“I talked to her last night before I went to Bensen’s place,” she said.
Alex didn’t say anything. He would have liked to follow up on that part of the conversation, but it wasn’t important right now.
“She said she was exhausted from all the studying she’d been doing and had been planning to hit a local popular burger joint with her friends,” Lacey continued. “She wasn’t home when I got there and still wasn’t in her bed this morning. That’s when I started calling everyone.”
“And what exactly did campus security say?”
She shrugged in the most heartbreaking gesture he’d ever seen. “They don’t understand why I’m so freaked out. According to them, they have dozens of students who bail each semester without telling anyone. They took a report, but as far as they’re concerned, I’m just making a fuss for no reason. They keep saying she’s a college kid and that’s what college kids do. But they don’t know my sister like I do.”
“Did you go to the police?” he asked.
Lacey nodded. “I went down to the police station and filed a missing person report, but the guy at the front desk didn’t seem very hopeful. He told me he’d pass the report to the Missing Persons Squad but admitted he was concerned the email to the registrar’s office would put Kelsey’s case on the bottom of the stack.”
Alex ached to wipe the tears from her cheeks, but he didn’t dare.
“Something has happened to Kelsey,” she said brokenly. “I can feel it in my heart. I know I don’t have any right to ask you this, and if I had any other option, I wouldn’t be here now, but I need help. You’re the only one I can turn to.”
They weren’t exactly the words Alex had been hoping to hear from Lacey when he’d first opened the door, but none of that mattered now. Whatever was going on between them—or wasn’t—he couldn’t turn his back on Lacey or her sister. His gut was saying the same thing Lacey’s was. There was no way in hell Kelsey had run off to California.
“You don’t even have to ask,” he told her. “I know some people down at missing persons. Let’s see what we can find out down there.”
* * *
Lacey hadn’t even realized the missing persons division was a special part of the DPD, kind of like SWAT. She thought that each police station had their own. But they had a separate office on Lamar Street, which was where Alex took her. Even though his SWAT uniform got them in to see a detective who took a second report, the man said they’d look into it but that there wasn’t much they could do without some concrete evidence that Kelsey was missing. Ever since that poor girl Abigail Elliott had disappeared, they’d been swamped with missing person reports. Glancing around at the office packed with worried-looking people, Lacey didn’t doubt it. That made her only more desperate to find her sister.
By the time she and Alex left, she was so exhausted, she could barely stand. She had no idea what to do or where to turn next.
“When was the last time you ate?” Alex asked as he opened the passenger door of his truck for her.
Lacey stared at him, trying to remember. She’d been a complete mess when she’d gotten home from Wendy’s place last night. All she’d wanted was to fall into bed and forget the evening had ever happened. She was wrung out like she’d run a race, and there was an ache in her chest that was impossible to ignore—and just as impossible to explain. She’d lain awake for hours, staring at the dark ceiling, thinking about Alex and everything she’d seen.
She was having one hell of a time reconciling the amazingly gentle man she’d laughed with, kissed, and made love to with the violent monster she’d seen in that junkyard. There hadn’t been a single gentle quality about that thing. It had been all power, carnage, and violence.
Yet through it all, a little voice whispered in the back of her mind that Alex had kept her safe. If not for him, she’d be dead. Even so, she never would have come to Alex for help, not if she had a better option. But for her sister, she’d swallow her pride and do whatever she had to do to find her.
While she was pretty sure she hadn’t eaten since before going to Bensen’s place last night, the thought of food made her stomach turn.
“I don’t want to eat,” she said, climbing in the seat. “I want to find my sister.”
“So do I, but we can’t do that if you pass out.” He sighed. “Since missing persons was pretty much a bust, I’m going to ask some of my SWAT teammates to help us find Kelsey. We might as well grab something to eat while we wait for them to meet us.”
Lacey was too tired to complain as Alex drove her to the nearest diner and led her to a booth way in the back. After they ordered, he pulled out his phone.
“Hey, Xander, it’s me. Did Cooper talk to you this morning?” A pause. “Good, because I need some help.”
She sipped her coffee, listening as Alex told him about Kelsey being missing.
“I could use Remy and Becker, since they have the most experience with finding people,” he said. “But I’ll take anyone else Gage is willing to let me have.”
Alex gave Xander the address of the diner, then hung up.
“The guys will be here in fifteen minutes,” he told her.
She mechanically spread jelly on the whole wheat toast the waitress had brought while Alex was on the phone, then took a small bite and chewed slowly. “You said Remy and Becker have experience finding people,” she said after she swallowed. “What kind of experience?”
“Remy was a U.S. marshal before joining SWAT. He can track anyone, anywhere,” Alex said, digging into his scrambled eggs. “Becker is good with computers and all things electronic. He’s handy to have around if you need to see video footage or find someone’s digital footprint.”
That all made sense to her, but for some reason, she could only think of one particular question. “Are they…like you?”
