Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
It was Tuesday morning and three days since he’d heard from her.
He fucking hated it.
There had been a number of times that he’d picked up his phone to check on her and put it back down. He’d also driven past her apartment multiple times. He’d even gone to Whip It on Saturday night to see if he could get her out of his brain.
It hadn’t really worked.
He’d attempted to play with a couple of subs, but in the end his heart hadn’t been in it. And instead, he’d just ended up moving around, monitoring other people’s play.
It had all felt pointless.
Fuck. He was being completely ridiculous.
Today, he was going to message her. This silence had gone on too long. They were friends. And he was . . . concerned about her.
There. That sounded good.
They just both had to get past that kiss . . .
Although it was the rest that was harder to forget. Hearing her pant and moan, the way she’d clenched down on his fingers as she’d come.
Yeah, those parts were impossible to forget.
However, he knew he had to push those memories down deep if he wanted to continue a friendship with her.
“Why would anything be wrong with Caren?” Lacey asked, sounding alarmed.
“No reason,” he said quickly. “I just thought that was why you might be calling.”
Idiot.
“I can’t just call you?”
“Considering that you’re still on your honeymoon, I’d be surprised if you were just calling me.”
“Right, yeah.” She let out a deep breath. “Gray’s mother just rang. Rory’s missing.”
“Missing? For how long? Any clues as to where she went? She leave a note? Do they suspect foul play?” he fired out questions at her.
“Yeah, there’s a note. You know that she’s been living in the basement of their mom’s house. His mom went down this morning because she hadn’t seen her in a couple of days and found a note. It said that she was tired of living this way and had decided to go back to the beginning . . . Travis, I’m really scared about what that means. Gray is going out of his mind. We’re trying to arrange flights back to the states, but everything is fully booked.”
“Okay, listen. Deep breath in. Let it out slowly. And again. Good. I’m going to take care of this. You stay where you are.”
“What do you mean? You can’t take care of it!”
“Of course I can. I can do anything. Listen, I’m going into the elevator so we’ll lose reception. But I’ll have my team find her. You’ve only got four nights left. Stay. Have fun. Don’t stress.” He ended the call before she could say anything more.
Then he stepped into the elevator.
When he got out again, his phone started ringing. Lacey. Really, she should learn that when he said he would take care of something, he meant it. Finally, she stopped calling and a message came through.
Lacey: Gray said co-ordinate with Hunter.
Awesome.
He strode into the main room. Only Rusty was there already since it was still early.
“Rusty, get everyone here,” he ordered. “We need a meeting, now.”
“What’s wrong? Caren missing again?” Rusty asked.
He shot his quietest brother a look. “No, Rory. And did you spend last night here?”
Rusty looked rough. His hair was standing up on end and there were dark marks under his eyes.
“Course not.”
Hmm. He couldn’t tell if he was lying or not.
Twenty minutes later, everyone rushed into the meeting room. Jace was one of the last ones to arrive, but he looked the most alarmed. “What do you mean Rory is missing?” he yelled.
The room went quiet and Travis raised his eyebrows as he put his laptop on silent. On the projector screen was an image of Hunter Black and his wife Cady, who were on video call.
“Jace? You good?” Clay asked.
“How can she be fucking missing?” he snarled. “Isn’t someone supposed to be watching her?”
“Well, she is a grown woman,” Alexa said. “I get why peeps are worried about her, but she’s also free to go wherever she wants. And it’s not like she just disappeared. She left a note.”
Hunter said something through the screen, frowning. Probably demanding to be taken off mute. Travis shut the screen. He had to check on Jace before he did anything.
“She can’t go anywhere she wants when she can’t make good decisions about her safety. What the fuck did the note say?” Jace snarled.
“It said that she couldn’t live like this anymore and that she needed to go back to the beginning,” Tyler told him quietly.
“Fuck! Fuck!” Jace started to pace. The big guy sounded like an elephant as he moved back and forth. “Where can she be? Does that . . . does that sound like she’s . . . like she’s going to . . .”
“We don’t know what it means,” Travis told him firmly. “Right now, we’re working with Hunter and his team to try and find her. That’s all we can do. Are you going to help?”