Page 114 of Bad Enough

Using his flashlight app, he swept the room. While he registered the upheaval he remembered seeing before he had been knocked unconscious, it meant very little to him in the grand scheme of things. Only finding Flame mattered.

“Flame, answer me!”

Nothing. He only heard the muffled voices of those out in the main area of the club as they continued to try and exit in the blackout.

He felt panic rising as he burst into the toilet and sink area of the room. All of the stalls were open and unoccupied. The ladies’ room was empty. She was gone.

Up until this moment, TB had blocked out the conversation over his earbud. Now, he interrupted the flow of communication. “Midas! She’s gone.”

“Thank, fuck, you’re back. Yes, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Her tracker is on, but there’s something wrong. Where are you?”

“I went through the ladies’ room door. Someone had Medusa over their shoulder, and before I could react, I got knocked out from behind. When I came to, everyone was gone.” He pushed out into the main room, then followed the flow of people out into the parking lot. As soon as he hit the cool night air, he spoke again, “Tell me you’ve got her, Midas.”

“Wish I could. The signal is good, but it’s like it’s locked in place. It hasn’t moved. I’m calibrating.”

“Midas, fucking find her.”

“Working on it. Waters didn’t hire me for my good looks.”

“They’re not going to be good much longer if you don’t find her.”

Another voice, out of breath from running, joined over the earbud. “Don’t piss off King Kong, bro. We don’t need him climbing a tall building and plummeting to his death.”

“Nemo, this is not a time for joking around. I swear to all that’s holy in this world?—”

“Relax, giant ape-man. If I don’t make jokes to redirect your anger, your blood pressure will soar, and then you’ll have an embolism. He may not have a trace on her signal, but I’ve got one better. Midas! Track an Escalade, black, license Whiskey-Zulu-Yankee-Nine-Nine-Foxtrot. Watched them pitch the girls into it and take off like their asses were on fire.”

“Thank fuck,” TB grounded out. “Which way, Nemo?”

“Just peeled out of the parking lot about two minutes ago. Headed for the I-5. Sorry. I’m fast, but not that fast.”

Midas reassured him over the line. “Little bro, you’ve given me enough. If it’s a rental, it’ll have GPS I can hack into.”

Waters came over the earpiece. “Steel, get the girl back to Tribe. We need her out of there before the boys in blue arrive.”

“Demon and I are already on it, bossman.”

“Sirens arriving in two, Steel. Gotta hustle,” Midas informed him.

“All right, everybody, get your asses back to Tribe. We work from here. If we want to keep on this, we’ve got to let the blue line do their thing, then come back when they’re gone.”

TB wanted to follow the vehicle that took Flame and Medusa from the property. It was irrational. He knew there was no way he could actually do so. They were lucky to even get a make of the vehicle, let alone the license plate. He trusted Midas. The hacker would find them. The team would come up with a plan, and then they’d go after Flame and the others.

They would not fail.

They couldn’t. Not now. It was official. He loved that woman. She was his, and she would be found so that he could spend the rest of his life figuring out how to keep her from leaving him.

43

JUNE 23RD

TB

Arriving at Tribe Corporation, TB didn’t have the patience to wait for an elevator to go the two floors to the lobby. He slammed through the fire stair door, then took the four landings two steps at a time. As he busted through at the lobby level, Waters came barreling out of his office door. “Conference room,” was all he said. As the two men took off down the hallway, they heard the ding of the elevator arriving from one of the upper floors onto their floor. Nemo exited and headed their way.

“Sorry. Had a fight with a dumpster and lost. Needed to change.”

A third text came in. Missing girl number two came into view. She was in a similar container.

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