Chapter 43
DEMITRI
It’s been three days and we have absolutely no leads. Nyx is going to have to go to work today and we have no way to keep this from Captain Montgomery anymore. My stomach drops when I pull out my iPhone and hit his name in my contacts. He is never going to forgive us for losing her.
“Captain Montgomery.” His no non-sense voice echoes through the speaker.
“Hey Cap.” I barely manage to get out.
“Demitri? What can I do for you? Is everything okay with Nyx?”
“No, I think Hutch and I need to come down to the station to talk to you. She’s been taken.” My voice shakes, and I’m moments from a panic attack.
“I’ll be at your house in twenty minutes at most.” Is all he calls out before the line goes dead. There is no way he will make it from the city in twenty-minutes but I don’t put it past him to turn lights on to get here.
I walk down to Graham’s room and let myself in with my thumbprint. The robotic beep sounds letting me into the room. The sapphire blue blackout curtains are covering the giant windows that line the far wall. The only light emanating from the four giant monitors that line the wall to my left.
Hutch appears to be passed out on his forearm that is resting on the desk.
I look at the monitors. Multiple programs appear to be running simultaneously, one scanning city cameras for facial recognition, the other pulling any information we can find regarding Nyx.
We know we haven’t known her long, but she is our absolute everything.
“Hey Graham,” I call out gently from the doorway. “I hate to wake you up buddy, but you gotta get up.”
“Ugh.” He groans out. “What time is it?”
“It’s like eight in the morning. Cap is coming over. I had to call him. Nyx had to work this morning.” His head shoots up off his desk, and he looks around panicked.
“We have nothing to give him, Dee. He's going to kill us.” He spits out.
“I know, but we couldn’t keep him in the dark anymore. She had to work, they would have noticed.”
“Fuck, okay. I’ll pull any of the reports I have and prepare for him to get here.
” He runs his hands through his golden blonde hair.
You can tell he hasn’t showered or shaved since we got the call from Callum.
He picks up a whiff of himself and cringes.
“And, ya know, maybe take a quick shower.” He chuckles and turns back to his computer to see what the scans have pulled so far.
“I’m going to head down and make some coffee. Do you want anything to eat?” I open the bedroom door, waiting for his response.
“No, make a good coffee for me. I’m over these K-Cups right now.”
I nod and head out of his room and make my way to the kitchen. Shortly after I leave, I hear his shower turn on, and I take a quick smell of myself. Yup, I need a shower too.
Fuck coffee right now. Shower first, then coffee.
Graham and I are both freshly showered and are sitting in the kitchen drinking our lattes when the gate buzzes. Hutch pulls up the camera on his phone and sees it’s Montgomery.
“Opening the gate, Cap.” Graham says through his phone, and Cap growls out his response.
Fuck, he is pissed. I run over to the door to be there when he pulls up.
His fist pounds on the reinforced front door. I swing the door open with a forced smile on my face.
“Good morning.” He takes one look at me and knows it’s all fake.
“Stop with the bullshit, Demitri. Neither of you look like you have slept in days. You smell clean, but I can tell neither of you have shaved, and the distressed look is evident. How long has she been gone? Don’t lie to me boys.” His tone is no nonsense.
“It’s been three days, sir.” I hang my head.
“IT’S BEEN THREE FUCKING DAYS AND YOU’RE JUST NOW CALLING ME!” I swear I can hear the bulletproof glass rattle at his roar.
Graham shoves past me, “Sir, we know we should have called, but I know I can access things you guys technically can’t. So I wanted to try, and keep you out of it.” His body is shaking, but I know he wants to take the blame for everything.
“Nope, Graham. I was the one who said we need to handle it alone. I didn’t want to disappoint you, sir.” I push him behind me.
“I don’t care which one of you kept it from me. What exactly happened?”
We take him to the kitchen table to sit and chat. “Do you want a coffee, sir?“
“Sure.” His tone is stern.
I pour him a cup of black coffee. Thank goodness I made a pot too, not just the espresso shots, and hand it over to him.
“So, start from the beginning.”
We take him through how we discovered the girls were missing. The leads we have followed, the shit Hutch has hacked. It is all very calm, except I can see the vein in his temple throbbing. I think he’s pissed, but he knows we are doing all we can currently.
“I don’t think there is anything more the department can do other than offer you manpower if you want or need a search party.” He drags his hands over his face and lets out a deep sigh. “Has anyone contacted Kyra’s family or fiancée?”
“Fuck, we didn’t even think of that.” Graham says.
“Well, we can head over there together when we are done here. You guys know that you have the full force of the Detroit Police Department behind you, right?”
“Yes, of course. Honestly, we didn’t think it would take this long to find her. We are pretty sure it’s Nick-” Cap’s face pales.
“You mean her ex is back in town?” He cuts me off.
“We had a small run-in with him the day of the meeting at the station. Nyx took off down the river walk, and by the time we caught up to her, Nick had her arm pinned behind her back, babbling on about how she ruined his life. The bimbo of a woman I think he was with was there too.” Graham explains.
“She has also had a stalker since then too.” I hang my head in shame for not alerting him to the issues. “She didn’t want to worry you, but she’s been living with us since we all went to that Lions game a few weeks back. Someone covered her apartment in paint.”
“She has kept all of this from me?” His hands are running through his greying hair. He has shown more emotion in the last hour of him being here than I think I have ever seen out of him.
“In our defense, we wanted to call you after the first note.” Graham trying to save his ass with Cap because even though we are fearless Marines, this man is slightly terrifying, and we like working with the department.
“I think we should head up to the office. And we can show you what we have collected.” I stand from the table, leaving all of the coffee mugs here for now.
“Hutch, will you take him upstairs? I'm going to see if Cal is home. He should be here for all this.” He nods his head once and we head in opposite directions.
Making my way out the back glass door and over to the pool house.
Callum has been living out here, but more often than not since the girls have been taking he’s been in the house sleeping on the couch, in Kyra’s bed or passed out on Graham’s bed as he works.
The pool house is a fully equipped two bedroom guest house, with a fully functioning kitchen.
It allowed Cal to have his own space while also being close just in case he needed the support.
Pounding on the door, I wait for him to answer. He throws the door open, and he looks to be in just the same amount of mess as the two of us.
“Hey, Captain Montgomery is here regarding the girls and I think you should join us.” He gives a quick nod and grabs a shirt off the back of the couch before we head inside.