“You think you’ve won,” I said, unable to hide the disgust from my voice. “But you haven’t.”
“Oh, I know I haven’t won. Because that would imply that I’ve finished, and I’m sorry, Indy, but I am far from finished.”
Goosebumps spread across my skin. He was going to kill me.
“I’m pregnant,” I reminded him.
He looked at me coldly, raising an eyebrow. “And like I said, I don’t give a goddamn.”
I struggled to swallow.
I had to stall him.
And pray that help was on its way.
CADE
Elias.
He was the soldier in the photos.
I studied them again, his smiling picture against the photo of Talia, and my head scrambled to make sense of it all.
Was he related to Talia?
I wasn’t sure what relevance this had to Indy’s disappearance, but something inside me couldn’t let it go.
Bull, Maverick, and Grunt joined me at the showcase.
“What’s going on?” Bull asked.
“Where is Elias?” I asked.
“He was supposed to be dropping in on some old girlfriend but he hasn’t been answering his phone. I told the prospect to swing by his place after dropping by Cool Hands.”
My eyes darted to Bull. “How long ago did he leave?”
“An hour ago—what’s Elias got to do with this?”
“I don’t know. But I plan on finding out.”
As if on cue, Bull’s phone rang. It was the prospect. I watched as he answered it, my impatience growing.
“What is he saying?” I growled.
“He says there is no one home.”
“Tell him to break in,” I said.
Bull looked at me questioningly.
“Tell him to break the fuck in,” I snapped. With my skin prickling with impatience, I took his phone from him. “Listen to me,” I said to the prospect. “I need you to get inside the apartment. Because, if I’m right, then Elias has Indy inside.”
When the prospect questioned me, I basically threatened to burn everything he owned if he didn’t break the fuck into Elias’s apartment.
Two minutes later, and with me still on the line, the prospect was inside Elias’s apartment.
“Um, Cade . . . ”
“What did you find?”
“That’s the thing. I found nothing. This place is completely empty.”
“What do you mean empty?”
“It’s fucking empty. No furniture. No nothing. Whoever lived here has skipped out.”
My roar was primal. My fear amplified. The one clue we had to where Indy might be and it was a dead end. Panic took off inside of me because I felt her getting farther and farther away.
Shoving his phone back into Bull’s hand, I pulled my phone out from my jeans and found Davey’s number. He answered on the third ring. He was the closest club member to Elias and I was counting on him knowing something.
“Wait. You think he has something to do with what’s been going on in the club? The murders?” Davey asked.
The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced it was Elias.
“How soon can you get down here?”
“I’m already walking to my bike. I’ll be there in ten.”
He arrived in seven.
“There was this one place,” he said. “I thought about it on the ride over here. Years ago we drove past it on our way out of town and he told me it was where he lived when he and his family first moved here.”
“Do you think you can remember where it is?”
He frowned. “It was a while ago now—” He clicked his fingers as the memory renewed itself in his mind. “It was near No Man’s land. Near the watermelon fields and water tower.”
INDY
“Why me?” I rasped.
Elias seemed surprised by the question.
“Because I’ve lost my buzz, Indy. I need the satisfaction of that first kill.”
He was talking about Isaac’s murder.
He paused and became very still, and his eyes took on a perverse glint as they settled on mine. “But I’m pretty sure seeing how devastated Cade will be about you will surpass it.”
“Cade didn’t do anything to her,” I said, trying desperately to control my fear. I could barely breathe. “He tried to get her to go home. To leave before something happened to her. But she wouldn’t go, Elias. She wouldn’t leave.”
“Well, common sense was not my sister’s strongest suit,” he agreed with a weird kind of calm. “Well, clearly it wasn’t, because we wouldn’t be here if it was, would we?”
“She had a choice,” I breathed. I felt dizzy. I hadn’t eaten or had much water in God knows how long, so I was dehydrated and fatigued. And in the murkiness of my exhaustion I was aware of a discomfort growing stronger in my womb.
“Yes, she had choice. But so did they, and they chose to take advantage of her.”
“I know they did. But they didn’t kill her, Elias. She decided to do that all on her own.”
My words angered him, but he controlled himself. His eyes narrowed on me and his nostrils flared with barely contained rage. He was thinking and I was terrified.