“Linc’s with me. He tried calling her, but she didn’t answer. He’s calling Sinner right now so he can check to see if she’s home.” He paused, and I heard Linc talking in the background, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. “Shit, Sinner’s not home, but he said she brought him some food over around eight. He left right after that to go check on his other rental houses and hasn’t been home since.”
For a second, I couldn’t even think clearly. “OK, drive to her house. Hopefully she hasn’t left to meet her friend yet.”
Cowboy had come back in while I was on the phone, so he heard most of the conversation. He took one look at my face and told me to calm down.
“She’s probably just in the shower or somethin’, and that’s why she’s not answerin’ her phone. We don’t even know for sure if Pic’s in town, man, so just take it easy. Irish and I got in touch with all the brothers, so everyone’s on alert. He just rode out with Hawk, Skid, Tony, and Rod to start searchin’. They’re gonna start with the strip club and the tattoo shop, and then the house he and Lola lived in.”
“You should probably get Michelle, Hailey, and Nathan to stay here for a few days, too.”
“You wanna call for a full lockdown?”
I considered it for a minute, but that would disrupt a lot of lives, and most of our businesses.
“No,” I sighed. “but that may change if – “
I was interrupted as Lola called back.
“King, it’s Lola. Pic just called me again, and God, he was completely unhinged. He said he was at our house, but it was empty. I told him I’d sold it, and he started screaming that he loved me, and he loved Cyn, and that you took us away from him. A few seconds later, it was like he’d flipped a switch, and he got really calm, like he wasn’t upset at all anymore.” She sounded scared, and her voice shook a little when she continued. “It was eerie, King. He said ‘The only thing he’s worried about is pissing her off for missing dinner, but he should be worried about me, because I’m going to take Ella from him. I’ll show him how bad it feels to lose the woman he loves’and then he hung up.”
I was too fucking stunned to say a word. Cowboy thanked her and reminded her to let us know if she heard anything else.
Bull was already on his phone, instructing whoever was on the other end to get to Pic’s old house immediately, and to search the area for any signs of him.
“He’s here, and he’s after Ella. He knows about her, Cowboy. He fuckin’ knows how I feel about her. Star must have told him…” I trailed off, as I remembered what Bull had found.
Bull pocketed his phone as he and Cowboy waited for me to finish..
“The fuckin’ bug in the kitchen! He had to have been listening to me and Trick last night, because I told him that Ella was going to be pissed because I was late for dinner.”
“Do you want me to get rid of it?”
“No,” I answered Bull. “I think you were right, and it might spook him. Besides, we might be able to use it against him. Feed him false information, so maybe he’ll slip up.”
My goddamned phone rang again, and I answered it without even looking to see who it was.
“She’s not home, Prez. Her car’s not here, either. I looked in the windows, and nothing looks out of place that I can see. No sign of a struggle or anything.”
“Check with the neighbors. I’ll keep trying to reach her. Hopefully she’s already gone to her friend’s house.”
I tried to call Ella again, but got voice mail, again. I left a message, and then sent a text, asking her to call me.
“Bull, I can’t remember Camille’s last name, but she lives somewhere over by the mall. I want you to find –“
“There’s a Camille Donahue tagged in several of Ella’s social media posts, Prez,” Bull said as he glanced up from his laptop.
“Yes, Donahue, that’s it. Get me an address.” His brow furrowed in concentration as his fingers flew across the keyboard.
I didn’t know how long it would take him to find it, and we would lose precious moments getting someone over there once we did.
I looked at Cowboy and told him to follow me.
“Where the hell are we goin’?”
“We’re going to try to throw Pic off of Ella’s trail, make him think I don’t care about her, so he’ll stop looking for her.”
“He’s not gonna fall for that, man, not if he’s heard –“
“I just want to buy us some time, dammit, so we can find her before he does. If he’s not sure she’s important to me, he might hold off on doing anything just yet.”
“So what’s your plan?”
“I’m just going to have to wing it,” I told him as rounded the corner into the common room. Since all the available clubmembers were out looking for Pic, I wasn’t surprised to see only DD and Diamond in there, watching TV.
“Just go along with whatever the hell I say,” I hissed quietly, so the women didn’t hear me.
As we walked into the kitchen, I was ready to put on the performance of my life.
