I stand there holding her broken phone and her bag and the cold in my gut turns to ice.
I know. Before I check the security camera that doesn't exist. Before I call her name into the empty parking lot. Before I do anyof the things a normal person would do, I know exactly what's happened and exactly who did it.
Kyle fucking Whitfield.
I call Liam. He answers on the second ring.
"I need you. Now. Rosa's diner on Greenfield. Nadia's gone. Someone took her from the parking lot."
Liam doesn't waste a second. "Who?"
"My money is on Kyle Whitfield. The asshole I dealt with last week." My voice is level. My hands are steady. Everything inside me is on fire but my training holds me together the way it always does, locking the rage behind the discipline until I have somewhere to point it. "He's driving a piece of shit sedan from what I recall. I need you to track him. Pull traffic cameras, ATM footage, whatever we have access to. He's local. Ridgemont area. He won't have gone far because he's too stupid to have a plan."
"I'm calling Killian and Aidan. Connor too. Give me five minutes."
I hang up and go into the restaurant. The back door is unlocked. Rosa is still inside, wiping down the kitchen. She looks up, startled, then alarmed when she sees my face.
"Nadia. When did she leave?"
"About fifteen minutes ago. She took the trash out and—" Rosa's face changes. "What's happened?"
"Did you see anyone in the parking lot? A car you didn't recognize? A man?"
"No. I was back here cleaning. What's going on?"
"Lock the doors. Don't leave until I call you or someone you trust can pick you up."
I'm back outside before she can answer. My phone rings.
"Killian pulled traffic camera footage from the intersection at Greenfield and Fourth. Beat-up gray sedan, heading east six minutes ago. Plate comes back to a Kyle Whitfield, registered address in Ridgemont."
"He's going home."
"That's what we think. Aidan's pulling up the address now. Same one you went to last week?"
"Same one."
"Killian and I are fifteen minutes out. Aidan is closer, maybe ten. Connor's coming from the estate with backup."
"I'm not waiting fifteen minutes."
"Rafferty." Liam's voice is sharp. The boss voice. The one that's stopped me before. "Don't go in alone. We don't know what he's—"
"He has Nadia. He put his hands on her and dragged her into his car. I'm not waiting, Liam."
Silence. One beat. Two.
"I'll bring Grace and Iris. Nadia's going to need someone when this is done who isn't covered in blood."
"Fine."
I drive to Ridgemont in eleven minutes. I run two red lights and take corners hard enough to make the tires scream. The whole way, my mind runs scenarios. What he's doing. What he's saying. Whether he's touched her. Whether he's hurt her.
I think about last week. The way he screamed when I broke his fingers. He is a coward. A parasite. A man who preys on women because he can't face anyone his own size and wants an easy life.
I told him what would happen. I stood in his apartment with his blood on my hands and told him exactly what the consequences would be if he went near her again. He didn'tlisten. Some men don't. Some men hear a warning and all they process is the humiliation, and the humiliation festers until it becomes something reckless and stupid.
This is reckless and stupid. And it's going to be the last decision Kyle Whitfield ever makes for himself.
