“Yo.” I turn at Bass’s voice. “Flint says her phone’s pinging at this location.”
I don’t wait, just leave the office and run down the halls. Yelling from the principal about not being allowed to walk around unescorted is cut short by Bass. Not sure what he does, but he keeps the fucking bastard off my ass as I make it to her room. It’s locked.Fuck.
I don’t even try to kick it down, as I’ve seen enough school shootings to bet these doors are laced with reinforcements.
“Bass,” I bellow, knowing my voice will carry in these empty halls.
He’s quick to find me, even pulling the good old principal along with him by the scruff of his collar.
“Open it,” I demand.
The asshole looks offended by my words, as if I insulted him or some shit. “I will not. This is highly inappropriate. I’m going to have to ask you two to leave before I call the police.”
I grab the front of his shirt and push him against the wall by the door. “Open the goddamn door before I break your hand to get your keys and do it myself.” I don’t care that I’m in his face. I couldn’t give two shits about spitting on him as I talk. All I care about is my girl.
He must get that, as he turns slightly, and I let him go enough for him to unlock the door with the keys attached to his belt.
I push him aside as soon as the door is unlocked and dart into the empty classroom. I see nothing, so I go to her desk and yank hard at the drawers, breaking the locks that give easily enough to a Hound on a rampage, and find her purse. Pulling it out, I hear her phone kick on and start ringing again. I take it out and answer.
“Bailey?” Jules asks with all the excitement of a kid getting a puppy on Christmas.
“Nah, it’s me. Tell Flint….” I take a moment to steady myself before I continue. It takes a strength I’m unfamiliar with to say it. “Tell him she ain’t here.”
I hang up. Can’t bear to answer her questions right now.
“Y’all got surveillance cameras?” Bass asks Troy, but the principal only shakes his head.
“No, the school board hasn’t approved them yet.” At least the ass is being cooperative now.
“Think she went home or some shit?” Bass tries to make this easier, but I already know it’s not going to be.
“Nah.”
“You sure?” Bass asks, and I nod.
“She wouldn’t leave her things for nothing.” I scroll through her phone and see several missed calls from Jules and others. “She’s close to her family, and they wouldn’t be calling if she was with them.” I turn the phone around for Bass to see that her mom called her just about as many times as Jules, and the last one was less than five minutes ago.
“Let’s make some calls.”
I nod as I hear him get on the phone and walk out. I gather her stuff and follow him. No idea what Troy the principal does, and I don’t care. I only care about my girl and finding her.
“The boys have been looking since you called, but we haven’t found anything.” Law’s voice is clear through the phone, but I wish to God it wasn’t. Seven hours. We’ve been looking for seven hours. Every single person we can spare. We’ve called her friends, and they’ve looked too. Everyone has. She’s not here. She’s not anywhere.
“No one has claimed this yet,” Flint says through the line. I know he and Law are at the clubhouse, manning the phones and putting all this together. I should be there, too, getting the intel as it comes in, but I can’t sit around. I have to be out searching for her.
I pulled over at the lookout point as a last-ditch effort when I got the call. I appreciate what Flint is saying, that this might not be connected to her being tied to the club. Not sure if that makes it better or not, that one of our enemies hasn’t called to gloat that they’ve got one of our own. But then who has her?
Casper learned a few hours ago that she was taken. He was the one who did a full sweep of the high school and found her key ring on the ground behind the school next to some tire treads. Flint hasn’t been able to find any footage of the back of the school, so we have no clue why she was even back there.
“You coming in, brother?”
The sentence hangs heavy. I know what Law wants. He wants me to come in and take a few moments, maybe even rest a bit since I still haven’t slept. But not yet.
“Got one more thing to do, and then I’ll head over.”
“Watch your six,” he says before hanging up.
I breathe in and try not to remember what this place was for us. It wasn’t the last time we’ll ever be here. We will be here again. I have to believe that. I have to keep that.
