“What’s going on?” Kale asked, dancing with his date over to us.
“Where’s Lina?” I growled. My heart was starting to pound.
“She’s probably just in the bathroom,” Kale suggested, doing his own assessment of the room, looking toward the hallway marked Restrooms.
“Help me find her.”
Kale and Christian nodded, my own worry mirrored in their faces, before dismissing the girls as we picked our way through the crowd. I didn’t care one fucking bit when I swung open the door to the women’s restroom. Even when I got dirty looks and was told to “get the fuck out.”
“Lina? Are you in here?”
There was no fucking answer.
Panic gripped my throat.
“She didn’t leave with anyone?” I asked, running into Kale on the way out of the restroom.
“No. She’d tell us if she was leaving. We made her promise to let us know when you were coming to pick her up.”
I pushed out a breath, my hands resting on my hips, staring at my boots.
“She’s not here.” Christian confirmed our worries as he approached us in the hallway.
“Fuck.” She could be anywhere now.
I looked at my cell phone. Still nothing.
Christian and Kale pulled out their own phones, shooting texts to Lina before trying to call her. My heart pounded in my ears. I couldn’t just stand here hoping they’d get ahold of her. I had to fucking move. I had to fucking find her. She could be anywhere. Every precious second we waited could be putting her closer to danger.
Christian had my number from working on the ranch. “Call me if you find her,” I told him, moving around them and heading toward the door. “I’m going to go find her.”
I didn’t wait for their reply, bulldozing my way out of the bar into the cool night air, the music fading behind me. I searched the parking lot, which was more like an open field of trucks and trailers. People still mingled, coming and going from the bar. The electric guitar and drumbeats of the late-night concert on the grounds, followed by the crowd’s cheers, could be heard in the distance. Weaving between the cars, my head on a swivel, my eyes narrowed in on every little flash of brown hair and tanned skin in my periphery. Where the fuck was she?
I turned down another parking lane, heading back in the direction of camp. A man in a plaid shirt and jeans with an unkempt beard walked ahead of me, ducking between cars with his arm around someone. I picked up my pace, following him. Black boots stumbled and he stopped, hoisting her back up on her feet.
Long legs in black boots. I jogged over. My heart pounded.Lina.He pulled her toward him, his arm around her waist.
“Get the fuck away from her!” I yelled, coming up behind him, my fists balling at my sides.
His head whipped toward me. Seeing me coming, he spun on his heels, planting his feet firmly to face me.
“Mind your own fucking business.” He pushed Lina behind him, as if he needed to protect her from me.
I was closing in on them, my long strides taking me to her.
“Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Her!” I gritted each word out from between my teeth. My knuckles popped and cracked, I was clenching them so hard. Fear and murderous rage boiled up in my throat. I instinctively reached for the gun at my waist, but I’d left it in my bag.
“We’re just going back to my trailer. Huh, baby?” He threw over his shoulder where I saw Lina’s head loll slightly, but she didn’t say a fucking word. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong about the way she was sluggish and not speaking. There was no way she would go silently with this guy.
I took my final steps to close the distance, my fingers flexing, readying to strike. My momentum carried me as I cocked my arm back and sent my fist right into his face. His nose crunched under my knuckles. He cried out, his hands going to his face. I didn’t wait to see if he’d respond with his own hit. I wasn’t about to let this guy leave.
“What the fuck—” He barely got the words out before I went in for an uppercut beneath his chin. He bumped into Lina as she sagged behind him and then stumbled back against a nearby truck.
I glanced at her, her glazed eyes going slightly wide, but her face was so slack. Yep, something was definitely wrong with her.
“Did you drug her, you fucking creep?” Blood was dripping from his nose and down his chin.
I gripped him by the shirt collar, sending my left fist into the side of his head and throwing him to the ground. “I’ll ask you one more fucking time. Did you roofie her fucking drink?” I kicked him in his side as he crumpled up into the fetal position. He moaned and coughed.
