Page 94 of Queen Of WildCards

Malloryknew the risks.

Iflipped open my phone and shot off a text to her, hoping she'd respond immediately.Asthe seconds ticked by, the feeling of dread in my stomach only grew untilIpulled the next woman aside who wandered in and back out of that same bathroom, my eyes wild and my hair frazzled from the repeated motion of my hands running through it nervously.

"Hey, what gives, asshole?" she nearly shouted, trying to yank her hand out of my grip asItugged her out of the main line of sight of the room. "Layoff, prick!"

"Shutyer trap;Ijust need to know if another woman was in there when you went in."

Shestopped fighting and cast her eyes around, perhaps trying to determine if this was some sort of trap. "Placewas empty.Nobodyin there but me."

Ireleased her and shoved my way into a women's restroom for the first time in years, rabid and panicked, whenIfound what the other woman had promised to be true—the place was empty.

Mallorywas gone.

* * *

Wecombedthe whole fucking floor,BlackJackandI, before finally draggingAceinto it.I'dhoped to avoid his involvement, knowing damn wellI'dget an earful about how incompetentIwas ifIcouldn't look after a single little woman, but he surprised me.

"We'llfind her, one way or another," he growled, his hands balled into fists. "Eithershe was snatched, or she finally decided to run."

Ishook my head at his declaration, refusing to believe after all this time, she'd decided to leave us. "Shewouldn't run.Wherethe fuck would she go?"

Heshrugged, his eyes darting over to a quickly-approachingSpade. "Fuck.Weneed him at the top of his game; not a word until we figure out what's going on, you hear me?"

Iswallowed the sick feeling that fell to the pit of my stomach and nodded in agreement. "Sure."

Spadedanced to the left and right, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he grinned like a loon and made his way over to us.Whenthe bastard realizedMallorywasn't present, his face fell, andIrealized we didn't need to speak it into existence for him to know what was going on.

Spadealways knew.

"Whereis she?" he asked, his prancing turning to a powerful stalking, shoulders straight and tense, arms at his sides but ready to swing. "Hello, are you all dense?Where'sour girl?"

Aceshook his head, a heavy sigh escaping him. "Shewent to the bathrooms and never came back.We'retrying to work out where she ran off to now."

Spacefucking scowled at the other man, his lips curled in disbelief. "Shewouldn't run off.Sheloves us."

BlackJackrolled his eyes, choosing to remain silent rather than go up against the madman in our group.Iwas on the same level as him, honestly, andIdidn't need her to say it to my face to know the doc was falling for us all hard.Hell, she'd put a gun toAce'shead and fucked his brains out, for heaven's sake.Ifthat wasn't love,Iwasn't sure what was.

Andlet's not forget how she handledBlackJack'sstoic ass with kid gloves, slowly turning him into a semi-functioning person again.

"Shedidn't run off,Ace," he doubled down, seeing the hesitation in our leader's eyes. "Ace, fucking say something—"

"Ifshe didn't run off, someone managed to pick her off in less than two seconds, andIfind that hard to believe,Spade."

Hewas saved from a lengthy argument by the sound ofSpade'sname being called to climb into the ring to await his nightly challengers.Spadewas hesitant and no doubt would have dropped out in a heartbeat if he didn't think us capable of finding her.Andthen there was the hefty betAceplaced on him.Ifhe walked off, he'd be paying that back out of his own pockets, and there was no way he had coffers that deep, not after such a long stagnant period out of the ring.

"You'dbetter find her," he growled before he turned on a heel and marched off, rage and anxiousness hunching his shoulders, filling his frame with a dangerous blend of energy that spelled trouble for any man dumb enough to go against him.

Ihad no doubt if we didn't find her beforeSpadewalked back out of that ring, there'd be hell to pay.Friendsor not, crew or not, when it came toMallory,Spadewas a wild animal, and without her?

Well,Ididn't want to know what he'd do without her.

CHAPTERFORTY-ONE

MALLORY

"Forfuck's sake, can't a girl just go to the bathroom without being accosted?"

TheKingwho'd come to snatch me up was the same one who'd grabbed onto me the last time we'd had a little run-in, and he was no less threatening now than he was then.Theonly difference now was that none of my men were around to save me.Iwas well and truly on my own; theKingsmade sure of that.

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