Page 44 of The Encounter
Jace nodded and knelt beside her before taking her hand in his and lightly squeezing it. “Did those guys leave?”
“No. Neither Reggie nor Sean saw them.”
Jace clenched his fist. “Go find them.”
Robert nodded. “On it.”
Within minutes, the police had arrived, along with an ambulance. Sean led them through the back entrance near Jace’s office. Jace informed the officers that they suspected the women were given a date-rape drug and had Sean lead them to find Robert, who was still searching the club for the suspects.
A second ambulance arrived shortly after, and the paramedics loaded both Maddie and Kayla into separate vehicles. Jace promised Maddie he’d join her as soon as he could, despite her still being unconscious and not hearing him.
When the ambulances pulled away, Jace clenched his fists and made his way back inside. Someone needed to pay for this.
He found Reggie, who still stood guard at the end of the hallway.
“Have you heard anything?”
Reggie shook his head. “No. We suspect they left, but there are so many people in here that it would be easy to miss them.”
Jace nodded and walked back to the bar, where Haley seemed to be keeping up with orders for the most part. He grabbed the walkie talkie from behind the counter and spoke into it.
“I want every single man who leaves the club to be looked over to catch the two scumbags who drugged the girls. If the guy comes close to matching the description, Robert needs to see them before they leave. Understood?”
A chorus of ‘yeses’ rang through the radio. Haley threw Jace a look. He suspected she didn’t know what was going on aside from overhearing a few things from him, of the few things she could hear over the music.
A police officer walked up to the bar and motioned for Jace to follow. They went back to his office and shut the door to block out the noise.
“I’m Officer Taylor.”
“Jace.” They shook hands.
“Do you have security cameras set up?”
“Yes, of course.”
Jace didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it and immediately kicked himself. He led Officer Taylor over to a different room where the security cameras were being displayed on several monitors. He scrolled back through until he saw Maddie and Kayla pass by Robert. They had caught the exchange between Robert and the two men on camera.
He zoomed in the best he could and took a screenshot before sending it to the printer and texting the image to all of his security personnel and the officer standing beside him.
“Let’s back up and follow the women to see if we can catch it in the act,” Officer Taylor said.
Jace nodded and backed the footage up, jumping between cameras as they followed them across the club and to the dance floor and then back toward the bar where they spoke with Jace as he mixed them drinks.
Then he let the footage roll. A pit grew in his stomach as he watched their exchange, knowing he sent Maddie to the dance floor.
The girls made their way, and the crowd pressed in with two men paying close attention to the two of them.
“There,” Officer Taylor said. “Back up a few seconds.”
Jace backed the footage up and pulled out his phone to record the screen when he hit play. They could clearly see the men dump something in both Maddie’s and Kayla’s drinks when they took the cups and before they forced it into their mouths.
Jace’s vision spotted black, and he took a deep breath.
“Please send all the footage to me from the moment they went to the dance floor until they walked to the back room.” Officer Taylor handed him a business card.
Jace nodded and set the card down on the desk.
“These women are friends of yours?” Officer Taylor asked.
