“Who?” I asked moving closer to her. I reached for her hand, but she moved away from me. Yeah, my heart broke right then.
“I’m a whore. He took me because I am your whore and he wanted to hurt you.” Her eyes were still glazed over and I feared she might be on the verge of some sort of breakdown.
At hearing her words I felt the bile rise in my throat. I saw fucking red. I was going to kill whoever this fuck was. There was no doubt in my mind. If it was the last thing I did, I was going to make him suffer for what he did to her.
“Out,” Charming said in a tone that left no room for argument.
I looked down at Laurel and saw that I was doing more harm than good for her right now. So with my fists balled up tight and my body vibrating with a new kind of rage, I stormed out of the room.
I refused to go far, choosing to pace like a caged lion in front of the med room.
Cami came rushing past me and busted into the room. She had been so frantic she didn’t close the door back behind her. I watched from afar as she rushed to her sister’s side and wrapped her up in a hug. By the way Cami’s body was shaking, I could tell she was crying. But what got me was the look on Laurel’s face. Or the lack of, rather. She seemed blank.
Brand slipped in behind Cami but didn’t close the door either. I think he got it, that I wasn’t in there for a reason but I still needed to know what was going on.
“She’s probably in shock,” Iron said as he placed his hand on my shoulder. “Did she say anything?”
“This is all my fault,” I said with regret and hurt in my tone. It was, and I had felt that for a while. That said, it didn’t make things any easier.
“No-”
“Yes,” I barked lowly so she wouldn’t hear. “Don’t try to feed me some bullshit on how this isn’t my fault and there was nothing I could have done. She flat out said that she’d been taken because of me. Me! This guy… who the fuck knows, took her to hurt me. Fuck!”
“That’s what she said?” he asked in a dark and serious tone.
“Yeah.” I nodded and let out a sigh. “This is all on me.”
There was a long stretch of silence. I watched as Cami took a step back and let Charming look Laurel over. Cami held her sister’s hand but it didn’t seem to bring Laurel back at all.
“Vladik said he was at his…woman friend’shouse,” Iron said and I cut my eyes over at him with a brow raised. “His words. Anyway. I’ll spare you the unnecessary details, but he saw Laurel trying to escape from the window. He rushed out as quickly as he could and managed to get to Laurel as she fell out of the window. He got her to his car, where his…woman friend… was waiting to drive. He got a glimpse of the guy in the house but figured it was best to get Laurel away as fast as possible.”
“So you’re telling me that where she was held, there were people around? Other houses?” I asked in shock.
“Yeah. A neighborhood about fifteen minutes away. I sent a few prospects out there to watch the place until I can get some more people over there. I want to know a little more before we go rushing in there. I have a feeling whoever it is probably took off the moment she escaped. Blade left the shop and when he gets here, I’m sending him along with Mouse and Dade to check the place out. Maybe Tripp, too. I bet he’s long gone but the more hands we have there to check the place out, the quicker shit will get done.”
There was something there in the back of my mind trying to cut through all the chaos. Something that I had overheard at the gym one day. I remember the guys giving Vladik shit about some woman. A conversation that wasn’t meant for me but wasn’t something I necessarily shouldn’t have been hearing. I vaguely remembered Valdik saying something about the woman he’d been seeing complaining about the guy next door. Said she was telling him that the guy was weird or creeped her out or something.
Had it really been right under my nose all along?
How long had this guy been around? Been watching? Been planning this?
Maybe it was just a crazy coincidence.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t.
I couldn’t shake how everything circled back around. This had something to do with me or the club and Laurel had just gotten caught up in it.
“He said he’d never seen the guy before. Oh, and she was holding this when she escaped.”
Iron held up a cell phone. It wasn’t anything special but I knew it wasn’t hers.
“I’m thinking it might be the fucker’s phone. I’m gonna run this to Cable to see if he can get anything out of it. When I come back, I’m going to see if she feels like talking.”
I could tell he regretted that he had to question her. But I knew it was better to do it now than wait and have the details fade. We needed to know everything we could, as fast as possible.
I wasn’t happy about it. Laurel needed some time and some rest. Only I knew better than to stand in his way.
I nodded and he took off with long strides to Cable’s room.
