Page 78 of Light It Up Red
He looks at me, his face a stony mixture of desperation, fear, and anger. Aurora comes out behind him. “I’m calling the boss,” she says.
“I’ll do it. Go and find Gray. I want all the CCTV footage. Everything,” he tells her. She doesn’t wait before she runs back into the building.
My lungs fight for air. Someone took Lili. Someone has her and is doing God knows what with her. My stomach twists into a knot.
“Fuck! Is her phone in there?” Alessandro points to the handbag still clutched to my chest.
I open the bag and dig through the contents. “No phone,” I tell him. But I do feel the outline of a handgun. She was taken and she doesn’t even have a way to protect herself.
“Good. Hopefully she has it with her,” he says as he pulls his own phone to his ear. “Pops… Lil… she… fuck!” Alessandro tugs at his hair.
“Where the fuck are you?” I hear her father’s voice shout down the line.
“The rink. She went to the bathroom. She’s… someone took her.”
“What the fuck do you mean someone took her, Alessandro? How the fuck could you let that happen on your watch?”
“I…” Alessandro looks to me with a desperation I’ve never seen in his eyes before.
“I’m on my way. Find that fucker Monroe right now.”
“Monroe?” I parrot while looking at Alessandro.
“Lou Monroe, Gray’s uncle. He’s the voice you heard on Gray’s phone yesterday. If you’re certain that’s the guy who shot you, then that’s who has Lili,” he grits out.
I follow Alessandro back inside the building as he reaches into his waistband and draws a pistol. Why the fuck don’t I carry? That’s something I can rectify later. Right now, I want to burn this place to the goddamn ground.
Alessandro slams through a door and then he’s pointing his gun right at Grayson’s head. “Where the fuck is my sister?”
“I don’t know, man.” Gray holds his hands in the air. “We’re running through the tapes now.”
“Where the fuck is that uncle of yours?”
“Lou?” Gray’s brows knit together.
“You got any others? Where the fuck is he?” Alessandro hisses.
“He’s in Toronto.”
“No, he’s not. He’s here. What’s he want with my sister?” Alessandro is firing off question after question, his arm outstretched and that pistol aimed directly at Gray.
“I’ve got no fucking idea, but if he’s done something to her, I’ll fucking kill him myself,” Gray says between gritted teeth.
Aurora’s gasp has me looking in her direction and then up at the wall-mounted screen she’s staring at. Lili is being carried out of the arena. Her head lulls to the side.
“She’s fucking unconscious,” I growl. “Where the fuck is this guy?”
Grayson picks up his phone and makes a call. “Pops, where’s Lou?” he asks. I don’t hear his father’s reply, but Gray nods. “Okay,” he says as he sets the receiver down and looks to Alessandro. “Both of our fathers are almost here.”
“Pull up the footage from the parking lot.” Alessandro waves his gun towards the screen.
“You can put that thing down, you know. I’m not your enemy here,” Gray tells him while tapping away on the keyboard.
“Right now, everyone is my fucking enemy,” Alessandro counters.
I can’t stop staring at the screen. We’re all just standing around while Lili is unconscious and in the hands of a fucking lunatic. I don’t look away. Not when a shit-ton of men enter the room. Not when I hear her father yelling out commands and throwing shit around. Not even when I feel someone’s hand land on my shoulder. My eyes are glued to the stilled image of her being carried away. I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial her number. I don’t know why I haven’t tried it before now.
The call connects and I put it on speaker. “You really don’t know how to take a fucking hint, do you, kid?” That voice… it’s the same one I heard right before I was shot.
