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“Calm your shit, Brax,” Jessie warns me, stepping up beside his old lady.
“No, I didn’t have to, at the time I just figured we were lucky, but… when I thought about it.” Maddy bites down on her lip before she continues. “Brax, she had someone, a boyfriend.”
“I fucking know that.” Hell, I don’t need a damn reminder.
“Well why didn’t he report her missing? She vanished, left her cell, her car. Any normal person would have contacted the police.” I let it sink in, and realize Maddy has a fucking point. Why didn’t that slippery fucker report her missing?
“So I did a little digging,” she turns her laptop so the screen faces me. A company website shows three men outside a building. The much younger one standing in the middle, I recognize straight away. He’s the guy who left the house just before I took Gracie. He’s the man I took her back to.
“He works for the realtor firm where Grace’s dad and his dad are joint partners.”
“Okay, so her boyfriend’s an asshole, is that what you dragged me here to tell me?”
“Hear her out, Brax,” Nyx tells me, and I’m assuming he’s still the only person in the room who knows what it’s costing me to be here.
“Something felt off, so I looked back through the files on the laptop. I found an encrypted file.” My eyes dart around the table and I see the same worried expression on all their faces.
“What did you find?” I pull my hand through my hair just so I have something to do with it.
“I found another list,” Maddy says quietly, but not quiet enough for me to miss how anxious she sounds.
“Show me.” I look at Nyx, whose hand is squeezing Ella’s shoulder. I notice now that she’s crying, and as Maddy pulls up a different page on her screen and my eyes scan the list of names, my heart turns to ice.
Julian Lenard.
Followed by George Lenard. Both her boyfriend and her father’s business partner are on the fucking list.
“I got to go pick her up.” I back up toward the door. I can feel myself losing all rationality, and I can’t do that. Not until I know she’s safe.
“You want us to come with?” Jessie calls after me.
“Nah, I’ll call you if I need you. Just get to work finding out where that peodo cunt is. He’s going down first.”
“Brax, the names on this list… they’re even more established than the others,” Nyx warns, and Ella let’s out a painful sob before he kneels down to comfort her. Jessie nods his head to the door and follows me out.
“Judge Jackson was on the list, her step dad,” he tells me when we were out of ear shot. “Two of the names were the CIA fuckers you took down back at the safe house. I don’t know how they found her, all I can think of is that she was being watched and you were followed. What I’m telling you, Brax, is that you need to watch your back. There ain’t no room for rash decision making with this one.”
“I hear you, Jess, I’ll go get her, and when she’s here and she’s safe, we sit down with Prez and we make a plan,” I promise.
“Go pick up your girl, Brax,” he nods.
“She ain’t my girl,” I tell him, turning away and walking toward my Harley.
“Then why you heading for your bike? There's only one way to bring her back here and that’s on the back of it, stop bullshitting yourself.”
“Fuck you, Jessie,” I lift my arm up and flip him off.
I hate that the fucker’s always right.
The whole ride over to Woodland Park, I try figuring out what to say to her, but it’s hard to focus on that shit when you're tamping with anger. Deep down, I can't help being relieved that I have an excuse to bring her back to the club. She needs protection, and maybe, just maybe, while I have her there I might figure out a way to make things work between us.
I won’t be able to let her go a second time, not now I know how much it hurts. The only car on the drive is hers, so I let myself in through the front door and call out her name. When no response comes, I check the kitchen, before heading upstairs taking the steps two at a time. I find a cracked vase on the floor on the landing, and the pictures that had been so perfectly in line when I was here before are hanging all wrong.
“Gracie,” I call out again, checking her room, and then every other room this oversized house has on its second story. The more I search, the more worried I become. Rushing back down the stairs, I try the living room, nothing. Then her mom’s office, and as soon as I step inside… I know something is very wrong.
The room’s been turned upside down, files are open and paper scattered everywhere, but what has me fucking murderous… are the tiny drops of red that stain the carpet. I crouch down and touch the pad of my finger to the droplets, they’re still tacky, whatever has happened here hasn't happened too long ago. Anger shoots through my system like a bullet leaving its chamber. I pull my cell from my pocket and dial Jessie.
“You got the girl?” he asks.
