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Everything went black.
ChapterThirty-Four
REAPER
Ten minutes.That’s all I could handle. I started counting the moment Peyton’s taillights left my sight. Then I was on my bike, racing to the other side of the city.
What the fuck were they doing that they didn’t answer the damn phone? I was about to break their goddamn door down and find out.
Fifteen long, painful minutes later, I pulled into my spot on the side of the building. Fifteen minutes, which meant that Peyton had been gone twenty-five. I was keeping time in my head, so I knew what to scream at them.
I stomped up to the door, putting in the code that Peyton had made for me so I could come into the building without constantly being buzzed in.
Peyton shouldn’t be doing anything by herself. What kind of goddamn friends, or team or whatever she thought of them as, were unreachable when shit got dangerous?
I couldn’t think of anything happening to Peyton. Never. The thought made me nauseous. I knew she had a dangerous job, and like I told her, I accepted it. As long as she came home to me in one piece.
I wasn’t sure what I was more frustrated about. Peyton thought she could break us up or her friends not having her back. I snorted to myself. Definitely her friends. Peyton would learn the hard way that she wasn’t going to get rid of me.
I hit the doors and was surprised that the lights were on. I pushed the door open so hard, it crashed against the wall, no doubt leaving a dent behind.
Everyone was standing around, not the least bit rushing to get ready or anything. All five of them. Betty, too. I counted twice as I told myself not to flip over a table and roar in their faces. Tyler leisurely walked into a back room that I knew was their armory.
Peyton was out there, alone, facing who the fuck knew what and they were justfucking standing there. Red edged my vision as I tried to rein my temper in. Tried and failed. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
Everyone swung around to look at me. Each face had its own version of amusement mixed with shock. Still no one jumped into action like I wanted.
“While you all stand around, doing fuck knows what, Peyton is out there.Alone.She’s walking into something she might not walk back out of, without backup because she thinks you all are fucking busy. Yeah, you look real fucking busy.” My anger was a living, breathing thing inside me, rattling its cage to unleash on these women.
The tall brunette, Adrienne, opened her mouth, but I snarled at her. “No. You don’t get to speak. You should wipe that smirk off your face and go out and help my woman. Instead, you’re all here fucking partying.”
“Partying?” Chris said.
“What do you call this?” I waved my hands at them. “Peyton’s out there blind. No one at her back. She’s off handling some emergency call because you were all too busy to answer. She could be walking into a goddamn trap. Or worse.” I would not consider whatworsecould mean. “Some fucking team you guys are.” I was going to hate telling Peyton her friends weren’t really her friends. Not like she thought they were.
“Location confirmed,” Izzy said. She pulled off headphones, telling me she probably hadn’t caught what I said.
“Everything’s ready to suit up,” Tyler said as she stepped out of the armory. She stopped when she noticed me. “What’s he doing here?”
“Shh.” Jessen waved her hands at the two newcomers. “He was doing so well. Don’t interrupt him.” She gave me her full attention. “Go on.” She encouraged me like she was a school teacher and I was some shy student.
This shit was making my head pound.
“What fucking game are you playing at? Why aren’t you going after her?” I was at a loss. I had no idea where she went. It was turning me inside out at the thought that she was hurt, or worse.
“Well, after her tracker sent the alarm, it took about two and a half minutes to get into the system to triangulate her location,” Izzy explained.
“Let me know when you’re done pandering to his fragile male ego.” Tyler spun on her heel and went back into the armory.
“Let me get this straight.” I tried to take a deep, calming breath but it only gave me time to grow more enraged. “You know where she’s at, what’s going on, and you haven’t left yet? What the hell are you doing?”
My voice echoed in the cavernous space, and I reminded myself that Peyton loved these people.
“You were having a moment. I find it’s better to let you yell, get it all out, and in the end you’ll come back and listen better.” Jessen’s voice was so matter-of-fact that it bordered on condescending. Another knock against them. Was Peyton so lonely that she settled for these people as her family? Had Redemption driven her to these extremes?
Tyler muttered something and pulled on a vest. Her movement spurred everyone into action. One second everyone was standing around, the next they were armed to the teeth, helmets and vests on.
“You wanna go with us?” Betty asked from the side.
