Only Serenity Ryan would be upset that a kidnapping put a damper on her date. I would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so dire.
“But they didn’t hurt you?” I asked, taking stock of her from head to toe. Other than some smudged makeup, hair that was no longer perfectly in place, and the welt across her mouth from the tape, she didn’t look too bad off.
“No, they didn’t hurt me. What about you? Are you okay?”
That rage sparked back to life inside me now that I knew my sister wasn’t lying in a puddle of her own blood somewhere. “No, I’m definitely not okay,” I clipped. “Just when things were good, these assholes busted in and messed everything up!” Tears of fury welled in my eyes, and at the sight of them, Serenity used her bound feet to scoot her chair closer to mine.
“I’m so sorry, Stell Bell.”
“Not your fault,” I sniffled.
“As touching as this family reunion is, I think it’s time we get down to business, don’t you?”
At O’Brien’s interruption, we returned our glares to him. I didn’t know what was coming, but something told me it wasn’t going to be good.
Thirty-One
West
Placing the camera in my lap after snapping a few pictures of our current client’s husband enjoying a late breakfast with his new flavor of the week, I let out a sigh and twisted from side to side to work out the muscles in my back.
“Man, I hate these surveillance gigs,” Bryce complained from the passenger seat beside me.
“You and me both, brother.” They were tedious and boring, and I’d seen way more shriveled man ass than I was comfortable with.
“I just don’t get it,” he continued. “If you suspect your spouse of cheating, just confront them. Half our clients already have the proof they need to divorce these assholes, but they still pay us through the nose for pictures that should never see the light of day.”
I didn’t get it either. Then again, I had a woman I’d never in a million years imagine stepping out on, so I didn’t understand how these men operated. If they didn’t want to be tied to one woman for the rest of their lives, they shouldn’t get married, seemed like a simple enough concept to me.
“It is what it is,” I lamented. We staked out the restaurant in silence for a few more minutes before I chanced asking something that had been weighing on me. “You get Hunter to tell you what’s been wrong the past couple weeks?”
Bryce let out a sigh and scrubbed at his face. “It’s not really my story to tell, man. If he wants to open up, he will. I’ll just say, it involves a woman.”
“An ex or something?”
Another sigh. “Not exactly. Someone he’s been pining after for a good, long while now.”
“Why doesn’t he just make a move?” I asked as I snapped a pic of our targets necking on the sidewalk.
“Because it’s a long fucking story ending with him just receiving her wedding invitation in the mail.”
Well, fuck.
Seeing the look on my face, Bryce nodded. “Yeah. And needless to say, if you mention a word of this or tell anyone I told you, I’ll beat you so bloody your new girl won’t be able to recognize you.”
“I won’t say a word,” I assured him. After all, it wasn’t my place. But I couldn’t imagine what he was going through. If something were to happen between me and Stella, and I found out she was moving on with another man, I’d tear the fucking world apart.
It was on that thought that my phone pinged with a notification. Shifting my weight to pull it out of my back pocket, I frowned down at the screen.
“What is it?”
“I just got an alert that my front door’s been left open.” Pulling up my recent calls, I tapped on Stella’s name and brought the phone to my ear, willing her to answer as I listened to it ring. When her voicemail came on, I disconnected and tried again to the same results. “She’s not answering,” I said, my stomach sinking deep.
Bryce reached to the side and grabbed hold of the seatbelt, pulling it around his torso and clicking it into place. “I’m sure it’s nothing, but let’s swing by and check it out just in case. We got everything we need here, anyway.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. Starting my truck, I threw it into gear and headed in the direction of home, telling myself that the knot forming in my gut was all for nothing.
Adrenaline dumped into my bloodstream the moment I whipped into my driveway and saw the front door hanging open. My whole body began to shake as I threw my door open and jumped out of the truck. Rollie was right there to greet me the moment I crossed the threshold, his whine alerting me that something was seriously off.
“Call the rest of the guys,” I ordered Bryce. “Tell them to get their asses over here now.”
My heart was threatening to beat out of my chest as I pulled the Glock from the holster on my waistband and started inching my way deeper into the house. “Stella?” I called, praying she’d answer, but I got nothing. “Stella, baby, you here?”
I cleared the entryway and the office on the first floor before making it to the kitchen and living space at the back of the house. The coffee pot lay shattered on the kitchen floor, and just a few feet from it, in a puddle of cold coffee, was Stella’s phone.
“Fuck me,” I grunted as I holstered my gun and rushed to pick it up. I dried it off on my jeans and tapped the screen, feeling a hint of relief when it came to life and my recent calls popped up, front and center.
“They’re on the way,” Bryce announced. “I checked upstairs, there’s nothing there.”
“She’s not here,” I growled as I swiped through her call log for the last incoming call before me. It was her sister, but when I hit the green button to connect, it went straight to Serenity’s voicemail.
After the third time, I dropped the phone onto the counter and pulled out my own, scrolling through to Joe Ryan’s number. He answered on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Joe, do you know where Serenity is?”
There was a brief pause, but it was still long enough that I felt like my head would explode. “I’m assuming she’s still in bed.”
“You haven’t talked to her?”
“No. Serenity’s always been a bit of a night owl. Usually doesn’t wake up until ten or so. Why? What’s going on?” he asked, the panic in his tone mirroring what I felt inside.
“She called Stella’s phone a little before eight, but now I can’t reach her, and Stella’s not at home.”
“What do you mean Stella’s not home?” the man barked through the line.
That pit in my stomach grew wider and deeper, threatening to swallow me whole. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be fucking happening. “Got an alert that the front door had been left open. When I got here to check there were signs of a struggle, and she’s not here.”
“Oh God,” he breathed through the line, the anguish in his voice sounding like his world was ending. I knew the feeling. “I’m on my way.”