42. June 22nd-23rd

JUNE 22ND-23RD

TB

TB watchedFlame walk away from him toward the ladies' room with a sense of unease. He knew he was smothering her, but until this little fuckgoblin, Gendry, was found and pounded into oblivion, and the other six girls missing were found, his skin would probably continue to crawl.

Shortly after she entered the restroom, he saw Tabitha enter. At least he knew someone she was in there with.

He finished his drink, then watched Medusa enter the ladies' room as Tabitha exited. Both women had odd looks on their faces. Tabitha was thinking furiously. Medusa appeared concerned, then ducked quickly behind the closing door. By that time, Tabitha had pulled out her cell phone and was talking angrily into it.

Cell phones aren't allowed on the floor.

His watch beeped. Frowning, he looked down. "What the fuck?" TB muttered.

In the text was a photo of the club parking lot. It showed a car parked under one of the lot lights, the passenger side door open, and in the passenger seat was Fleur, the most recent of the missing girls. He couldn't tell if she was alive or dead, but they needed to get to her quickly, just in case.

He forwarded the number that the text came from to Midas, and then he voice-activated his earbud. "Midas!"

He didn't bother to greet TB. "I see it, I see it. I'm running the plate and pictures. Steel's on his way to check out the car. Whatever you do, don't leave the bar."

A second text came through. This one showed video footage of the first missing girl. She was in what appeared to be an upright, empty coffin. She could move around slightly, but not enough to stretch out her arms in any direction. She couldn't sit, couldn't lie down.

Suddenly, the club was plunged into darkness.

"Midas!" TB yelled over the shocked gasps of the club members in the bar, "he's here!"

"Fuck! Where's Flame?"

"Ladies' room."

"Can you get there?"

Using the flashlight app on his watch, he began working his way through the crowd, but he was having little success. It was like everyone had been hired to work against him getting across the bar. "It's pandemonium here. You'd think people have never been in a power outage before. It's going to take me a moment. Do you have Flame's tracker online?"

"She's still on the property. Not moving."

"I just saw Medusa go in there with her."

"Stay on target to get to her. I still don't have any information on that crew, so I don't trust them yet."

TB continued to fight his way across the club, but now individuals who had been upstairs in the play portion of the club were adding to the mix of bodies attempting to find a way out.

Steel's voice came over his earbud. "I need Demon. She's unconscious. Pulse thready. Head wound, and I'm pretty sure she's drugged."

"Copy that," Demon replied.

Shoving his way through the final stream of people, TB found himself at the restroom door. He opened the door, walked through it, saw the disaster of the lounge area covered in broken mirror glass and upturned furniture, saw Medusa being hefted over an unknown man's shoulder, and pain exploded across the back of his head. Then nothing.

He hadno idea how much later it was, but it probably wasn't more than a few minutes. He groaned. Everything was pitch black, but he could feel his eyelids raising and lowering as he blinked them rapidly to try and clear the fog in his head. He pushed himself up off the floor, his hand reaching up to the back of his head, where he could feel a giant lump forming.

Instantly, everything had clarity.

"Flame!" he bellowed.

Using his flashlight app, he swept the room. While he registered the upheaval he remembered seeing before he had been knocked unconscious, it meant very little to him in the grand scheme of things. Only finding Flame mattered.

"Flame, answer me!"

Nothing. He only heard the muffled voices of those out in the main area of the club as they continued to try and exit in the blackout.

He felt panic rising as he burst into the toilet and sink area of the room. All of the stalls were open and unoccupied. The ladies' room was empty. She was gone.

Up until this moment, TB had blocked out the conversation over his earbud. Now, he interrupted the flow of communication. "Midas! She's gone."

"Thank, fuck, you're back. Yes, that's what I've been trying to tell you. Her tracker is on, but there's something wrong. Where are you?"

"I went through the ladies' room door. Someone had Medusa over their shoulder, and before I could react, I got knocked out from behind. When I came to, everyone was gone." He pushed out into the main room, then followed the flow of people out into the parking lot. As soon as he hit the cool night air, he spoke again, "Tell me you've got her, Midas."

"Wish I could. The signal is good, but it's like it's locked in place. It hasn't moved. I'm calibrating."

"Midas, fucking find her."

"Working on it. Waters didn't hire me for my good looks."

"They're not going to be good much longer if you don't find her."

Another voice, out of breath from running, joined over the earbud. "Don't piss off King Kong, bro. We don't need him climbing a tall building and plummeting to his death."

"Nemo, this is not a time for joking around. I swear to all that's holy in this world?—"

"Relax, giant ape-man. If I don't make jokes to redirect your anger, your blood pressure will soar, and then you'll have an embolism. He may not have a trace on her signal, but I've got one better. Midas! Track an Escalade, black, license Whiskey-Zulu-Yankee-Nine-Nine-Foxtrot. Watched them pitch the girls into it and take off like their asses were on fire."

"Thank fuck," TB grounded out. "Which way, Nemo?"

"Just peeled out of the parking lot about two minutes ago. Headed for the I-5. Sorry. I'm fast, but not that fast."

Midas reassured him over the line. "Little bro, you've given me enough. If it's a rental, it'll have GPS I can hack into."

Waters came over the earpiece. "Steel, get the girl back to Tribe. We need her out of there before the boys in blue arrive."

"Demon and I are already on it, bossman."

"Sirens arriving in two, Steel. Gotta hustle," Midas informed him.

"All right, everybody, get your asses back to Tribe. We work from here. If we want to keep on this, we've got to let the blue line do their thing, then come back when they're gone."

TB wanted to follow the vehicle that took Flame and Medusa from the property. It was irrational. He knew there was no way he could actually do so. They were lucky to even get a make of the vehicle, let alone the license plate. He trusted Midas. The hacker would find them. The team would come up with a plan, and then they'd go after Flame and the others.

They would not fail.

They couldn't. Not now. It was official. He loved that woman. She was his, and she would be found so that he could spend the rest of his life figuring out how to keep her from leaving him.