40. Kioni
Kioni
Everyone eyes me suspiciously as I walk through the station to my locker.
When I look at my reflection, I understand why.
A goofy smile is plastered across my face.
Fuck, I’m happy. Nobody can ruin my mood today.
Not even a naked crackhead. Ryker is waiting with his back resting up against the car for me, and furrows his brows when I approach.
“What’s with all that?” he asks, zigzagging his finger in the air around my face.
“She told me she loved me,” I sigh happily.
“Hell yeah, Ki!” He slaps me between my shoulder blades before getting into the passenger side. Apparently, I’m driving today. I text Sam before I get on the road and I’m unable to.
Me: I love you to the moon, little wolf.
Every inconvenience and shit show gets the same treatment from me—I don’t give a fuck because I get to go home to my girl and I’m going to make her scream those three words over and over until the neighbors are calling our coworkers to make us stop. Ryker may need to sleep at her place tonight.
I wish I could talk Sam into quitting one of her jobs.
Preferably the studio because I despise getting off work and going home to her not being there.
Despite being an inconvenience for me, she loves her job, so I’ll manage.
One of these days, though, I’ll have to let it slip how much money we actually have.
That could very well be her deciding factor on whether she wants to maintain two jobs.
Well…three if you count the once a week yoga classes at the station.
I wonder if she would ever partake in me and Ryker’s after-hours activities.
Hmm…Sam in a mask. Ah, fuck. Now I’m picturing it.
She would probably ask for a balaclava with flowers on it.
I wonder if they have those? I’m getting ahead of myself.
Sam may be wild in the sheets, but she is a darling in the streets.
Crime is more than likely not on her bucket list.
Speaking of crime…I access the cameras at the studio to check in on her when we sit down at our desks to finish up paperwork.
I’m not cut out for this kind of work. Near-death experiences are perfectly acceptable.
Paperwork…just stab me in the eyeballs and call it a day.
She’s in what I now know is the reverse warrior pose.
My stomach flutters at the sight of her. I’m one lucky bitch.
Mine, the possessive side of my heart screams.
“You’re not her stalker anymore,” Ryker teases, peering over my shoulder.
“She’s too incredible, too addicting. I’ll never be able to stop.”
To be honest, I don’t believe she would ever want me to, anyway. It’s comforting for her. And it satisfies me enough throughout the day to keep my sanity in check. It’s hard not knowing what she’s doing and where she’s at.
“I think if I were that obsessed with someone, it would be draining.”
“Does breathing tire you?”
“Breathing?”
“Yeah, like right now. Are you drained from…breathing.”
“No,” he drags out.
“She’s my oxygen. Without her, I feel like I’m suffocating. When I think of her, see her, smell her, touch her…it’s all like a breath of fresh air. She’s my lifeline.”
He grabs my shoulders and squeezes them. “Sounds exhausting.”
“When you finally let someone into that guarded heart of yours, Ryk, you’ll understand.”
I almost miss the grin he hides too quickly as he sits at his desk next to mine.
“She’s digging her way through, isn’t she?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he brushes me off, and I roll my eyes. He’s fighting it like he always does.
When she begins her last class of the evening, I change and make my way to the gym.
I’ll monitor the time and cameras so that I can leave here as soon as she finishes to meet her at home.
We’ll shower together, cook dinner together, maybe eat each other for dessert after…
I love this couple shit when it’s with her.
“I bet I can run a mile faster than you,” Ryker taunts when he finishes his reps.
I glance at the time and put my dumbbells back on the rack. She’s more than likely getting ready to head home now, but this will only take a few extra minutes.
“You’re on,” I challenge, taking the treadmill right next to his.
We never actually wagered anything. It’s purely for bragging rights.
All I have to do is imagine Sam in front of me running through the woods with me trailing a step behind, and I finish one second before him.
He lets out a frustrated “Ugh” with his hands on top of his head when he compares our times.
Our abs are glistening with sweat along with every other part of our body.
The wins alternate between us about every other time, and they’re always only a couple of seconds apart. A few times we tied.
I grab my phone expecting to read an on my way message from Sam on my lock screen, but there’s nothing.
She must be running behind. Wiping the sweat from my forehead with my discarded shirt, I check the cameras, and they show her car gone from the parking lot.
My jaw clenches. Punishment is in her near future.
My fingers type out getting a quick shower then I’m coming for you but I delete it and throw my uniform back on, leaving my top unbuttoned.
The wind whips my shirt behind me like a cape. I drive straight to her house in case she’s still there getting Nyx. When I don’t see her car in the driveway, I turn right around and speed home. This fucking woman. She’s not here either.
“Where are you, pup?” I speak out loud to myself, pulling up her location, only to discover her phone is off.
Sickness churns in my stomach at the thought of her in a car accident.
It’s possible she forgot something and went back to the studio.
Her phone could have died, or she stopped somewhere on the way.
Ryker pulls into the driveway next to me and removes his helmet. The visor is up on mine so I can see my phone. I haven’t gotten off my bike yet.
“Where’s Sam?”
“I don’t fucking know,” I snap at him, worry coursing through me at rapid speed.
Logging back into the studio cameras, I focus on the parking lot, rewinding the footage to see if she had driven back for something.
I keep going backward until I spot her car pulling out of the parking lot, watching everything happen in reverse.
My heart explodes into millions of crimson fragments when I bear witness to her abduction.
By someone dressed an awful lot like myself in the same fucking mask as Shadow.
The memory of Nyx waking us in the middle of the night punches me in the gut with full force. There was someone out there, and she knew it. When Sam told me she loved me this morning, all other thoughts ceased to exist in my mind. How could I be so fucking stupid?
I send Captain the video clip and call him.
How I gained access to their cameras will be something I’ll deal with later.
I provide him with her license plate number to be run through traffic cameras and her phone number to be traced by our techs.
He dispatches officers to the studio to search the area for evidence.
Everything is in motion so fast, but yet not quick enough.
Ryker’s eyes widen as he absorbs each word.
I end the call and hold out my phone to him with the video frozen on the screen.
Reality slices into me like a fiery blade, searing through my heart and lungs.
Someone took Sam from me, and for the first time since I laid eyes on her, I don’t know where she is.
It’s as if the air is too thick to enter my lungs, and the world tilts as I dismount my bike.
She’s gone.
My fingers shake as I grab my helmet, ripping it off and dropping it next to me. A raw, aching sob tears through me as I collapse onto my hands and knees.
My love.
In the next heartbeat, Ryker is there, pulling me into him, his chest muffling the sound.
She needs me. I have to find her. I will find her.
My fists cling to his shirt, and I force air into my aching lungs until the tears stop flowing and a thought rings out in my mind.
I snatch my phone off the ground and call Chloe, the new hire known for her hacking skills.
He’s the only suspect I have.
“What’s up, peanut butter cup?” She answers cheerfully, unaware of the devastation happening around me.
“Chloe, I need you to dig into Tyler Hillard,” I command and give her his address. “Do that thing you do the Captain doesn’t know about and dig.”
“Like a digital archaeologist. Call you back in just a few minutes, Ki Ki.”
“We need to go get Nyx and bring her back here,” I tell Ryker, my voice cracking.
My future wife is missing and I’m worried about her fucking dog.
It’s because Sam would want me to. She would want me to make sure her baby was okay until she gets back.
Because she will be back. I’ll make sure of it.
“We will bring Nyx back here and then tear the fucking city apart until we find my girl. Or maybe Nyx can come with us and fucking eat everyone while we set it ablaze to smoke out the motherfucker who took her.”
Ryker’s movements mirror mine as we rush to move our bikes to retrieve his car from the garage.
I’ll get your baby and then I’ll find you, love.
My phone rings as our doors shut, and I answer it, putting it on speaker.
“Ki Ki,” she doesn’t sound as chipper as last time, and my stomach sinks.
“I have the Captain here with us. That Tyler dude has more skeletons than a cemetery. Captain, I am sending you all the information now. His dad is not actually his dad. The biological father is some richy-rich and has been bailing Tyler out of trouble for the past couple of years, and having all of his records hidden. Too bad for him, I’m awesome at uncovering these digital webs of lies.
The missing records were multiple rape charges that were dropped, and he paid each victim a large sum of money right before.
Horrible, horrible men. Tyler hasn’t been to work in weeks, and his cell phone has also been inactive for the same duration.
But here’s the kicker: there have been multiple girls reported missing right before he disappeared.
That doesn’t sound like a coincidence,” Chloe speaks fast and uses as few breaths as possible to get all the information out quickly.
My hand goes to my chest. It has to be him. “Put out an APB, Pike. He’s her ex-boyfriend, and she ran from him when he wouldn’t willingly let her go. I’m going to her house now to get her dog. Don’t let any officers go inside her house until I have her contained.”
I end the call, not giving him a chance to argue with me.
No, his face was not in the video, but it’s fucking him.
We list off possibilities of places he would take her on the short drive to her house.
Each one getting texted to Pike. He didn’t get far.
I discovered she was missing too fast. She’s close.
My stomach sinks at the sight of her empty driveway.
My body feels like it’s being pulled in too many directions, but I’m not sure which one to take first. Nyx first, but where to second?
Officers will arrive at some of the suspected places any minute.
I will owe everything to whoever finds her first. Of course I’d prefer it to be me, but I can’t check everywhere at once.
The moment I step out of the car, I can hear Nyx scratching and barking at the door.
I jog up the stairs and across the porch, forcing myself inside when she tries to bolt around me.
Ryker slips in behind me, shutting the door quickly to block her escape. She’s panting and her eyes are…wild.
“It’s okay, Nyx,” I say sweetly, reaching for her leash hanging by the door.
Before I can grab it, she’s running past Ryker, almost knocking him over, and then barks at a window, then another.
Bouncing between every exit. Shit. I grab hold of her collar when she runs by, and she jerks me forward, jumping at the door.
My eyes lock with Ryker’s as I clip the hook to the ring on her collar.
His hand is on his gun before I open the door, and she takes off, pulling me with her.
Instead of taking the stairs, she jumps over the railing, my grip on the leash loosening as I jump with her.
My feet hit the gravel, and she’s a silent midnight bullet zooming through the backyard towards the treeline.
Sam.
We are running at full speed behind her, but she’s already disappeared.
“We need backup and medics at Sam River’s house,” Ryker barks orders.
It’s unlikely she’s here, but he’s putting as much faith into Nyx as I am.
Some hope is better than none. My gun is already in my hand before we cross into the woods and hear the attack.
The goodest fucking girl in all the world is tearing into Tyler when we reach her.
My eyes skim over Sam. She’s alive. Then back to Nyx.
Tyler’s fingers find purchase on a knife, and I scream, “Release, Nyx.”
If this is the only time she listens to me, I’ll be okay with that.