Page 87 of The Woman in the Woods

And he wasn’t in the apartment anyway.

Had they taken Millie and Storm tried to follow?

I hadn’t seen him on the street.

“Think,” I demanded, slamming my fist into my forehead, knowing I needed to focus, no matter how fucking panicked I was.

Taking a deep breath, I glanced around again.

And that’s when I noticed it.

The hook where we kept Storm’s leash and that ugly fucking fanny pack Millie insisted she needed to buy and then wear out in public.

It was empty.

No leash.

No bag.

Maybe Neeley and his men would take and look through the bag, toss it in the pile with the rest of the shit they’d thrown about.

But not the leash.

If the leash was missing, was it possible that Millie just… hadn’t been home? Had she been taking Storm for a walk? Completely unaware that anyone had even been at that apartment? That there was any threat?

I flew back downstairs, rushing out onto the sidewalk, head on a pivot, hoping to find her.

Because if Neeley struck out in the apartment, but found signs of her around, wouldn’t he have waited for her?

Or had he seen her?

Out on the street?

Went to try to snatch her that way?

I wouldn’t say it would be easy to kidnap a woman off of a busy street in the city. But it wouldn’t be impossible, either.

New Yorkers were accustomed to looking the other way, to minding their own business.

It wasn’t that I thought they’d see it and wouldn’t call for help, but that they might not even see it because they were so used to just… not seeing shit.

“What do you need?” Nero asked, reminding me a lot of his brother right then. That calm, controlled, ‘I got this’ attitude that was such a part of Miko.

“Go that way. Look for the redhead with the dog. If you find her, get in a cab with her and go to…” I started, racking my brain for somewhere to send them to that wouldn’t put women and children at risk. “To Nico’s place,” I decided, then ran off in the other direction, knowing it was the way Millie would choose to go for a walk, since there were stores to window shop at.

When I made it too far for her to have wandered, I made my way back.

It wasn’t until I was standing beside Neo’s car that it struck me.

Storm.

And my fucking tendency to think and plan several steps ahead.

His collar, it wasn’t just a normal collar.

There was a little rubber band attached to it.

And inside that rubber attachment?

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