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“You know what? Forget it, just forget about it.” He waves the gun in the air, shaking his head. “This was a bad idea.”
But then he eyes the shoe I left lying next to me and lifts an eyebrow. “Besides, I think I have a better one now.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Adrian
“We’ll find her.”
“How many times are you going to tell me that?” I narrow my eyes at Theo, who absorbs my panic with a sense of calm that makes my blood boil. “I fucking know we’ll find her. It’s . . .”
He dips his head slightly, telling me he knows what I’m thinking but can’t bring myself to say. It’s whether she’ll be dead or alive when we find her that matters.
Meanwhile, my thumbs fly over my phone screen, which I only put aside to check for any messages on my laptop. I’m calling in every favor imaginable tonight, working against the clock. My heartbeat is a rapid, heavy pounding in my ears, my urgency growing with every passing minute.
It was Theo’s idea to come back to the hotel, to rally the troops and form a plan instead of driving blindly around the city, searching for . . . what? A girl wearing one shoe and probably narrating events out loud?
“I should never have brought her into this.” And I’ll never forgive myself if she’s . . . I don’t want to think it, but I can’t afford to turn away either.
Nor do I deserve it. I don’t deserve peace, I don’t deserve comfort. I led her to slaughter, bottom line. The thought makes me sick, but there’s no time for self-indulgence now. I have the rest of my life to blame myself for this.
My thoughts drift to the first day we met. Why didn’t I just wake her up and push her off my arm? I could have prevented all this. I could have kept her safe and away from my world.
I damn near leap out of my chair when the landline rings. The blinking red light tells me it’s from somewhere in the hotel before I snatch the receiver out of its cradle. “Hello?” I almost bark, my hand in a death grip around the plastic.
“Sir, we just received a delivery addressed to your room number.” The girl on the other end of the line sounds confused, maybe disturbed. The sound of it sets my imagination on fire and damn near takes my knees out from under me.
“What is it?” I choke out, imagining a body part or maybe June’s dress.
“We’re not at liberty to open guest packages, sir.” She actually sounds offended that I would even suggest it.
“I’ll be right down.” I’ve barely hung up before I’m moving, with Theo behind me. He doesn’t have to ask why we’re racing down the stairs rather than wait for the elevator. He has my back, no questions.
There’s a small cardboard box at the front desk. No name. Only the room number. “She remembered the room number this time,” I murmur to myself. Just not the name I registered under.
Rather than open it at the desk in front of the nervous clerk, we take it to the men’s room off the lobby. I doubt I’ve ever prayed once in my life, but I come as close as I ever have while tearing at the Scotch tape that holds the box’s flaps shut.
Theo releases a deep breath once he sees what’s inside. “Her other shoe.”
Not only that. There’s a note scrawled on the sole.
Nightshift. I’ll be waiting. —David
“Of course it was him,” I growl, angry with myself all over again.
“We couldn’t have known he would be there.”
“We should’ve known it wouldn’t be as easy as him stepping aside after what we did to Derek.” Theo doesn’t have any quick comebacks for that, so he doesn’t bother, going back to searching the dark web for any hint of what David has in mind. Sometimes there are posts about filthy shit like this. Always in coded language, but always meant to drive home the point that someone is in danger or being held hostage, usually that they’ll go to the highest bidder. What if he plans on auctioning her off? The fact is, there are countless ways he could go about this, and they all end in June’s destruction.
“You know he’ll be prepared for us.”
We’ve returned to the scene of the crime, and this time I’m the one champing at the bit, desperate to get moving. But my urgency feels justified: There is a life directly hanging in the balance, the life of someone who deserves none of this. What has he already done to her? I can’t bring myself to think of it, and yet it’s all I can think about as Theo does what he can to center me before we step out of the rental car.
“I know that,” I snap. I don’t give a shit how he feels about it. “We need to move, dammit. We need to move now.”
“I know you care about her, but running in there with some half-cocked idea about being a hero isn’t going to help.” When I reach for the door handle, he locks it using the controls on the driver’s-side panel. “This is just another job. That’s what I need you to tell yourself now. That’s what she needs you to tell yourself,” he adds in an ominous tone. Somewhere inside, I know he’s right.
Somehow, someway, Theo’s advice trickles into my brain and helps me center. “Okay, all right,” I murmur, my thoughts coming into focus, a familiar sense of calm washing over me. This is just another job. I’ve faced much more dangerous situations than the one we’re about to walk into.
