Page 18 of Caged Captain

“Explain,” the Boss says, his tone deep and filled with impatience.

I tuck that giant revelation away, needing to get down to business before unpacking exactly what it means to be in love with Imogine.

“She’s gone,” I start. My mind races with a million thoughts, but I try to pick the relevant ones to convince Aurelio to gather some men and help me find her.

“Imogine?” he guesses. I nod. “Didn’t I tell you to distance yourself for her safety? What did you do?”

“Nothing!” I shout as I throw my hands up in the air. Aurelio raises an eyebrow at my outburst. “I did what you said. I didn’t call, didn’t visit, and tried to distract myself from thinking about her.”

“But?”

I exhale and rest my elbows on my knees, holding my head in my hands. Aurelio knows me all too well. “But I broke down and stopped by the diner she works at earlier today,” I admit. “I wasn’t going to talk to her, I just… I had to see her. She was supposed to be at work until five, but she wasn’t there.” Lifting my head, I look at the Boss, who has his eyes trained right on me. He nods once, silently telling me to continue. “I went into the diner and asked about her,” I finally confess. “They said she left work early, and no one has heard from her.”

Aurelio absorbs this information, though his expression is completely unreadable. I have no idea if I’m getting through to him, but I’m about to storm out and go on a one-man crusade across the city to find Imogine. He must sense how desperate I am, how obsessed I am with this woman and her safety. Staying away is no longer an option.

“When was this?” he finally asks after a long moment of silence.

“Two and a half hours ago. I drove by her shitty motel and even snuck into her father’s place of work to see if she was visiting him. Nothing. She’s vanished.”

“Is it possible she’s avoiding you like I told you to avoid her?”

“She can be pissed and ignore me all she wants, but that’s different than disappearing,” I counter. My leg bounces up and down so hard that I rattle the cup full of pens on the desk.

Aurelio glances at the shaking pens before focusing back on me. “Enrico called thirty minutes ago. He’s been tracking the detectives while they track us, trying to stay one step ahead of them. All four policemen went off the grid—no cell signals, no movement on the GPS devices placed on their cars, no sight of them following us or working at the station. Like Imogine, they seem to have vanished.”

“Fuck!” I roar, standing from my chair. I run my fingers through my hair, trying to keep my racing thoughts contained. I need a clear head right now to come up with a plan.

“Enrico is already on it, but you should join him. He’s in the basement, still trying to triangulate their cell phones and cycle through the CCTV footage from our family-owned businesses. Go give him Imogine’s number and see if that brings up anything.”

I’m out the door in the next second, not waiting for the Boss to dismiss me. I leap down the stairs to our tech room, taking them three at a time. Enrico jumps out of his chair when I swing the door open with a bang.

“What the hell, Marco?”

“We need to find Imogine,” I blurt out. I know I sound crazy and on edge. Probably because Iamfucking crazy and on edge. “Detectives missing. She’s missing. They have her,” I try to explain.

Enrico nods slowly, though I can tell he’s not sure what to do with me. His phone rings, and he answers, giving a few words of confirmation before hanging up. “Boss said your woman was possibly kidnapped by those fuckers, and you have her cell number for me?”

I nod and rattle off the phone number, thankful that Aurelio thought to call him and explain. Like I said, the man knows me all too well.

“Shit,” Enrico says under his breath. He types something into the computer and turns to face a different screen, one of at least ten lining the wall. His face scrunches in concentration as he leans forward.

“What? What is it?”

Enrico points to the screen, where a small red dot is flashing. “Is that her phone?”

He nods. “It’s in the middle of the fucking desert,” he says, anger lacing his voice.

My heart drops to the floor, and I lean against the wall to keep my knees from giving out. “We have to go,” I breathe. “We have to go right the fuck now.”

Fifteen minutes later, Enrico and Lorenzo, our top enforcer, are in one vehicle while I’m in another. We race toward the location of Imogine’s phone, though we’re still not going fast enough. I press on the gas, urging the damn car to reach its top speed of one hundred and fifty miles per hour.

Enrico’s car stops on the side of the old highway we’ve been driving down. It led to a casino and resort a decade ago, but that place shut down, leaving the highway empty most days.

I hop out of my vehicle, noticing the brick of a phone lying in the dirt, the screen broken as if it was tossed out of a car window. Rage boils up from the pit of my stomach as the scene plays out in my mind.

Imogine must have been taken from her job. I don’t know how, but that’s when she went missing. The bastards threw her in an unmarked, untraced police car and got rid of any devices that could be tracked.

“The casino,” Lorenzo says, echoing my earlier thought. “It’s the only thing down this highway other than tumbleweeds and rattlesnakes.”

---