breaking up. Can you text me!?”
Then, the line went dead.
“Fuck!” I roared.
However, a text came rolling through my phone. From Sly. And when I opened it up, I threw my leg back over my bike and peeled out of the woods.
We had a location on Skeleton as well as his men. Sly and Ash were in pursuit of the henchmen. And Skeleton?
Well, he was apparently in some fucking place called Cherry Branch.
I punched that shit into my GPS faster than I ever could. And when I saw I still had a three-hour drive, I thought my head was going to pop off. I looked up, gazing through the woods at the half-mile of expansive wilderness I’d have to trudge through in order to do my recon.
Or I could go after the man that took Simone.
“You promise you’ll always be here, JayJay?”
I gazed into her beautiful blue eyes. “Always, S. You can always count on me.”
“Especially now,” I murmured.
I sped away from the woods and got my ass onto the highway knowing damn good and well it would probably cost me my leather cut. I didn’t care, though. Nothing mattered right now except her. I sped through traffic and weaved between cars. I even outran a police cruiser that I blew past in the process. The drive seemed longer than anything I’d ever done in my entire fucking life. But once I came across the exits for downtown Cherry Branch about two and a half hours later, I careened off the exit.
And started showing Skeleton’s picture to anyone that would speak with me.
There were a few people that recognized him, but they didn’t know much. Just that he seemed like the kind of person to stay away, from. So, they did. At least these people were smart. I asked them where he was and where they think he was headed, but as I canvassed the restaurants and bars, he had dipped himself into, I noticed something.
He was walking into all of these places, just like I was.
I walked into an ice cream parlor. “Has anyone in here right now been working for the past few hours?”
A young girl raised her hand. “Me. I’ve been here since opening.”
I held up my phone with Skeleton’s picture on it. “Do you remember seeing this man?”
Blood drained from her face. “Why?”
“I’m looking for him because he’s very bad and he’s taken someone from me that I care about greatly. If you can tell me anything about him, I’d really appreciate it.”
Her eyes darted around. “I don’t really know. He just came in for some ice cream.”
“Are you sure it was just that?”
A man walked up to us. “Excuse me, but if you’re not going to buy something you need to leave.”
I shoved the phone in his face. “Know this man?”
His eyes fell to the picture. “Buy an ice cream cone and we can talk.”
“Fine. Two scoops of chocolate in a regular cone. Now, the man. Talk.”
He shooed the young girl off before leaning closer to me. “He was looking for someone.”
I lowered my voice. “Did he say who?”
“No. He didn’t have a picture. Said he was looking for his girlfriend. She’s apparently gone missing.”
My blood ran cold. “Did he say what this girl looked like?”
“Just said she had blonde hair. Blue eyes. Tall. I thought it was a pretty plain description for someone he’s apparently dating, though.”
My heart stilled in my chest. “Have you seen someone like that around here?”
“Why?”
“Give me the ice cream cone for free and I’ll tell you.”
He stared at me for a while before he handed me the two scoops of chocolate in a regular cone and didn’t ring me up for it.
“Now, what’s all this crazy shit happening right now? I’m not the only business owner that’s been pestered today. Everyone feels very unease right now.”
I put my phone away. “As they should. The man you’ve encountered is dangerous. He runs a plethora of trafficking operations out of my own hometown. And this girlfriend he’s searching for? She’s the woman I love. The woman he’s kidnapped from me, right out from under my nose.”
The man’s face softened. “I’m so sorry.”
“So, if you’ve seen a woman like that around town at all, you need to tell me where she is. She’s in a hell of a lot of danger.”
The young girl interjected again. “Blue eyes, you said?”
I looked over at her. “Yes. Big blue eyes. Blonde hair, down past her shoulders. A bit of waviness to it, but not much. She’s