He shrugs as we walk down the stairs. We all make it to the dressing room to find Liam on the phone. “What the hell happened?” he demands. The panic in his voice sends my heartrate through the roof.“Goddammit, this is what you were hired to prevent.”
When he turns aroundto see all of us, his face morphs instantly.His anger with whoever is on the other end of that call fades intoguilt and worry. He looks at each of us, but I stop breathing when his eyes land on Dane and me.
“Keep me updated,” he barks into the phone. He lets out a sigh as he drags his hand down his face. “I’m not going to tell you not to worry because I know it won’t do any good.”
Dane’s eyes narrow. He takes in Liam’s postureand expression. His own body goes tense. “What are we going to worry about?” he barks.
“Cara and Lyra are missing,” he says quietly. “You have every right to worry, but you can’t panic.”
“What do you mean they’re missing?” Dane’s voice gets louder. “How the hell are they missing?”
“They went to the bathroom. Matthew was waiting for them to come outand was attacked from behind. Tourists found him knocked out not far from the bathrooms.Cara and Lyra were nowhere to be found.”
Maddox comes beside me. “Breathe, Jake,” he mumbles in my ear.I realize I haven’tbreathed, moved, or even blinked since we walked into this room. The blood in my veins is like ice.
“We’ll find them,” I hear Liam say. That’s what snaps me out of my stupor.
“Oh,we’ll find them all right,” I yell. “And when we do, whoever did this is fucking dead. When I get my hands on that fucking bodyguard, he’s dead.”
“The police are checking the park security footage right now. I’m sorry, Jake. You don’t know how sorry I am, but we will find them.”
I move past all of them, grabbing my jacket on the way out.
“Where are you going?” Angel calls out.
“I’m going to that fucking park,” I call out. “I want to see that footage.”
I feel someone behind me as I stalk out.“You’re not going alone,” Dane tells me.
I nodas I continue to stalk to the exit. We open the door, dozens of people litter the space wanting a piece of us. I don’t give one shit about any person there. Security keeps them at bayasbest they can, but I shoulder my way through the rest. The gasps of shock and muttering, calling me an asshole,mean nothing to me. They can think what they want. There are only two people that matter to me.
I climb into the car waiting on us. Dane climbs in beside me, Maddox in the front seat. I didn’t even realize he was with us.My shock increases when Liam, Angel, and Ryder climb in as well.
I lean back in the seatas we make our way toward the amusement park. The place wheredreams come true has just become the place of my worst nightmare.
Liam is tearing someone a new one over the phone. Ryder and Angel are quiet. Dane is huffing so loudly he sounds like a bear. Maddox taps away on his phone.
“Who are you texting?” Dane asks, sounding annoyed.
“Not important,” Maddox tells him, his tone making it clear he won’t answer the question.
Seconds feel like minutes and minutes feel like days as we finally get led to the security room. The place is huge. Monitors everywhere surrounded by equipment I couldn’t work if I had to.
“Mr. Masters,good to see you again,” some man says as we walk in the door.
“Thanks for helping us out, René,” Maddox says as he shakes the man’s hand.
None of us do a good job hiding our surprise that Maddox Masters is on a first-name basis withsomeone here.At a kids amusement park that is full of princesses and mouse ears.
He just shrugs us all off. He’s not going to give usan answer which only makes it more curious.Though, I’ve recently learned there’s a lot more to him than any of us really know.
“We pulled up footage of the facilities closest to where your friend was found,” he tells us all. I grunt but refrain from saying anything.“We used the pictures Mr.Kelly sent over. This is where they were seenentering last.”
I watch as Cara packs Lyra to the bathroom. Matthew isonly a step behind them.You can see the minute someone dressed in dark clothes with a hood pulled uphits him in the back of the head. How they manage to go completely unnoticed in the crowd, I don’t understand. It should’ve caused a riot.
“The cameras for the restroom areas can only see the corridor,” he explains as he gestures to another monitor.
We watch as the guy moves into that corridor, his face still shielded by the hood. Cara comes out of the bathroom with Lyra in her arms, bumping into the man.She never looks at him, but you can see her discomfort in her body language.
