5. Caine
CHAPTER 5
CAINE
I don’t remember the last time I was able to sleep. I’ve wanted to rip apart every single thing I come across since she’s been missing. I've turned her house upside down, destroying it even further, looking for any clues that could possibly lead me to her.
“Seriously, Caine.. You need to calm the fuck down,” Drew says, but I ignore him, continuing to search. Maybe I need to go to the gym or have a fight to get some of my anger out. I know I’m not thinking clearly, but I can’t stop. I need to find her, need to bring her back here.
“Caine,” Adam tries to break through my haze, but it’s not going to happen.
“Aldridge!” he yells and my eyes fall on him, even more pissed off that he’s using my last name. “This isn’t helping.”
“Well all you’ve done is sleep and bitch at me, so please tell me what’s supposed to help .”
He pulls his phone out of his pocket, looking at it for a second then putting it back. “It’s still really fucking early, but we can try.”
“What’re we trying?” Drew questions.
“If whatever this is sucks, then I’m doing things my way,” I insist.
“If your way is pissing Max off even more by destroying her place, then I think you’ve succeeded. So again, you need to calm the fuck down.” Adam shakes his head. “Come on.”
He walks out Max’s front door, and I don’t want to follow him. I feel like I should be here just in case someone comes back, with or without her. Whoever would dare to show up may have information or something for us, but I follow anyway.
We end up at Uncaged and I feel like Adam just lured me here to try and work out some of my aggression rather than do anything to actually help. Then I see a car pull up and I’m ready to fight whoever it is, until I notice the woman that steps out is the blonde that hangs out at the bar with Max. I think they’re sort of friends.
“Danner,” Adam greets the woman while I glare at her.
“Will you tell me what the hell is going on?” she asks, looking between all of us.
“Inside.” Adam nods toward the front door, and leads us all in. Once he’s locked the door, the rage is back and I’m about ready to start losing my shit again if we don’t start getting some answers.
“Where’s Max?” Danner asks. I let out a scoff at the fact that she's just now asking about her. She narrows her gaze to daggers and focuses directly on me.
“That’s what we’re hoping you’ll help us with.” Adam turns to me. “Show her the video.”
I grumble about how we’re wasting our time as I pull up the footage. As she watches, I force myself to watch it again, letting the anger fuel me even more. It’s like adding more fuel to an already raging fire.
She watches the same video I have no less than fifty times, and once it’s over I’m ready to throw my phone again, but I manage to keep it together. Just barely.
“Look,” Adam tells her, “I know you don’t talk about what you do with anyone and I respect that. But we need your help.”
“Wait.” Drew looks at her, then Adam, then back to her. “What do you do?”
“Right now, I’m going to help you guys find my friend,” she says, seriously. “Now, tell me what all you know.”
Adam explains everything he found out about Max during his research, including the family she comes from and who she was engaged to. I realize I recognize the name of her ex fiancé, well his last name. I don’t know anything about the prick, but I know his dad runs some shady shit, so I’m sure the dickhead son isn’t any better.
I know her family is a big deal, which is why I name dropped her to my own trying to get them off my back, but knowing the Bradfords are involved too is a whole other level. It doesn’t make things harder, but it does make me more annoyed.
Mostly because that means we can’t just kill him to get her back because people would notice he’s gone. I clench my fists so hard my knuckles crack.
“Think you can help us?” Drew asks hopefully, once Adam is done explaining.
“Yeah, I know I can. But what’s your plan if she doesn’t want to come back?” Danner dares to ask.
“What the fuck do you mean? You saw the video, she didn’t want to leave,” I snap.
“I’m just saying, if she went back home and realized she wanted to be there, I’m curious what the plan would be then?”
“Who’s side are you on? Isn’t she your friend?” My voice is raised and I don’t care if I scare her. And because of the impeccable timing my family has, my phone goes off in my pocket and I know who it is immediately. I glance at the screen to double check before ignoring it. The last thing I need to deal with right now is them telling me to come back to Chicago.
“Yeah, she is,” Danner agrees, keeping her voice level while she stands tall in front of me, even though she’s only a couple inches taller than Max. “Which means I want what’s best for her, whatever and wherever that is.”
“You saw that asshole drag her away by her hair.” I get closer to her face, trying not to scream at her. “There’s not a chance in hell my girl would ever want to be where he is. Help us find her, and then I’m bringing her back home.”
“Caine.” Adam’s voice has that warning tone to it again, but Danner doesn’t back down from me.
“Find her, or I’m going to Texas and I’ll destroy every single thing and person in my way until I find her,” I declare, pushing past them and going to the hanging bags because I know I need to get aggression out before I start punching Drew and Adam.
Nothing is going to be the same until I have her back. The harder I punch the more pissed off I get that I let her go home alone in the first place. I should’ve been there. She should’ve never left my sight.
As soon as she’s back, I’ll never make that mistake again.