Page 40 of Honest Neglect

I gritted my teeth. I didn’t like the thought of having to hold back when I knew Warren might have been in trouble, but he was right. I didn’t want to get myself into any trouble and split the attention of our allies as they tried to get us both back.

“I will,” I replied, and I hung up the phone. I kissed Silver on top of the head and then sent her up to Mom’s room to keep her company. I hoped my mom didn’t wake while I was leaving—I knew she would freak out if she came to and discovered both Warren and I missing.

If I was smart enough, I could have us both back here by the time she awoke. I just had to play my cards right and keep my head, even if all I wanted to do was scream right now, scream out Warren’s name until he came back to me again.

I climbed into the car and took off toward the dive bar Warren and Leroy had been at together. What had they even been doing at a bar? Celebrating? I wished I had gone with them, wished I had insisted on going with Warren. I should never have let him out of my sight.

Once I arrived at the bar, I glanced around, searching for the guard Leroy had said he was going to send down for me. I recognized him as soon as he hopped out of the car next to mine, a burly man who I had seen at Grace’s house. He nodded to me in greeting, and I got out of the car, my heart thumping. I didn’t even know what I was going to do. Warren wasn’t here, that much was clear, or else Leroy would have spotted him—but the question was, where had he gone?

Or where had he been taken?

I rushed into the bar, which was already full of people blowing off steam after a long week of work. I was so jealous of them—they weren’t scared for the life of the person they loved right now. The scent of alcohol made my stomach turn, but I ignored it and made my way to the bartender.

“I need to know if you’ve seen this man,” I demanded, and I pulled out my phone and showed her a picture of Warren that I had grabbed from his social media. She frowned at it for a moment, popping open a beer and handing it to another patron, and then she nodded at me.

“Yeah, I saw him in here earlier with an older guy,” she replied. “Why?”

“Did you see where he went?” I asked, swallowing back the tears that were threatening to escape me right now. I needed to keep as calm as possible. Thinking straight was the only way I was going to be able to get through this, and if I blew it, he might be gone before I could go after him.

She shook her head and raised her eyebrows, as though casting her mind back and trying to recall where or if she might have seen him.

“I saw him walk out a few hours ago,” she replied. “And then the guy he was with, I figured they just left together.”

“Do you know what exit he took?” I asked.

“There’s only one, right over there,” she replied, pointing to a door on the far side of the crowded room. I glanced over at it, and saw the blink of a camera lens above the door.

“You have CCTV?” I asked, and she shrugged.

“I guess so.”

“Anything that looks out on to the parking lot?” I pressed her.

“Let me get my manager,” she remarked, clearly deciding this was well and truly above her paygrade. She waved me through to the back office, and my legs trembled as I followed her. So Warren had made it out of here, but he had been gone by the time Leroy had followed him out, and he hadn’t come home. Something must have happened to him in that parking lot. I was sure of it.

The guard Leroy had sent out followed close behind me, and when the manager laid eyes on him, he took a step back.

“What is this about?” he demanded, his brow furrowing. I wondered if he had ever been hit up for protection money by the McCarthys or threatened by them in similar ways. It struck me as the kind of thing Mark would have done, twisting the innocent members of this community around his finger until they did exactly what he wanted them to.

“I need to see the CCTC in the parking lot from earlier tonight,” I told him. Maybe I could convince him I was a cop if I spoke with enough confidence. He shook his head and gestured to the ancient desktop computer planted on the slightly rickety desk in the middle of the room.

“All of our footage is on there,” he explained. “You’re welcome to scrub through it if you want. Doubt you’ll find anything interesting.”

He shot another look at the guard before he slipped past us and out into the bar, clearly needing a drink after this strange encounter. In small towns like this, people were less guarded when it came to what might otherwise have been private—they knew that there was no point trying to hide anything from anyone, because it wouldn’t take much for the truth to start to circulate. Gossip spread fast. If something had happened to Warren here, people would begin to talk about it, and this bar owner would look all the worse for not having done anything to stop it.

I sat down at the computer and started clicking around until I found the footage that had been taken earlier that night. I scrubbed through quickly, going as fast as I could, trying to spot the moment that Warren walked in...

And there he was. My heart leapt when he appeared on the screen before me, next to Leroy. He looked loose, relaxed, and I wondered if that was what had gotten him in trouble. Had he let his guard down, when he should have been keeping it up...?

I scrolled through another hour or two of footage, until I saw Warren exiting the bar once more—and in the far corner of the screen, I spotted a dark shadow. Peering at it, I realized it was moving. Oh, shit, someone was there—someone had been waiting for him...

And, as Warren made his way toward the car, the shadowed figure moved out of the darkness.

I saw who it was for the first time.

Mark.

Mark McCarthy. He was stalking toward Warren, and I could see something in his hand—it was hard to make out the detail of what it actually was, but as he came into the light, I could tell it was a gun.