Chapter 41
Dylan
Dina’s face was the first he saw when he arrived at the courthouse.
“Good morning, sugar,” she said with a wink. “Where’s our girl? I thought you two would show up together. She’s normally here by now on a trial morning. And she always brings me a chocolate croissant.” She eyed his empty hands with a slight pout.
Dylan laughed at her, but a sense of unease began to trickle in. “She was staying at a friend’s house last night and I was in a hotel. It made more sense to meet here rather than carpool. She should be here soon I’d think.”
He headed up the elevator toward the commonwealth’s attorney’s office. Once the metal doors opened, he saw Tom standing outside, waiting to ride it down.
“Hey, man.” Tom greeted him with a smile, looking behind him at the empty elevator with a raised brow and his lips twisted to the side. “Where’s Kelsi?”
“We planned to meet here this morning.” Alarm bells rang in the back of his mind at both Tom and Dina thinking it was out of the ordinary for Kelsi to not already be there.
“Really? That’s weird.” Tom shook his head and continued on his way toward the office with his girlfriend’s name on the door.
Dylan quickly stopped his retreat, anxiety needling at him. “Why’s it weird?” He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
“She normally comes in hours early before a jury trial.” He shrugged at Dylan. “You know how she is with her routines.”
He did know, which was why he now felt an edge of panic creeping in, chest tightening. “Do you have Abby’s number?”
“Abby? Kelsi’s friend?” He held his phone up and started thumbing through his contacts. “I think I should still have it saved—why?”
“She was supposed to stay with her last night,” Dylan explained, but he was distracted as he pulled his own phone to his ear, dial tone ringing as he waited for Kelsi to answer. It kept ringing and ringing until her voicemail picked up. He dialed again, only to have the same thing happen.
His phone pinged with an incoming message, and he looked at it, finding it was a text from Tom with Abby’s contact information. Tom hovered by Dylan, not speaking but seeming to realize that something was wrong. Dylan quickly dialed Abby’s number.
She picked up after two rings. “Hello?” Abby’s familiar wary voice came through the phone.
“Abby, it’s Dylan. Is Kelsi with you?” He spared no niceties, diving right in.
“Dylan? No, she left this morning before I got up.” Her voice lost all wariness and turned hard. “Did you do something to her? If you broke her heart again, I swear I will track you down and cut your balls off and feed them to you until you choke.”
Grimacing, Dylan ignored her pleasant threat and moved on. “You’re sure she left this morning?”
Abby didn’t even hesitate. “Yeah, her car’s gone and her coffee mug is in the sink. Have you tried calling her?”
Dylan could barely repress the obvious angry retort at that question. Of course he’d called her first. “Yes, she didn’t pick up.”
“Hold on, she shares her location with me.” The line went quiet as she located her tracking app. “Looks like her phone is at the courthouse.” She paused. “No, not at the courthouse, but in the parking lot maybe? She may have left her phone in the car.”
“Maybe,” he said quietly. “Nobody here has seen her, though.”
“If you find her, call me. I’ll head over to you now in case.” Her voice was deadly serious but wavered slightly. They both knew that it wasn’t like Kelsi to have left her phone lying around.
Was this the man who had been threatening her? He should never have let her leave by herself last night. He should’ve told his friends he’d see them some other time and stuck to her side all night, protecting her. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.
Dylan could barely get in enough air, his chest was so tight with fear.
He couldn’t lose her again. “Be careful,” he said to Abby.
He thought for a second before adding, “Actually, one of my friends is on the force here. I’m going to call him and see if he can join you.
I have to stay here for the hearing. I’ll see if she shows up and give you a call back if she does. ”
He heard a door slamming and keys sliding into a lock, followed by her breaths coming in little puffs, presumably running to her car. “Okay, I’ll keep you updated on what I find. What’s your friend’s name, so I don’t tase him accidentally.”
Tase him? Dylan stared at the phone in his hand, unsure if sending the two of them together to look for Kelsi would be a great idea or a terrible one. “Kole, his name is Kole Richards,” he said finally, sighing dejectedly.
“Okay, is there anything else I should know?”
“Yeah. She’s had a stalker for the past month leaving her threats. This could be—well, it probably is—related.”
“She had a stalker? For a month? And she didn’t tell me?” Abby’s voice was tinny, and he could tell she was upset at Kelsi for not sharing that with her.
“You’re not the only one she kept it from. Just be safe, Abby.”
“I’ll call you in a little bit.” Then, quietly, “We’ll find her.”
She hung up, not bothering to wait for Dylan to respond. He wasted no time, dialing Kole immediately.
“Hey, man!” Kole’s cheery voice came through the speakers.
“Hey, you free right now?”
“Yeah, I’m off today, playing some Call of Duty. Why, everything okay?” His voice took on the edge it always did when they were in combat, losing all trace of his easygoing humor and becoming alert and ready for call to action.
“Kelsi’s missing. Her friend Abby, the PI I told you about, is heading to where her phone is pinging. It’s somewhere in the parking lot, but she never showed. I’m sure Abby can handle herself, but I’d feel better having you looking for her too.”
“Shit, man. Yeah, of course. That’s only ten minutes from my place, so I’ll be there in no time. You said Abby’s a private investigator?”
“Yeah, I’ll send you her number in case you have trouble finding her. She can fill you in.” A little pressure eased off him knowing that he had both Abby and Kole looking out for Kelsi. It wasn’t enough though, because he had no idea where she was or if she was okay. “Thanks for doing this, man.”
“Dylan, you don’t need to thank me. I’m on my way now, and I’ll let you know if I find anything.”
They said their goodbyes, and Dylan turned, surprised to find Tom still standing behind him, eavesdropping. “Is Kelsi okay?” he asked.
Dylan could only shake his head for a few moments. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “She isn’t answering her phone. Abby’s going to look for her.”
He felt like he had aged ten years in the past ten minutes, but his military training began to kick in and the adrenaline flooded his system. It brought everything into focus, and he became more alert.
“What do you think happened to her? Is she okay?” Tom began pacing across the hallway.
“I think that asshole McGuinness has everything to do with this. Abby and my Army mate Kole are looking for her. Kole’s a police officer with the city. They’ll find her.” Dylan had no idea why he was consoling him, but explaining it rationally was helping him stay calm and focused as well.
“Okay, okay, okay. What do we do?”
“We don’t do anything. For now, I have to go down to courtroom six and try to get the judge to delay for as long as she’s willing. And see what McGuinness says and does. If he did have something to do with this, he’ll have some tell.”
“Okay, man.” Tom clapped him on the shoulder. “Let me know if you need anything from me, okay? You know I’ll always care about her.”
Dylan hung his head and turned back to the elevators, pressing the down button and waiting for the doors to open.
All he could do now was head down to the courtrooms. He was willing to sit there until the first opportunity he had to speak to the judge, with nothing else to do but wait for Abby and Kole to send him an update.
He clenched and unclenched his fists in rapid succession, itching to do something, anything, to find Kelsi, but the only thing he could do was handle the jury and wait.