Chapter 43 Hawk
Hawk
I go to the exterior doors to let Damon and Cam in. Because we’re the only ones in the building, it’s locked up.
“You didn’t tell her we caught an earlier flight?” Cam asks. He strides in and looks down the empty hallway like I’m hiding Annie behind my back.
“And ruin the surprise?” I run a hand over my hair. “Honestly, she’s a hot mess today, and I didn’t want her watching the clock, knowing you guys would be here. But we’re on break now.”
“Did she text Mia?” Damon asks.
I nod. “She’s worried she lost her best friend. And also worried her best friend was fucking with her life, since we haven’t been able to clear Mia.”
Cam leads the way to the theater room. “How’s the play going?”
“Good. Everyone’s doing well.” When I open the doors, I’m surprised Annie isn’t where I left her. She was ready to do notes just like she always does, but maybe she had to use the bathroom.
Damon looks around like Annie might be hiding from him. “Bathroom?”
“Maybe?” I really didn’t expect her to disappear in the few minutes it took to go get the guys.
Keira walks in, looking at her tablet.
“Hey, did you see Annie?” I ask.
Keira looks up at me and then at the others. “Hey, guys. What?”
She’s as bad as Annie sometimes. “Annie. Was she wherever you were?”
“I don’t think so, but I was trying to figure out what the lighting tech is trying to do for the soliloquy. She probably could have walked right past me, honestly.” Keira makes her way to the table. “She’ll be back when the time is up.”
Damon turns and heads out into the hallway.
“Where are you going?” I ask, following him.
“Checking the bathroom.”
“Seriously?” I shake my head. “She’s fine. If you’re worried, check your phone.”
He stops and pulls out his phone and brings up the app that tracks Annie’s phone. It doesn’t give an exact location, but it shows her phone is in this wing of the building.
“We’re the only ones here. The other play was scheduled for earlier in the day, so everyone could use the larger black box theater. You don’t have to hunt her down in the bathroom.”
“Fine.” Damon walks back into the theater room and calls her phone.
“She’s not going to answer in the bathroom.” Cam rolls his eyes.
“But she’ll text.”
The phone goes to voicemail. More people are returning from break. Mark says hi as he passes, but he tends to want to stay in character between scenes.
Damon waits a few seconds and then he pulls up the other app for Annie’s ring. It takes a moment to upload. He straightens suddenly. “What the fuck?”
I glance over his shoulder. The dot is speeding away from the theater. I pull up Annie’s phone tracker and it still shows her phone here. I press the play-sound button to find her phone. A very slight beep sounds over the people chatting while waiting for the break to be over.
“Keira, something’s wrong,” I say. “I need quiet.”
“Hey, I need everyone to be quiet!” Her yell fills the room.
Crystal stops next to Keira. “Have you seen Chase? He’s not in the hallway.”
I hit play-sound again.
“It’s coming from over here,” someone says from near the set.
I lead the way behind the temporary walls. The phone continues to go off. It’s dark, so I turn on the flashlight app.
Damon hurries ahead when he sees someone on the floor, but it’s clearly not Annie. He picks up Annie’s phone and hands it to me. She dropped it or someone might have tried to break it. The screen protector is shattered. He rolls the guy over, and his face is unrecognizable from swelling.
“Fuck, is that Chase?” Cam says.
“Call 9-1-1!” Damon yells, checking for a pulse and breathing, and then steps over Chase. He moves into a small antechamber and pushes open a door below an exit sign. It leads outside.
My heart pounds so loudly in my ears. She’s not here. Fuck. I study the surrounding area for any clues to who or what happened to her.
Damon steps outside and looks around. He holds his phone up to see where the dot is and takes a screenshot. “Does someone have him?”
He must be talking about Chase. Mark hovers over him. “Yeah, we’ll get him medical attention.”
“Good.”
“Where’s EvanAnn?” Keira asks in a very small, worried voice.
Damon glances at her. “That’s what we’re going to find out. Hawk, stay here, find out if anyone saw anything. Chase is going to wake up, and hopefully he knows more.”
I’m looking around the area with my flashlight when I see a blood smear on a wooden stool. My stomach twists. “Damon.”
He turns and looks. He glances over at Chase, who doesn’t appear to be bleeding. Whoever took her might have hurt her.
“9-1-1 will send everything. Police, ambulance, fire truck. Tell the police when they arrive. You have her location and ours.” Damon clasps my hand. “We’ll get her back.”
I swallow down the fear and nod. Cam and Damon head out the door and walk around the building. I turn back and look for a stagehand. When I find Rob, I stop him.
“Did someone have this door open?”
Rob opens his mouth and closes it a few times before nodding his head. “It-it gets hot.”
I nod. At least that’s one mystery solved. Someone left the door open, which might be why Annie came back here. But why was Chase here? Was he harassing her? Did he lead her back here and get betrayed?
I walk through the main area where everyone is gathered. When I glance at Keira, she nods. Practice is cancelled. This is a fucking crime scene.
“If anyone saw anything, please let us know. We all need to stay here until the authorities arrive. Make yourselves comfortable.” Keira goes to her desk.
“Hawk?” Sophie tugs at my sleeve before I reach the door to the hallway. I just need a minute to calm myself before I start asking people what they saw.
I glare down at her. I don’t have any time for her bullshit. My stomach is in knots. I shouldn’t have left Annie alone, but she wasn’t. She’s never alone during practice.
Sophie wrings her hands and has that horribly guilty look like she did something wrong.
“He told me not to say anything, and then I didn’t want to get in trouble. This is my first real break at this school. A junior in a pretty important role.” She glances over her shoulder like she’s afraid someone will overhear, and I grab her arm to drag her into the hallway.
The door closes behind us, and I release her. “What are you talking about?”
“The rose. I didn’t know it was going to hurt her, and then it did and you were so angry.
I didn’t want you mad at me. I just thought he liked her, and if she liked him, maybe she’d break up with you, and then we could be together.
And I know now that was stupid, but he made it sound so fucking easy and real. ” She’s practically trembling.
I take a slow breath. I filter through all the words. “The rose? You put it on the desk?”
She lifts her face and tears stream down her cheeks.
“I did. He didn’t want me to touch it though, so he gave me a glove.
It was odd, but a lot of kids in the art school are odd.
Maybe he just didn’t want my germs on it.
I didn’t know. I put the note and the rose on her script so she wouldn’t miss it.
But when she picked it up...” She covers her mouth, and the tears multiply.
“Sophie, listen to me. You’re not going to get in trouble. I need to know who gave you the rose.” I keep my tone flat and sympathetic, but inside I’m raging. The temptation to ruin her life pulses through me, but I have other things to focus on.
“I thought he liked her. I thought it was a gift.” She cries a little more, wasting precious time. “I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known.”
“Who, Sophie?”
She peeks up at me. “Brandt.”
Damon
There’s this tight feeling in my chest, like I can’t take a full breath. Someone took her. Someone took her when I was right here. If I’d been earlier. If I’d told her we would be there. If, if, if.
Whoever has her has a lead on us, and they aren’t moving slowly. I don’t want to think about the blood smear or how badly Chase was beaten up. Is that how they managed to take Evan? They hurt her?
I’ll kill them if they hurt her.
“Hey, you okay?” Cam connects to our helmets instead of the phone. He made some calls while we tracked the dot.
“Did you get ahold of them?” I’m not examining that cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. That empty space that Evan usually fills. She’s alive. She has to be.
“Yeah, my mom and dad were still at your house. Adam talked to me. Wanted me to send the tracking information so he could let the authorities know.”
“When we stop.” It’s not exactly something he can do while we ride, and we’ve already wasted too much time.
“That’s what I told him.” Cam rides alongside me. “My dad can track my phone, so they’ll have that.”
I have my phone set so I can watch the map. The dot has stopped moving, but it’s still too far away for us to catch up quickly. Suddenly, it blinks out of existence. One second it’s there, the next second it’s gone.
I pull to the side of the road. Fuck. “Pull it up on your phone.”
Cam stops next to me and takes off his gloves to use his phone. “No signal for the ring.”
“Fuck,” I look at the spot where the signal was lost.
“It could pick it back up. Maybe it just went through a bad spot.”
“Maybe this whole area is a fucking bad spot.” Why did I think I could control this? Why did I think she was safe? Just because I put a piece of jewelry on her and called her mine?
But I didn’t think she was safe. She was always with one of us. Always with other people. Fuck, she was with Chase when she was taken. What the fuck was Chase doing with her? Did he set it up and whoever took her fucked him up as payment?
“We’re going to find her.” Cam’s words are low and steady.
“Let’s drive to where we lost the signal. Call Hawk and let him know. See if he’s found out anything.” I put my engine into first gear and shift up as we head down the road. No matter what, I’m going to find her.
EvanAnn