“How long has she been missing?” I ask.
“It’s been two days,” he admits.
I drop the phone. Anything could have happened in that amount of time.
I swipe the phone from the floor. “I’ll call you back. If you hear anything, I’m your first call, you got it?”
“Yep,” he says.
I grab the first shirt I see and find my keys on my nightstand. By the time I’m in my truck, I’ve got Jimmy on the phone. I explain what Hendrix just revealed to me, and he also shares the news his computer forensic investigator found. My camera system was indeed hacked, meaning someone erased footage of themselves at my house the night of Lennon and London’s wreck. It makes me sick to my stomach to think someone was breaking into my garage to steal my car and destroy everything for all of us. But anger takes the steering wheel before I can dissect any other emotion.
“Be ready to arrest me, because if he’s touched her, I’ll kill him with my bare hands,” I tell him.
“Shit, Dash. You can’t say stuff like that to me. I’m a cop,” he says.
“I don’t care. Do you understand?”
“Where are you headed?” he asks.
“I’m going to start at her house. I’ll let you know what I find,” I tell him before ending the call.
Once I arrive at her house, I use my extra key I had made before giving one to Hendrix so he could check on her. Part of me wants to slap myself for that decision, but I thought I wasdoing the right thing. I never imagined she’d developed some sort of real feelings for him.
I walk through every room in her house and find them empty. I open the door to the garage and find her black GTO missing. At least it’s something. I know what car to be looking for since her dad would’ve checked Tyler Motorsports and anything that belongs to it first.
I decide to check her bedroom again and I spot some clothes wadded up on her bed.
I pick them up and a pit forms in my stomach. It’s the shirts from the accident. Both of them. I don’t know what she remembered to set her off on this fool’s mission, but I can guess it has something to do with how she ended up wearing London’s shirt.
I pull out my cell phone, deciding to call her even though I know she won’t answer.
As expected, it goes straight to voicemail. She hasn’t set up a voice greeting yet, so I listen to the generic voice ask me to leave a message after the tone.
“Valkyrie, it’s me. I need you to stop whatever it is you’re planning to do. I need to know you’re okay. Please call me back. I need to hear your voice. I love you.”
I end the call after leaving my message and try to think. Where could she be? What could she have done?
I’m at a loss, so I decide to test my luck at Tyler Motorsports anyway.
When I get there, I see all the usual vehicles. Even Lincoln Tyler’s. I curse myself. I’ve been hiding out in my house and numbing the pain with whiskey while I let everyone else try to protect my girl. They’ve all been going about daily life as I’ve been drowning my hangovers with more liquor.
I walk inside the building and straight to Lincoln Tyler’s office. I want to throttle this man. I used to respect him until hetold Lennon to stay away from me. Until he accused me of being the reason his daughter is dead.
He looks up from his computer when I enter. I shut his door behind me. He appears to have lost weight and the dark circles under his eyes are telling a story of sleepless nights.
As much as I’d love to clock him in the jaw, I recognize we have one goal in common…finding Lennon and bringing her back safely.
He stands and lifts his chin like he’s preparing for a fight. “What are you doing here, Dash?”
“Where have you looked and what do you know?” I ask.
He hangs his head and his shoulders drop.
“Everywhere we know to look.”
“Why in the hell didn’t you call me?” I demand.
“The first day, we were just trying to give her space. But when it was time to check in on her whether she wanted us to or not and couldn’t find her…” He shakes his head.
