Chapter 11

11

VIPER

A fter I got off the phone with Rhiannon, my mood was shit. Clearly, I needed to make damn sure that everyone knew she was taken. Since we'd basically left slow in the rear-view mirror, I decided it was time that she needed to be wearing more than just my property patch, but also a ring.

A baby bump would do the trick too. I'd certainly been doing my damnedest to make that happen.

On the rest of the ride home, I contemplated the situation with the flowers that had been sent to Rhiannon. They'd been delivered to her work, so I decided to have a chat with Harvey and see if he'd noticed anything out of the ordinary.

It was nearly two in the morning when I arrived home. I was looking forward to falling into bed with my woman and holding her against me until she had to be up for work. Then I'd take her in and talk with Harvey.

When I walked into my bedroom and saw the empty bed, I frowned and searched the rest of the house to see if she'd fallen asleep somewhere else.

She wasn't home. Her phone and purse were gone, as well as her toothbrush and some of her stuff from the bathroom counter.

That was when I remembered that she'd gone to visit a friend for a couple of nights. I'd expected her back by tonight, but we must've gotten our wires crossed somehow. And I couldn't exactly demand that she drop everything to be at my beck and call. Although the idea was definitely appealing.

I sent her a quick text to let her know I was home, that I missed her, and to call me in the morning, no matter what time it was.

Sleep didn't come easily, despite how exhausted I was. It seemed that in the short time that I'd had Rhiannon in my bed, I'd gotten to the point where I slept like shit without her.

Once I passed out, I slept until eleven and cursed a blue streak when I checked the time. There still wasn't a message back from Rhiannon, and the one I'd sent didn't appear to have been read.

I was gonna spank my woman's ass when I finally saw her. Unfortunately, that had to wait because I had an appointment with a potential client at noon, so I didn't have time to swing by In Bloom and see her first.

By the time I reached the location for my meeting, I'd already called her half a dozen times. I told myself she was just busy, but something about her radio silence didn't sit well.

She was scheduled to make a delivery to Porter Grant's house in a couple of hours, so at least I'd see her then. And the longer I didn't hear from her, the higher her number of spankings became. She wouldn't be able to sit tomorrow.

Even with my focus split, I managed to close the deal. We shook on it, then I hopped in my truck and broke every speed record on the way to Grant's house.

Rhiannon was due with my delivery fifteen minutes after I arrived. She was never late, so as the minutes ticked by, worry began to squeeze my chest. When one of Harvey's regular delivery guys pulled up, the feeling that something was very wrong intensified.

Finally, I called Harvey.

"In Bloom," he answered.

"It's Viper. Rhiannon isn't answering her phone, can I talk to her?"

Harvey was silent for a few beats, then he took a long breath. "She's…she's not here. I assumed she was with you. She mentioned you'd be getting in late, so I told her to take the day off. As usual, she said no, but when she didn't come in, I figured you'd convinced her to stay home."

The pressure was cutting off my air supply, so my voice sounded choked, when I asked, "When was the last time you saw her?"

"Yesterday afternoon. After she got your flowers, she left to do two small deliveries before going home."

"The flowers…" I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "I didn't send them. She didn't tell you?"

"She assumed they were from you, but I wasn't sure when I noticed the card hadn't been signed. I didn't want to worry Rhiannon if there wasn't a reason for it, so I looked through the video feed. They were delivered from a shop in the next town, who took the order over the phone. I figured they had to be from you."

"No." I opened my eyes and stalked toward my truck. "Think, Harvey," I growled. "Think back over the past few months. Was there anything, no matter how small, that was different or stood out to you? Even for just a moment."

"No, I can't think…wait."

I hopped into the cab of my truck and slammed the door shut. "What?" I snapped. I was vaguely aware that I was being unnecessarily harsh, but the fear clouding my mind had taken over, and I didn't give a fuck.

I started the truck and headed away from the house while he answered. "It didn't seem significant at the time, but…well, over the past several months, some of our orders from a distributor were incorrect."

"Incorrect how?"

"Extra flowers mostly. They never wanted them back, so we sold them at a discounted price. Most of them weren't worth selling because of the time of year."

Those panolas she'd mentioned to me must've been one of those mistakes. "Did they give you an idea of why it kept happening?"

"They blamed it on an incompetent employee, but it did seem odd to me that they would keep letting them make the same mistake without taking them off my account."

I pulled onto the compound and headed straight for the clubhouse, driving like a bat outta hell. "Was there anything, anything , that these extra plants had in common?"

After parking, I sat in the truck while I finished my call.

"Now that I think about it, they were all purple in some way. And several of them were flowers that Rhiannon had ordered herself."

"Thanks, Harvey. Send me the footage you have," I demanded. I didn't bother asking for his paperwork since I knew Deviant would easily access it. "Let me know if you hear from her."

"I will. Oh, Viper?"

"Yeah?" I climbed out of the truck and Harvey's next words had me frozen on her feet.

"Her friend called this morning looking for her."

Son of a bitch .

After ending my call with Harvey, the weight on my chest made it nearly impossible to breathe. My instincts were screaming that Rhiannon had been taken.

I stalked into the lounge, shouting for Deviant.

"Deviant!"

He stood behind the bar sipping his drink, but when he clocked the mixture of worry and murderous rage on my face, he set the cup on the bar top. His eyebrows raised in question as he came out from behind the bar. "What's up?"

"Rhiannon is missing," I ground out through clenched teeth. Fury burned inside me to the point that I was nearly shaking. I needed to fucking kill someone.

I heard Deviant mutter, "Fuck," from behind me since I'd already pivoted and was stomping down the hallway that led to the offices.

When I reached Fox's door, it was open, so I stepped inside, closely followed by Deviant.

Fox looked up at me and frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Rhiannon," I grunted, curling my hands into fists to keep from grabbing something and throwing it. "She was supposed to meet me at a jobsite this morning, and she didn't show. She's not answering her phone. GPS has been turned off."

"Son of a bitch," Fox muttered.

Maverick had walked in at the beginning of my explanation and immediately put his phone to his ear. I knew he was calling the guards we had on our women and ordering them to bring the girls here. It was a smart move. And it again made me wonder what the fuck had happened to the man I'd posted on Rhiannon.

"On it," Deviant declared before he stalked out of the room and most likely headed for his office.

I was relieved to have his help. Deviant was the best when it came to anything electronic, and he was damn good at finding people, no matter how good they were at hiding.

Too amped up to sit, I paced in front of Fox's desk as I laid out all the information I'd gathered. At the moment, the best thing we could do was wait for word from Deviant. If he would get her GPS turned back on, it would at least give us a place to start.

Then someone would fill him in on the rest of the details so he could dig deeper.

After relaying everything I knew, we discussed strategies for a rescue but were interrupted when Fox's phone rang.

"Deviant," he grunted at us before answering. "Anything?"

"Got a location, but I'll be honest, I don't think she's there. I think someone took her and dumped her phone."

I'd paced the length of Fox's office and spit out a litany of curses when I heard Deviant's theory. Then I slammed my fist into the wall, leaving a hole and bloodying my knuckles.

"For fuck's sake, man. The last thing your woman needs is for you to break your fucking hand," Maverick grunted.

Fox was scowling at the punctured wall, but he didn't say anything. He was well aware of the hell I was currently living in. Dahlia meant everything to him, and if anything ever happened to her, he'd leave nothing but utter destruction in his wake.

"We'll send a couple of guys to check it out. Just in case," Fox told him, his eyes tracking me as I resumed pacing.

"I'll keep looking," Deviant muttered. He sounded distracted, and the fast clicking of his keyboard told me that his focus had already turned back to his work.

Fox's cell beeped, and he looked down at it. "Deviant sent what he's got."

Apparently, Rhiannon's phone had pinged at a convenience store about an hour away and wasn't moving. Which was why Deviant suspected that whoever had taken her had ditched her phone in a dumpster.

"Take Stone, Phoenix, and Whiskey with you to the location," Fox said to me. Then he turned his gaze to his VP. "Mav, make sure the girls are safe, then get a few more brothers outfitted and ready to ride when we find out where Viper's girl is. Don't know what we'll be up against, so let's be prepared." He met my eyes and lifted his chin, giving me permission to leave. "When I know more, you'll know more," he added.

Mav and I both nodded and filed out of the office before splitting off in separate directions. Since we'd be able to get around easier and faster on our bikes, I had my brothers meet me at my house.

A little over an hour later, we'd ridden into the parking lot where Deviant had located her phone. We found it in her purse, which had been tossed on the ground beside the dumpster.

I punched a dent in the metal, and though it hurt like bitch, I didn't give a fuck about the pain in my hand, not when the ache in my head and heart threatened to take over.

Whiskey called Fox to let him know what we found, then handed me the phone.

"Tell me you have something," I pleaded, my voice ragged.

"Deviant pulled up any cameras that might have caught something near her apartment, work, and every traffic cam in town. And before you ask, anywhere else he could think of. He's cycling all the images through a facial recognition program."

That would take time we didn't have, but I didn't have a different solution.

"Also dug into her boss at the floral shop."

I wanted to argue that it was pointless, but what the fuck did I know? People were often not what they seemed.

"He's harmless," Fox confirmed, making me feel a little better about my judgment of his character. "Wait. Got a text from Deviant. Says to check my email."

I waited impatiently for what seemed like a fucking eternity until Fox finally spoke again.

"Harvey mentioned a distributor?" he asked.

"Yeah, all the extra deliveries were from the same company."

"The same guy," Fox informed me. "Deviant looked into the files for In Bloom, but the information wasn't about the company. It's all about Rhiannon. When she's working, her delivery schedule, her favorite colors and plants."

"What the fuck!" I roared. "Where is the motherfucker?"

"Lives in Cross Plains, but he wouldn't be stupid enough to take her to his home."

"You willing to risk her life on that?" I snarled.

Fox's voice sounded far away when he barked orders for a couple of brothers to check out the bastard's house and a few other places. Then it was clear again when he spoke to me.

"Got them checking a storage unit and the company warehouse."

I chewed over all the information for a few minutes, then a theory sprang to life. "Somewhere with a big garden," I muttered. "He'd want to show her that he has everything she wants. Believes he can convince her to stay."

Maverick's voice suddenly came on the line. "You mentioned that the botanical garden is one of her favorite places, right? Doesn't it have an on-site caretaker with a cottage somewhere on the grounds?"

Holy shit .

The gardens were closed today, which meant whoever took Rhiannon would only need to get around one person if he took her there.

"You're a fucking genius, Mav."

I hung up and tossed the phone back to Whiskey.

"I think he took her to the botanical garden. Bet if we called, the on-site caretaker will be missing."

"I'll go talk to the manager," Stone offered. "I'll suggest real nicely that he meet you there with keys so we don't have to break in."

"Helpful, but not necessary," Phoenix grunted.

"I don't give a fuck how we get in there," I barked. "Just make sure the cops aren't alerted and your guns are loaded."