice before breakfast. “I’m not trying to upset you, Father. I’m trying to make you see reason. If the situation is—”
    The patio doors slid open as Jonathan’s voice—harsh, frightened—broke into the room. “That was Rallman. Halsey’s dead. Rallman found his body when he came on duty. Campus security’s on it. But they can’t find—Trip’s not in his apartment or anywhere on the Montgomery campus.”
    Devin stared. Jonathan’s words and expression were so unexpected—so full of emotions—he couldn’t quite process them. Beside him, J.M. stiffened, his hands clenching into fists.
    Jonathan strode to the table and grasped the back of his empty chair, his face pale, his knuckles white. “I can’t believe I’m saying this. My son’s bodyguard has been murdered. And my son is missing.” His voice cracked.
“How in hell
am I going to tell Marguerite?”

Devin, seated at the main deskcomp in his father’s elegant study, was in problem-solving mode. It was something he excelled at. He had Guthrie security personnel and private bodyguards on high alert, electronic surveillance across the estate’s palatial grounds in full sensor sweep, the house in lockdown, and the family physician on the way. His mother took the news of her grandson’s disappearance and bodyguard Ben Halsey’s death with frightening stoicism, the trembling of her hands as she clutched them in her lap the only outward sign of her distress.
    Marguerite Petroski Guthrie collapsed, sobbing uncontrollably. Jonathan carried her to his old suite, which was where he was now, while Devin worked with single-minded efficiency, confirming the status of the rest of the family, especially Trip’s siblings at their exclusive private school.
    Thana and Max—Trip’s younger sister and brother—were quietly whisked out of class by their bodyguards. The current question was whether to hold them in their own Port Palmero home or to bring them here, to the main Guthrie estate.
    “Here,” Devin told Petra Frederick, GGS’s chief of security. Devin felt they needed to be with their mother, not sitting isolated and confused with only armed escorts to talk to. And their mother and father definitely needed to see them.
    Not all Guthrie marriages were like Ethan’s. Jonathan’s demeanor might be aloof, but Devin neverdoubted his brother loved Marguerite and their children. His brother’s barely concealed terror in the breakfast room wasn’t feigned.
    Guthrie men, when they loved, loved deeply. They were just horribly inept at showing it.
    Petra Frederick nodded. “I’ll have them on property in a half hour, Mr. Devin.”
    He signed off, turning his attention to Ethan, Hannah, and their children, confirming their locations with their personal security. From there, aunts, uncles, and cousins were alerted. And all GGS offices in Aldan and Baris.
    A less specific message, with perfunctory regrets, was sent to the Embersons, as well as to Tavia’s personal pocket comm:
Family emergency requires delay of your visit
. The Embersons didn’t need to know details at this point.
    Devin didn’t need to add more people in the line of fire.
    It hadn’t escaped him that Trip’s disappearance might be only the beginning of someone’s move against them—corporately, politically, or both. He didn’t share his father’s paranoia, but