Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHARLIE
I paced around our living room and peered at my phone again. It had been nearly a half hour since Athena had messaged me about the wine, but I hadn’t received a response that she had gotten it and was on her way home.
Hell, it didn’t even look like she had read it.
Athie usually read my messages immediately, and she always responded.
My stomach twisted into knots, and I swallowed hard. We should’ve left for the party ten minutes ago. While I was fine with not going at all, Athie didn’t like being late. She wouldn’t have gone anywhere else, would she?
When another minute passed and she still hadn’t walked through the front door to our apartment, I picked up my phone and called Heather. Athena had gone over to Heather’s place this morning to get ready.
The phone rang and rang and rang, then eventually went to voicemail.
“Fuck,” I growled, then called Sierra.
It rang twice, and then she answered. “Hello?”
Loud music played in the background. She must be at Radiant. Was Athena there with her? Maybe they had decided to get a drink to calm Athena’s nerves before the party. Honestly, I wanted to believe anything at the moment.
But … I knew something was wrong.
“Sierra, is Athena with you?” I asked.
“What?” she asked. “Hold on. Let me go into the hallway, where it’s quieter.”
My heart pounded against my rib cage so loudly that I could hear it in my ears. Fuck.
A couple of moments later, she returned. “Hey, what’s up, Charlie?”
“Is Athena with you?”
“No, she left Heather’s place, like, an hour and a half ago,” she said. “We’re at Radiant.”
“Fuck,” I whispered, pacing around and running a hand through my hair. “Fuck!”
“Why? She never came home?” Sierra asked, worried.
“No.”
“Okay, um, let me see if any of the girls have seen or heard from her,” Sierra said, the music becoming louder again. She shouted over the music, then muttered, “I’ll call you right back.” Then the call ended.
“Fuck!” I shouted, dialing Athena’s phone.
Nothing.
I messaged her every way that I could, called her again and again.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing!
Deciding that I needed to find her, that I could at least search for her car, I grabbed my jacket and threw it over my shoulder. She had been coming home from Heather’s house. I knew the route she took. Her car had to be at one of the three liquor stores along the way.
After running to my car, I started it and pressed on the gas, not caring how fast that I went. I needed to find Athena now. The sooner, the better. Then we wouldn’t even go to that stupid fucking party tonight.
We’d go home and forget about it all.
Halfway to the first liquor store, my phone buzzed. Hector.
“None of the girls have seen her,” Hector said over the phone. “They’re driving around now to all the spots that they hang out at to see if she’s there. Sierra said that her phone shows that her last location was at Fifth Avenue, downtown. But that was over thirty minutes ago.”
“Fuck,” I murmured, running another hand through my hair.
“Steven and I are close,” Hector said. “We’ll go check it out.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes.”
I drove by the first liquor store, not spotting Athena inside or her car around, so I drove to the next one on Fifth, where Athena’s phone had apparently last updated. My heart pounded hard inside my chest, and I swallowed.
Something wasn’t right. She wasn’t here. I already knew it.
My stomach dropped when I spotted Hector and Steven on the sidewalk in front of Athena’s car. But Athena wasn’t in it, nor was she with them, nor was she inside the liquor store from what I could tell.
Once I illegally parked in the bus lane, I hopped out of my car and jogged to Hector and Steven, who talked tensely with each other. When I approached, they immediately looked up at me.
“Did you find her?”
“No,” I said, looking into her car. “She’s not here?”
Hector and Steven shared a look, and then Hector peered down at the sidewalk, where there were a couple of drops of blood. Nothing too suspicious, but … I knew, deep down, that the blood was from Athena.
Not only that, but there was a diamond on the ground beside it.
The diamond from the ring I’d bought her.
I picked it up, heart racing so loudly that I almost didn’t notice the bus whizzing by and the driver giving me the finger for parking in its lane. My mouth dried.
No. No, I didn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.
Athena wouldn’t … Athena couldn’t …
My phone buzzed inside my suit pants, and I yanked it out, answering the call without looking at the contact. It had to be Sierra or Heather, or maybe it was even Athena, calling me back.
“Did you find her?” I asked.
“Find who?” an amused Derek asked over the phone. “Your wife? She’s with me.”
Adrenaline rushed through me. “What the fuck did you do to her?”
“Say hi, Athie,” Derek taunted.
There was silence on the other end, and then my phone buzzed in my hand. I peeled it away from my ear and stared at the pictures on the screen. Rage bubbled up inside me, and I slammed my fist right into Athena’s car door.
With blood dripping from a gash in her forehead, Athena lay in a cage in the middle of my parents’ living room, naked and on display for my entire family of fucked-up animals.
“Looks like she hasn’t woken up yet,” Derek hummed. “But don’t worry. We’ll make sure she gets a good introduction to the family when she does. See you soon, brother.”