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“Please no,” I scream, shoving his hand away, clawing at him. My nails connect with flesh, scratching and he yelps in pain, fighting with me until he’s on top of me, pinning my wrists down with his knees. He uncaps the needle and jabs it into my neck. There’s a pinch and then a burn. He sits on me, waitin’ for the drugs to take over. The whole room starts to go fuzzy, my skin itchy. I barely notice when Kolby finally climbs off me. The room’s so warm, my body floating in and out of consciousness. My last thoughts are of Everly, Dean, and how much I love them both.
Dean
12 hours ago
“Open the goddamn door, Whit!” Pounding on the door again, I drop my forehead against it and kick the frame with my boot. I’ve been knocking for five minutes, why isn’t she answering?
“Excuse me,” comes a voice to my right and I glance over. It’s one of her neighbors, little old lady, probably in her eighties. “You’re wasting your time, sonny. She didn’t come home last night. I s’pose she’s probably with that boyfriend of hers.”
“You’re sure she never came home?” I ask, pulling my wallet from my pocket.
“I’m sure. I hear everything that goes on ‘round here. Walls are so thin. Don’t help that I’m nosy, too. But she never came home.” She goes on, and I pull a business card out of my wallet with my phone number on it, handing it to her.
“She comes home, you call me right away.” She nods her head and shuffles back into her apartment.
Back in my truck, I dial the police department and the call rings over my Bluetooth. The secretary doesn’t even have time to say her spiel before I cut her off.
“Jensen, now,” I bite out, tearing out of the parking lot of the apartment building.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. He’s not on shift today. Would you like to talk to another officer?” She asks, her voice annoyingly sweet.
“I don’t give a shit if he’s not on shift today, put me through to his cell.”
“Uh, I’m sorry, sir. I can’t do that.” I’ve had about enough of this shit.
“Listen, this is Dean Anderson. My girlfriend, Whitley, she’s missing. I can’t find her, no one has seen or heard from her since last night. I need to talk to Officer Jensen and I need to talk to him NOW!” The phone cuts off before it starts ringing again, Jensen eventually answering.
“This better be good, Chantelle,” his voice comes across the line.
“Not Chantelle, it’s Dean. I need you,” I grit out, careening into Ford’s driveway and putting the truck in park. “Long story short, Whit and I had a massive fight last night and she left on foot. I can’t find her, no one’s seen her,” my voice cracks, emotion clogging my throat. If anything happens to her, I’ll never be able to forgive myself. I can hear rustling on the other end of the line and a car door slam.
“Shit, okay. Where did you last see her?” His car starts up and I can hear him peel out of the driveway.
“My house, she got mad and stormed off, said not to follow her and that she was walkin’ home,” I go on, explain the situation and letting him know I’m at Fords and he hangs up, letting me know he’ll be there in a minute. Bounding up the porch steps, I wrap my knuckles on the door. Lex answers, surprise written all over her face.
“Dean, hey. Come in,” she says, and I stride past her, scrubbing my hand over my face.
“Ford said you talked to Whit last night, right?”
“Yeah, around midnight. She said y’all had an argument and she left on foot. Why, what’s up?”
“No one has heard from her since, Lex,” my stomach churns, none of this making sense. She wouldn’t just get upset and disappear, there’s no way. The bar means too much to her. I mean too much to her. Lex’s jaw drops.
/> “Oh my god! What can I do to help?” She slides her feet into her shoes, going on, “what did Kolby say?” I grab her wrist and stop her from running out the front door.
“What do you mean, what did Kolby say?” I ask, my voice low.
“He’s the one that picked her up, Dean.” Every muscle in my body tenses.
“What? When did he pick her up?”
“Last night, right after she called me. I was going to go get her, but she said not to worry about it, that Kolby was there, and she’d have him drive her home.” A knock on the door has us both jumping, I prowl towards it and find Jensen on the other side. His eyes flick between the two of us, his face just as distraught as mine.
“Call the station. Now. Tell them to run everything they have on a Kolby Stenson.” I order him and his face lights up with surprise.
“Yeah of course,” he dials up the station while I call Avery. She’s got a spare set of keys to the bar and I let her know to pull the file we have on Kolby and send me his address. Dropping down on their couch, I drop my head into my hands, elbows propped up on my knees. Kolby picked her up. Why wouldn’t he take her home? Lex drops down next to me and wraps her arms around my shoulders, resting her head there. We sit like that for a long few minutes when the front door bursts open, Jensen followed by Ford's brother, Zander.
“I need you to take some deep breaths, Anderson,” Derrick starts, and I narrow my eyes at him, “right, didn’t think so. I had one of the guys at the precinct run that name. Nothing. Dude’s a ghost. My guess, it’s an alias.” Something close to a growl rattles in my chest.
