21. Wade
21
WADE
This meeting was taking longer than I had planned, but it would all be worth it in the end. In the other room, our two newest hires, Dane Enderson and Axel Skarsg?rd —the two guys my sister had recommended—were finally done with all their onboarding and were being shown around the building by Ruthie . Archer and I were going over our final plans for Operation Douche Canoe , as we had aptly named it, to deal with Ellie’s ex. Vince had just walked in, letting us know he had moved Ellie’s car back to the front of the pub—exactly where we wanted it—front and center for her ex to see. Happy that everything seemed to be in place, I leaned back in my chair opposite Archer at his desk, with Vince next to me in the other chair. He was about to leave to go get Jack from the airport and bring him back so we could all have dinner downstairs at the pub.
In my hand from when I pulled up my text thread earlier from Jack to say he was boarding his flight to Atlanta , my phone vibrated with a call. I looked down to see it was Tammy and knew she wouldn’t call unless it was important since she knew I was up here with the guys, finishing this meeting up.
I answered the phone deciding to get straight to the point. “ What’s wrong?”
“You still in your meeting?” she asked, but I could sense the seriousness in her tone.
“Just ending it. Why ?” I asked as I heard her moving around.
“Pull up the cameras to the back exit of the pub, and do it now,” she said frantically.
“What’s going on, Tammy ?” I asked firmly as I put the phone on speaker, set it on the desk, and leaned over and grabbed the computer mouse from the desk. I swiveled the desktop monitor so I could see it. I was frantically switching over to our screen that let us see all the cameras in the building while Tammy talked.
“Beth came up here and told Ellie you needed to see her right away but that you were taking the trash out and she would follow her to the back door to wait for you, but I knew you were supposedly in your meeting, not to mention Sam just took the trash out right before he left his shift,” she said fast, hardly taking a breath. “ It took me a second to remember that, and when I came back here, I … I can’t find either of them. She’s gone, Wade . I can’t find Ellie ,” she said calmly but with noticeable fear in her voice.
I felt my stomach drop. Archer took the mouse from me as he looked up at me.
“Go. I’ll check the cameras and call you. Go !” he told me as I pushed back my chair and practically sprinted out of the office door to get downstairs. Phone in my hand, I kept talking to Tammy , trying to understand what happened.
“It might be Beth ,” she said.
Beth may have had a role in this. It made sense because she worked with Ellie , so she would have had proximity to get to her, but why?
“I can’t find Beth , but she was also done with her shift, so she may have left and not seen anything,” Tammy tried to say, but I knew the other words she was thinking too. “ But why would she have told her that you were waiting for her when you had a meeting? This isn’t adding up.”
“No, it doesn’t. I’m on my way down there,” I told her and hung up as I raced as fast as I could down the stairs.
I passed the front office and yelled to Ruthie to get upstairs and help Archer and Vince immediately. We needed all the help we could get. I exited the front door and ran around the building to the back entrance, where Tammy was currently standing in the doorway, looking in every direction.
“Talk to me,” I said firmly.
“You dropped Ellie off to start her shift. We were restocking everything and getting ready for the dinner rush, and Beth came by as she was leaving for the night,” Tammy started in. “ Beth said that you told her you needed to see Ellie right away, and then as she was walking back there, she mentioned you were just taking the trash out so Ellie should wait for you by the door. She said she would walk out there with her, so I didn’t worry initially because I knew she wouldn’t be alone. I’m an idiot. I’m sorry, Wade .”
Knowing she felt terrible, I shook my head, trying to reassure her.
“Beth has worked here for over a year. It’s normal to trust her. Don’t beat yourself up Tammy . We’ll find her,” I told her, hoping if I said it out loud, it would come true. My phone rang in my pocket, and when I saw it was Archer , I hoped he had good news.
“What,” I snapped without an introduction.
“He grabbed her,” he said in my ear, and I felt the anger rising in me and it became harder to breathe. “ He was waiting right outside the door and hit her on the back of the head with something as soon as she walked out.”
“Where the hell was Beth ?” I asked, wondering why she didn’t scream or run back inside to get Tammy or Chuck .
“All evidence is pointing to her helping the dude,” he said angrily, but he also sensed my anger rising, so he continued to talk. “ She helped him secure her and then left the parking lot swiftly in her car. I sent Dane and Axel over to her place right now to track her down and get answers. I called the cops. They’re on their way here to the office. Ruthie and Diego are going to stay here and walk them through what happened while we go get her.”
“We don’t know where he took her, though. He could be on his way to Tennessee or Florida for all we know!” I practically yelled into the phone.
“Wade, calm down for just a second and let me explain,” he said in his authoritative, yet surprisingly very calm voice. “ She has a tracking device on her, and Vince just pulled it up now. It’s moving, so we’re going to follow it.”
“No, her phone is still at the bar. She doesn’t have that with her,” I told him.
“No, Ruthie gave her one, and it’s working,” he said.
While part of me was relieved that we knew where she was. I was also livid that he’d kept this from me.
“Ruthie put a tracker on her? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” I yelled.
“It’s not what you think. I’ll explain in the car,” he said suddenly from right behind me. He and Vince were there, apparently having run down through the building and out back to come get me. “ Vince has the tracker pulled up. Let’s go,” he said urgently and started jogging to the SUV in the side parking lot.
I turned to Tammy and instructed her to call Sam and see if he could come back for a bit so she could go help Ruthie with the cops when they arrived. She nodded, and I ran off to the vehicle.
Vince was in the driver’s seat and starting the car when I hopped in the back. Archer , who was in the front passenger seat, was already talking to me before I could get my question out.
“Ruthie wears a necklace with pink boxing gloves on it,” he said, and I tried to think back to whether I’d seen her wear it before while he continued. “ I gave that to her. It has a tracking device built into it in case something ever happened.”
There was a lot to unpack with that statement, and I wanted to ask him more, but right now I needed to focus on finding Ellie .
“She mentioned Ellie commenting on it a while back, and since we all knew Ellie was having issues with her ex, she wanted to know if we could give one to Ellie as well,” Archer explained. “ I thought it was a good idea, so Ruthie picked out a yellow pair of gloves for Ellie that attached to her necklace, and I added the tracking device to it. Ruthie only gave it to her a few days ago.”
I recalled seeing it on her this morning as I was exploring her body when we woke up but didn’t ask about it because my mind was consumed with other thoughts.
Her beautiful face popped into my mind, and all I could think of was that I’d finally made the decision to take a chance with her, and now I may not get it. We needed to find her. I had to find her.
I just hoped we could find her in time before that asshole hurt her—or worse.