Page 19 of Aries Mated

ATLAS

My heart damn near stopped beating as another message came through on the group chat. It had to be Maeve this time; she couldn’t leave us all hanging any longer. But, of course, it wasn’t her. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t going to be her because she was in some kind of trouble. She was trying to message us all for help. I could justsense that. I muttered a few expletives as I opened the group text to see what was going on.

Kai:I am with Matt now. Sol and the nanny are safely at home.

TJ:Nothing at Pleasures. I’ll keep looking.

My heart sunk. We needed to find Maeve. For Sol, but also to help heal my heart a little bit. I didn’t realize how bad I felt for not keeping in touch with Pi’s wife and son after the funeral. I should have done so in his memory; it was what he would have wanted of me. I couldn’t let her slip through my fingers now, I couldn’t let her be missing. I had to do whatever I could to make sure she was safe. For Sol, for Pi, and for Maeve as well.

I stuffed the cell phone in my pocket with sheer irritation, and pushed open the door to the police station. I didn’t know how much the officers here were going to help me, but I wouldn’t let them get away with doing nothing.

“Tex,” I demanded the moment I spotted him. “I need to talk to you right away. We have a situation here.”

“Yeah?” Thank God he took me seriously. He dropped the paperwork on the desk beside him and gave me his full attention. “What’s happening?”

“Do you remember Maeve? From Pleasures?” He nodded. “I think she’s missing.”

“Huh?” He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “What do you mean? Since when? I only just spoke to her a little while ago to tell her that the case with the burglary is closed.”

Could that be linked?My detective brain spun at a million miles an hour. “When did you speak to her?”

He checked his watch. “About forty minutes ago. It was a bit of strange conversation though…”

My heart leapt into my throat. I leaned in a little closer to Tex. “What do you mean, strange?”

“Well, it was good news, the robber has pled guilty so there won’t be any drama, and she seemed pleased about that, but then she went quiet.” He seemed to rack his brain for a couple of moments. I waited as patiently as I could for him to land on whatever the hell he was searching for, just in case it was really important. “And then she muttered the words “oh no,” at least I think that’s what it was, before the call dropped. No goodbye or anything.”

“Fuck. Can you track her phone so I can find her?” I demanded, panicking.

“We can’t track anyone’s phone without probable cause…”

“Andthatisn’t probably cause?” I threw my hands in the air in frustration. “You just said she said, “Oh no,” before the call dropped.”

Tex scoffed. “That isn’t proof of anything. Maybe she just remembered that she left the oven on. Maybe she saw someone she wanted to hide from. That isn’t probably cause.”

“But she’s missing,” I spat out through gritted teeth. “I just told you that.”

Tex actually chuckled this time. “It’s the Astro Games. Things are more manic than usual. People can drift in and out of sight very easily. It seems to me that she’s been missing for, what, forty minutes? We have to wait seventy-two hours before we can class someone as missing.”

“Seventy-two hours?” I banged my fists on the desk. “Are you joking? Everyone knows the first twenty-four hours are the most important from an investigative standpoint. I’m a police officer too, don’t forget, and I’mtellingyou that she’s missing. She was at the games, watching parkour, and then she went to answer a phone call.Yourphone call, and then she just disappears. Poof, into thin air. Look at this, her last message.” Tex didn’t look too bothered by theHemessage. “She wouldnotleave her son at the game.”

“Her son was alone?” Tex cocked a knowing eyebrow.

“No, he was with the nanny, but—”

“So, he wasn’t alone, then. My hands really are tied here.” He shrugged helplessly. “You know protocol as well as I do, Atlas. I have to follow the rules, no matter who the person is. I consider you a friend, but there is only so much that I can do.”

I deflated. I actually felt all the hope ebb out of my system as he said that. Tex and I knew one another, we knew how things worked as well, but that didn’t make any of this any easier. How could I make him see that I could justtellshit was going down?

“Hey, Atlas, what’s your relationship with Maeve?” Tex asked me curiously, asking me the one question I really didn’t know how to answer.

“I was in combat training with her husband years ago,” I replied quietly. “Until he passed away. That’s how I know her.” That didn’t explain it properly at all, but it was the best I could do.

Tex sighed. “Look, come into my office. We can talk this through, although I can’t promise anything.”

That didn’t sound good. But what other choice did I have? If there was even the slightest chance that I could get the police to help me out, I had to give it my all. Thank goodness the other guys were out looking for Maeve, or I wouldn’t have been able to stay here doing absolutely nothing. I really hoped that one of them found her soon. And safe. I really wanted Maeve to be safe.

“Let me get you a drink,” Tex said as he tapped away on his computer. “Then we can talk about it all.” He nodded toward his PC, giving me a hint that there was something I needed to see. “I’ll be about fifteen minutes, tops.”

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