Chapter Twenty-Seven
Roadkill clenched his teeth. He wanted to scream, hit something, or better someone, but that wouldn’t solve anything, at least not yet. He hoped he’d get a chance to take some of his rage out on someone eventually but that wasn’t the priority. Finding Lacey was.
“Come on, darlin’.” He pulled out his phone, snapped a photo of the note she held then, carefully touching only one corner, put it back on the counter before he took Jenna gently by the arm and led her back outside. The less they touched the better.
He guided her back to the truck, popped the tailgate and lifted her to sit on the edge.
“Think about this for a minute. Who have you talked about recently? Have you made any complaints about anyone? Talked to anyone’s boss?
” He watched her, knowing she was in shock, but still needing her to think, to talk to him.
She blinked, lifted her gaze to his face, but the roar of at least a dozen motorcycles kept her from answering.
One by one, bikes pulled in behind and around them, Papa Smurf and Joker in the lead, and killed their engines.
“What’s going on?” Papa Smurf asked as he dismounted and came to stand beside the tailgate.
“Someone came in, trashed the house, and took Lacey. They left this.” Roadkill handed his phone to the old man.
“That’s what I was just asking, who it might be.”
“I’ll send guys to talk to the neighbors,” Joker said. “See if anyone saw anything.”
“Mr. Coleman,” Jenna whispered.
“Who is this Coleman and what about him?” Roadkill asked.
“That teacher at her school. I told you about him before. Anyway, I called Monday to complain because she told me he creeps out all the girls. He comes up behind them, touches them, always in innocent ways, looks down their shirts, nothing that in itself could be considered inappropriate, but the girls have teamed up to make sure no one is alone with him. I thought the principal should know, if she didn’t already.
” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine he would do something like this though. ”
Roadkill remembered her telling him about it but thought she’d called the teacher by a different name, he glanced at Papa Smurf and found him with his phone out and typing up at least parts of what Jenna was saying. He knew he was sending it to Cypher to get him started searching.
“She goes to Semmes,” Roadkill told the old man so he could include it. He also told the older man that he already had Cypher looking into the teacher, and gave him the name she’d given him before, Goldman.
From the corner of his eye, Roadkill saw Wrath climb the stairs to the front door, stop outside and stick his head in.
“You called the cops yet?” Wrath asked.
Roadkill shook his head. He hadn’t even thought about it, much less had time.
He was too focused on finding Lacey and later, taking care of Jenna.
Now he knew his brothers would handle everything.
They would start the search for the little girl, they would find this Coleman and whoever else was involved.
“Any idea how long she’s been gone?” Joker asked.
Roadkill checked his watch. “Not more than three hours. She was here and all was fine when I picked Jenna up three hours ago. Looking at the mess inside—” He shook his head.
There were things in there Jenna didn’t need to see.
Didn’t need to know about. Not blood, or any sign her sister had been hurt, but someone had jerked off into the girl’s underwear drawer and left it standing open, so it couldn’t be missed.
If he had his way, neither of his girls would ever have to go back into that house again.
Jenna sat where he’d put her, staring off into space, as if something inside her had broken. Roadkill knew, if they didn’t find her sister, she might never be okay again.