Chapter 11
Gannix
I tug at my hair as I look out the window of my office, pacing back and forth, waiting for Ren to get here. I was down with that fucking headache for days, just like I knew I’d be, and now everything is fucked.
I can’t believe it either. I can’t believe that she’s fucking gone, and I have no idea where she is.
The door opens, and I spin around to see Ren coming through the door.
“I have nothing, Gannix. Nothing at all. I have no fucking idea where Emerson is,” he reports after I sent him over to her house to check on her. I should have had him checking the whole fucking time I was down, but I didn’t, and that’s my goddamn fault.
“No signs of breaking in?”
“No. Nothing.”
“This doesn’t make sense, Ren. She wouldn’t go anywhere. She doesn’t fucking know anyone!” I roar this time.
“I’ve checked her cell and everything, Gannix. There’s nothing. No new phone calls or texts. It’s like she just fucking disappeared.”
“But we know that isn’t possible, so where the hell is she?”
“What do you want me to do here?”
“I want everyone out looking for her. I want the cops on this, too. She’s out there, and someone knows where she is,” I tell him. He nods his head and pulls his phone out, sending off multiple text messages as I continue to pace. I’ve already punched three holes in the walls and busted nearly everything on my desk. My nerves are shot. I don’t know where she could be, but she certainly isn’t with her ex because I took care of his ass.
“I got messages out to everyone,” Ren tells me. This is all fucked. Completely fucked. But it’s my fault. I wasn’t watching her because I was down. I should have been watching her, just like I have been for so long.
“I don’t understand this,” I say as I turn to face Ren.
“Honestly, I don’t either, Nix. This doesn’t make sense, and it isn’t her to just disappear like this.”
“This isn’t her. Someone has her. Someone took her,” I tell him.
“We can’t prove that.”
“I know I can’t prove that, but I also know her, Ren!” I know her better than anyone else at this point. No one knows her the way I do. And that’s exactly the way I wanted it.
“I know you do. I’m not sure where to look, Nix. I’ve checked every hotel, homeless shelter, and hospital around. She isn’t there.”
“Then someone has her. Whoever the fuck was watching her has her.”
“You think it’s the assholes next door?” he asks. I shrug. I wouldn’t think so. They aren’t very old, but they did annoy her. They’d do stupid shit just to piss her off or get her outside so they could look at her.
“Let’s go visit them,” I tell him. I walk over, grab my cell off the desk and head for the door.
“You think that’s a good idea?”
“Why the hell not?”
“They’re only like nineteen, Nix. I doubt they took her. Don’t they still live with their parents?” he asks me.
“Fuck. Fuck!” he’s right. Doesn’t mean I like it, but he’s right. They wouldn’t have her, and if they did, I would kill them and their family.
“I can’t sit here,” I tell him.
“Fine. Let’s go,” he says. I nod my head and follow him out of the office and downstairs. He walks out and climbs in his SUV as I get in the passenger seat. I don’t know where the fuck we’re going, and I don’t really care as long as it isn’t here.
Ren takes off as I look out the windows. It’s going to rain soon, and I can only hope she isn’t outside in this shit.
“Go to her house,” I tell him. He doesn’t have to say anything; he just drives. I watch out the windows as we go when the rain starts coming down. I’m pissed. I’m beyond pissed. The anger inside me isn’t going to settle anytime soon. Not until I find her.
We pull up in front of her house, and Ren parks the car. I pull my keys from my pocket as I climb out and stalk toward the front door. I insert the key and unlock it, letting myself in. Ren doesn’t follow me, and I’m grateful for that.
I slam the door closed and look at the couch, the one she sat on with her dead ex. Poor girl thought she was losing her mind when I quickly removed his body like it was never there to begin with. I couldn’t let the cops find him, though.
I turn my head and look down the hall toward her room, and that’s where my feet take me. When I step inside I can smell her perfume everywhere. The whole fucking room smells like her. I walk over to the dresser and smirk at the white roses in the vase. I wonder who she thought left them for her. Her ex, maybe? Either way, she kept them, knowing someone had been in her house.
My little Emerson is a little strange and maybe a little too trusting of people. Hell, she let me fuck her while she was drugged and still went back for more. I know all about her life. The way her mother raised her and what she was. I know basically everything there is to know about Emerson.
Her favorite color. Her favorite food. Where she was born, and at what hospital. The way she hates not having some kind of noise in the room. Emerson hates the silence. Which is what this room is right now. Silent. She would hate this.
Walking over, I run my hand along her blanket and then pick up her pillow, bringing it to my nose and inhaling her scent. A feral roar tears from my throat but is absorbed by the pillow. I want her back. I want to know who dared to lay a hand on what belongs to me. I want to watch them suffer and die by my hand. And they will once I know who they are.
I remove the pillow from my face and place it back on the bed before turning and heading back out of her room and down the hall. Like Ren said, nothing has been touched. Everything is in its rightful place.
I walk back outside and stand in the pouring rain before getting back in the car.
“I want her things moved out of that house and stored,” I tell him.
“Then what?”
“Sell the fucking house. She isn’t going to need it when I find her,” I tell him.
“What? What do you mean?” I look over at him now, and he can see the look in my eyes.
“There’s no fucking way she’s leaving my sight ever again after this, Ren.”
“But what about …” he trails off, not saying what I already know.
“Doesn’t matter. She’ll never know.”
“How the hell do you plan to keep that a secret, Nix?”
“Same way I have been,” I admit.
“Drugging her all the time isn’t good for her health. It’s not a long-term solution,” he adds. I run my hand through my hair.
“I know. I’ll … I’ll figure something out. Just get the house sold and the money into her account.”
“And if we don’t find her?” The rage that courses through my veins at his words burns me from the inside out.
“We’ll find her.”
“There’s a chance …” he begins, but I throw my hand up to stop him. No. Not finding her isn’t an option. “Gannix, come on.”
“Ren, you’re my friend. Basically, my only friend, and I’d like to keep it that way,” I tell him. He nods his head, knowing what I’m saying to him. I could kill Ren in a heartbeat and not blink a fucking eye, but I do have a slight soft spot for him at times.
“Where to now?”
“I want to double-check all the hospitals,” I tell him. He doesn’t say a word this time; he just pulls off and drives.
My mind is all over the place. I don’t know where she could be. There isn’t anywhere she frequents aside from Charlie’s, and I know she isn’t there.
After we check the hospitals once more, we head to the club. I need to be alone. I need to think.
I climb out of the car and head inside, stopping in the middle of the room and staring at the floor. This is all fucked. All of it. She isn’t here. I know she isn’t, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I can feel her. I can see her dancing and smiling at me over her fucking shoulder. I can feel her hips in my hands and taste her on my tongue.
Whoever has her is going to pay. I’m going to make them pay.