Page 70 of Moose

Itwasgettinglate,and Lily still wasn’t back. I had tried calling her phone, but it went straight to voicemail. The kids and I had just finished eating dinner when I headed outside to call Striker.

He answered after a few rings. “Yo, man. What’s up?”

“Lily isn’t back yet and I have a bad feeling.”

“No problem, brother. I’ll have somebody run by her office and Hope Hearted then come see you. Sound good?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Pres.”

I hung up and walked back inside to get the kids ready for bed. We finished up their homework, cleaned up dinner, and I tucked them in; yet still no Lily.

My phone rang, and I looked down to see Thor’s name.

“Yo, man. What’s up?”

“I’m on my way over with the prospect. Lily was at Hope Hearted today with me, then we went to her office. She was meeting with a new client before closing up.”

I shook my head as I looked around my yard. “Yeah and? What the fuck happened?”

“Nothing, man. We closed up, and she said she was heading back to your house.”

“Fuck! I just have a bad feeling.”

“I know. We’re on our way. Try to track her phone, brother.”

I hung up and headed back inside to my office downstairs. Getting past the security, I sat down and got to work.

As I pulled everything up, my alarm rang on my phone. I looked down to see it was just Thor and Beckett coming up the driveway.

I turned back to screens and tried to find anything I could. Lily’s phone was off and I was using the security cameras around town to see if I could find anything. I watched on the screen as Lily got in her car and drove off.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but it just felt so fucking off. Slamming my hands down on the keyboard, I pushed back in the chair and went to storm up the stairs when my phone rang.

I looked down to see ‘unknown number’flashing across the screen. I quickly answered it, hoping it was Lily.

“Hello?”

A robotic voice came over the speaker. “Leave her.”

I instantly started to trace the call.

“Leave who? Who the fuck is this?”

“Leave Lily. Or else.”

I shoved my chair back as I watched my program pinging off towers, trying to find the location of the caller.

“Grow a fucking pair and tell me who you are.”

“It will only get worse from here.”

They hung up, and I ran up the stairs, cursing as I reached the top. I found Thor and Beckett sitting at my kitchen table.

“Somebody called. I tried to trace the call, but they ended it before I did. Told me to leave Lily. Fuck!”

The alarm on my phone went off, and I heard a car pulling up the driveway. All three of us went running out, guns in hand, to see who was coming up my driveway.

As we ran outside, I could see Lily’s black car swerving as she parked, nearly hitting my truck. I ran over as Lily collapsed out of the car into my arms.

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