Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 714

Chapter 714

Gwen’s POV

The next day, I went back to Kensington headquarters.

Not because I was pretending things were normal. Normal ended the moment my name made headlines next to the word kidnapping.

And because we had agreed. No messages, no calls, no dramatic voice notes. In person.

Renee wasn’t just vindictive, she was smart. She understood how a small piece could turn into an avalanche if you pushed it down the right slope. And I had no idea how far her reach extended. I only knew that underestimating her was a luxury I couldn’t

afford.

If Renee got her hands on my phone, on a message thread, on any sentence of mine taken out of context, she would turn it into evidence of harassment. I took a breath and decided. No ammunition. Just action.

So I walked into the building with my heart in my throat.

The elevator took me to the executive floor and, for a second, I felt the physical dissonance. That hallway was still mine, but the

chair at the end of it wasn’t.

My name was on the door.

But Matthew was sitting in my office.

And still, I went straight up without asking anyone’s permission.

Because what was at stake wasn’t a schedule.

It was a child.

When I pushed the door open, I found exactly what I expected. Mia was leaning against the cabinet, arms crossed, looking too irritated for someone who had just arrived. Dante was sprawled in the armchair like this was an entertainment meeting, not a

crisis.

And Matthew… Matthew was in my chair with a body that said he hadn’t slept.

Dante looked up first and flashed the kind of smile that made me want to throw a bottle at him.

“Great,” he said. “The princess of chaos has arrived.” Then he turned to Matthew before continuing. “Now you can tell us how

the plan went.”

I dropped my bag on my old sideboard and went straight to the desk, letting myself fall into the chair across from Matthew like it could hold me together for a second.

“Since we didn’t get a call from the police last night telling us to come pick up Bella,” I said, my voice calmer than I felt, “I’m assuming it didn’t go as planned.”

I heard my own sentence and hated how rational it sounded. Like I was talking about a deal that fell through, not an attempt to get a child somewhere safe without handing Renee another win.

“I stayed up all night waiting for the phone to ring,” I continued, because I needed to fill the silence before it turned into panic. Anything. An unknown number. A patrol car asking us to come get Bella. The kind of call that, as awful as it is, means someone saw what they needed to see.”

Mia turned toward the window, restless.

“It didn’t ring,” she murmured.

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“It didn’t ring,” I confirmed.

I noticed the detail no one mentioned. Matthew’s gaze wasn’t quite there. He was following the conversation, but half a second behind, like he was still in a different room trying to calculate his next move.

“Are you okay?” I asked quietly.

Matthew gave a minimal nod, and that minimal nod irritated me. Because I knew that kind of ‘I’m okay’. The kind that just kept everyone else functioning.

Dante, maybe for the first time, didn’t crack a joke.

“Start from the beginning,” he said, less insolent. “Where did it fall apart?”

Matthew inhaled, like he was deciding which part of the night he needed to start with.

“I’d say it didn’t even come close to going as planned,” he said. “It ended with me running through her house with a gun pointed at my head.”

The world went quiet for half a second.

“What?” I blurted.

j

Mia let out a small, wildly inappropriate laugh. We all looked at her.

She raised her hands in surrender.

“Sorry,” she said, the corner of her mouth still twitching. “I’m just picturing you running to the car in your underwear.”

Matthew blinked slowly.

“I was not in my underwear.”

Dante’s smile came instantly, interest piqued.

“So you didn’t have any fun,” he concluded with unbearable ease.

“Dante,” Mia scolded, without much energy.

Matthew dragged a hand over his face.

“To be honest…” he started, his tone carrying the smallest, most exhausted trace of humor, “I think that’s when she figured me

out.”

My stomach tightened.

My first instinct was to ask. Did she touch you? Did she hurt you? Did she do anything?

But I didn’t. Because I knew where those kinds of questions led. To guilt. And I already had enough of that.

“Sorry,” he murmured to me.

“It’s okay,” I said, controlling my voice like this was a board meeting. “You tried. And I’ll be grateful for that forever.”

Matthew lowered his gaze for a second.

It was brief, but I saw it.

Like a simple sentence had brushed against something old.

He blinked and when he looked back up, he was in practical mode again.

But not entirely.

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“Except…” he said, his voice dropping, “I don’t think the plan was a total loss.”

Dante straightened in his chair. Mia uncrossed her arms. My spine went rigid.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Matthew rested his hands on the arms of the chair and looked at the three of us like he was measuring how much trust he needed to ask for.

“I think we can still catch her,” he said.

I held back the urge to breathe in relief too soon.

“Catch her how?” Mia asked.

Matthew looked at me before continuing.

“It might be… a little more complicated,” he said slowly. “But it might work…”

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Chapter 775

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