Page 18 of Not Your Hero

“I don’t understand this,” I say as I turn to face Ren.

“Honestly, I don’t either, Nix. This doesn’t make sense, and it isn’t her to just disappear like this.”

“This isn’t her. Someone has her. Someone took her,” I tell him.

“We can’t prove that.”

“I know I can’t prove that, but I also know her, Ren!” I know her better than anyone else at this point. No one knows her the way I do. And that’s exactly the way I wanted it.

“I know you do. I’m not sure where to look, Nix. I’ve checked every hotel, homeless shelter, and hospital around. She isn’t there.”

“Then someone has her. Whoever the fuck was watching her has her.”

“You think it’s the assholes next door?” he asks. I shrug. I wouldn’t think so. They aren’t very old, but they did annoy her. They’d do stupid shit just to piss her off or get her outside so they could look at her.

“Let’s go visit them,” I tell him. I walk over, grab my cell off the desk and head for the door.

“You think that’s a good idea?”

“Why the hell not?”

“They’re only like nineteen, Nix. I doubt they took her. Don’t they still live with their parents?” he asks me.

“Fuck. Fuck!” he’s right. Doesn’t mean I like it, but he’s right. They wouldn’t have her, and if they did, I would kill them and their family.

“I can’t sit here,” I tell him.

“Fine. Let’s go,” he says. I nod my head and follow him out of the office and downstairs. He walks out and climbs in his SUV as I get in the passenger seat. I don’t know where the fuck we’re going, and I don’t really care as long as it isn’t here.

Ren takes off as I look out the windows. It’s going to rain soon, and I can only hope she isn’t outside in this shit.

“Go to her house,” I tell him. He doesn’t have to say anything; he just drives. I watch out the windows as we go when the rain starts coming down. I’m pissed. I’m beyond pissed. The anger inside me isn’t going to settle anytime soon. Not until I find her.

We pull up in front of her house, and Ren parks the car. I pull my keys from my pocket as I climb out and stalk toward the front door. I insert the key and unlock it, letting myself in. Ren doesn’t follow me, and I’m grateful for that.

I slam the door closed and look at the couch, the one she sat on with her dead ex. Poor girl thought she was losing her mindwhen I quickly removed his body like it was never there to begin with. I couldn’t let the cops find him, though.

I turn my head and look down the hall toward her room, and that’s where my feet take me. When I step inside I can smell her perfume everywhere. The whole fucking room smells like her. I walk over to the dresser and smirk at the white roses in the vase. I wonder who she thought left them for her. Her ex, maybe? Either way, she kept them, knowing someone had been in her house.

My little Emerson is a little strange and maybe a little too trusting of people. Hell, she let me fuck her while she was drugged and still went back for more. I know all about her life. The way her mother raised her and what she was. I know basically everything there is to know about Emerson.

Her favorite color. Her favorite food. Where she was born, and at what hospital. The way she hates not having some kind of noise in the room. Emerson hates the silence. Which is what this room is right now. Silent. She would hate this.

Walking over, I run my hand along her blanket and then pick up her pillow, bringing it to my nose and inhaling her scent. A feral roar tears from my throat but is absorbed by the pillow. I want her back. I want to know who dared to lay a hand on what belongs to me. I want to watch them suffer and die by my hand. And they will once I know who they are.

I remove the pillow from my face and place it back on the bed before turning and heading back out of her room and down the hall. Like Ren said, nothing has been touched. Everything is in its rightful place.

I walk back outside and stand in the pouring rain before getting back in the car.

“I want her things moved out of that house and stored,” I tell him.

“Then what?”

“Sell the fucking house. She isn’t going to need it when I find her,” I tell him.

“What? What do you mean?” I look over at him now, and he can see the look in my eyes.

“There’s no fucking way she’s leaving my sight ever again after this, Ren.”

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