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Earlier…
I chase Marley across the bar in pursuit of my brother and her friend. I can only imagine what he’s said or done to Marley’s friend to cause her to slap him like that in such a public place. Bo can be such an immature fucker sometimes. He’s very good at his job, but when it comes to females, he acts more like a teenage boy than the man he is supposed to be. I sigh in frustration. When will my brother grow the fuck up and be an adult? If he upsets Marley over this, I’m going to make him wish he’d never been born.
I catch up to them outside the bathroom. Bo is pacing back and forth like a caged animal. I’ve never seen him like this before. “Bo, what did you do now?” I question. He stops pacing, giving me a pained look.
“The fuck if I know.” He throws his hands up in the air and begins pacing again. I feel someone at my back. I look over my shoulder to see Enos and Rosco have joined us. Enos comes off some crude comment that Bo denies vehemently before he stops pacing again and turns to me. “We were dancing and when thesong ended, I…I leaned down to kiss her and she freaked the fuck out. She shoved me back then slapped my face and yelled. ‘You can’t win a bet off me’. What the hell does that even mean?”
I shake my head because I have no clue either. It seems an odd thing to say. Now the shoving and slapping, I can understand. I would do the same if he tried to kiss me, too. I think as I attempt to hide a smile. Bo is again pacing, which is making the rest of us as anxious as he is.
“Why are they still in there?” Bo demands after another minute. “I should go check on her.” He starts toward the bathroom door, but Rosco steps in front of him, placing his hand on the center of Bo’s chest.
“You can’t go in there,” Rosco says calmly. Bo squares his shoulders. His right arm tensing in preparation to hit Rosco. Enos jumps in between them to prevent a fight. I sigh heavily. This is not the happy night I thought we’d be having. We are supposed to be celebrating my upcoming wedding, not fighting.
“Rosco is right, Bo,” Enos cajoles. “You can’t just bust up in the women’s bathroom. You’ve already upset the poor woman. How do you think that will make her feel?” Bo frowns, but I can tell he is actually listening to what Enos is saying. He swipes his hand down his face before turning away to lean against the wall.
“I’m sorry guys,” Bo murmurs. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me.” I hear the door of the bathroom open and see Marley emerge before closing the door behind her. Bo rushes at her.
“Is she okay?” he asks his voice full of concern. “I’m so sorry, Marley. I didn’t mean to upset her.” Bo and Marley discuss the situation, and Bo finally agrees to give Shelby some space, and Marley agrees to plead Bo’s case with her friend.
My brothers leave, giving Marley and I a moment alone. I pull her onto my lap for a quick kiss before leaving her to coax her friend out of the bathroom. I head back to our table to find Bo sulking, and Enos and Rosco downing their beers in record time.This is some party. I take a sip of my beer and look out over the bar. Dalton is chatting with the bartender, and Kelvin looks like he’s making his move on a blonde. I chuckle. Kelvin is really good at getting the ladies to fall at his feet, much like Bo has always been.
Speaking of Bo, I look back at him. I’ve never seen him get torn up over a woman. Not since he was a teenager with his first real crush. He keeps glancing toward the hall that leads to the bathrooms. I follow his gaze, wondering just how long it’s going to take to get Shelby to come out of the bathroom. I focus back on Enos and Rosco. They seem to be in a contest to see who can drink their beers the fastest.
Twenty minutes later when the women still haven’t returned, I’m beginning to get worried. I send Ace over to ask Daisy to go check on Marley and Shelby. I watch Daisy make her way across the bar and disappear down the hall. In less than two minutes, she’s running back toward our table, and my stomach drops. I should have waited outside the bathroom for Marley, but I thought it would make Shelby uncomfortable if I stayed. I know what Daisy is going to say before she says it. Marley is gone, and it is, again, all my fault.
Bo jumps up from his seat as Daisy approaches our table. “What’s wrong, Daisy? Where are Shelby and Marley?” Bo questions, looking over Daisy’s shoulder toward the restrooms, as if looking in that direction will conjure them up. Daisy is shaking her head with fear in her eyes.
“They weren’t in the bathroom,” Daisy relates breathlessly. “The woman who was in there said the bathroom was empty when she went inside, but she noticed someone going out the back door as she started down the hall.”No!This can’t be happening again.
Bo is already heading toward the back door. I head toward the bar. I need to see the security footage. Dalton looks up as Iapproach. He smiles, but it falls when he sees my face. “What’s wrong boss?”
“Marley and Shelby are missing,” I growl out. “We need to see the security footage. Is Jay in his office?” I ask the bartender. The man nods. His eyes wide in shock. He picks up a phone and calls Jay who runs out of his office.
“What’s happened, Luke?” Jay asks the moment he arrives at my side.
“Marley and her friend have disappeared from the bathroom. I need to see security footage.” Jay nods and leads Dalton and me to his office. He cues up the footage, but it’s all a blur. Someone has scrambled the footage. It will take hours to clear the images. Time we don’t have. Bo storms into Jay’s office from the back door.
“They aren’t in the parking lot. Where the fuck can they be?” Bo’s face is flushed with anger, but I can see fear in his eyes, too. He knows as well as I do who’s taken them. How did we let this happen on our watch?
Three fucking days.That is how long it’s been since Marley and Shelby disappeared. I haven’t slept. I can’t eat. I’m running on empty, but I won’t stop looking for them. Yesterday should have been our wedding day. Instead, my brothers and I were meeting with the FBI to share information on what we know about the Brotherhood, the terrorist group who’s been targeting Marley for months. The same group who’d taken her before. My heart aches as I wonder where she is. What is she having to endure? Have they beaten her again? Has she been violated? Is she even alive? I can’t allow myself to go down that rabbit hole. I won’t be able to function to get her back if I let myself think of her being gone.
Agent Morris is livid, as well he should be. I should have let him take her. Maybe he could have kept her safe. I’ll never knowif the decisions I made led to her abduction, as it did once before, or if there is someone working against us. I never should have agreed to let them go to the bar, but we all thought the women would be safe with all of us there. They should have been safe.
How did anyone even know we were there? All of the women agreed to keeping our outing a secret before I approved letting them go. I made sure to express how important it was for Marley and their safety to not blast the bachelorette party on social media. I’ve checked all of their accounts. They’d all kept their word. Nothing had been posted on social media until after the two women disappeared. So again, how did the Brotherhood find out?
Ashley and Hillary are so upset finding out Marley and Shelby have disappeared. I can’t tell them the truth about what has happened to their friends. It might endanger them, too. Not to mention the FBI demanded that I not disclose any details of the case to the two women. Ashley and Hillary have started a nationwide campaign to find their friends. Marley’s and Shelby’s pictures are all over Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat with the caption: missing please call with any information. I’m not sure if this will help us or hurt us where the investigation is concerned, but I can understand their need to do something to help find their friends. Agent Morris isn’t happy, but he hasn’t demanded they take down the posts, not wanting to explain why the FBI is involved, at least not yet.
Once again, I wonder how the fuck had this happened? How could those bastard terrorists have known where Marley was going to be? They had to have planned this out, or did they just get really freaking lucky? Is there a mole within the FBI? Is someone leaking them information? That has to be the answer. It’s the only explanation other than we have horrible luck, which I refuse to believe. If that had been the case, I never would have met Marley.
I’m reviewing the bar CCTV footage from the night of theabduction. It had been tampered with, and it’s taken this long to retrieve the original video from the hard drive. Someone had attempted to delete the video, but if you know what you’re doing, you can usually find what’s been deleted. Unless, of course, it’s been wiped by a professional such as myself, which lucky for us it hadn’t been.
I can’t believe what I find on the video. I’m beyond livid as I watch Kristen, my former secretary, enter the bathroom. A man who looks so much like her waits in the hallway along with two others. Is he a relative? Her brother maybe? How did they get inside? The footage continues to reveal the bathroom door opening swiftly. The man in the hall swings at Marley and shoves her back into the bathroom. The other two men follow him inside. Minutes later, Kristen pokes her head out briefly before retreating. Then she and the men emerge, dragging Marley and Shelby who’ve been gagged and have their hands tied behind their backs. Fuck!
Bo and Enos are out running down leads, checking on the addresses we had gotten while investigating Marley’s financial problems. Kelvin is with me in the conference room. He is reviewing the other cameras’ recordings.
“Kristen was at the bar,” I growl as I watch the scene unfold. “She was with the crew who took Marley.”
“Kristen from the office?” Kelvin looks up at me, confused.
