Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 721

Chapter 721

Gwen’s POV

The phone was still in Nick’s hand when he shot to his feet. The blanket fell to the floor and I nearly tripped over it, but he was already pulling me by the wrist, already opening the door, already moving.

I grabbed my bag. Instinct, not logic. In the hallway, I felt my heart beating somewhere it didn’t belong. Like it had dropped into my stomach.

“What happened?” I asked, already in the elevator, my voice breaking.

Nick shook his head.

“They didn’t give many details,” he replied, his tone that of a man trying to keep his voice steady so he wouldn’t fall apart. ” They just told me to come to the hospital and get Bella.”

The doors opened into the garage.

Cold air hit my face and I almost thanked it for existing, because at least it reminded me I still had control over my legs.

Nick unlocked the car, opened the door for me, and I got in with the clumsy urgency of someone who didn’t want to lose a

second.

He slid into the driver’s seat and shoved the key into the ignition.

The engine turned.

I watched the dashboard light up and, for a second, I saw the entire scene like I was outside my body. The night. The parking lot. Our car. Nick’s hardened face. My hands shaking in my lap.

Nick shifted into gear.

“Wait,” I said.

He froze instantly, foot on the brake, and looked at me.

“Gwen, we don’t have time.”

I swallowed.

“I know,” I replied. “But I need to tell you something.”

His gaze sharpened. The kind of focus that senses something important coming

“What?” he asked.

The word caught in my throat for a second.

“…” I started, and heard the sound of my own hesitation as weakness. I hated hesitating. “I had a plan.”

Nick went still.

“A plan for what?” he asked, his voice already edged with steel

I took a breath. Then another.

“To catch Renee outside of… legal channels,” I said.

The silence inside the car grew heavy.

Nick tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

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“What did you do?” he asked quietly.

I closed my eyes for a second, then opened them, meeting his gaze.

“I didn’t do it alone,” I said quickly, because I needed him to understand I hadn’t lost my mind. “I had Matthew, Mia, Dante… and a tech guy. We got her client records.”

Nick’s face changed.

“Client records?” he repeated, like the word was wrong.

I didn’t have time to soften it.

“Renee is working as an escort,” I said, the sentence landing like a cut. “And she keeps Bella locked in her room while she… sees clients.”

Nick turned to look at me like I had hit him.

“What?”

The sound came out rough.

He looked forward again, and for the first time I saw his hand trembling on the steering wheel.

“Gwen…” he said, and my name sounded like an accusation he didn’t want to make. “You should’ve told me. You should’ve…”

“I didn’t want to panic you,” I cut in, my voice steady in a place I didn’t feel. “I needed calm to act.”

He let out a short, humorless laugh.

“Calm?” he repeated. “You spared me from knowing my daughter was locked in her room while men walked into her house?”

I felt the guilt rise like acid.

“Nick, I…”

“And you’re telling me this now?” he went on, and I could see the desperation trying to break through his skin. “Now that I’m on my way to the hospital?”

I clenched my hands in my lap.

“Because now I can’t hold it in anymore,” I replied. “I didn’t know when it would happen. They said they’d investigate within twenty four to forty eight hours after the evidence was submitted. The call could’ve come at any time.”

Nick blinked hard, like he was trying to organize the information.

“You sent this to the police?” he asked.

“We did,” I confirmed. “It was the fastest route. No court order. No waiting months.”

He put the car in motion again, pulling out of the garage with restrained urgency.

“Gwen…” he murmured, and I heard the effort not to shout.

I kept going, because I needed to finish before he imagined something worse.

“They were supposed to investigate within forty eight hours,” I repeated “That was yesterday ”

The car stopped at a red light.

Nick turned to me, and the look in his eyes belonged to a man trying not to shatter

“What are you telling me?” he asked.

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I didn’t answer right away.

I couldn’t.

He continued, his voice lower. More dangerous.

“That Bella being in the hospital right now could be because of this? That one of those men could’ve done something to her? That Renee could’ve done something to her?”

I felt my stomach twist.

I felt my courage collapse in the same instant.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, and my voice came out small for the first time in a long time. “Nick… I didn’t want… I didn’t want to put Bella at risk.”

He stared at me for a long moment.

I saw his anger. I saw his fear. I saw his love. All at once, like he couldn’t separate them.

Then Nick released the brake and reached out, taking my hand.

His grip was firm.

“You didn’t,” he said, and the conviction in his voice made me shake. “Renee did.”

I held my breath.

He squeezed my hand again.

“And if anything happened to my daughter…” he said slowly, each word chosen with blood, “I swear she’s going to pay for it.”

I had seen Nick quiet. I had seen him sad. I had seen his anger contained.

But this was something else.

This was a man at the edge of what he considered human.

I swallowed hard and squeezed his hand back, like my touch could pull him somewhere less dangerous.

Nick didn’t speak again.

He drove.

Fast enough to gain time, but not fast enough to throw ine back into the trauma my body still carried. I could feel him holding himself back for me, and the awareness of it pressed harder than the fear.

The road felt too long for a distance I knew

Headlights passed Signs blurred by The silence inside our car was the kind that accumulates things.

I thought of Bella.

Of the way she’d looked at me in the barrel cellar, trying to be brave.

If something had happened….

No. I couldn’t go there.

Nick pulled into the hospital with a sharp maneuver and we got out at the same time.

I almost ran beside him, my body heavy, my breath short, one hand instinctively protecting my belly while the other clutched my coat.

We entered through the main hall and went straight to reception.

Nick braced his hands on the counter, his face inches from the receptionist.

“I’m here for Isabella Valemont,” he said without breathing. “I’m her father. What happened to my daughter?”

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