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Chapter 26
Luke didn’t give a shit about his truck. It was way past its prime, but even if he had just driven it off the lot that afternoon, his only concern at the moment would still be for Orly. Knowing that Caden was with her eased his mind a bit as he watched the fire trucks pull up on the street. Martin was already outside, prepared to meet the firefighters and issue orders on the quickest way to put out the flames and handle other things, like crowds and traffic control.
“We’re going to figure this out,” Tanner said, stepping up beside Luke. “I don’t know who this asshat thinks he is, but we’ll find him and keep Orly safe.”
Luke nodded. He’d been trying to reach out to Orly, but she hadn’t answered him. He didn’t get the sense anything was wrong, but he didn’t like the silence. They would need to have a talk about that tonight.
“Hey man, what are we doing?”
Luke turned to see Caden standing at the ready. Luke sighed, but when he didn’t see Orly with him, he glared at his friend. “Where is she?”
“In the bathroom,” Caden said. “I left her there. Told her not to leave until I returned. So where is he?”
“Who?” Tanner asked.
“Why didn’t you stay with her?” Luke demanded.
It was Caden’s turn to be confused. “You told her to send me out here. That you found the guy.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Luke grew more concerned by the second. “I haven’t said a word to her. Not since she left with you. I’ve been trying to reach out to her and have been getting nothing back.”
At Caden’s confused silence, dread filled Luke and he took off at a dead run to the back of the bar. He’d asked Caden to go with Orly only because he knew he would need to answer questions since it was his truck that was on fire, but to hell with it.
Something wasn’t right, and it was like he couldn’t breathe. “Orly!” Luke screamed, but it was to no avail. The loud music playing over the bar’s speakers and the uproar of the patrons cheering for a game on one of the large flat screens, muffled his voice to nothing more than a whisper.
Orly! Luke hated screaming into her head, not knowing if it would hurt her, but he needed her to answer. Now. Orly! Please. Answer me. Where are you? Are you okay? Shit, I never should’ve let you out of my sight. The silence that echoed in his head nearly brought him to his knees. He rushed into the ladies’ room. It was empty. Not stopping, he came out and rushed into the mens’ room, not sure what he was hoping for.
It wasn’t until he stepped back out into the hallway and took a breath that he noticed the back door leading out to the alley was ajar. Of course that didn’t mean anything. It could’ve been open like that all night and he wouldn’t have noticed, but his gut was telling him Orly had been taken out that way.
“She knew,” Caden said, standing in the small corridor leading to the restrooms. “I had a feeling she was trying to get rid of me, but I brushed it off and -”
“What exactly did she say to you?” Luke demanded.
“Exactly what I told you. That you’d asked for me to come up front because you needed my help. That you thought you found the guy.”
Luke grimaced. He’d been holding his jaw so tight, it was starting to ache. “I didn’t catch the damn guy. She did! She was protecting you. Damn it! She knew if you didn’t leave her side, you’d likely get hurt. Fuck!”
“Okay, but even if he drugged her to get her out, as soon as she comes to, she’ll reach out. We’ll be ready and we’ll find her.” Caden’s words were likely meant to soothe, but they were only pissing Luke off more. He trusted Caden with his life and he’d trusted him with Orly’s. He couldn’t bring himself to regret it, but right now, he just couldn’t speak out of fear of saying something he knew he wouldn’t be able to take back.
“We’ll find her. I’ll find her,” Caden said. “It’s on me, and I’ll make this right.”
“No,” Blake said. He and the others, except for Martin, had all come into the corridor now. “It’s not on you. It’s on all of us. We might not know her well yet, but Orly’s smart. Just look at what she did for Caden back there. Now, what her reasons were for not calling out for Luke’s help when the guy approached her, I have no idea. But I have to believe she has a plan and knows what she’s doing.”
The fact that Orly hadn’t called out to him in her time of need was eating at Luke like nothing else. Why hadn’t she told him she was in trouble? Why had she blocked him out when she needed him the most?
Caden folded his arms across his chest. “Her only plan was to protect me. Again,” he added quietly. “I fucked up.”
Luke walked over to Caden, and put an arm on his shoulder. “We’ll find her. I don’t care who this guy is. If Orly can stay alive, we’ll find her. I know that as well as I know my own name.” Luke had to believe that or he’d lose his mind. Just when things were finally settling down, when Orly was starting to relax and enjoy her life...he should’ve known that’s when the asshole would strike. If only he’d listened to his intuition and cancelled tonight, they could’ve been home together right now, and she would’ve been safe in his arms.
“Where do you guys wanna start?” Tanner asked.
“Cameras,” Blake said. “I’ll find Skyla and see if she can show us tapes from the last hour.”
“Good,” Luke said, grateful his friends were thinking clearly.
“And I’ll get on the traffic cams. They could give us a license plate or a make and model of the vehicle she was taken in,” Garrett said.
“And I’ll go back outside and check in with Martin. Talk to any possible witnesses that may have seen a car racing away from here at the time,” Tanner said.
