Chapter 12
Rex
My head felt fucking weird when I woke up.
Like the worst hangover I'd ever had, and I'd had some doozies.
I blinked open my eyes, but they kept falling shut again, and when I shifted in the bed, my head swam, and God my mouth was as dry as a handful of trail mix without the raisins. I didn't even drink that fucking much.
I lay on the bed and waited for the ceiling to come into focus. It took forever. My eyelids felt weighted and sleep kept clawing at my mind. I'd had four hours sleep on worse nights and woken sharp. This wasn't right. In fact, it was downright wrong.
Desperately needing a glass of water, I pushed upright and swung my legs over the side of the bed. My vision swam so I just sat there, pressing the heels of my hands against my eyes until the room stopped tilting.
The funny thing is, I could have sworn I got up only a minute or two ago and fetched a glass of water. Though now that I thought about it, I was in the clubhouse back home and that couldn't be fucking true. And Christ, I'm fucking freezing.
"Rahat."
Her name came out rough from my dry throat. I sat and listened for a moment more. The flat felt quiet. More than that, it felt empty.
"Rahat," I called again, only to be met with silence.
Shit!
I stood too fast and had to catch the bedpost to steady myself. My heart raced and my jaw clenched. I flexed my hands into fists while forcing myself not to punch the wall, and then I pushed away from the bed and searched.
The flat was empty. Rahat was gone. In the kitchen, I found her wine glass with a slight lipstick mark on the rim, sitting on the counter. Mine was in the sink, rinsed clean.
That second fucking glass. It was fruiter than the first. God damn it, Rahat. What did you do? Although, I knew what she’d fucking done. I should have seen it coming, but I was being too fucking careful not to push her.
I found my phone and called her. It rang five times before going to voicemail. I called again and listened to it ring while my eyes locked on to the glass in the sink. Seconds later, I was pulling on my jeans and T-shirt and calling Gabriel.
"She's gone," I said as soon as he answered.
"How long?"
"I don't know. She drugged me." The words felt like a knife in the heart. I said them like a statement of fact, even though I hoped to fucking God they weren't true. "She's not answering her phone."
"Andrea?" I moved to the window and checked outside. He was still there and I said as much to Gabriel.
"She got a message before we left your office," I said and rubbed my brow. My head was pounding worse and worse, and even thinking straight took effort. "Remember? She moved to the window to read it. She told me it was Priya." I stopped into the hall and grabbed my jacket. "What if it wasn't?"
"You think she went to meet Dexter?"
"I don't know what the fuck I think."
I was about to say more, but Gabriel asked me to hold on for a second. "My private number’s ringing," he said. "Only a few people have it. It could be her."
As I waited for him to return, I rushed outside, met Andrea at the car, and explained the situation to him.
"Fuck," he said, echoing my sentiments exactly.
"Rex, you still there," Gabriel's voice sounded even more concerned along the line.
"Was it Rahat?"
"No." I put the phone on hand-free so Andrea could hear.
"It was a taxi driver. He said he dropped her off at Hopton Street just before ten.
She paid him a hundred pounds to come back half an hour later to collect her.
" His voice carried the flat tone of someone fighting to stay in control. "She didn't show."
"She gave him your number." She knew she might not make it out. She’d planned for it, and she went anyway.
"She did. Told him to wait twenty minutes and if she wasn't there to call."
"Does he know where she went?" Andrea asked.
"Yeah. Clever bugger thought something was off, so after he pulled away he circled back,” Gabriel said.
“He said she went to an old industrial building along the riverside but set back from the road.
After that he doesn't know what happened.
He took another fare from a nearby pub before making his way back. "
"You know where we're going?" I asked Andrea.
"I know it. We'll be there in ten."
"Good. I'm only fifteen minutes away. I'll meet you there," Gabriel said. "And Rex--"
"I'm not waiting."
He didn't argue. I didn't give him the chance before ending the call.
~
The building sat back from the road behind iron railings gone rust-orange at the joints. The official way in required a walk along a side street and then the riverside walkway. Andrea killed the engine and I hopped out before it stopped moving.
Music came from somewhere distant and a man stepped off the curb the second I did. "You Gabriel?" he asked, making me take a second glance. The guy was heavyset, late fifties, and he looked like he'd been standing in the cold for some time.
"No," I said. "But we know him. You're the taxi driver that called?"
He glanced at Andrea as he came around the hood of the car.
"The girl I dropped off here. I... I went and had a look myself.
Couldn't just sit in the car now could I?
" He nodded towards the building. "The doors are all locked, and the windows are too high to reach and see anything through.
Place looks empty, if you ask me." He pushed his hands into his jacket pocket.
"Truth be told, I was about to call the police. "
"Don't," I said and kept walking. "Gabriel's two minutes behind us. Talk to him."
"Mate. I'm not sure about any of this. I told her to be careful. A pretty young thing like her."
I huffed out a deep breath and stopped. "I know," I said, realising that he was a good man and truly worried. "She's mine," I said. "I'll find her."
Something in my face must have settled the argument as he stepped back. Andrea pressed something into his hand. The man looked down at the fold of notes and then back up, looking like he was about to protest, but I was already moving towards the gate.
He was right, the doors were locked. That didn't stop me from imagining it was Dexter’s head and fucking smashing it in.
I went in low and fast. Andrea followed a step behind, flicking the light switch in the process. We were greeted by concrete floors, high walls, and the ghosts of machinery in the bolt patterns on the floor. The space was empty.
I crossed to the light and saw dark patches in the concrete before it. I crouched and pulled my torchlight up on my phone. Before touching the patch.
"Blood," I said. Not enough. But a lot.
The thought made me want to fucking throw up.
Instead, I stood and followed the smear leading away from it.
There were parallel drag lines in the dust, heading towards the second door I'd noted on entry.
I straightened and stared at it for a moment.
Andrea said something behind me but all I could hear was the blood pumping in my ears.
Rahat had been here and so had Adam. I don't know what she was fucking thinking, but she wasn't thinking straight. I bet that fucker threatened Priya if she didn't come. That was the only thing I could think of that would get her here in a heartbeat.
A hand landed on my shoulder and I jumped around, fists swinging. Only to pull the punch when I saw Gabriel standing before me. "We'll find her," he said. "I have people on it already."
"Tell them to work fast," I said. 'Cause I'm gonna find Adam Dexter, and I'm gonna fucking kill him.