Page 90 of The One Night Match
Monica hasn’t found her.
She and a man we can’t get a clear enough picture of have been picked up a number of times at the edge of the property, but Riley is nowhere to be seen.
The hopeful part of me thinks she’s found somewhere dry to wait out the storm, but there is a pit in the bottom of my stomach that worries she’s hurt somewhere out of view of the cameras.
We’ve split the team in half, with three men heading toward the area Monica and her male companion are, while I and two other men are looking for my wife, but it’s getting harder and harder not to think the worst.
“How we doing, Cruz?” Colten asks, his voice strained, and in the background, I hear Mr. Whiskers let out a loud meow.
“The same,” I say. “Is the cat giving you a hard time?”
“I don’t think you can continue to call this thing a cat. He’s a demon pulled straight from the depths of hell,” he mutters before a voice in the distance says something that makes him sigh. “I don’t dislike cats, Lexi, but I really dislike this orange monster who won’t stop clawing at my leg like it’s my fault his human is missing.”
I scoff at their argument, but it’s not nearly as amusing as it would normally be. “Any sign of her on the cameras?”
“Negative.” He sighs. “Once the storm passes, I can get the drone out, but it doesn’t stand a chance in these conditions.”
No kidding. It’s the heaviest rain we’ve had in months, which is really poorly timed.
“Lexi’s okay?”
“Okay is a relative word,” he replies. “She’s worried. Angry at you. Furious with Monica. And she’s threatened to stab me with a butter knife if she’s not found before sunrise.” Another voicein the distance that I can’t make out makes him chuckle. “If you even try to walk out that door, I will tie you to a chair. Don’t fucking test me.”
I scrub a hand down my face and groan. “Please don’t talk about tying my baby sister up, man.”
Voices in the distance drag my attention from whatever the hell is happening at my house, and I jog forward toward them, finding a still-beaten Davis and Hugo looking down at a ravine.
“Did you find her?” I ask with too much hope in my voice.
Davis shakes his head. “Not yet. But we want to check out down there, make sure she hasn’t fallen.”
I glance over the ledge, and my skin crawls at the drop. Would she have even survived if she did fall? It’s a decent drop, and the water seems to be getting higher by the second. “Is it safe for us to head down there?”
“No,” Hugo replies at the same time Davis says, “Yes.”
I press my eyes closed, trying to think rationally. “We can’t risk one of us getting hurt. There are very few people I trust right now, and until that number increases, I can’t risk losing anyone.”
“But what if she’s down there?” Hugo argues.
“If we find any indication that she has fallen, we’ll pivot and take the chance, but until then, we continue our search. Colten says once the rain passes, he can get the drone out, and we’ll get him down there first.”
Both men nod, but I can tell Hugo isn’t happy about it.
Neither am I, but I have to play this right, even if it goes against all my instincts.
Hours pass, and the rain only seems to come down harder.
The other team hasn’t been able to apprehend Monica and whoever she’s with, which means we’re still racing against them to find Riley.
Not to mention how cold it is out here.
Fuck, she must be freezing. Scared. Hurt.
The thoughts are enough to drive me to the brink of insanity, and the more time that passes, the closer I come to allowing it to take over.
Twelve hours ago, I was certain the best thing I could do for Riley was to let her go, but now I realize just how fucking stupid I was. How deluded I was to have had the idea in the first place.
After this debacle, I’m going to struggle to blink because it’ll mean she’s out of my sight for a split second.
