Chapter 31
Cy decided to head to Aces early. He couldn’t wait for Willa to switch to working day shifts. It was selfish of him, but he knew she wanted to spend more time with him, so he wasn’t being totally selfish.
When he arrived, he spied her car in the lot and headed in. Of course, her car was still there. If she left early, she would have texted him. He liked that about her. She texted when she headed to work, or when she went out to the grocery store. It made him feel better knowing where she was.
He glanced around, looking for her in the crowd, but he didn’t see her. Maybe she was in the back. He moved to the far side of the bar and took a seat.
The place was busy, so the bartender didn’t come over but held up a bottle of beer that he liked. He’d been here enough for the bartender to know what he liked, which might just mean he was here a little too much.
He chuckled to himself, happy to have found Willa. He sure as heck wouldn’t be here on a Thursday night without his crew if he hadn’t met Willa.
It bugged him that he still hadn’t seen her. Where was she? When the bartender brought over his beer after delivering drinks to other people, he leaned in.
“Have you seen Willa?”
The bartender glanced around and shrugged. “She went to the back to get some bubbly. We had four groups in here celebrating, so we ran out. I haven’t seen her in a while.” The bartender turned away quickly, heading over to fill another order.
His stomach clenched. What had happened to his girlfriend?
Relief poured through him when he felt a soft hand on his shoulder. He turned, expecting to see Willa, but it was that other waitress, the one who hit on him. He’d told her he wasn’t interested. What was her name? Candy? No, that wasn’t right. Cindy.
“Hey, care if I join you?” Cindy asked.
He stood, trying to be nice, but anger held on. He didn’t like this woman. Willa hadn’t really said much about her, just that some of the people who worked with her weren’t very nice.
“I’m going to find Willa in the storage area.”
“Wait, don’t go.”
Cy’s gaze landed on Cindy, and he saw worry deep in her eyes. What was she worried about, and why did she want him to stay here?
“Nope, I need to get to Willa.”
She rolled her eyes, and he knew that wasn’t a good sign. He studied her face, realizing this woman had done something, something bad.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything to that bitch that she didn’t deserve.”
Cy had a very bad feeling. He was moving before he’d made a conscious decision. The bartender met his gaze, and he paused long enough to tell the guy that Cindy had hurt Willa, and they needed the cops and an ambulance.
He headed to the storage room, his stomach twisting tightly as worry filled him. Something was terribly wrong with Willa.
He found the light switch for the hall and flicked it on. He guessed he turned on the lights out in the bar, but he didn’t care. He had to see what had happened.
“Willa!” he called out, hoping she would answer. “Where are you?”
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Cy turned, finding that Kevlar was there and had followed him down the hall. He shook his head and pointed to the storage area.
“I can’t find Willa. I think someone did something to her.”
Kevlar was by his side in seconds. “Let’s find her.”
“She was working tonight, right?”
“Yes. She was working.”
Kevlar paused midway down the hall and put his hand on Cy’s shoulder, stopping him.
“Look.”
“What?” Cy asked, his thoughts unfocused as desperation filled him.
“Looks like a struggle.” Kevlar pointed to the door. “That cloth caught on the doorjamb. That’s the color of the shirts the waitresses wear.”
“Fuck. What happened to her?”
“Let’s search outside.”
He went out with Kevlar, anger and fear mixed, making it difficult to concentrate. Luckily, he had Kevlar with him.
Kevlar pointed to the other side of the parking lot. There was a lump on the ground, and it looked to be a human-sized lump. Was that Willa? No, too big. The closer they got, he could tell it was a guy on the ground, and he wasn’t moving.
The bartender must have taken him seriously because Cy heard sirens headed their way a few seconds later. At least they had police coming.
“What happened with that guy?” Kevlar asked.
Cy searched the lot for Willa. “Her car is still in the lot.”
“Something went down here.” They were close to the guy, and Kevlar shone his flashlight on the guy. “That’s blood. His head is bleeding.”
Panic rose. “Fuck, where is she?”
The police car pulled into the lot, and when the officers got out, Kevlar called them over.
“His girlfriend is missing. We came out here and found this guy on the ground.”
The officer held up his hand. “Hold up. Do you think the girlfriend did this?”
Cy shook his head. “No. She has a stalker. He was in custody, but got bail. Then they couldn’t find him. He did something awful to other women, not sure what. I don’t remember the name of the detective on the case, but Bree might. God, what was his name?”
“I’ll call Smiley,” Kevlar said.
The officer bent and made sure the guy was still breathing. Cy glanced around, trying to figure out what had happened to Willa. There was no way she’d done this and then run off.
Kevlar was back next to him and off the phone. “It’s Riser. Detective Riser.”
“I’ll give him a call.” The officer stepped away as the EMTs arrived. Cy turned and spied Cindy watching the spectacle.
He moved to the officer and pointed out Cindy. “That woman. She knows something about this.”
Cindy started to turn away, but the bartender was there and grabbed her arm. She tried to get free, but the cops had her before she could get away.
“What did you do?” Cy asked.
Cindy shook her head. “Nothing. He was just going to teach her a lesson.”
Anger whipped through Cy. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
The officer put cuffs on Cindy and started reading her rights. Panic filled her face as she realized she was being arrested.
Cy didn’t think she knew where Willa was, but from the panic in her eyes, he had an idea that the jerk who had taken her out of the bar was going to do more than teach Willa a lesson.
Had Robert inadvertently saved her? And if so, where had he taken her?
Cy needed to find Willa, but where to look? They didn’t know where Robert was hiding out. The task of finding her would be near impossible. He had no idea where to look or what to do. He needed help.