Chapter 10
“We have an emergency,” Travis said as he strode into the meeting room, the door slamming behind him.
“It is way too early in the morning for this,” Tyler groaned as he took a sip from his takeaway coffee cup. No doubt it was something ghastly like a caramel vanilla latte. Or something equally as sweet and disgusting.
What was wrong with coffee by itself?
Nothing. It was manly and it got the job done.
“Did you sleep at all?” Clay asked. “Why do you look so awful?”
“Listen to me. Focus,” he barked. “Caren is missing.”
“Wait, Caren? Caren-Caren?” Tyler asked, sitting up straight.
“Caren Caren?” Alexa asked, moving her head up from where she’d been reading something on her laptop. “She has the same first name and last name? That rocks.”
“Ahh, no, I just meant Caren, as in our cousin’s friend,” Tyler explained.
“Did Lacey contact you?” Jace asked.
“Isn’t she on her honeymoon?” Clay asked.
Everyone started talking except Rusty who sat at the other end of the long table and frowned at him.
“Quiet!” Travis yelled.
Everyone fell quiet. Alexa had returned to studying her laptop, obviously bored now that she’d learned that Caren’s first and last names weren’t the same. Marc was looking confused and he thought that Shane had fallen back asleep. Gable was staring at him as if he’d never seen him before.
He sighed. “Caren is now living in New York. I ran into her a week ago when I was out to dinner.”
“You go out to dinner?” Marc asked.
“Yes,” he said impatiently.
“What sort of restaurant was it?” Gable asked.
“A nice one,” he said, unsure where they were going with this.
“Were you on a date?” Marc asked, sitting up straight. “You can’t have been, right? You don’t date.”
“Stranger things have been known to happen,” Alexa said without looking up. “What’s this woman’s last name?”
Thank God someone was paying attention and being serious.
“Caren Stanford. Five-feet-tall. Blonde hair with pink streaks. Fond of pink and orange. Works as a wedding photographer.”
“Caren is really missing?” Tyler asked. “How do you know?”
“I didn’t think you even liked her,” Clay said. “You actually talked to her the other night?”
“Yes, I talked to her,” he said impatiently. “And I have her number so I can check in with her. My last contact with her was yesterday morning at ten. I have messaged and called several times since and she hasn’t answered. Her phone is now turned off.”
“I’m on it,” Alexa said.
“Wait, so we don’t know she’s missing,” Jace said. “Just that she’s not answering your calls and messages.”
“Which you can’t blame her for,” Clay added. “Considering that you don’t even like her.”
“I don’t dislike her,” he said. “And she answered my other messages. Something is wrong.”
“You’re very concerned about her,” Marc said. “This woman means something to you?”
“She’s under my protection,” he stated.
“Since when?” Jace asked with a frown.
“Since a week ago.”
“Does she know this?” Rusty asked quietly.
“Yes.”
“But does she agree?” Jace asked.
Fuck it. Why did Jace always have to ask the right questions? Must be because he’d been a cop. He was good at reading people.
“No,” he grumbled. “She agreed to me having her number so I could check in. But just because she doesn’t agree to being under my protection doesn’t mean that she’s not.”
“Christ, you have so many red flags it’s a wonder you found someone to date,” Alexa said, leaning her elbow on the table. “I love red flags. They’re like my love language.”
“You need help,” Marc told her. “Serious help.”
“What? Like therapy?” she asked, scrunching up her nose.
“And maybe drugs,” Gable added.
“Hmm. Let me think about that. Nah. I don’t want anything I’m feeling to be diluted.”
“Look, let’s just get on with the job at hand,” Travis told them. “Caren is missing and we need to find her. Who knows what could have happened to her. She might have gone on a date with a serial killer.”
“I think the odds of that are pretty low,” Tyler told him.
“In this city, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Alexa said. “Of course, I’m trying to find a serial killer to date and keep getting nice guys.”
“Yeah, you definitely need to be medicated,” Gable drawled.
“I mean, not necessarily a serial killer. Just someone morally gray who operates on his own set of rules and doesn’t give a shit what anyone else thinks. I really don’t think it’s that much to ask for.”
“I don’t think she needs medication or counseling. I think she needs to be admitted,” Clay whispered.
“Rude,” Alexa said. “All right, I have her.”
“Wait, you do?” Travis asked, looking over at Alexa in surprise.
“Don’t know why you’re so surprised,” Alexa replied. “I am good at my job.”
“Where is she?” he asked. He didn’t have time for this chitchat. It was taking away from finding his girl . . . no, wait, Caren.
Not his.
He wasn’t interested in her like that. He just meant that she was under his protection.
“She’s staying at a hotel in Albany,” Alexa told him.
“A hotel in Albany?” Tyler repeated. “Does she still have family there?”
“I can look into that if you want,” Alexa said.
“We can’t invade her privacy,” Jace said. “That’s wrong.”
Travis disagreed. But he didn’t need to know about any family or friends.
“Just tell me where she is,” he said.
“Well, it looks like she’ll be back in the city in a few hours,” Alexa said. “She just booked a train ticket.”
“I need to get to Albany,” he said. “A train will take too long, though. I need a chopper. Tyler, get onto that, will you? Alexa, keep an eye on her.”
“Seems to me like it would be better to just wait until she returned home,” Rusty said suddenly. “Rather than go all the way to Albany and risk missing her.”
Everyone froze and turned to look at him. Because when Rusty spoke people tended to listen.
“He’s probably right, boss,” Shane said, finally waking up. “Then she won’t know about all of this.”
“Women react badly when they think you’re spying on them,” Clay added. “Alexa, how did you even find out this information?”
“Hacked her credit card,” Alexa replied casually as though that was something she did every day. “And for the record I wouldn’t care if my morally gray hunk hacked into my accounts to discover what I was up to.”
“Gable and Marc are right, you need something,” Travis said, pointing at her. “But we’ll talk about that later. Shit. All right. I’m going to go to her apartment and wait.”
“Slightly less of a red flag,” Jace muttered.
“But still on the stalker scale,” Alexa said with a smile. “I approve, boss.”
Hmm. He wasn’t sure that was a good thing.