“I’m guessin’ by the grin on your face your weekend was a vast improvement from the week before.”
I sat at my desk and kicked my feet up, looking across at Leo. “And you’d be right.”
He was still smiling, but I could tell by the look in his eyes he was dead serious as he asked, “You love this chick?”
I gave it to him straight. “Yep. Never expected it to happen. Before her, I never even wanted it. But yeah, I’m fuckin’ crazy about her, and I couldn’t be more fine with that.”
“Good. Happy for you, brother. Hayden’s a good one.”
He didn’t have to tell me. I was all too aware of how incredible she was. “Thanks, man. She actually mentioned last night havin’ you and Dani and your brood over for dinner, asked me to talk to you to set something up.”
At that, my partner busted out laughing. “Man, look at you, all domesticated and shit. This is a trip.”
I cut him a look, tossing a paperclip at his head that he managed to dodge. “All right, asshole. So can I tell her you’re in, or what?”
“Yeah, brother,” he said on a chuckle. Count us in.”
I couldn’t even be annoyed he was giving me shit, because I knew that Hayden would be over the moon that Leo had said yes, and making her happy was the only thing that mattered to me.
We got to work after that, the morning moving at a normal pace. I’d gotten comfortable enough to think that maybe I’d get through the day without any nasty surprises cropping up when everything suddenly turned to shit.
My cell rang and Dalton’s name flashed across the screen. “Hey man, how’s it goin’?”
“Tell me she’s with you.”
A chill worked its way down my spine. “What are you talking about? Who?”
“Charlotte,” he clipped, the man sounding more frantic than I’d ever heard him. “Is she with you? Have you heard from her at all?”
My gaze shot across the desks to Leo’s and I jerked my chin to the stairs that would take us out of the bullpen and to the back exit of the building.
He grabbed his keys and we were on our feet, moving out as I answered, “No. She isn’t and I haven’t. Talk to me. What the hell is goin’ on?”
A string of curses blasted through the line. “She gave me the fuckin’ slip,” he fumed.
“Goddamn it,” I clipped, picking up the pace through the parking lot. “How the hell did that happen?”
“Said she wasn’t feelin’ good. That she got her period and needed to take a hot bath. I didn’t wanna bother her, so I let her be. When too long had passed, I knocked on the door. She didn’t answer, so I kicked it down. She’d bolted out the fuckin’ window.”
Leo beeped the locks once we reached his truck. I yanked the passenger door open and leapt in as he started it.
“All right. We’re headin’ to Alpha Omega now. The other guys know yet?”
“Those calls already went out. Linc’s there now. So’s Xander. I’m en route, and Trent’s out trackin’.”
“Good. We’ll see you in a few.”
Leo drove out of the station’s parking lot like a bat out of hell, and I sent up a silent prayer that, wherever the hell she was, Charlie was safe.
The AO offices were running with controlled chaos. The tension filling the air was thick enough to choke a horse, but we powered through.
For doing something so incredibly fucking stupid, Charlie had been smart about it. She’d left her main cell at the house, only taking the burner I’d given her to stay in contact. I called the number over and over, praying that one of these times it would connect, but it was currently powered off so there was no way to trace it.
Xander was going through security cam footage of the stores and shops near her house to see if we could get a lock on the direction she’d gone, but so far, we were running blind.
Leo’s voice spoke over the din of the conference room. “We have a problem. I called into the station to see who was supposed to be on shift this mornin’, and Cormack no-showed.
“Fuck,” I snapped, whipping around to Xander. “Get a trace on his phone, fast as you can.”
“On it.”
“It’s him,” Leo grated, coming up beside me. “You know it’s him, man.”
My heart was in my throat, panic gripped my chest like a vise, because my partner was right. Wherever the fuck Charlie was, Cormack had her. “We’re gonna get her back.”
“If that motherfucker so much as touches her—” Dalton snarled.
I reached out and clasped him at the back of his neck, giving him a jostle. With each minute that passed, the man became more of a loose cannon, to the point I was afraid Linc and his guys were gonna have to lock him down so he wouldn’t fuck up finding her.
“She’s gonna be fine,” I assured him. “That girl’s got steel in her spine, man. You know that. We’re gonna find her, and she’s gonna be okay.”
“Got a trace,” Xander called out, rattling off the address where Cormack’s phone was pinging.
Linc pointed at him, ordering, “Get that address to West and Trent, tell them to move their asses. Red lights and stop signs are only suggestions today.”
I lifted my phone, prepared to dial Charlie’s burner again when the screen came to life, flashing the letter C.
“Thank fuck,” I rasped. I looked to Xander to see he was prepared to start a trace as soon as I answered. I engaged the call, putting it on speaker. “What the fuck were you thinkin’?” I boomed through the line. “Where are you?”
My question was met with silence.
“Charlie?”
“Guess again,” a man spoke. “But I got your girl’s phone.”
At the sound of Cormack’s voice coming from Charlie’s phone, red began bleeding into my vision. “Motherfucker, if you hurt her—”
“Gotta say, Langford, it surprised the hell out of me you were able to flip her. Out of all the assholes working for me, I always thought she was the toughest. Never thought she’d be the one to flip. Then she started up with that PI prick, and I knew something had to be going on there.”
“Cormack, you let her go now, you can still walk away from this,” I tried to reason as desperation clawed at my throat.
“Oh, I plan to walk away from this. Unfortunately, your girl here isn’t gonna be so lucky. Hope you didn’t get too close to your CI, my man, ’cause she’s not gonna live long enough to see another day.”
The call disconnected after that, and when I looked to Xander, he shook his head, telling me there hadn’t been enough time to get a lock on his location.
The only chance we had of finding Charlie, and it was gone.
I’d just broken every promise I’d made to that girl. I’d failed her. And the pain that caused was enough to take me to my knees.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hayden
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into a second lesson,” I wheezed after sucking back my entire bottle of water.