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He chuckled, but it sounded odd, like it was off. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare,” he repeated, mocking me. He made a sucking noise on the candy. “You know, it feels like yesterday when I saw him watching you the first time.” My stomach dropped. “It was like opening up that first Christmas present under the tree. The giddiness screaming inside me. It was fate, you know. Vic coming back from the military that week, and me being here in town. I followed him to your house and oh, it was too good to be true. The stone-cold killer had a weakness, and like a neatly tied bow on top, you were Ethan North’s little sister. Finally. I mean, it couldn’t have been any better than that.
“He must have watched you for three hours with your mom in the garden.” My stomach twisted as I thought about this monster watching me. “I have to say, it was rather boring, until the cake. Ohhh, the cake in the shape of a guitar.” He shook his head back and forth. “I wish my mother had done that for me. But alas, she couldn’t very well do it after I slit her throat.” Oh my God, he was a lunatic. “I counted fifteen candles.”
Vomit lurched in my throat as debilitating fear raked its poisonous claws across my insides, leaving me raw and bleeding.
“Who are you? What do you want from me?”
He hit the heel of his palm to his forehead. “God, so rude of me. I guess we have no need of this anymore.” He dipped his head and slowly pulled the balaclava up from over his face. “It was more for my brother’s benefit with all his security cameras. I wouldn’t want him knowing I was in town—not yet.”
My heart stopped. Brother. Security. The stables. The fight cage. Oh my God, he was Callum’s brother.
Vic
My tires spit gravel as I skidded into Zero Crow’s parking lot. I had my cell to my ear and was talking to Jaeg as I jammed the gear into Park.
I jumped out of the truck. “I’m at the bar. Ethan’s not answering, but he’s in the city for a game. Call Callum and tell him to pick him up in his chopper and get here.”
This was on me. This was my shit. Someone I’d pissed off had found me. Maybe it happened when I’d come back, and I’d been in a hurry to get to her. I’d been fuckin’ careless.
But I was checking every single fuckin’ angle. This could be a crazed fan of Ethan’s. A fuckin’ feuding crime lord of Callum’s. Or some guy Saint had taken down in the past.
I strode into the bar and stopped, my eyes adjusting to the dim light as I scanned the tables and booths. Brin saw me and was already out from behind the bar and running toward me.
“What happened? Did you find her?” Brin asked.
I flexed my jaw and shook my head. “No. Did she come in here at all for her shift?”
Brin shook her head, a twisted strand falling over her shoulder. “Not that I saw. And her apron is still under the bar.”
“Anyone hanging around the bar today you didn’t recognize?” I asked, my gaze skipping from table to table and assessing.
“No. The usuals. A few tourists came in. Skiers. About ten minutes ago.” She turned, looking at the booth in the corner where two couples sat with their snow pants on and winter jackets crumpled up behind them.
“Maybe her brother came by and picked her up?” Brin said, her face hopeful.
“He’s in the city. Where are the security cameras?”
She nodded across the bar. “Darius. He’s the only one with access besides Callum and Freddy.”
I was about to head over to Darius when he gestured with his chin toward the bar. I weaved through the tables and met him there.
Darius flipped up the flap and we walked into the back area of the bar. He took out a key and unlocked the iron gates I’d had Macayla pressed against.
Jesus. Where the hell was she?
If someone took her, they did it in broad daylight. At a crime lord’s fuckin’ bar. They either didn’t know, were stupid, or they didn’t care. The didn’t-care option worried me the most.
I followed Darius down the stone steps into a large room. There were old wine barrels piled on top of one another along all four walls, and a long rectangular table in the center of the room with a chandelier hung above it, its lights dappling the surface.
“This way,” he said, taking me down a long tunnel. He stopped in front of a massive oak door with a pass key. He slid it through the device, and the door clicked open.
I raised my brows as I stared into what looked like an office. “Callum has an office here?”
Darius didn’t say anything. He walked across the Persian carpet to the far right side where there was a mahogany floor-to-ceiling cabinet. He opened the two doors, revealing numerous TV screens.
I walked over. “She left the cabin at quarter to twelve and would’ve pulled in five, six minutes after.”
Darius rewound the tape from the camera outside the front doors. “There,” I said when I saw her car pull in. My heart thudded, and I curled my hands into fists as I watched her sitting in her car for a second. Her head down. Then she opened her door and climbed out.
