When the bedroom door opened again and the asshole walked back in to take me to Patrick, his eyes widened at my appearance.
“What the hell,” he said as he strode toward me and grabbed my arm.
He pushed me toward the clothing rack. “Get dressed, now!”
Instinct kicked in, courtesy ofNo Surrender. I hadn’t had time to get to any more self-defense classes but the one, but I was happy I remembered what I learned because it gave the element of surprise and just enough time to make a move.
I spun around quickly, flexed my wrist, and jabbed my palm upward into the man’s nose with the heel of my palm with as much force as possible. Then I grabbed his shoulders for leverage and raised my knee upward, then drove it into his groin as hard as possible. When he went down on the hardwood floor, howling in pain, I didn’t waste time, and I took off running.
My bare feet pounded along and when I hit the staircase I was breathing hard. As I wound around and the door at the bottom was in sight, hope bloomed. But when my feet hit the cold marble floor I heard someone running through the great room and panic set in. Not stopping, I reached the heavy wooden door and flipped the locks.
“Ruby!” Patrick screamed as the alarm blared loudly.
I was so close and I rushed out into the night, not looking back.
When my name was called out again, but this time from in front of me I looked up.
And saw the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen.
Lyric.
ChapterThirty-Three
LYRIC
She was still gone.
The other half of me had disappeared almost forty-eight hours ago and she didn’t know exactly how I felt.
Sure, I think I’d done rather well at showing her and also telling her how much I loved her, but she didn’t know I had a ring burning a hole in my pocket. With everything going on I hadn’t found the right moment to ask her to be my wife.
What if I never got the chance?
“You need to get those thoughts out of your head,” Kace said as he approached. “We are going to find her.”
I was fighting for control, but it was slipping.
And a million questions were racing through my mind. What was the man doing to her? Was she hurt? Did she know I was still looking for her? Would she remember to not give up?
“How can you know that?” I asked Kace. “We both know the longer she is gone, the harder it will be.”
Kace rested his hand on my shoulder. “Take a look around. Every one of us has a story and not a single one has been a walk in the park. We are going to make sure you get your happily-ever-after too.”
I sucked air in through my nose and released it through my mouth. How was I any good to my girl if I let emotions take over and lost my way? This is the kind of stuff I was trained for, not only in the military but as a police officer. It was personal now, but that was all the more reason to make sure I stayed calm and in control so I could find the woman I was meant to spend the rest of my life with.
“Thanks, man.”
“You bet. Now let's put our heads together and find your lady.” Kace pounded his fist once against my arm and headed over to the guys that were gathered around the big table inside Braxton’s house.
We could be at the office, but we wanted our families close by. It had been like a huge slumber party for those two days. And at the thought of a slumber party, my mood soured. That was when I’d lost her.
As we stood around the table brainstorming and going over all our notes, along with a list of people Ruby knew so we could continue to interview every one of them, my phone rang. It was the call I’d been waiting for. Ruby’s modeling manager. He’d been out of town and I’d struggled to get a hold of him.
I told him what had happened and had him tell me about every job they’d been on, as well as all the names of people that they worked with, came in contact with, or anything he could think of that seemed out of the ordinary.
All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, my gut clenched, and my mind swirled when he told me about Mr. Branson who seemed to have a special interest in Ruby doing jobs for his resorts. He hadn’t seemed to take no for an answer even when that was what my woman had told him over and over. But he never imagined that the middle-aged businessman would do any harm. I, however, felt differently.
And I knew we had a lead.
