I pushed open the heavy door of Desire, my muscles straining as I tried to guide Azalea’s barely conscious body gently. I still wasn’t sure how badly she was injured. The club was dark and silent, a stark contrast to the usual riot of flashing lights and throbbing beats that filled the air. Police tape fluttered like sinister party streamers across the entrance.
“Fuck,” I muttered, my voice sounding harsh in the eerie quiet. The surreal desolation of the place barely registered with me; my mind was consumed by a whirlwind of rage and anxiety.
“Easy, Marcus,” Azalea whispered, her voice weak as I helped her into a booth near the back. Her multicolored hair fell limply over her pale face.
“Sorry.” My thoughts raced like a freight train, each one more terrifying than the last.
Olivia… God, if anything happens to her…
“Marcus!” Benjamin’s voice cut through the darkness as he entered the club at a full sprint, his eyes finding us immediately. “What happened?”
“Olivia and Brynn are missing. Snatched out of a store full of people. Some guys threw them in a van and drove away. I tried to follow, but I lost them. Then,” I gestured down at Azalea. “Found her knocked out behind the bookstore. She seems okay but…”
“Shit,” Benjamin replied, running a hand through his short-cropped hair. His expression mirrored my own—a mix of worry and anger.
“Benjamin, we need to find them,” I said, my voice low and gravelly. I need to get Olivia back. I swear to fucking god, if she’s harmed the streets of this city will run with the blood of those responsible.”
“I know.” Benjamin nodded, then his eyes flicked over at a hint of movement by the door. Enzo. He lurked silently, half hidden in the shadows. The fucking coward.
“Oh yeah, Enzo’s alive, apparently.” Benjamin and I exchanged silent words.
Benjamin strode over to Enzo and clasped his shoulder. “Good to see you. Congratulations on not dying. Tell us what you know.”
Enzo remained silent, his eyes darting between Benjamin and me. I could feel my anger bubbling up inside me, threatening to explode. Benjamin tried a different tactic, attempting to cajole him. “Come on, man. We need your help here. Marcus’s girl is missing, Azalea’s hurt, and every fucking second counts.”
Enzo still didn’t speak.
“Enough!” I shouted, slamming my fist against the nearest table. The sound echoed through the empty club. “Benjamin, take him to Magnus. Don’t come back without every piece of information in that bastard’s head.”
“Got it,” Benjamin replied, grabbing Enzo’s arm and dragging him away. I watched them go, feeling a mixture of frustration and impatience. Olivia needed me, and I was stuck here waiting for answers.
The doors opened again. Ash and Celia entered the club. Their expressions were grim, their steps hurried. Ash immediately went to Azalea, crouching down beside her and examining her injuries with concern etched on his baby-faced features.
Celia approached me. “I’m reaching out to all the contacts I have, Marcus,” she said, her voice low and calm, but serious. “Calling in every favor. We’ll find her.”
“Thank you,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair. It felt good to hear someone else say it, even if I couldn’t quite believe it myself yet.
Ash looked up from Azalea, his dark eyes meeting mine. “I’ll keep an eye on her,” he said softly, and I nodded my approval. He was a good man, loyal to the core.
“I know you will.” I turned to Celia.
She perched on the edge of a chair and crossed her legs. “Tell me everything from today. Quickly, before some specifics fade from your mind. The smallest detail could mean everything.”
I recounted the entire day in as much detail as I could. It served to calm my roiling blood a bit. By the time I was done, Benjamin had come back and Rave was right behind him.
Benjamin said, “I took care of the Enzo situation. Magnus is ‘talking’ to him in the basement. We’ll have the information we need soon. But I think we know where this is heading. Brynn probably released him as a distraction.”
“Figures,” I growled, my relief short-lived as my thoughts turned back to Brynn. That conniving bitch. If anything happened to Olivia because of me…
“Marcus,” Celia said firmly, snapping me out of my self-flagellation. “We can’t change the past. But we can find Brynn and Olivia now.”
“Right,” I said, forcing myself to focus on the present. “Brynn’s betrayal… it runs deep. Embezzling money, reaching out to my enemies, getting paid for information, spreading lies about me. She’s been playing us all for who knows how long, and I fell for it.”
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up over this,” Ash chimed in, taking a break from tending to Azalea. “None of us were able to put the pieces together until it was too late. Now we just need to deal with it.”
“Besides,” Ravenshadow added, his pale eyes glinting with menace, “we’re going to find them, Marcus. And when we do, trust me, there won’t be anywhere left for Brynn to hide.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, though their reassurances did little to ease my guilt. “I should have seen it, though. I should have protected Olivia better. And I never should have let her be the bait.”
“Boss, stop,” Rave said. “Everyone agreed to the plan. Including Olivia. We had to keep Brynn distracted while we collected the evidence and waited for her to make a mistake. And she has made a huge one, now.”
“Damn fucking right,” I said. My heart was pounding in my ears as I fought the urge to rush out the door and start tearing the city apart. “Hang on, baby. We’re coming for you.”
“Marcus,” Azalea croaked from her position in the booth. “I… I think I might have an idea.”
“Go on,” Benjamin urged, leaning in closer.
“Before I got hit behind the bookstore, I saw a van. I remember part of the license plate number. We can start there.”
Celia ran behind the bar and snagged a laptop. I had no idea how she knew it was there, but that was typical. She turned it on and placed it in front of Azalea. “Let’s find that plate number.”
“Wait a minute,” I interjected. “The van we chased has to be the same one. If we can find out who it’s registered to, that might lead us to Brynn’s location.”
“Maybe,” Azalea replied, her eyes narrowing in concentration. “Give me a minute to run the search.”
Every second felt like an eternity as we waited for the results. I clenched my fists, my knuckles turning white, and forced myself to breathe through the suffocating panic. More fucking waiting. More goddamn minutes of my Olivia going through possible hell all alone.
“Got it!” Azalea exclaimed suddenly. “The plate matches the one you described, Marcus. And there’s an address associated with the vehicle.”
“Fuck yes.” Adrenaline surged through me. “Let’s go get my girl.”
Ash stood up, hands raised. “Hold on, we need to get some intel first.”
“Agreed.” Benjamin nodded, his expression hardening.
“True. We gotta be smart about this. I got some gear in my truck. Let the eggheads do their thing and then we can go,” Ravenshadow added.
Azalea called out, “The address is a house on the other side of the city, down by the old stadium district. Quiet and deserted, but private.”
“Who owns it?” Benjamin asked.
“Some short-term rental company. Looks like a front to me.”
I forced myself to take a deep breath and reign in the furious energy, setting my blood on fire. “Okay, okay. Get the info, get eyes on the place. Quickly. We need to make sure it’s Olivia’s there before we go in, guns blazing.” My hands clenched and unclenched at my sides. Everything in me screamed to rush in to get Olivia. To hell with caution. But if we were wrong and Brynn found out I was onto her… I didn’t even want to consider what she’d do to Olivia.
The room buzzed with activity. Rave and Benjamin were huddled together, discussing strategy and plans for reconnaissance. Celia had joined Ash and Azalea near the laptop, debating how they could access more data on the rental company that had been used to buy the house where we thought Olivia was being held.
“There’s got to be a way in,” Ash muttered, his brow furrowed in concentration. “There has to be a trail leading back to Brynn. She wouldn’t stash Olivia somewhere she wasn’t sure was safe.”
Azalea nodded. “Yeah, I agree. Okay, I just need to…” Her voice trailed off, and she swayed a bit.
Ash wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Slow down. Just relax. Tell us what to do and we’ll take care of it.”
“There’s a program on the shared drive. It should be able to trace through the records, find the connections.”
Celia slid the laptop over in front of herself. “On it.” She bent over the computer and started typing. “Okay, I think I see how this works. Ingenious program. It’s mapping out all required actual information on these shell companies, pushing through and making a web of relations between actual people and entities.”
Even in the midst of the emergency, her words brought all action in the room to a stop. Celia looked up. “What? It’s my job to know things. So I know things.”
It was only a moment of levity before everyone went back to working the problem. I could see the rising stress levels on their faces. Hear the fear and anxiety in their voices. Feelings I shared. But there was more at stake for me. And I couldn’t solve this problem alone.
“People,” I said, raising my voice. “I know this is a lot. I know things are insane. And I am asking too much of all of you. But I trust you. I know what each and everyone one of you is capable of. Olivia means the world to me. And the fact that I can’t just go to her is killing me. But I trust you. I am putting the life of the woman I love in your hands. And after all of this, I realize the cops shutting down my club doesn’t matter. All the businesses we lost doesn’t matter. My reputation doesn’t matter. None of it means anything without her. So I am asking you. No, begging you. Help me. Find Olivia and help me save her.”