Page 166 of Gunner

“Am I? Why don’t you call your brother-in-law to find out.”

I didn’t have my phone on me. Because it was dead, I’d left it at the clubhouse while Gunner and I went for dinner. We’d been in such a haste to come here I hadn’t remembered to grab it either.

“Your phone,” I said to Gunner.

He took it out, unlocked it, and handed it to me. How I managed to keep my hands from shaking was a mystery. My whole insides had turned into a turbulent sea of emotions.

I punched in her number. The phone rang a couple of times.

“Hello—” Jasper answered.

“Jas, it’s Ben. Let me—”

“Where the hell have you been?” Jasper cried. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”

Oh god, no.

Thoms smiled at me, even when blood was seeping through his fingers where he was holding his arm.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have my phone on me. What’s happening?”

“Some asshole made off with your sister. We can’t find her, Ben. Where the hell is my wife?”

“How did this happen?”

“Today was our doctor’s appointment. She wasn’t feeling well, so we decided to sleep at the house tonight and make the trip back tomorrow. While she was sleeping, I went to pick up her prescription. By the time I got back, she was gone, Ben.”

Oh god, Alice.Please let her be okay.“I’m going to find her and bring her back.”

“You need to find her, Ben. If anything happens to her—”

“I will. Save this number. If there’s anything new, call me.”

“Okay. I’ve got to go. The cops are still here.”

“We’ll find her,” I said one last time, comforting myself more than him. I ended the call, gave Gunner his phone back, and punched Thoms in the face. I grabbed him by his collar and threw him back against the wall.

“Where the hell is she?”

“If I tell you, I lose my leverage. Let me go, and you’ll see her alive again. I didn’t want to involve her, Ben—” He shifted his gaze to the dead body on the floor. “But when this bitch called me and said that she’d caused a scene at the clubhouseand wasn’t able to get inside Gunner’s room, I knew she’d been found out. I don’t want to harm your sister. I just need her for collateral.”

“I’m not letting you go until you tell me where I can find her.”

“I know ways to make him talk,” Gunner said over my shoulder.

“My man has orders to kill her if I don’t show up by morning. Is that what you want? Your sister’s blood on your hands?”

I gritted my teeth and tried to repress the storm raging inside me. The most important thing was getting her back alive. Now that I knew he was responsible for all these crimes, he couldn’t escape.

I released him and took a step back. “I need proof. Let me talk to her.”

“That I can do.” With bloody fingers, he got his phone out of his pocket and rang someone.

“Put it on speakerphone,” I said. “I want to hear everything.”

The volume of the ringing increased.

“Thoms, that you?” someone answered.

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