Never mind my eyes. Someone was already at my side. "Young Master Heath, what do you need?"
"Your eyes... let me get water to rinse them."
"No. Seal every exit in this hotel, right now. No one leaves."
"Yes, Young Master Heath."
For this life, I'd brought a lot of my own men in ahead of time.
Once they cleared out, I tilted my face up into the water from the sprinklers and washed my eyes clean.
Even so, the burn kept stinging through.
The whole floor was chaos.
Somewhere in the crowd I saw my sister, searching in a panic.
I pushed toward her fast. The moment she saw me the tears started down her face. "Curt, Emily's gone."
I dragged in a breath. I should have seen it coming. If Nanny Lawrence meant to steal my niece, of course she wouldn't have prepared just one plan.
She'd fallen back on her backup.
Which meant my earlier guess was right. There'd been something in the formula Emily drank.
Sleeping pills, most likely, mixed straight into it.
Craig was shouting too. "Search everywhere, I want my daughter found—"
"Sis, Craig, calm down. My men have already sealed every exit. Not a fly gets out of here now."
At that, some of the panic drained out of them both.
"Also, Sis, call the police."
"Craig, get someone on Nanny Lawrence now. And send people after a hotel janitor. His name's Anthony Chavez."
They both stared at me, confusion on their faces.
I cut in fast. "No time to explain. Just do what I said."
The crowd was still frantic.
Still running everywhere.
I grabbed a microphone. "Everyone, I'm Mr. Heath, of the Heath Group. I've already had it checked. There's no fire. Someone hit the alarm by accident. Everything's fine."
I knew the one thing I couldn't allow was chaos in this room.
Chaos was exactly what Nanny Lawrence and her people needed to slip out in the confusion.
"Really?"
"Of course it's real. Do you smell any smoke anywhere?" I said.
People sniffed the air. It seemed to satisfy them.
Then I called over the hotel manager.
He came right up. "Mr. Heath, we've swept everything. No problems."
"If there's no problem, then we'd like to leave," someone said.
"Right, I don't want to stay here. I want to go home."
"Please, don't rush off. My niece is missing. I believe someone has kidnapped her. I'm asking all of you to stay and cooperate with the investigation."
That set the room off again.
"Don't worry. Cooperate with me, and afterward every one of you will receive a gift as compensation."
Once the crowd had settled, my sister came over and told me she'd called the police. Officers would be here soon.
I gave a short nod. Not long after, Craig came back with Nanny Lawrence, and he told me, "Curt, we couldn't find that Anthony Chavez you mentioned."
My chest dropped at that. Anthony was the key man in Nanny Lawrence's kidnapping.
He could not be allowed to get away. But he'd worked here for years and knew every corner of this hotel. Finding him would be anything but easy.
"No. We have to find Anthony Chavez."
The baby wasn't with Nanny Lawrence, I was sure of it. She'd handed Emily off to Anthony the moment the chaos hit.
And now Nanny Lawrence was playing frantic and pitiful. "It's my fault. I failed you. I didn't keep the little miss safe."
"I was wrong, I'm to blame! Punish me, please."
She came forward confessing, tears spilling out on cue.
"Someone shouted fire and I got scared and ran. I should have carried the little miss out with me."
Her sobbing swelled louder as she spoke.
It drew every eye in the room straight to her.
