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“Hey, I just spoke to Red and the guys,” I murmur, raising my phone and awkwardly wiggling it in the air. Roark stares at me, nodding, waiting for me to continue.
“Who’s Red?” Layla asks, glancing between the two of us.
“Tori McAllister, a friend of mine. She sang in my band years ago, before I was picked up by the label. I worked in her boyfriend's club. We’ve been friends for ages, and I called her to help us find Lennon. She has multiple partners, in a relationship like Roark and I are with Lennon. Red kept her last name so they wouldn’t argue over it,” I remember with a small chuckle. “One of them, Greg, is coming to help us.”
Layla nods, brows furrowing. “I can tell there’s more to that, but my brain hurts. Too much shit has happened tonight, and my uncle called my dad and told him his daughter is missing. However, he didn’t specify which one,” she says with a wince.
“Oh, that’s fantastic. Jordan, why did you choose today to be an asshole?” I mutter under my breath.
“I chose violence today,” he says from behind me and I glance over my shoulder to look at him.
Jordan’s eyes are bloodshot and he looks… guilty. I’ve heard some of what happened when Lennon found out James was her father before she escaped for air, and I don’t entirely blame her. Who wouldn’t need space after a bomb like that?But why didn’t Derek protect her if he was with her? If he wasn’t in on it, why hasn’t he called us yet?
“I see,” I say drolly. “What’s the plan, then? We can’t continue the tour without Lennon.”
I wait to see what he says. Does he actually care about her at all? Or just the bottom line?
“I contacted one of the executives at Music Hoarde, and explained that Lennon is currently a missing person. They are going to reschedule her next two weeks of performances, stating that she is unable to perform at this time,” he explains. “We’ll spin it later, or tell the truth, whatever that truth looks like. I just want to fucking find her.”
Jordan’s face fills with fury and I grunt in approval. “I have a trustworthy friend who is headed to see me,” I explain. “He’s going to help us find Lennon. Greg has connections with the government and military that others don’t.”
I speak quietly, because we are in front of the police station. Jordan blinks as he realizes how inappropriate this conversation is to be having here, and nods.
“None of us are persons of interest at this time, so I’m going to let the detective I initially spoke to know we are headed to a hotel for the night. I’ll also tell my bastard of a brother to go back home. It was a mistake to tell him anything. If he wanted to be involved, he shouldn’t have disappeared on her in the first place,” Jordan mutters as he walks past me.
He stops abruptly and turns. “Guys, for what it’s worth, I shouldn’t have handled this the way I did. I should have told her somewhere she felt comfortable and safe, around you all. And I owe Derek an apology, wherever the hell he is. I’ve tried calling him, and I couldn’t get a hold of him at all. It keeps going to voicemail.”
“Should we report him missing, too?” Layla asks, absently tugging at a piece of her hair.
I gently pull it from her fingers before she ends up pulling it out of her head, squeezing her hand gently. I don’t think she realized she was tugging as hard as she was. “Let’s give it a little more time, Layla, and then see, okay?”
Roark growls, shaking his head. “I swear if he was a fuckwit again…”
“I’ll hand you Sally,” Layla says boldly, standing tall.
I smirk and nod. “I’ll hold him down for you if ya want, Lay,” I tell her.
Jordan watches us in faint amusement. “Let’s plot our beatings somewhere else, children,” he tells us and Roark and I snort.
I really need some answers soon, before I lose my damn mind.
* * *
Sleep is not happeningtonight for me. Layla is curled up in an armchair in our suite sleeping fitfully, and Roark is searching social media for any mention of Lennon tonight. The label hasn’t announced that we will be rescheduling our dates yet since it’s so early in the morning, and we all decided to deal with any backlash we receive later.
Darkest Nights doesn’t exist without Lennon. A knock on the door has me walking over to see who is outside. Mav and Atlas wait with food and my stomach growls. Everything stopped when Lennon disappeared, but they went to hunt down some Chinese takeout. I can appreciate the need todosomething, and we still need to keep our strength up to find her.
“Hey guys,” I murmur as I open the door. Jordan reserved several suites for us, but since none of us can sleep, we’re all hanging out in the same room. We don’t want to be separated right now.
“Hey, did Layla fall asleep? She looked like she was about to crash when we went out earlier,” Mav says, his eyes scanning the room as he walks in.
I hide my slowly curving lips from him as I close the door behind them. Layla is gorgeous, and deserves to be worshiped and taken care of, instead of stifled and hidden from supposed danger. The world, I will admit is dangerous–just look at the position we’re currently in. However, Layla’s bandmates won’t let herdoanything, and it frustrated Lavender when she saw it.
Rubbing my chest because it feels like it’s going to burst, I force myself to go through the motions of grabbing food.
“Jordan, do you want to eat anything?” Atlas asks, only to be grunted at. “What are you doing on your computer that’s so important? Are you seriously working at three in the morning?”
“I’m hacking into the street cameras that are near the stadium,” Jordan says absently as he stares at the screen.
