(Joshua's POV - Fri. 16 May 2015)

Just before Tony parks in front of the building where I have my first meeting this morning, I send a quick text to Liam with the name and address of the restaurant where I am going to have lunch today and add a few words to beg him to join us there. I also send a note to Allan to tell him that I would appreciate if he could kick Liam out of his office at noon so that he can meet me for lunch. The restaurant is only a block east to the Pierce building, which won't make him waste too much time, and for once we could have lunch together. Tony opens my door and I slip out of the car, not really eager for my first appointment as it will be plainly about figures and more figures.

"You can go back to the office, Tony, and meet me here at noon," I tell him as he closes the door and locks the car.

"I'm going with you. I have my laptop and can work from the waiting room," he replies.

"That's stupid. You won't be comfortable there and I'll be in their meeting room for the next three hours. Nothing can happen here," I argue.

"I'm not leaving you, Joshua. Point blank. Not with this shit going on at the moment."

"Don't be silly. There are no threats against me directly..." I chuckle.

"Not yet, indeed, but I'm still following you, whether you want it or not..." he insists. "Joshua, we already had that conversation. I know that Jones is not stupid enough to go after you, but I have a bad feeling about all this mess. Just let me do my job, that's all I'm asking," he concludes, nodding toward the entrance of the building.

Trying to change Tony's ideas is like trying to bend a thick cast-iron bar with your own two hands. It is next to impossible, so with a sigh, I turn around and walk into the building, followed by my stubborn security manager. Of course that old oaf of Derek wouldn't dare attacking me, so Tony's paranoia sounds stupid but what can I do about it? Not much I guess, so I just let him do as he pleases and deal with having him as my shadow. I announce myself at the reception and I am instructed to directly go upstairs to meet the two men who are in charge of my stock and share portfolio. As planned, Tony stays in the waiting area by the meeting room although he has been offered to use a spare office and I spend the next three hours with the two gentlemen who advise me as best as they can on my investments.

It turns out that the business is doing pretty well and that some of the companies I bought more than a year ago have expanded greatly. They advise me on what I should do with them, propose me new opportunities, some that are attractive enough and others not, and in the end, they let me decide and make my own choices according to what sounds best to me. I decide to sell one of the companies in good health and buy two others that may flourish over the next two years. If I am lucky enough, these two should release quite a few millions that I will be able to invest into Pierce Construction by then.

The new division is working well and the company doesn't need many more investments. However, my ultimate goal is to develop a Pierce Renovation subsidiary in a few years. I will soon convince Liam to go back to school and clever as he is, he should be done with studying within three or four years which is exactly what these two companies should need to expand and yield more millions. By that time, I will have proposed to Liam and even married him; the subsidiary might even take the name of Liam Pierce Renovations if he likes the idea. That thought makes me chuckle when I think that less than a month ago, the mere concept of love would have scared me shitless. Things have changed so much within only a couple of weeks!

It took me a separation to understand that I was still capable of loving someone; well, not just someone; Liam. The little creep has me head over feet now and he doesn't even realize how much true that is. If it were only me, I would have already offered him an engagement ring; I would have him moving in with me right away; but I don't want to put the cart before the horse. I don't want to scare him with the huge feelings I have for him. I just can't see my life without him anymore and I would never ever be able to deal with his absence again. All in all, I am glad that Shannon won't return until end of June or early July; this means that I will have Liam to myself until then and that he will spend all his time at my place. Yes, that's kind of selfish but I just hope that by then, I will be able to convince Liam to move in with me. If our relationship is to become more than serious, it would only be logical, right?

Slightly after noon, Tony and I settle down at a little round table at the restaurant where Ally made a reservation for us. For some reason, I had imagined Liam would already be there waiting for us, but he is not and I can't help a little pang in my heart. Tony suggests that we wait for him a little while longer before we order and in the meantime, we get some starters and soft drinks, increasing the slight pain in my chest. I am very tempted to call Allan and ask him again to free Liam but that would become really unprofessional. Allan already replied to my text earlier this morning saying he would try his best despite their heavy load of work, but I guess he didn't manage to convince Liam to take a longer break; or maybe they simply had too much work and it only shows his high professionalism, so I don't insist. I just send him a quick text saying that I miss him and can't wait to see him tonight.

I am sincerely proud of Liam's seriousness and dedication but I wish he had been able to join us for lunch. I can tell that Tony is a bit upset too but when half past noon strikes, we decide to order our food. If Liam shows up, we can still place his order, as long as he doesn't last too long since we need to be at my next appointment at 1:30. Over our lunch, Tony and I mostly talk about the ongoing audit. His team has been able to refocus their own investigation thanks to the first audit results. Tony was in contact with them this morning and he informs me that several persons might be involved indeed, including Dominic and maybe some field guys. Now that they know what they should look for, they are enlarging their search in various directions, targeting emails and phone calls, and I am a bit afraid of what they may find. Finding out that one member of the leadership team is involved is already annoying, but more people from the company is even worse. However, Tony is rather confident that the investigation will run quickly now.

At 1:15 we have finished our lunch and all my hopes to see Liam blow away. Once in the car and on our way to my next appointment - with a customer this time - I fish my phone from the inside pocket of my jacket and dial Liam's number. Unfortunately I reach his voice mail, so I try again but he still doesn't answer and I decide to send him a text instead.

1:20 pm - Joshua: "Hey Babe, we're leaving the restaurant now. I guess you have been too busy... As discussed, I might need to stay late in the office tonight. Let me know if you want me to have someone drive you back home as Tony will need to stay with me. Have a good afternoon. Love you. J."

I find it a bit weird that he still hasn't replied to my earlier text and I wonder if he is really drown into work or if I will have to remind him of the rules about communication and how he is supposed to answer my calls and reply to my texts. I might actually use this as an opportunity to get back seriously into our D/S relationship. I definitely need to reaffirm my authority on him and a brief spanking would certainly do him some good. Oh well, I will find out later on what good excuse he will provide me with for not replying to my messages and I will act accordingly.

Tony and I reach our next destination on time and once again, he follows me inside the beautiful building that Pierce Construction built two years ago. Today I am meeting the CEO. Mr. Atwood would like to move to the suburbs of the city before he retires and is counting on our luxurious mansions division to help him out. The old man only wanted to deal with me personally to discuss on the terms of our contract to build him a huge mansion a few miles South of Chicago. Of course, the rest of the work will be done by my architects and engineers, but this is our first meeting on the project and I can easily handle that part. The meeting goes very well and turns out to be much shorter than I would have thought. By half past two, we are back in the office and while Tony goes to his own floor, I head directly to the twenty-first, stopping by Ally's desk to first check up on anything new, but one question is hitching me.

"Have you seen Liam at lunch, Ally?" I finally ask after she has delivered me all the messages and missed phone calls.

"Nope... But you asked me to book a table for three for lunch... Wasn't he with you?" she asks, obviously disconcerted by my question.

"He didn't show up, but he wasn't sure to join us anyway. He said he had a lot of work and wanted to stay in the office for lunch. I was just wondering if he went to the canteen or not," I explain.

"No, he didn't. I guess he went early to pick up his lunch box and ate at his desk..." she offers as an explanation.

"That's fine, no problem."

With that I walk to my office and shut my door before I go to my desk, shrug out of my jacket and slump on my armchair. I pull out my laptop from my case and while it logs in, I check out my phone to see if Liam answered. No news from Liam, but I have a missed call and a voice mail from Allan that he left only a few minutes ago, probably while I was in the elevator.

"Hey Josh... Hope you had a nice lunch and everything but..." I can hear the smirk in his tone and that makes me frown. "But in my turn, I would really appreciate if you could send back my assistant as soon as possible... I don't mind that he takes a longer break than usual as I told him, but I really need the presentation that he owes me before six tonight. I'm going into a meeting now, so can you remind him of the task I left him with, and... please stop keeping him to yourself and release him now! Thanks!"

As much as Allan ends up his message on a funny note and with a chuckle, the realization of what he means leaves me in a freezing coldness and with an unsettling feeling. He obviously believes that Liam did join me for lunch, but he didn't. So where has he gone? And where is he now since he is not back in the office? Did he decide to meet with someone else? No, he would have told me... I guess... I immediately try to call back both on Allan's mobile phone and office line but he doesn't answer, which only sounds logical if he has gone into a meeting. I also try Liam's phone but it also goes to voice mail. The unsettling feeling worsens and I just can't wait here. Answers won't get to me on their own, so I grab my phone and hurry out of my office.

"Ally, please cancel my next conference call," I just say as I get to my private elevator. The doors immediately open and I rush in, slamming the button for the fifteenth floor.

"Something wrong, Joshua...?" Ally asks but the doors already shut and I don't have time to explain right now.

When I reach the fifteenth floor, I first go to Liam's office but of course he is not there. Edna is working in her own office, oblivious to what surrounds her as usual. I also check on the open space but Liam is nowhere to be seen. One of the young architects, dressed similarly to Liam, in jeans and a shirt, approaches me with a wary expression.

"May I help you, Mr. Pierce?" he asks shyly.

"Yes, where is Brightman?"

"Mr. Brightman's in a meeting in his office, Sir," he replies. Without further delay or caring whether it is an important meeting or not, I burst into my friend's office. He is actually with Connie, our HR leader.

"Sorry to disturb your meeting. Allan, I need to talk to you. Urgently," I simply state and this is enough for Connie to understand that we need some privacy. The middle-aged woman excuses herself and leaves, shutting the door behind her. "I just got your message. Liam wasn't with me at lunch, so what did you mean with send back your assistant?" I ask sternly. I first want a confirmation of what I thought I understood from Allan's message. Did he really think that Liam was with me?

"Didn't he have lunch with you?" Allan asks with a worried expression.

"No he didn't show up. Did you send him out?"

"I didn't have to. He told me he was meeting you outside for lunch and he asked me to keep it to myself because he wanted to surprise you with his presence..." My heart flutters at my boy's sweet intention but it doesn't explain why he didn't get there. He had the address and the restaurant is only two minutes away from here.

"Well he didn't make it there... Fuck! I should have sent Tony to pick him up..." I grunt, thinking about the worst possibilities. He could have been run over by a car. He could have had an accident. However, my mind seems to see even darker things as I remember Jeremy's situation and an inexplicable bad feeling takes over me.

"Josh, maybe he went shopping instead and didn't realize that time was flying by," Allan offers, not believing his own words. "You look worried... Do you think something happened?"

"I don't know, but I'm worried, yeah... I need to speak with Tony..." I say, already dialing his phone number as I turn around and walk out of Allan's office.

"Coming with you..." he just says, following me to the elevators.

"Tony, I need you to locate Liam on the video system. Please check every floor. Now," I instruct him firmly before I hang up. Explanations will come in a few minutes but I need him to just do that first. Liam has no real reasons to be on any other floor, but he might have stopped by IT or maybe HR and I want to make sure that he is not anywhere in the building. When we get to the security floor, I find Tony in the surveillance room with one of his guys who is typing on a computer while they are looking at all the screens in front of them. They barely register our presence and continue to verify all the floors of the building but they only show corridors or open spaces with plenty of people working and Liam remains unseen.

"I can't see him anywhere, Joshua," Tony says after a few more minutes. "What's going on?" he asks as the three of us back off to his office and shut the door.

"Liam told Allan he was going to join us for lunch but as you know, he never showed up," I explain.

"When did he say that?" Tony asks.

"It must have been... around 11:45... and he left soon after. I saw him taking the lift," Allan states firmly.

"Let's go back to the surveillance room," Tony suggests, obviously knowing what he wants to do. "Jeff, get me the recordings from this morning please and show me the entrance hall. Select the one that has the best angle to show the elevators area."

"Sure... what time do you need?" Jeff asks, already typing on the keyboard.

"Around 11:45... I want to see if he really left the building," Tony then explains to us. A few seconds later, images of the hall display on the largest screen, together with the time in the upper right corner. The seconds move on, speeded up, but nothing happens at first. "Get to normal speed now..." Tony orders when some people start to show on the screen. A few seconds later, the doors slide open and we see Dominic barging out of the cabin and heading toward the exit, soon followed by... my sweet boy who pauses outside the lift for a minute. His head suddenly flicks to his left and he seems to be staring at a man that I vaguely know, probably an employee, but what strikes me even if the image is not very precise is Liam's expression. His eyes squint as he seems to think about some kind of dilemma before he determinedly walks toward the exit of the building too.

"What the hell was that about?" Allan whispers.

"I don't know..." I breathe out because I am at a total loss about what we just saw. Jeff rewinds and we watch the same images again.

"Do you think he followed this guy?" Tony asks.

"Why would he do that?" I exclaim, trying to sort out my confused thoughts. Tony grunts and asks Jeff to give him his seat. He opens a file full of names and numbers, then logs into some system. I can tell that he is worried now and I don't fully understand why he sounds so alarming. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to locate Liam's Iphone... I'm an idiot! I should have started with that..." he explains and I realize that he is right. I should have thought about it earlier... A map suddenly displays on the screen of the computer and we all bend forward to have a better look at the flashing circle. "He is on... West Court Place... near Washington Boulevard... or at least his phone is there... that's a little alley..."

"What the fuck would he be doing there?" I wonder aloud, knowing full well that Liam has nothing to do in this area. If he had wanted to do some shopping, he would have gone eastward, not westward.

"Honestly, I doubt that Liam is there; there's nothing in this alley... Maybe someone stole his phone..." Tony suggests.

"Tony, I'm going there," Jeff speaks out. "I'll see if I can find the phone. Call me if you see it moving again."

"I'm going with you..." I start to say but Tony interrupts me.

"No, you're staying here, Joshua. Liam might just have lost his phone and someone picked it up... He may be on his way back..." Tony explains, but he obviously doesn't believe his own words eiter. "Let's have a look again at the video recordings while Jeff goes there."

I sincerely don't believe that Liam is on his way back but I do believe that Jeff will only find his phone there and I think that I'll be more helpful here than with Jeff. In the meantime, we view more recordings of the same scene from different angles but it doesn't provide more explanations on what got into him when he walked out of the building. About fifteen minutes later, Jeff calls to say that he did find Liam's Iphone, under a big trash can, but he confirms that Liam is not there. Tony sends him a picture of Liam that he found in his employee's profile and asks him to check in restaurants or shops if people have seen him. This is when my phone decides to ring, the screen displaying Private. I usually never answer those hidden numbers and let them reach my voice mail, but in the current situation, I can't afford to miss anyone who would reach my mobile number, so with a knot in my stomach, I pick up the call.

"Pierce," I simply state dryly.

"Fuck, you could sound a bit more agreeable when you take a call... What if I were one of your wealthy customers?" I almost exhale a sigh of relief at the sound of Aaron's voice. I was already imagining worst scenarios of kidnapping and ransom.

"Why the fuck does your phone says Private?" I almost shout at him though.

"I made it private because otherwise, you just don't answer my calls..." he explains sarcastically. "I've been trying to call you several times already!"

"Been busy and sorry, the moment's not really appropriate for jokes, Aaron..."

"What's wrong, Josh? You sound... nervous..." Aaron then says, much more seriously.

"We have a problem here... Liam has disappeared..." I breathe out, trying to control the panic in my voice and closing my eyes, but only disastrous and horrifying images form in the darkness of my mind. An horrible and suffocating feeling seizes me at the thought of losing the love of my life. Not now. Not when he has only just unveiled the lover in me. Not now. Not ever.

Published on 6 Dec 2016

Sorry for the frustration... Don't worry, the situation won't last for too long. Next update will come in 48 hours hopefully. That depends on if I can make my mind about the next chapter quickly or not. I just reread it and I am having serious second thoughts on some parts; kind of regretting how the plot turned out... and at the same time, I'm not sure I want to change anything. I'll think about it.

Thank you very much for answering the question I had in last chapter! I still have a bit of time to decide before I end Twisted Moon anyway but it was nice to read your thoughts on what you would like to see first after the next story. It would be more logical to have Aaron last since his story will be a conclusion to the series, but we'll see.