Chapter 42 #2
Tyler needed me, and I was messing around with headlines and drama from a family I owed nothing to.
Someone thumped at the door. I jumped to open it, letting Arran in, Kane behind him.
“I think something’s happened to Tyler,” I burst out.
Arran’s careful gaze took me in. Since returning here, I hadn’t spoken to the skeleton crew’s leader. Barely seen him. Now, he was a lifeline.
“Tell me when you last saw him.”
I ran through us returning to the warehouse the previous evening and how we’d used one of the cam girl rooms. Heat painted my cheeks in a way that would never have happened in the past. But what we had wasn’t work. It was intimate and personal.
“I woke alone, back in our bed here,” I finished.
Arran inclined his head. “You’ve heard nothing since?”
“Not a word, and he hasn’t answered my calls. I figured he was just busy with work, and with handling Lex’s body.”
“He hasn’t been part of that. Nor did he return my all-crew call earlier. How long has he been gone?”
Ice stole into my veins. “Possibly since early morning.”
Arran took up his phone and dialled someone, raising it to his ear.
After a muttered discussion, he came back to me.
“Manny says he was last picked up on the warehouse’s cameras in the early hours.
The guard on the door recalls speaking to him.
He’s on his way up.” His brow furrowed. “Do you have a way to track him?”
My breath caught, and I snatched up my phone, pulling up his tracker. It spun, then settled on that same vague area to the north. No fixed point. Just a wide, useless stretch of land beyond the city covering miles.
I exhaled frustration. “It did this earlier. It won’t find him. Why would that be?”
“What kind of tracker is it?” Arran asked.
“One of mine,” Shade replied, stalking into the living room.
The tattooed enforcer’s scowl would scare the paint off wood.
“The only scenario where it won’t give a precise location is if there’s a signal issue.
Meaning he’s someplace remote with no one with a phone nearby to connect to and report back. ”
My heart beat faster. I didn’t like this.
Everything about it felt wrong.
A knock brought the guard into our midst. Cassie came to me and curled an arm through mine, giving comfort I desperately needed.
The guard started his explanation. “A man came to the door last night, asking for Tyler.”
“What time?” Arran asked.
“Midway through the night shift, just before dawn. He demanded to see Tyler. His uncle, he called himself.”
Tension rolled off Arran. “His uncle? Manny, can you get a picture?”
He had his phone held out, and I realised a call was connected.
“Sent,” a disembodied voice returned.
A second later, and his phone buzzed.
Arran held up the overhead shot of a man in his sixties with a faint resemblance to Tyler. “Jonas.”
“You know him?” I asked.
His slow nod did nothing to help my nerves.
The guard tugged at the skeleton crew bandanna around his throat. “That’s him. He was rolling. Scrawled a note when Ghost didn’t come down.”
“They didn’t talk?” Shade asked.
The guard shook his head. “Ghost read the message then went off after him. I didn’t see him come back.”
Tyler’s uncle came here then he vanished. My anxiety soared. He’d lived with that uncle after his family died. His ultra-brief description of the man had given me the impression he wasn’t all that great a guy, even if he’d taken him in.
“Did you see what was written on that message?” I whispered.
“No, but it’s in the bin downstairs,” the guard said.
“Get it,” Arran ordered.
The man vanished.
Arran’s phone buzzed again, this time with video. Tyler entered, read the piece of paper, then left again. My heart hurt, and I rubbed over the ache.
“He went out, but I can’t see that he returned,” Manny’s voice came.
“He wouldnae leave Dixie,” Kane said.
I shot my gaze to him, grateful that someone else saw what I was beginning to think I’d imagined.
Shade nodded agreement. “Timing is interesting. Likely around when Lex’s body was left.”
Cassie cocked her head. “Lex argued with Tyler over Dixie.”
Arran shot them both a surprised look. “That wouldn’t have been him.”
Shade argued back, “I didnae say it was. I said we should look at the timing.”
Arran’s gaze landed on me. He swore under his breath. “I don’t keep tabs on Tyler. He doesn’t need it. But Kane’s right. Him leaving you like this? That’s not him.”
Hope flared, fragile and painful.
I swallowed. “Even if he thought he was bad for me?”
Arran didn’t hesitate. “Especially then.”
The words lodged deep.
Kane dragged a hand through his short hair. “I don’t like coincidences. We need to find him. Now.”
The guard returned, holding a crumpled-up piece of paper.
Arran snatched it and read. His expression darkened. “Jonas says Johnston’s out. He wants Tyler to handle it.”
Kane’s eyes flicked up. “Who’s Johnston?”
“A gangster he had history with,” I breathed.
Arran stole a curious glance at me. He knew. Then like me, he was holding Tyler’s secrets.
Kane said, “Enough to pull him out?”
Arran replied, “It’s enough to get his attention. But not enough to make him disappear all day.”
Which meant that even if he’d gone off on a personal mission, something had gone wrong.
I twisted my fingers together. He didn’t leave me. He wouldn’t, not after last night. He hadn’t told me he loved me, but I knew what I felt. His obsession moving on. Becoming so much more. Tyler’s rule broken.
The pressure inside me snapped. “He wouldn’t just walk away from me.”
Silence stretched.
Then Arran nodded once. “Agreed. Which means something is stopping him from coming back. We’ll bring Jonas here. Let’s work that angle while Manny searches local cameras. If he’s gone after someone, that’s where we’ll find him.”
His action landed like a verdict.
Tyler might have left on purpose, but he wasn’t able to return. Had he been taken? Or had someone captured him?
The thought settled, heavy and undeniable.
I gazed down at the useless tracker. At the vague smear of land to the north.
Shade leaned over my shoulder and glowered at it as if it could fix the problem. “As a minimum, we know he left the city.”
“Is his car outside?” Cassie asked.
Manny’s quiet confirmation hurt something inside me. I couldn’t even let myself think it.
The worst had happened.
Not the exposure. Not the family.
Tyler was gone.
And if he wasn’t coming back, it was because someone else had him.