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I could feel my blood racing. Forget ‘bad part of town’, the warehouse district was best described as ‘seedy’. “Thank you, Stephanie. I’m going to let you go.”
“I’m so sorry. If I’d known you’d ditched her…”
She paused and I could practically picture her wanting to snatch her words back. “Perhaps you’d better let me listen to the actual message, Stephanie.”
“Um… I told you what it said…”
About to repeat my request, I heard another voice.
“Who are you talking to so late, Steph?”
The conversation became muffled, as if she’d put the phone against her body, but I could still make it out.
“It’s Hannah’s husband. I think she went to Rocky’s.”
“Didn’t she know you changed your plans?”
I heard her saying something about how she didn’t call Hannah because she wasn’t going to come, but she didn’t want me to hear her voice message as it might make me mad.
Mad? I was about to have a fucking heart attack. I wanted to reach through the phone and grab Stephanie’s and listen to the message instead of listening to her talk to who I now recognized as Gary. Instead, I was a nanosecond from hanging up when I heard Gary’s tone change to one that I recognized. One that brooked no nonsense.
“Give me the phone, Steph.”
“No! I mean, I promised Hannah to keep it a secret!”
“I don’t give a shit what you promised her. She’s missing, Stephanie. That trumps all secrets.”
A second later, I heard Gary, this time much clearer. “Brett, this is Gary. I’m going to replay the message.”
“Thanks,” I managed, and then listened as my wife left a message that had my jaw clenching. How could she have possibly thought I’d ditched her? And her statement about being ‘dressed to kill and ready to party’ had my blood boiling. The only man who had the right to see her dressed to kill was me… her husband. But her final statement about ‘buy me that drink or a dozen’ had my heart threatening to stop. Hannah was not a drinker. Well, she drank, but more than one margarita would put her under the table. That’s why she’d only had a single drink on our anniversary. Now she was talking about downing a dozen and she had driven there by herself? How the hell had she expected to drive home?
Once it ended, Gary’s voice returned. “I’m going to come pick you up.”
“No…”
“Hey, man, if it was Stephanie missing, I’d be nuts. You don’t need to kill yourself racing to Rocky’s and you might need backup. I’m only a couple of minutes away, and I’m already out the door.”
“Fine, but if you’re not here in two, I’m going.” He didn’t answer, evidently already having hung up. I yanked off my uniform, pulled on jeans and a t-shirt, and was waiting at the end of the driveway when his truck pulled up.
As he drove, I tried to call Rocky’s for the fifth time. “Shit!” I said when it rang and rang. “What sort of business doesn’t answer the fucking phone?”
Gary shot me a glance. “One who gets sick of wives looking for deadbeat husbands?”
“What do you know about this place?”
“It’s not as bad as some places I’ve been in, but it’s not the officer’s club either. I’d never allow Stephanie to go if I wasn’t going with her. Hell, Keith didn’t even want the girls to come but his sister wanted to support his band.”
I knew Dawson was a lieutenant, but he wasn’t under my command. Still, I knew him and knew his mind wasn’t on his band… not after the news we’d gotten tonight. I also knew that Gary couldn’t have gotten home long before I had.
“I’m sorry about your men,” I said.
“Yeah, me too.”
We’d both been at the emergency meeting and didn’t need to say more. Unfortunately, we had both lost friends in the war, but it never got easier. All we could do was honor those who sacrificed their lives for their country and be thankful for the ones who came home.
Pulling into the lot had me a bit stunned. “Is it always this crowded?”
Gary shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe they all came to listen to Dawson’s band and didn’t know he’s not playing, or maybe it’s because it’s pay day, or ladies’ night.”
