Roman - Lane Hart Page 0,14
Tessa is?” Bev asks.
“I know, it sucks,” I agree. “But all we can do for now is wait.”
Chapter Five
Roman
“Danny, hey. Did you find anything?” I ask the head of our IT team when he calls me back around one in the afternoon on Saturday.
“Yeah, Roman, I did. And it’s not good.”
“What do you mean?” I ask as my heart starts racing in my chest.
“I think it’s better if you see for yourself.”
“When can you get to the clubhouse?” I ask him.
“I’m already in the car on my way.”
“Good enough. I’ll see you in a few.” Ending the call, I head outside for a smoke while I wait for him to pull up.
Danny is barely out of his Jeep when I say, “Show me.”
Coming over, he pushes a few buttons on his iPad and then offers it to me. “Just hit play.”
I do, and then begin watching a dark, night scene of Ocean Blvd, people walking up and down the sidewalk the club is on, including a woman walking alone with her phone to her ear, her back to the camera. Still, it’s obvious to see that it’s Tessa with her red hair and sparkly dress.
“Is that all there is?” I ask him.
“Keep watching.”
Tessa eventually lowers her phone, clutching it in her hand near her side. By now she’s walked past around five or six stores, just as we were able to determine last night. She spins on her heels, facing the camera again like she’s going to start walking back. She only takes about three steps before a white van pulls up to the curb. Tessa turns her head to the passenger side, and it looks like she’s talking to them, her finger pointing off in the distance as if giving them directions.
Already, I’m getting a bad feeling before the side door of the van suddenly slides open. Two men jump out and grab Tessa. In the blink of an eye, she’s thrown into the back of the van, the men jump in, slam the door, and then it takes off down the road.
“Fuck!” I shout while my hands spontaneously bend the iPad damn near in half. This is even worse than we thought. Charlotte…god, the woman is going to have a nervous breakdown when she sees the video, but I have to show it to her. She deserves nothing but honesty, even when the truth will break her heart.
“Sorry,” I say when I hand the folded-up device with a cracked screen back to Danny.
“No problem,” he says when he takes the iPad back carefully and tries to bend it back into shape. “The, um, MC paid for it, and we have others. I can email a copy of the video to your phone as soon as I get back to the office.”
“Do that,” I tell him. “Were you able to get a license plate?” I ask, not worried about a few hundred dollars wasted on broken tech right now.
“I’ve got two guys working on it,” Danny says. “They’ll zoom in and get as much information as they can. But right now, all we know is that the tags are from North Carolina and the van has some sort of flooring business plastered across the side.”
“Keep working and let me know when you have something solid.”
“Absolutely. Sorry to bring you bad news on a Saturday.”
“It’s not your fault. I appreciate you working on your day off.”
“Something bad is going to happen to that woman,” he says sorrowfully. “Me and my guys will keep at it until we get everything we can find from the video.”
“Thanks. Now get back to work.”
When I get back inside, Winston and Conrad are hanging out at the bar.
“What’s up boss?” Conrad asks. “Everything okay?”
“No, it’s not,” I answer. “Get everyone in here ASAP for an emergency meeting. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Charlotte
“It’s more than an hour after noon,” Syd says as if I haven’t been watching the clock tick by every second since we got home last night. Twelve hours. It’s been twelve hours since our friend disappeared out of thin air without returning any of our calls or texts.
“I know,” I tell her.
“What are we going to do? Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” I answer in a stupor. The intense worry for my best friend’s unknown whereabouts combined with a total lack of sleeping and not eating since dinner last night isn’t helping. I feel like a powerless zombie. All I can do is walk the floors of the beach house