Garrett smirks. “Sometimes a man needs things the old-fashioned way.”
I slap his shoulder as I pass by. “Go easy on him.”
“If only he had his own Andie to help ease his pain.”
His ear-to-ear knowing grin tells me he heard what went on upstairs. Andie is definitely a screamer. I’m smiling all the way down the hall and as I head up the stairs.
The noises and banging coming from Andie’s old room tell me that the men Keane sent to handle the mess are busy cleaning it up and boarding the window. Downstairs is already done. She really went to town on the place in her fit of anger. Such a gorgeous sight to behold. Andie was always a little firecracker, even when we were younger. Max may have beaten her down, but he could never extinguish that fire inside her.
Funny how random thoughts bring back old memories. One of those memories has me walking into my room and pulling out an old cardboard box I keep shoved under the bed. Dust billows into the air in front of me as I place it on the bedspread.
My hand goes straight to the old glass Mason jar. The lid is rusted slightly and dented on one side. After the shit that went down with my old man, Max took me in, giving me a roof over my head since I had no other options. I would’ve slept under a bridge before I would’ve ever allowed anyone to force me into the system. No fucking thank you.
Taking out the jar, I hold it up in one hand, turning it back and forth and watching the light catch inside of it like a prism. I used to collect fireflies for Andie. Right after she suddenly disappeared five years ago, I came into her room one night when I couldn’t sleep. I found the jar by accident when I lay on her bed and noticed how her mattress bumped up slightly near the headboard. She had hidden the jar between the mattress and box springs, and I’ve kept it safe for her ever since. I’ll add fucking Andie under a night sky surrounded by fireflies to my bucket list along with the bouncy castle.
I meant what I said to Keane the other day. I want Andie with us. Not just because I feel like Keane and I can protect her better, but because that’s where her sweet ass belongs. But not here in this house. She’d kick me in the balls again if I even suggested it. I’m fully on her side about razing this place to the ground. We could always rebuild. Make it our own. But that would leave where to live while it’s being done, and I know Keane would flat out refuse to relocate to Falcon Tower and be under the hospitality of Declan Levine.
Shit, the guy is going to be his father-in-law. Oh, how I’m going to enjoy rubbing that in his face every chance I get.
Of course, my damn phone starts to ring, and I scowl when I see Liam’s moniker,Bag of Dicks, pop up on my screen.
“What?” I snap, not liking that he’s calling. I’ve had enough of Liam Connelly for one night.
“Andie’s gone.”
Everything grinds to a halt. What is he talking about? He and Andie just left the house a half hour ago.
He rambles in rapid succession, and I try to keep up. “Ran us off the road. It was bad. There was blood. She must be injured, but I don’t know how much. My damn head hurts, I can’t think straight. They took her while I was unconscious.” He starts shouting a litany of curses that sound like a mixture of English and Gaelic, but nothing I can understand.
I don’t realize I’m sprinting down the stairs until Dante calls after me, but I don’t stop. I trip over the leg of a chair in my haste to get to my laptop in the living room. Pulling up every traffic camera and digital footprint I can find for the area stretching from here to Falcon Tower, I say, “Start from the beginning. Don’t leave anything out.”
Placing the phone on speaker, I listen carefully as I work. When Keane walks by the entryway, I snap my fingers at him to get his attention.
He hears Liam over the speaker and goes ramrod rigid as he listens to what he’s saying about the accident.
“Hold on,” I cut Liam off. A cell phone signal was pinged off the cell tower nearby minutes ago. I triangulate the signal for a location.
Keane tries to grab my phone, but I slide it out of reach. “Hands off,” I growl at him as I peel back layers to uncover any information about the phone, the caller, or whoever the hell received the call at the other end.
“If anything happens to her, I’ll fucking gut you,” Keane coldly states to Liam.
“I’ll let you do it,” is Liam’s reply. “Declan just arrived.”
Several voices shout over one another in the background, but I don’t let it distract me. Declan issues orders to his men to search the area. It won’t be long before a driver passes by and sees the commotion, and someone reports the accident to the authorities.
Come on, come on. Who are you?
Son of a bitch. “Keane!”
He peers over my shoulder at where I point at the screen. The number pinged belongs to one of Carmine Ricci’s men. How the hell did they get here so fast and know where to find Andie? If Carmine’s men have her, she’ll soon be in the hands of Alejandro.
I pick up my phone and take it off speaker. “We have a big fucking problem,” I tell Liam.
Chapter 28
Jax looks over at me and a silent message passes between us.
We spent two days searching for Andie. None of us have slept. We’re existing on a cocktail of caffeine and vengeance. As each second passes without knowing where she is, we slip further into darkness. A crazed madness. Jax and I still wear the blood of the men we killed yesterday as we tried to find any sliver of information on where she could be. Tessa’s and Jax’s computer skills have come up empty. The thought of Alejandro touching Andie… I force myself to focus back on the scene in front of me.
