“Have you seen Aliko?” I ask a few of the crew I pass on the sidewalk as I make my way back toward the arena. Aliko wasn’t in his hotel room, and he isn’t answering his phone. That’s not like him.
They shake their heads. “Maybe he went out to celebrate?”
“Yeah, maybe,” I mutter.
Though, I know he didn’t because we had plans to celebrate tonight. We were going to go out to eat, drink, then go back to the hotel and enjoy our last night doing that for a long time. Tomorrow, we head home and finally get to see the house we’ve been buying furniture for.
But I can’t find him. No one has seen him. It doesn’t make sense.
Last I saw, he was doing the meet and greet. I went to grab food with Cody while I waited for him to be done. When I went back, the place was empty. So was his dressing room. I asked the other guys if they saw him, and they said they hadn’t. Not since the meet and greet, when Aliko hung back to talk to one of the fans, but they haven’t seen him since.
My mind has been ridiculous enough to consider him being kidnapped, but by a fan? Aliko is huge. In order for someone to have taken him, they would have had to be even bigger and there is no way they would have gotten past security.
Should I check anyway? I’m running out of options, so I may as well. I’m starting to get worried that something happened to him.
I head back into the arena and go to the security office. A few of the guys are sitting and looking at cameras of the empty building.
“Hey, have you guys seen Aliko?” I ask, slightly out of breath.
“I haven’t,” one of them says, eyes on his cell.
“Nope.”
“Not recently,” another answers.
“But you did see him?” I ask. I glance at his name tag. It says Mikey. I think he helped me this morning when one of the storage rooms was locked and I needed to get in.
“Yeah, after the meet and greet he was talking to some guy. Said everything was fine. That he was family. They left together.”
“Family? They left together?” I repeat.
“Yeah, the guy seemed kinda pissed though.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I don’t know. Something in his eyes…”
“Something in his eyes?” one of the other guys says with a laugh. “You’ve been reading too many books.”
Mikey rolls his eyes and gives the guy a middle finger.
“Where did they go?” I ask Mikey.
“Uh, went toward the side doors, so probably that way.”
“Fuck,” I hiss, turning and hurrying that way. Of course they aren’t here, and there’s nothing to tell me he was here or where he went.
My head is spinning. I am so confused. Family? Aliko doesn’t have family here. He—no. This doesn’t make any damn sense.
I try his cell again. This time it goes straight to voicemail.
“Come on, Aliko. What is going on?”
I stare at my phone for a few seconds after the call disconnects, willing it to ring—waiting for Aliko’s name to pop up on the screen.
It doesn't.
The parking lot is mostly empty now. A few crew members load the last of the equipment into trucks while security locks up the side entrances. Everything is winding down.
