I swallowed hard, meeting his blue-eyed gaze, and nodded once. “Where are we starting?”
“I’m starting with the ADA. Palmer’s the most likely culprit,” Gunner put in.
“He hasn’t been seen in days.” I grunted in frustration.
“What about Marty?” Cole demanded. “Do we have eyes on him?”
“I’ll get on it.” Max spoke up, already pulling out his phone.
“Let’s double check the brother too,” I growled. “If he had anything to do with this, family or not, I’ll kill him.”
“Do we have men canvassing? It’s a long shot, but this happened recently,” Cole added. “It’s possible they haven’t gotten far.”
“My men can cover the area further south,” Thorn replied. “I’d send some of your guys north and to all the exits in town.”
“Done,” Cole agreed, looking to Axel, who was pulling out his phone.
“I’ll ride out with Mad,” Max said, referring to Maddox. “We’ll canvas a few more houses, see if anyone saw anything, and then split the roads with Tatum and whoever else can get on their bike. We’ll cover as much ground as we can.”
I paced the room. “I can’t just fucking stand here doing nothing while she’s out there somewhere,” I lamented. “But I don’t want to leave the house in case somehow she makes it back here.” That she’d suddenly walk back through the door as though nothing had happened was a distant hope I wasn’t going to let go of.
“You can help me by digging into anything you can find on Marty. Last known addresses, relationships, anything you can find that might pinpoint where Layla would be taken,” Gunner supplied. “I’ll focus on Palmer,” he added, already moving into action.
“We need to get the rest of the women on lockdown,” I heard Cole say as I turned my focus to doing whatever I could to bring my girl home.
****
“There’s a reason Palmer’s off the grid.” Gunner spoke up from his position across from me at the desk in the office where we’d posted up a makeshift war room. It had already been hours since Layla had been taken; my eyes burned from staring at the laptop screen in search of answers. “Fucker’s dead.”
“What?” I demanded in disbelief.
“Police report just came in. His body was found in the river. Bullet to the brain,” Gunner replied, staring at his screen, scanning for additional details.
“Motherfucker,” I cursed. I didn’t care that he was dead, but his murder brought about more questions than answers. “We need to double down on Marty.”
“Yep,” Gunner agreed darkly. “Always hated that slimy bastard. Good thing I might have an excuse to take him out.”
“Gotta find him first,” I muttered.
He looked at me, his gaze full of confident fury. “We will.”
Chapter 26
LAYLA
I awoke to road noise and the feel of cool glass against my cheek. My mouth was like sandpaper, my stomach churning.
“What the hell happened?” A distantly familiar male voice filtered through my throbbing head. “We only needed the one.”
“I didn’t expect there to be two of them,” defended another male voice as I realized I was in the back of a car that, by the sounds of it, was on some sort of freeway. “They were both fighting like hell. Had to drug the one and coldcock the other.”
My heart sped up to triple time as I risked a glance sideways, finding Emmie with her hands tied behind her back slumped next to me in the back seat of the car. Her face was a mass of black and blue, and I had to fight not to whimper at the sight of her. Her eyes were closed, and I couldn’t tell if she was unconscious.
“You mean to tell me you couldn’t even handle two tiny women?” the first voice demanded in disgust. “Though I guess there are worse things,” he mused after a moment. “It’s time to show those assholes they don’t run this town. They always underestimated me.” He scoffed.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Marty,” the other man warned.
Marty? The lawyer? What the hell is going on?
They continued to bicker as I turned my attention to Emmie. Instinct told me I didn’t want Marty and the other man to know I was awake, but I was desperate to check on her. I nudged her with my knee, watching her through slitted eyelids.
I wasn’t tied up the way she was, and I assumed they hadn’t planned on my waking up as soon as I had.
After a second, she nudged my knee back, and her swollen eyes met mine. I sighed inwardly in relief. At least she was conscious. Now we had to figure out how to get the hell out of this situation.
The car made a turn; the sound of gravel kicking up under the tires soon followed. Neither of us were in the position to fight or run, not yet. Fear like I’d never known took root as I wondered where the hell they were taking us.
As the car slowed to a stop, I forced myself to remain limp against the side of the door, determined to deliver the performance of my life. I hoped Emmie would catch on to the same way of thinking. We needed to buy some time to get stronger before we made our move.
Marty hauled me roughly up into his arms while I heard the other man do the same with Emmie. I lay prone as gravel crunched under his shoes.
“Put ’em in the shed,” Marty instructed the other man. A few seconds later I was placed none too gently on a wood floor. It took everything in me not to register pain.
The door slammed a second later, the sound of a lock sliding into place one of the most terrifying sounds I’d ever heard.
I opened my eyes, adjusting to the dark space we were in. “Em?” I whispered.
“Yeah,” she whispered back.
I crawled slowly toward the sound of her voice. I could barely make out the shape of her on the far side of the space. “You okay?” I asked, taking her hand as I slid in alongside her.
“Well, I got knocked out and I’m now trapped in a shed that smells to holy hell, but other than that, I’m great,” she muttered dryly.
Leave it to Em to keep her dry sense of humor even in this situation.
“We’re gonna get out of here,” I vowed. There wasn’t another option. “Do you have any idea where we are?” I could have been unconscious longer than she was.
“We didn’t drive all that long,” she replied. “I think we’re somewhere south of Hawthorne.”
“What do you think he wants?”
“No idea. The guy used to idolize the club. I think somewhere along the way that shifted to jealousy. Clearly, he’s off his fucking rocker. Anything in here we can use to escape?”
“I’ll look.” I rose on stiff legs. My head was swimming and my lungs burned but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. As my eyes adjusted, I scanned the small space.
At first glance it was relatively empty save for the kiddie pool in the corner and garden hose. Finally, I spied what looked like extra plywood in the opposite corner.
I went toward it, picking up one of the planks in my hand. It was small, no longer than two feet long, but long enough to be a good weapon if used right.
I looked over at Emmie. “I have a plan.”