Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
Bishop
I stare at the clock on my phone. It’s well past the time that Elijah was supposed to be delivering Fallon to my truck.
Tonight, it was a party at her friend’s house that was expected to run well past Fallon’s curfew.
Rather than argue with us about staying out, she asked if we could follow the same plan we did for the movies, and I agreed.
Elijah is one of the younger guys on Levi’s staff, but he’s polite and punctual.
This is unusual for him, and I press the call button on his name, holding the phone up to my ear.
“Hello?” His voice is raspy and weak as hell, and it sends warning bells off in my head.
“Where are you?” I demand.
“At home. I couldn’t make it tonight. Sorry. I’ve got food poisoning or something. I sent one of the guys who I know from the MC over to get her.”
“That wasn’t the deal. You were supposed to pick her up.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to let you down. So I thought this would be the next best thing.”
“Who did you send?” I tap my fingers against my steering wheel, anxious at the idea of some guy I don’t know having my daughter on the back of his motorcycle.
“Casey.”
“Casey? The fucking prospect? You sent a guy who isn’t even patched yet to pick up my daughter?” My temper flares bright fucking red at the idea that someone could just casually make decisions like that. “Who okayed that? Where the fuck is Ledger?”
“I just asked Casey. I didn’t run it up the chain because it seemed simple enough. He was taking her less than half a mile. Didn’t think I needed to bring Ledger in on it.” Elijah tries to explain the inexplicable decision.
“Well, you fucking did. Send me his number.”
“Yes, s—” I don’t let him finish his sentence.
I disconnect the phone and send off a text to Levi while I wait for Elijah to text me the number. The second it pops up, I hit dial. The call goes straight to voicemail.
“Fuck!” I slam my hand against the steering wheel and start the engine, taking off around the corner and heading for the address Fallon gave us for the party.
I pull up to the curb and drop it into park.
There are kids spread across the porch, and I can see through the windows well enough to see even more of them inside the craftsman house.
The party is still going, and I’m hoping she’s still inside.
I scan the street as I walk across it, looking for a motorcycle and any sign of Casey.
I know who he is and what he looks like.
It’s my job to know who anyone is that comes and goes under the guise of security at the Avarice, but I don’t know him well.
The MC guys report to Ledger when it concerns the work they do for Levi, and I trust him to run his own outfit well enough.
A couple of girls spot me crossing the street and ditch their cups, yelling inside to the rest of the party that a parent’s coming up the walk.
Fallon will never let me live this down.
I’m probably setting the progress of our whole relationship back months by barging in to hunt her down, but I need to know where she is.
“You see Fallon anywhere?”
“Fallon Blackwood? Not recently. I saw her earlier,” the girl answers me.
I open the door, and the group of kids undulates away from me like a school of fish that’s spotted a shark in the water, tightening their circle. I can imagine I look scary right now, given how worried I am.
“Fallon Blackwood. You see her?” I call over the music.
Several of them shake their heads, but one girl pops her head around the corner from the other room.
“Fallon?” she asks.
“Yeah. You seen her?”
“She left a little while ago with some guy on a motorcycle.”
Fuck. I hoped she was still here.
“Did you see what he looked like?” I want to make sure I get any details I can for the search party I’m about to send out with Levi and Ledger’s help.
“Not well. But maybe six-ish feet. Light-brown hair cut short. Black leather jacket.”
“Thanks.” That sounded like a generic description of Casey. As good as I’m gonna get anyway.
“You her dad?” the girl asks.
I don’t bother to answer, making my way back out the door and to my car. I dial Fallon’s number.
It rings. And rings. And rings. Until I finally get her voicemail, the sound of her voice on the recording only makes my chest tighter. I leave a message telling her to call me and fire off a text message. And another. And another.
There’s no answer. No bubble. No dots. Nothing.
Levi’s answered my text though.
Levi:
Call me.
When he answers before a second ring, I’m grateful and on edge. It means he’s as worried as I am.
“Elijah’s sick and sent Casey from the MC to pick up Fallon. She left the party she was at a few minutes ago, but she never showed up at my truck. Kids at the party described a guy who meets Casey’s description.”
“Could she have gone straight home for some reason?” Levi ponders other possibilities.
“Not without texting me. She knows I’m waiting for her out here. We discussed it. It was even her idea.”
“Well fuck.”
“I need to call Aspen, but if you can start running that down the chain through Ledger. See if anyone has any ideas where Casey might have taken Fallon.”
“Let’s hope it’s a misunderstanding somewhere.”
“Let’s hope,” I agree, but I don’t have much hope in me. I can’t even think of a theoretical situation where this ends well.
“What do you mean you don’t know where she is?” Aspen’s voice turns glacial.
“Elijah was supposed to pick her up just like last time. Drive her the seven blocks to where I’m parked and then go home.
But he got food poisoning and sent Casey instead.
According to one of the girls at the party, Fallon left a while ago.
If she’s not home, and you haven’t heard from her…
I don’t have her. Elijah doesn’t either. ”
“Where is Casey? Does Levi know? Does he have an address?” I hear the fear in Aspen’s voice.
“He’s on it. I let him know to call Ledger. I only called him first because I wanted that in motion before I called you and told you.” I try to reassure her any way I can.
“No, you did the right thing. I’m glad he’s on it already, or I’d be hanging up on you.”
“You want me to come get you?”
“Yes. Please. I don’t know what we’ll do, but I can’t just sit here. I feel sick.”
“I’m sure we’ll find her, and she’ll be fine. Probably just grabbing ice cream or something. Didn’t realize it was gonna take that long.” I try for something, anything, that sounds remotely plausible. I know I did nonsensical things when I was her age.
But by the end of the night, we haven’t found Fallon.
She hasn’t come home. She hasn’t called or texted.
And now when I ring her phone, it goes straight to voicemail.
My stomach bottoms out, and I wrap my arms around Aspen as she sobs into my chest. I’m trying to hold it together for her, but my own composure is hanging by a thread at this point.
I want my girl home, and I desperately want to know she’s safe.
Levi and Ledger meet us along with Grant and Dakota in his office.
“Any notes?”
“Casey’s missing too. I’ve got a couple of my guys and Levi’s searching for him.
Hoping he’s out there somewhere, just at a bar or some other place.
Mighta taken a shine to your daughter, and if she asked him to help her stay out past curfew, they could be out running around.
But it’s a small town, you know. They have to turn up.
” Ledger trails off when he sees my eyes go dark.
“If he took a shine to my fifteen-year-old daughter, I will take a shine to his fucking eye—both of them—his whole damn body will be black and blue for weeks. Organs might cease to fucking function.” I stand up, my fists balling as I try to find what’s left of my inner calm. If there even is any.
“I won’t stand in the way. Fuck, man. My guys will be there helping you. I don’t want this any more than you do; I’m just hoping it’s that over worse alternatives,” Ledger agrees.
“We have to find her first. Do you have tracking on her phone?” Levi looks at Aspen.
“No. I never had to because she always told me where she was going and what she was doing. She’s always followed that rule.” Aspen shakes her head, her eyes rimmed with red as she looks between us.
“I might still be able to get a few leads through my connections.” Levi looks at Grant. “Can we get some more guys out on the street? I know we’re spread thin, but the sooner the better on things like this.”
“Things like this?” Aspen asks, the concern in her voice making it shake.
“I just mean she’s missing. The faster we act, the more likely it is we find her close to home.” Levi gives her a sympathetic look before his eyes flick to mine, worry and anger swarming behind them, both of us at a loss for how to stop Aspen’s pain.
“I need my baby home,” Aspen cries into her hands, and I drop to my knees, wrapping my hands around her wrists.
“We’re gonna find her, Aspen. You know we won’t stop until we have her back home in your arms. Whatever it takes, we’ll get her back to you as fast as we can.” I do my best to sound confident and well measured as I attempt to reassure my wife.
We have to find her. The alternative is more than I can bear.