Hearing my hard tone, he immediately dropped his controller and stood up to walk over to us. He crossed his arms in front of his chest as he took in my and Bonham’s expressions.
“Is this some jealous bullshit, or is this serious?” he asked.
“Serious,” I answered.
He studied me for a moment longer and then nodded. “Scarlett doesn’t ever call. She usually just shows up. Mostly when you fucking assholes make her life a living hell at school, or if her mama was on her case. I haven’t seen her today, but if I do, I’ll give you a call.”
He pulled out his phone and handed it to me, and I shot myself a text from it before handing it back.
“You need help looking?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I’ll find her.”
Clay looked like he wanted to argue, but I just turned and walked out.
I would find her. I wasn’t about to let Clayton fucking Hammond swoop in like some shitty hero. If anyone was gonna rescue her, it was gonna be me. But I hoped like fuck that she didn’t need rescuing. Except every minute that passed that I didn’t hear from her or find her, it was more likely that Johnny Jack’s guys had somehow figured something out.
Back in my car, Bonham stayed in constant contact with Luis, but Scarlett wasn’t at any of the spots they checked either. The four of us swept over nearly the entire town. The library, the cafes, the historic district, the movie theater, every fucking place we could think of that she’d ever hung out. She was nowhere. Her driver was still stationed at the dance school, but her appointment had come and gone, and she was a no-show. Another one of my contacts had said that she still hadn’t gone home, and another guy did a sweep of the school just in case, but she wasn’t there.
Real panic started to set in.
And then my phone buzzed.
I pulled it out, fucking hoping that it would be her and it was—but not in the way I expected. When I swiped the screen to open the text message, my blood turned cold.
It was a photo of her, sent by an unknown number. I could tell by the background that she was at the train tracks. There was a time stamp on it from hours earlier, right after last period ended.
I hadn’t even realized that I’d slammed on my brakes, totally stopping traffic, until Bonham nudged me. “Dude. Gimme the phone and drive the fucking car before someone smashes into us.”
Jolting my head up, I pushed the phone into his chest, flung out my middle finger to everyone honking at me, and sped off.
“Fuck.” Bonham’s voice was strained and full of panic. I could see him zooming in on the photo to get closer to her face, and for some reason, I wanted to snatch the phone from him, but I kept myself in check.
“Did they take her?” he asked, his eyes still on the screen.
I ground my teeth together. “Sure as fuck looks like it.”
“Fuck!” He punched a fist into my dashboard, so hard that I’m surprised he didn’t make the airbag engage.
The next second, he was forwarding the photo to the other guys. His phone immediately started ringing, and I could hear Godfrey yelling on the other line.
“Tell them to meet at my place. We’ll grab some shit and go find Johnny Jack’s guys.”
Bonham relayed the information, all three of them knowing full well what I meant. My dad had a room dedicated to weapons, and we’d be dipping into his stash before we ventured into Macon Mob territory. If they had her, I wasn’t willing to wait, and I wasn’t stupid enough to go in unarmed.
I pulled up to my house in record time, just as Godfrey and Luis sped in behind me. We parked haphazardly, and then we were rushing toward the door.
I grabbed my keyring and tossed it to Luis so that he’d be able to unlock the weapons room and the safes. “Suit up. I’m gonna grab us a change of clothes.”
We sure as fuck couldn’t storm into a crime lord’s house dressed in our prep school outfits.
The three of them rushed toward the back of the house for the stairs to the basement, while I went upstairs, taking the steps two at a time.
When I got to my bedroom, I flung open the door and immediately moved to