55. Hayden

I"m pacingthe halls of my house.

Stalking.

Waiting.

Looking at my useless fucking phone every two seconds just to see nothing"s changed. I shattered the screen when I threw it at the wall after she didn"t pick up her phone for the fifth time, so I squint my eyes through the spiderweb of cracks in the glass.

She texted me hours ago, but she never came home. She"s not answering her phone and I know something"s wrong. She doesn"t do this shit. She"s not irresponsible or forgetful. And I know she loves me, so if she"s not here with me, something"s happened.

She"s the other half of me, and I feel the wrongness of whatever"s keeping her away. I feel it right in my gut.

She"s in trouble, and she needs me.

Our babyneeds me.

If she wasn"t so goddamn stubborn and turned off the location tracking on her phone every time I turned it on, I"d know exactly where she is. I"d be there right now, murdering the fuck out of anyone who dared to think they could take her from me.

No one, not even Cassidy, knows the lengths I"ve gone to in order to make her mine. They have no idea the things I"ll keep doing to make sure she stays mine.

My brother leans against the wall, watching me. "We need to think this through, Hay. We don"t even know where to start looking."

I glare at him as I shove my phone in my pocket and run a hand through my hair. "You don"t think I know that?"

"You can"t just go out and kill everyone you think might have her," he says, like he"s trying to be reasonable or some shit. "We don"t even know if she"s in trouble."

I laugh because it"s fucking ridiculous. She wouldn"t run from me, not now. Not when she"s carrying my baby and she"s addicted to me the way she is. No, I"ve woven my soul so thoroughly with hers, you"d have to cut us both into pieces to separate us. Even then, I don"t think it"d work.

She"d never walk away on her own.

Something happened, and I need to find her before it"s too late. Before whatever fucker who took her tries to take everything from me.

It's got to be Roman. He spied on her, broke into her apartment, tried to blackmail her, and tried to threaten me away. But I already checked his house. He's not there, and neither is Cassidy.

I stalk toward the door and grab my keys from the hook by the front door. Sawyer grabs my arm and I shake him off, but he doesn"t let go. "We need a plan."

"Fuck your plan," I say as I shove him away hard enough that his ass hits the wall behind him.

"I get that you"re hurting, but I will fuck you up if you shove me again," my brother growls at me.

I shove my fingers into my hair and yank on the ends. "Fuck, I"m sorry."

Sawyer stands up and straightens his clothes but brushes off my assholish behavior. It"s not the first time one of us has been a dick to the other and had to call him out on his shit and it won"t be the last. "Forgiven. Now, what about that Romeo guy? Think he could help?"

I nod, knowing he"s probably my best bet for finding out where Cassidy is. He might be an asshole, but he"s got connections and resources I don"t have access to. A spark of determination flares in my gut. I will never, ever let Cassidy go and it looks like today's the day I prove it. "Yeah, let me text him."

Hayden: Need your help

Romeo: What do you need?

Hayden: My wife"s missing. Need to find her ASAP. Any way you can help with that?

Romeo: It won"t be cheap

Hayden: No fucking shit

Hayden: Name your price

Romeo: That"s a dangerous thing to say to me

Hayden: Just fucking help me find her

He doesn"t reply for a few minutes and I"m about to throw my phone at the wall again when he finally texts back.

Romeo: Give me a couple of hours

I want to rage at him, tell him I can"t wait that long. She can"t wait that long. But Sawyer pries my phone out of my hand before I can send anything else.

"We need to calm down," Sawyer says, looking me in the eye. "You"re not going to do her any good if you"re too emotional to think straight."

He"s right, but that doesn"t make it any easier to swallow. "I just need her back here with me where she belongs. I need them back."

"And we"ll get her back," he says, clapping me on the shoulder as he leads me into the kitchen. He grabs two glasses and fills them with water before handing me one. I wish it was liquor, but I need to be able to drive the second I know where my wife is.

I take a sip and try to breathe through the panic clawing at my throat. I don"t get fucking anxious. I don"t panic. But here I am, losing my goddamned mind. Going fucking insane without her. Losing touch with reality as my mind fragments into pieces.

My brother leans against the counter and sips his own water. He"s tense and I know he"s worried about my wife, too. The connection I share with him, this bond we have no doubt means he"s all kinds of twisted up over seeing me like this, too.

"Did you try calling Lila?" he asks. "She might know something."

I shake my head as I pull out my phone and dial her number. She answers on the third ring, sounding half asleep. "Hayden? What"s wrong?"

"Cassidy"s missing," I say, my voice rough and broken in a way I hate. "Have you heard from her?"

"No, I haven"t. She was there until close with Saylor, but I got off earlier."

I go still. "Saylor?"

I haven"t been spending as much time at the bar lately, not with Cassidy being home more and taking on more responsibility with the team now that Morozov"s been demoted. I knew she had to have hired someone to cover the hours she"d been working, but I didn"t think about the new girl.

She wasn"t Cassidy, so I wasn"t interested in knowing anything about her.

"Uh, the new girl? I swear you"ve met her at least once or twice." When I don"t say anything to confirm because I honestly don"t remember, she keeps going. "She"s kind of quiet, so I don"t know how much help she"ll be."

I growl as I pull the phone away from my ear and tap into the text thread between me and Romeo. "Thanks for the info, Lila. Let me know if you hear anything."

She agrees and we hang up as I send Romeo the information about this Saylor person and tell him to track her down, plus give him the heads up about Roman. If she"s got anything to do with Cassidy being missing, I need to know.

I call Romeo, but it goes straight to voicemail. Fuck. I need him to hurry the fuck up. I can"t sit here and wait while my wife and child are out there somewhere in danger.

Sawyer watches me as I pace the kitchen again like a caged animal. I"m ready to fucking attack, but I rein it in. My brother doesn"t need my wrath. I"ll save it up for whoever took my wife, because I know someone took her. I feel it in my bones the way old people feel storms coming. "What do we do now?"

"We go out and look for her," I say as I grab my keys again and head for the front door. "We drive around until we find her."

"You don"t even know where to look," Sawyer says as he follows me to the door. "She could be anywhere."

"Then we fucking look everywhere."