Page 91 of Searching for Bristol
Knowing she was so close to Rocky, and so far at the same time, was reassuring and depressing at the same time.
Lance leaned forward and casually put his hand over the split skin of her shin—and squeezed. Bristol couldn’t stop the screech of pain.
“Don’t think about leaving me, Bristol,” he said, as if he could read her mind. “I’ve worked too hard to have you. I’m not giving you up. I’ll kill usbothbefore that happens. He doesn’t get you. You’re mine. Understand?”
Bristol nodded frantically.
Lance sat back with a huge smile on his face, as if he wasn’t just hurting her a second ago. He leaned an elbow on the bed and rested his chin in his hand. In hisbloodyhand. The one he was just using to squeeze the wound on her leg. “Good. Now, are you hungry? Maybe you want to work on some jewelry? I know it relaxes you. You can make me something, then we’ll work on replenishing the inventory for your store. Your fans have missed you, and it’s time you reopened for business.”
Bristol swallowed the bile that had risen in her throat. She wanted to scream. Wanted to rail against what was happening to her. But instead, she simply nodded.
* * *
Rocky tried to stay calm as Raiden and Duke worked. He was standing in the parking lot, watching as the bloodhound went back and forth on the walkway in front of the apartments on the second floor. It was obvious the dog had Bristol’s scent, but he also seemed confused about where it was coming from. He walked from Rocky’s apartment down the walkway to the stairs. He went down the stairs, then back up. Sniffed at each of the apartment doors on the second level, then went back down and sniffed all the way around the parking lot.
Eventually, Raiden approached Rocky and the rest of the team. Simon and two of his officers were there too. “I’m sorry, but because she’s been up and down the stairs and in and out of your apartment so much, Duke can’t lock onto the most recent scent. The most likely scenario is that she came down here and got in a car.”
“Fuck,” Rocky muttered.
“I’ve got my other two officers setting up a checkpoint on I-480,” Simon said. “They’ll stop every car leaving Fallport and search it for Bristol.”
Rocky appreciated the police chief’s effort, but if someone had taken Bristol and fled town, they were probably long gone. Five hours had passed since he’d last heard from her. Five hours during which absolutely anything could’ve happened.
He felt sick.
“I called Sandra and asked her to spread the word that Bristol’s missing,” Ethan said. “Everyone in Fallport will be on the lookout for her.”
Rocky appreciated that, but it didn’t stop the dread overwhelming his entire body.
“We’ll spread out here and comb the area around the complex,” Talon offered.
Rocky nodded.
“We’ll find her,” Brock told him.
“We won’t give up until she’s home,” Zeke added.
“Go on and get started. I’ll be with you in a second,” Ethan told the rest of the Eagle Point Search and Rescue team.
Both of Simon’s officers went back up the stairs to his apartment, to have a closer look inside for any clues they might’ve missed in their initial search of the place.
“Talk to me,” Ethan ordered his brother.
Rocky lifted his gaze to his twin’s. “About what?” he said brokenly. “She’s gone.”
“Did you guys have a fight?” Simon asked.
Rocky practically growled at the other man. “No,” he said with a firm shake of his head. “No fight. We’re good. Solid. I didn’t do this, Simon. You fucking know me. YouknowI wouldn’t do this.”
“I had to ask,” Simon said with a shrug, his hands up in capitulation.
Rocky knew that, but he didn’t like it. “She’s buying a house here. She met with a realtor just this morning. She asked me tomove inwith her. I wouldn’t hurt one hair on her head, Simon. I swear it. I texted her at lunch, and she said she was making me a surprise. That’s the last time we communicated. She didn’t sound weird. Nothing happened. I came home and she was just…gone.”
The look of sympathy on Simon’s face was almost unbearable.
Rocky had been where Simon was right now, too many times to count. Talking with a loved one about a missing family member. Wanting to know the last time they were seen, the last words they’d said…trying to get any indication of where to start looking. And now here he was, on the other side. It sucked more than he ever could have imagined.
“Could anyone in town have found out about her financial situation and maybe want that money for themselves?” Simon asked.
