“There has to be more we can do!” I snapped, my hands clenched into fists.
“I’ll call my PI,” Jace offered.
“That’s too slow!”
“Sir, you need to calm down,” the short officer with the too-thick mustache drawled, like he was discussing the weather instead of the missing love of my life.
Jace put a hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off. I didn’t need comfort. I needed him to join Blake in hunting the premises again. I needed someone to actually do something.Ineeded to do something.
“Someone’s taken her,” I shot back, desperation bleeding through every syllable.
“You don’t know that.” The cop couldn’t have sounded more bored if he’d tried. His lazy eyes swept over me like I was some hysterical boyfriend crying wolf.
Are you fucking kidding me?
“Did you not hear a word we said?” I snapped, pacing the parking lot like a caged animal. Bits of gravel crunched under my dress shoes with each sharp turn. “No one can find her!”
“Yet,” the officer said.
I stepped forward, ready to grab this useless piece of … but Ryker blocked my path. His hand pressed against my sternum. Hard.
“Easy,” Ryker warned. “You won’t do her any good behind bars.”
He was right. Damn it, he was right.
Breathe.Think. Dakota needs you thinking, not fighting.
“Look,” I growled at the cop, forcing my voice lower. “Fucking LOOK for her! That’s your job, isn’t it? What you get paid to do?”
The officer’s spine straightened two inches. “You’re lucky I’m taking a report at all,” he clapped back. “Only reason I’m doing that is because he pulled in a favor.” He jerked a thumb toward Ryker. “Normal protocol is, you wait at least twenty-four hours to file a missing person’s report for an adult?—”
“Are you going to do anything or not?” I stopped pacing, pinning him with a glare.
“Let’s go over your statement again.”
Jesus Christ.
“The cameras.” I motioned toward the security system mounted on the building. “Review them!”
“No one here saw her leave.”
“Which is exactly why the cameras are so helpful!” My voice cracked with frustration. “She couldn’t have vanished into thin air. Surely, the cameras caught something.”
God, this was like pulling teeth. I would’ve been better off barging into the security room myself and knocking the guard unconscious just to get my hands on the footage.
At the pace this guy was going, Dakota might be dead long before he even finished taking his damn statement. Because they must have been wrong. The Romano family must have very much wanted revenge after all.
“I’m going to check her phone again,” I muttered, pulling out my cell.
“No one found it,” he reminded me, like I hadn’t been there when they’d searched.
“No shit.” I pulled up the Find My Phone app and was once again punched in the gut with the reality that her phone was still off. I knew it was a long shot, but this app was my only tether to her, the only way I could?—
Ding.
My social media app lit up with a notification.
Dakota Fox is live!
