Page 76 of Protecting Josie
Nate would come for her. He would. They loved each other, and he would do whatever it took to find her. This wasn’t like before, she wasn’t going to be forgotten. She had people who would look for her, who would report her missing.She wouldn’t be left to rot in a cell like last time. She believed that deep in her soul.
It was the only thing keeping her from panicking as Gen drove them out of Riverton.
Blink frowned as he drove toward his apartment. It was four o’clock, and he was anxious to get home. Not only because he wanted to see what Josie had bought; the thought of her in a sexy piece of lingerie had kept his dick half hard all day.
But more than that, he was worried.
He’d texted her several times and received no answer. When he’d tried to call her, the phone rang, then went to voicemail. It was unusual, and in his line of work, unusual wasn’t a good thing.
When Blink had expressed his concern to Kevlar, his team leader hadn’t hesitated to tell him to go home to check on her. All his teammates had a soft spot for Josie. Not only because of what she’d been through, but because of her size. She was tiny, especially compared to them, and they all looked at her kind of like a little sister.
Blink pulled into his usual spot in the lot, right in front of his apartment, and hopped out of his truck. He strode toward his door—and his blood ran cold as he approached.
The door was shut but, to his trained eye, obviously tampered with. There was a large footprint in the middle of the door, clearly outlined in the light layer of dust that covered the surface.
Using his elbow, so as not to contaminate any fingerprints or other evidence that might exist, Blink pushed.
The door swung open with no resistance.
“Fuck,” he muttered, seeing the broken safety chain on the floor. Whoever had kicked in the door hadn’t bothered to make sure it was latched behind him when he left.
“Josie?” Blink called out, a little louder than he intended.
Silence greeted him, and panic instantly set in. Blink raced through the apartment and found what he expected—nothing. Josie wasn’t there. Her laptop was on the kitchen table, along with her phone, and a pile of lace and string on top of a bubble envelope.
For a second, Blink didn’t know what to do. His thoughts were scattered.
Josie was gone. Missing. How could this happen?
He didn’t for one second believe she was visiting a friend. Or had decided she didn’t want to be with him anymore. They’d exchanged I-love-yous that morning. And she wouldn’t leave without her phone. Besides, she didn’t even have a car.
No, his Josie hadn’t left him. The piece of lingerie was proof of that. As were her plans for the two of them when he returned home from work. And the damn broken safety chain and the footprint on his door. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that something had happened. Someone had forced their way into his apartment and taken Josie.
Teeth clenched together, Blink pulled out his phone. There was only one person to call right now.
Tex.
He’d get a hold of Kevlar and the rest of his team, Wolf,and his commander and the cops, but he needed to get Tex on thisnow. Josie didn’t have a tracker, but if anyone could find her, it was the ex-SEAL.
The phone rang once. “Blink, what’s up?” Tex asked in lieu of a greeting.
“It’s Josie. She’s gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?” Tex asked in a no-nonsense tone.
“Gone. I came home from work and there’s a damn footprint in the middle of my door, the safety chain is broken, her phone and mail are on the table, and she’s not here.”
“Any blood?”
Blink swallowed hard as he looked around. The apartment was as clean as it always was. No dirty dishes in the sink, no snacks left out on the table. Just her computer, phone, the scrap of cloth he’d had such high hopes of seeing on her, and a chair pushed partway out from the table. “No.”
“All right. So she’s not hurt. That’s good. Can you take a picture of that footprint and send it to me?”
“Yeah.”
“You call Kevlar yet?”
“No,” Blink said. He realized he was talking in monosyllables, but he could barely speak at all through the panic and adrenaline coursing through his body.
