Which was wildly unfair to Tilly but also not entirely surprising. “Let’s go back down. With everything going on, I like to have eyes on Harper as often as possible.”
“You got it.”
They jogged down the stairs and into the bar. Cody frowned when he noticed Harper wasn’t with the women. He stopped beside the booth. “Hey. Where’s Harper?”
Both women looked toward the kitchen, but it was Nylah who answered. “She went into the back room to make margaritas, but now that you mention it, that was about ten minutes ago.”
Cody set his beer on the table and checked the kitchen. His heart slammed against his ribs.
The previously locked window was wide open. Someone had broken in.
Fuck!
He ran forward and wrenched open the kitchen door—which should also be locked, but right now, it wasn’t.
Nothing. No car at the mouth of the alley. No people.
Gone. Harper wasgone!
A mix of rage and panic burned through his veins as he pulled out his phone and tried her number. When ringing sounded from the dumpster, Cody’s skin went cold. Liam entered the alley next and was moving before Cody could, jumping into the dumpster and climbing out of it a second later—with a cell in one hand and a cloth in the other.
Liam lifted the cloth to his nose. His eyes narrowed. “Chloroform.”
A fear like none he’d ever experienced hit Cody so hard that he almost fell to his knees. With muscles that felt like they were about to snap, he made another call. His brother answered on the second ring. “Cody—”
“She’s gone, Eastern. Someone took Harper.”
CHAPTER 27
Harper groaned at the pounding in her head. God, it was intense. It traced around from the back of her skull, across to her temple. She tried to push up to a sitting position, but immediately her arms gave out and she dropped back down to a soft surface.
What was wrong with her? Was she sick?
Wild panic coiled in her belly, but she forced it down.
Breathe, Harper. Just breathe.
It took repeating those words in her head three times to finally gain the strength to roll from her side to her back. She scrunched her eyes as the pounding intensified.
Maybe this was what a migraine felt like? She had no idea. She’d never had one, but her mother used to complain about them a lot after a heavy night of drinking.
Slowly, she peeled her eyes open.
The first thing she saw was a wooden ceiling with an old single globe light centering the space, casting a dull glow over the room.
She forced her head to turn, ignoring the throbbing pain in her skull. The room was almost bare, with no windows, a bucket in a corner, and the single mattress she was lying on. Therewasn’t a door that she could see, just a set of stairs against the far wall.
What the hell? Where was she? And how did she get here? The last she remembered, she was at the bar with Cody, Nylah, and Liam. Tilly arrived. They sat at a booth. Then…
What happened next? Why couldn’t she remember?
Slowly, she tried to sit up for a second time. Again, her elbows threatened to give way, but she refused to let them, using all her strength to get up. She was taking in the room again when she heard something above her. Heavy footsteps.
Something cold and uncomfortable slid over her skin. When the creak of a door opening sounded next, that cold turned to ice. Suddenly, part of her wanted to run, but even if she could…where would she go? Where was she?
The other part of her knew she needed to stay calm. Needed to find answers. Why was she here, and who’d brought her?
A man walked down the stairs, and when she saw his face, her heart stuttered in her chest.
