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I back away from the officers, who are deciding if they should do another sweep of the area just to be sure. I want to tell them yes, that she’s out there so I can tell her father that it is just an accident, that Nox is fine and on her way to the hospital.
But the feeling in my gut, her phone in the middle of nothing, the blood, the footsteps that disappear… This was foul play. With everything that has happened recently… The thugs that Trace stopped from fulfilling the hit… A fucking hit… on my girl. Jesus, what is happening?
I should have done better. Letting her leave by herself was the dumbest thing. I fucked up. We fucked up. Whoever has done this will pay.
It’s late, early morning, in fact, but Marcus answers on the first ring.
Somehow I find my voice. “Marcus…” I choke out.
“Benny, what is it, son?”
“She’s…” My voice is so shaky, and I’m struggling to form my thoughts, let alone words. There is a pressure in my throat that I don’t think I can push around. God, I fucked up so badly. If something happens to her, I’ll never forgive myself. I bite my knuckle, swallowing back a torrent of grief building in my chest. “I think someone took Lennox.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
TRACE
“Johnson!”Spencer yells across the den—apparently that’s what they call their home base. We went to the club and when that ended poorly with Benny getting all up in my shit, we came back here to cool off and chill out.
“Yeah?” I’m scrolling through my phone, watching old videos of Ilya drifting on the Formula Drift circuit. He’s going to give me lessons.Fine tuning my technique,as he said. My ego took a tremendous boost when a guy who drives like he does told me I need little work, that my natural talent exceeds anything he’s seen from the men he’s trained.
“You need to come listen to this. Lennox Ford is missing.” I stop dead in my tracks. I know I heard him right. The words that came out of his mouth are more than clear, but I can’t believe it. Refuse to believe it. She was in Benny’s care just an hour ago at the club. Fuck, is Benny okay?
“I repeat,” the scanner crackles. The officer or dispatch or whoever describes Ford’s leather riding jacket, the outfit she wore to the club, then her physical appearance. “Missing person is wearing one white Air Force One sneaker. We have no description of the vehicle, but they are likely to be armed and dangerous.” The dispatcher confirms what the officer has just said.
It’s like a funnel opens up around me and swallows me whole, like I’m not really in the room listening to this. Perhaps like a dream. Yeah, that’s it. It feels like a dream. A fucking bad one. My fingers squeeze around the bottle that I wish was in my hands. I could use a drink right now, but I’m trying to quit. The last thing I need is to screw up the opportunity Ilya is giving me. It isn’t easy.
Lennox Ford is missing.
I stare down at the floor, watching the scuffed, dingy white tiles merge into one another as the space around me whooshes in and out. Reminding myself to breathe, I inhale deeply but nothing obnoxious because I don’t need the Hellions knowing how much I’m affected by this. She’s my best friend’s girl and nothing more. Spencer eyes me, curious.
“You okay?” He cocks his head to the side, sitting with an ankle resting on the other knee.
My only response is a quick, sharp nod, but dread crawls down my spine and my throat goes thick. Fort Knox is missing.Missing. What the fuck does that even mean? I mean, I obviously know that she is gone, but how? Why? This has to have something to do with the attack.
I try to rake my hands through my hair, but my fingers get jammed because I have it up in a bun—mybitch biscuit,as B. Gibbs likes to call it. The thought brings a laugh to my lips until that stops dead in its tracks.Shit,Benny.I can only imagine how he’s feeling. He’s probably losing his mind right now. Why hasn’t he called me?
The police scanner carries on with the missing person’s report, detailing everything that happened when I back away, my thoughts getting jumbled, my heart racing. I have to do something. I can’t just sit here. There issomethingI can do to find her. There has to be.
“Hey, man, you alright?” Spencer asks, cautiously approaching me with his hands upheld at his waist.
“You know anything about C.C.C.? Why they would take a hit out on someone? Why they would take a teenaged girl?” The way his face turns grim has every inch of my body curdling. This is a common occurrence, apparently. He doesn’t even have to say it. “No,” I whisper and shake my head. I refuse to believe it. Was Ford trafficked? Is that what Chaos is into? Then why did they try to kill her before? It was three on one. They easily could’ve taken her. It makes little sense.
How the hell did Benny let this happen? That’s unfair, but he was supposed to protect her, keep her safe. Out of all of us, he knows what the hell we are dealing with.We. Like I have anything to do with this situation. Sheisn’tmy girl. When the hell am I going to understand that? Still, the anger and foreboding mingling within me says otherwise.
“Anything C.C.C. has to do with a chick isn’t a good thing. They are heavily into trafficking, my friend. That is exactly why we have worked so hard to lock down our territory and keep our people safe. Our women and children are a huge target for them.”
I scoff. “Apparently not fucking safe enough!” I roar. “Chaos took her. I know they did. They are the ones responsible for the attack on her.”
“No,” he says coolly, not giving me any response to my claims. “If they were hired to take her out, then that’s their objective. To kill. Whoever took her is probably the one who put the hit out on her to begin with.”
His statement makes sense, but it doesn’t make it any better. Someone has her, I just have to figure out who. But first, I need to check on my best friend and try to remember that he’s just lost the love of his life. I can’t go blaming him. I flip my phone over in my hand and dial his number. As I’m putting the screen to my ear, Spencer motions to the rooms off to the side.
I nod and make my way to the black door where it will be much quieter, and I’ll get some privacy.
“I just told her dad,” Benny says as soon as the call connects, voice distant and strangled. This is absolutely killing him. I want to be by his side, help keep him sane, just as much as I want to strangle him for letting this happen. I have to remember that this kid is my best friend and if he could do anything about it, he wouldn’t just let this happen. It isn’t his fault.
Tell that to my heart.
