Page 33 of Unfulfilled Promises
When he walked outside, the look on his face was ghostly white as he casually walked down the sidewalk toward Regan’s car. Booker and Caldwell were parked beside her, so he moved directly to them. Sitting up straight, I knew something was wrong.
“Where is she?” I asked, and Lucian pulled his phone out.
I had mine on my lap, and when it rang, I jumped to grab it. “What’s he saying, Booker? What? Are you fucking kidding me?”
I looked at Lucian, who had James and, I assumed, Devlin and Rhys on the line as I yelled, “She’s gone.”
Chaos ensued as I jumped out of the vehicle, not listening to a screaming Lucian as I darted across the two-lane road and into the parking lot of the restaurant. Booker and Caldwell, the two men who’d always had my back, came running up to me as I sprinted into the restaurant, much to the chagrin of the man outside.
I burst inside, swinging my head around to see if I could find Regan. The woman behind the hostess podium stared at me with wide eyes.
“Can I help you, sir?” she asked with a tremble in her voice as a few of the patrons turned their attention to the ruckus I was creating.
“Where is the woman who came in her alone about forty-five minutes ago? About this tall,” I held my hand out to where Regan’s head would be, “brown hair, green eyes. She was meeting someone. Where is she?”
The woman pointed to a dining area toward the side of the building, and I rushed inside, followed by Booker and Caldwell. There was no one in the seating area, and as I went to findthe woman, a man walked out wearing typical server attire. He turned his attention tp us as he asked, “Can I help you?”
“Where’s the woman who was by herself?” Booker handed me his phone which had a picture of Regan on the screen. I showed the server, and he gave a nod before speaking.
“She waited for her date, and just as she was ready for the check, a man arrived. I assumed he was with her, but he said he was just visiting an old friend. I . . . I thought it was strange, but she seemed to know who he was.”
I grabbed the server by the front of his pressed shirt as I yelled, “Who was he?”
Booker wrenched me away from the terrified server, who stammered to answer. “I’ve never seen him. I don’t even know where he came from until he was sitting with her. He paid the bill, and they left that way.” The man pointed to the rear of the building with a shaking hand, and I rushed past him while Caldwell continued to speak with him.
Booker was hot on my heels as I pushed open the emergency door, expecting the alarm. Looking around, I didn’t see anything, but just as I went to run around the side of the building, Booker drew my attention to something on the small sideway. Shining his flashlight onto the ground, I saw a few drops of blood and what appeared to be a ripped-off button. Picking it up, I watched Booker take a sample of the blood as Caldwell stepped outside.
“I got the bill he paid with and fingerprinted the server to exclude him. What did you find?”
I held the button up to him and turned to walk away. I’d let someone take her by setting her up, and whatever happened to her would be my fault.
A car pulled into the parking lot and the lights flashed across me as I stepped up to the front of the building. Devlin, James, and Rhys rushed out and ran to me. I dropped the button intoRhys’s hand as I walked past, unable to even say the words out loud.
Someone took Regan, and once again, we had no idea how to locate her or even where to start looking. She barely survived last time, and I knew deep down in my heart, whoever took her wasn’t going to be kind.
And for that, I deserved to burn in hell with the others we’d sent there.
Without looking, I stepped into the road, blindly walking across the two lanes to get back to Lucian’s vehicle. He was barking orders to someone on the phone from the open hatch of the SUV, and I wordlessly climbed into the passenger seat and closed my eyes, not wanting to see the anger or fear in the eyes of the men I asked to trust me. If one of them put a bullet in my brain right now, I’d deserve it.
I heard Lucian speaking more controlled to someone, and I mindlessly opened my phone and pulled up a picture I’d taken of Regan during one of my visits to the house over the last few months. She was sitting outside with Hannah, and she was laughing at something. The sun shone through her hair and illuminated her skin, making her more radiant and more beautiful than anyone I’d ever laid eyes on.
Lucian walked up to the passenger side of the SUV and opened the door. I kept my eyes on the phone, and when he snatched it from my hands, I jumped out to retrieve it from him. That’s when I noticed we weren’t alone. Devlin, James, Rhys, and Caldwell stood behind Lucian, all of them with their hardened gazes locked on me.
Reaching into the back of my tactical pants, I grabbed my gun, chambered a round, and reached out to hand it to Rhys. “Go ahead. I deserve it.”
“Put that gun away, motherfucker. We need to figure out who took Regan and where they are,” Rhys demanded, and I shook my head.
“This is all my fault. I set this plan in motion, and now, she’s gone and we—”
I didn’t expect James to slap me in the face, and when I snapped my hardened gaze back to him, I saw the purpose of his strike.
“Pull your head out of your ass and get mad. Someone took the woman you love, and we’re gonna bring her home. Stop being a melodramatic bitch and snap out of it.”
Caldwell came running across the street with something in his hand. I glared at James before turning to my friend, waiting to see what he’d discovered. “I pulled the security cameras from the restaurant, including the ones at the back of the building and the kitchen. We need to analyze them and see who thought they could get away with this.”
Devlin stepped up as Rhys kept his eyes locked on me. The madman made sure to connect stares with every one of us before he looked at me and spoke through gritted teeth. “We will bring Regan home and we will end all this bullshit once and for all. Whoever thought it was okay to touch someone in our family is about to meet the full strength of what I’m capable of. So, if you’re through feeling sorry for yourself, we have work to do.”
“Where do we start?” I asked.
