3. Caine
CHAPTER 3
CAINE
M ax is supposed to be here by now. I knew that I should’ve showed up at her work and taken her back to my house. This is what happens when I try to let her have a little bit of independence. Clearly, she can’t handle it and just runs away again.
I thought we were getting better. She’s been spending the night with one or more of us every night. But my girl has a knack for running and wanting to be chased. Maybe that’s what’s happening right now, I’m always happy to chase my little killer if that’s what she wants.
I pull up the camera view in her house to see just how far she’s planning to run, but as soon as I do, I’m shooting to my feet. I’m already halfway out the door when I see a man I don’t recognize in her house as she attempts to fight him off.
Without stopping, even to put on my helmet, I’m racing toward Max’s house, ready to commit murder. I don’t know who the man is. I don’t know what’s going on, and all I can see in my mind is the way he had a fistful of her hair while he dragged her through her living room as she kicked and fought.
I get to her house in half the time it would normally take, and my stomach drops at what I see. Her front door is wide open, her car still in the driveway, but it’s eerily quiet. I race inside, calling her name, but just like the street it’s dead silent.
Her house is a mess, just like it was the other night. I check and clear all the rooms to make sure she’s not hiding. I know she was here, but I can’t feel her nearby and it’s eating at me.
Someone took her.
When I have no other option, I pull out my phone to watch the recording from the cameras. I see Max come home, and the man is waiting here. I watch the altercation. She tries to run and he chases after her. She fights back as he grabs her and I’m proud of how she handled herself.
Until he hits her and I see red. She falls, which is when he grabs her hair, pulling her across the floor as she screams. Then they are out of frame. That’s when I know she’s gone.
I throw my phone across the room with a roar. I need to find her. Whoever that was has no issue hurting her and I don’t doubt he would do worse. She’s my girl, and I’m supposed to protect her, but I fucking failed.
I don’t fail at anything.
Jumping back on my bike, I go to Drew’s first since he’s closer. He answers the door and immediately starts like he knows what I’m here for.
“Max isn’t here?—”
“We have a problem.”
His face falls. “What? Where’s Max?”
“I don’t know. Some guy broke into her house and took her.”
“What the fuck do you mean?” He yells. “Why wasn’t she with one of us? Why the fuck was she alone?”
“Because she’s stubborn and instead of coming over to my house right after work, she apparently went home first,” I snap harshly.
“Well, what the fuck are we doing standing here just holding our dicks, let’s go find her.”
“Yeah? Where?” I ask sarcastically. “You know who this guy is and where he took her? Where the fuck are we going to look for her?” My voice progressively gets louder with each word because reality is really hitting me about this and we have absolutely no idea where she is.
Drew flexes his fists, clearly upset about this too. “We need to tell Adam.”
As much as I want to argue, I know we need as much help as we can get right now to get our girl back. I agree easily and we head over to Adam’s immediately.
As soon as we both pull up, Adam answers the door, and looks between us. I see the second he registers that we’re here without someone.
“Where’s Max?”
We give him the short version, including me having to tell them about the cameras.
“When the fuck did you put cameras in her house?” Adam asks.
“When I needed to have a way to see her at all times.”
“You’re insane,” Drew grumbles.
I don’t even care to argue with him because, yeah, I am insane. I’m even more insane not knowing where my fucking girl is.
Adam looks like he’s as ready to kill someone as we are, but like the two of us, he doesn’t know where to start.
“Show me the video,” he states, surprisingly calm for the situation.
They both look at me, and I throw my hands up. “I threw my phone, it’s still at her house.”
“That’s fine. We should go there anyway,” Adam agrees.
Once we’re back at Max’s, I see them experience the same feelings I did when I found the trashed and empty home where our girl should be.
I pick up my shattered phone, thankfully it still works, and I pull the video up to show them. They watch and fume at what they witness.
“I recognize him,” Adam states.
“The fuck do you mean?” I question, because that fucker isn’t anyone I’ve ever seen before.
Adam pulls out his own phone, scrolling for something, and then holds up some news article with a small picture attached. I grab it from him, zooming in, and recognize Max instantly. She's more done up than I've ever seen her before, wearing some fancy ass dress. And the way that her hand is laying on a man's chest has me gripping the phone so hard, I swear I can hear it crack.
The man looks smug as shit. Plus, the way he’s gripping her wrist as it rests against his chest looks tighter than it needs to. Max isn’t smiling, she’s grimacing but trying to hiding it.
Sure as shit, it’s the man from the video.
The caption under the photo gives us a name. Carson Bradford. The worst part it the caption says who he is. Max was engaged to this asshole. I see red, my eyes honing in on the ring on her finger. A ring that isn’t mine. His hands on what’s mine. Him trying to take away someone who is clearly mine.
“She was engaged?” I seethe.
“She never told you?” Adam asks, and all I can do is glare at him.
“Hm, interesting,” Drew looks like he’s hiding a smile, but I’m too pissed off that someone who thinks they deserve to marry Max has stolen her away from us. I’ll also deal with her not telling me about this once we get her back.
“We have a name, let’s find him,” I demand.
“How? He’s from some rich ass family like Max. They don’t usually advertise their homes for anyone to find.” Drew rolls his eyes.
“There’s always a way to find someone,” I insist.
“I think I know someone who can help,” Adam chimes in, and we both look at him. “You guys know Danner?”
I think about the name, and realize that’s the woman that’s kind of become friends with Max from the bar. “What can she do?”
“She’s good with finding people.”
I narrow my eyes at him, because it sounds like there’s more that he’s not saying, but I accept it anyway. “Alright, let’s go.”
“I doubt she wants the three of us banging on her door in the middle of the night,” Adam reasons.
“I don’t give a fuck what she wants, we need to fucking find Max!” I yell.
“We all want to find her,” Adam snaps. “We will find her. But it’s not going to happen tonight, we need to get a plan together and make sure that we’re ready to do whatever it takes to bring her home.”
“You think we can just go to sleep after all this?” I rear back.
“No, but we need to. We’re going to find her, Caine.”
“You two go to sleep then, I’m going to actually fucking do something to try and find her.”
I sit on the couch because I can’t go home. I can’t think about leaving here unless I’m going to get her.
Adam and Drew don’t leave either, but instead of sleeping, the only thing I’m able to do is watch my girl be taken over and over again. It fuels my anger and by the time the sun rises in the morning, I’m more determined than ever that nothing matters until we get her back.