The UN Series Complete Box Set (112 page)

“Do you know how much Slade has lied to you?”

Not this again. “He doesn’t lie to me,” I snap.

He smiles. “Did he tell you I spoke to him while you were New York? Did he tell you that I warned him I was coming to get you?” He gives a dark laugh. “It’s rather comical. See, this entire time I thought you were dating Tate.” He shakes his head as he continues to laugh at how wrong he was.

How would Jax know that I was in New York? Did Slade…? “No.” I shake my head. “You’re lying.”

“He’s the only one who has been lying to you,
Angel
.” I cringe when he calls me that.

“And then there’s that secret he’s keeping from you regarding Tate.”

“What’s wrong with Tate?” I ask worried.

He chuckles. “You have always been a stupid bitch.” He takes another few steps toward me.

I take in a deep breath and pray that I make it to the back door, but he lunges for me, knocking us both to the ground. My phone is knocked out of my hand, and I scramble to grab it.

“Get off me!” I scream.

I feel a fist hit my back, and I scream out from the pain.

He climbs off me, grabs my leg, and jerks. My shirt tears and my skin rips against the pavement, but I’m able to take my other foot and kick him in the stomach.

He recovers quickly, bends down, and yanks me to stand by a handful of my hair before I can get up off the ground. “Stop,” I manage to yell before he places his hand over my mouth. I kick, push away, and throw my arms around. I try everything my body is capable of doing to get away, but he’s too strong. His hand is too tightly wrapped around in my hair and my scalp burns from the motion.

He drags me over to my car and throws me into the driver side. After he shoves me into the passenger seat, he reaches over, grabs my purse, and throws it out the window where it lands beside my phone.

“Leave me alone.” I reach out and slap him, letting my ring cut him once again. I go to reach for the passenger door to get out and run but he returns the slap much more forcefully. I cry out from the sting as he grabs my left wrist and growls. “Give me this,” he demands breathing heavy.

“No.” I scream and fist my hand into a ball. He can’t take my ring. He’ll have to kill me.

He grabs my hair once again and yanks my head back before he shoves me forward. Then I see nothing but blackness.

*****

SLADE

I feel bad that I had to cancel our date night because of work. I check my watch and see I still have thirty minutes before my meeting, so I pull out my phone to tell her I’ll make it up to her.

It rings a few times and then goes to voicemail. I pull up the bar’s number and call it.

“Larry’s.” I hear Holly answer.

“Hey Holly. May I talk to Angel?”

“She’s not here.”

She did say she was going to go and see Holly. “Did you speak to her earlier? She told me she was going up there to see you since I had a meeting come up.”

“Yeah. She called me an hour ago but she never showed up. I figured she went home.”

I know how much she wanted to see Holly. There’s no way she wouldn’t have gone up there. “Let me try calling her again.”

“Okay. I’ll run out and see if she’s sitting in her car on the phone. You know how loud it can get in here, and she said she was going to call Vivian later about wedding stuff.”

We hang up, and I press send on Angel’s number again.

“Hello?” I hear Holly’s voice again after a few rings. And I can’t help but notice the shake in her voice.

“Holly?” I pull the phone away from my ear. Did I call the bar again? “Why are you answering her phone?”

“Slade. You need to call Parker. Tell him to get up to Larry’s right now.” Her voice shakes, and I can hear the panic in her voice.

“What’s going on Holly?” I ask grabbing my keys and heading out of my office.

“Sam’s phone is in the parking lot, along with her purse and her…” She trails off as she begins to cry.

“Her what?” I demand.

She’s silent for a few seconds. “Her engagement ring.”

I come to a stop and stand in front of the elevators. “What the fuck do you mean, Holly?” I snap.

“I think…I think someone took her.”

Someone took her? No, she must be mistaken. But what else would explain what Holly is describing? “You guys have a surveillance system, correct?” I remember Angel mentioning something about it a while back.

“Yes.” Her voice cracks, and it takes everything I have to try to think straight.

“Listen. Look up at the camera. Does it look like it might have taped what happened?” She should be able to tell by where her stuff is on the ground.

“Yes,” she says now crying.

“Okay. Don’t call the police. I want to watch it before you call them.” They will take it, and I won’t be able to see what’s on it.

“But Slade. She’s not here and all of her stuff…”

“Holly,” I bark.
I only have one chance at this.
“Promise me you won’t call them just yet,” I demand.

She lets out a small cry and then sniffs a few times. “Okay,” she whispers.

“I’m on my way,” I shout hanging up on her. I turn left and slam the door open to the staircase with my shoulder. I don’t have time to wait on the elevator. I dial Parker’s number as I run down floor after floor. My legs can’t move fast enough, and I almost trip several times.

“What’s up?” Parker asks sleepily.

“Get to Larry’s. Right now,” I shout out of breath. Ten more floors to go.

“Not tonight, Man,” he yawns ignoring my urgency. “I just got off of a double shift.”

“It’s Angel,” I hiss. “She’s missing. Holly found her purse, her phone, and her engagement ring in the parking lot, and her car wasn’t there.”

I hear commotion and then the sound of a door hitting a wall. “Tate!” I hear him yell.
He must be home.
“Where are you?” he asks me.

“I’m leaving work.” Fifth floor.

“Did you already call the police?” he asks sounding muffled as if he’s trying to put a shirt on over his head.

“No. I wanna watch the video tape before it goes into police custody.” Third floor.

“Slade,” he says in warning. “Tate!” he yells once again before I can respond. “Hang on,” he growls to me. I hear him pounding on a door. “Fuck it,” he mumbles to himself. Then I hear him a woman scream in the background. “Get your ass out of bed and get dressed. We gotta go,” Parker demands.

I hear Tate’s voice, but I can’t understand what he says over my heavy breathing.

“It’s Sam. She’s missing. Now get your ass out of bed,” he shouts.

“I’ll meet you there.” I hang up on him, finally hitting the bottom level and running to my car.

*****

I sit in the back office at Larry’s as a silent recording plays in front of me. Tate stands beside me and Parker leans down on one knee in front of me. No one speaks as we all watch the scene play out in front of us on the monitor.

We see Angel pull up in her car. The sun is starting to set but it’s not dark yet. She has a smile on her face as she starts to walk to the back door. She jumps back when a black truck almost hits her. The way the camera is facing; all you can see is the hood of what looks like to be an older black Chevy. There’s no sound, so all you can do is see her reaction as she seems to be yelling something. She goes to walk around but it speeds off. She stands grounded to her spot, eyes wide and body stiff. I watch as my worst fear steps into the view of the camera; Jax.

“Son of a bitch,” Tate hisses.

She shakes her head a few times, and I watch helpless for a few good minutes before I see her try to run around him. I jump to my feet when he lunges for her, and they both go falling to the ground, him landing on top of her.

I stand there numbly as she tries to fight him off. He punches her in the back, drags her by her ankle, and then lifts her by her hair before he shoves her into her car.

Her parking spot is in clear view of the camera, so we continue to watch as her small car shakes from their struggle. He manages to rip her purse from her shoulder and throw it out the window next to her phone. She slaps him and then he slaps her back. She struggles with him a little bit more and then he grabs her by the back of her head and shoves her face first into the dash.

Her body slumps back into the seat; out cold. He picks her left hand up once again, removes her ring, and then tosses it out the window as well. He takes off leaving a trail of black from her tires heating up the pavement.

Then there’s nothing.
She’s gone
. Jax has her.

I stand there and blink a few times trying to understand what I just saw. This didn’t happen. It couldn’t have.

Tate gets my attention as I hear glass break against a wall.

“We will find her,” Parker says standing and facing Tate and myself. He looks at me, and I see the doubt in his eyes. The anger in his tight jaw. His chest bowed and fists clenched.

His eyes move to Tate as I hear another piece of glass break. “Stop breaking shit,” he demands. “The cops will also be in here watching this. I have to call this in,” he says to me.

I nod my head. But it doesn’t matter, fuck the police. I’ll find the bastard first.“They won’t find shit on there.” I finally find my voice. There was no tag number on the truck. Hell, I’m not even one hundred percent sure what the model was. All I saw was half of a black rusted hood.

“I have to call this in, Slade.” He pulls out his phone.

“He’s right.” I hear Tate’s deep and hard voice. “There’s nothing on that video telling us where she is now. That was over two hours ago.” My eyes focus up on the monitor and the screen shatters as something shiny knocks into it.

Parker turns his attention back over to Tate, and I hear a soft cry come from behind me. I turn to see Holly standing in the corner as she cries her heart out. Her body shakes, her hand covering her mouth and tears running down her face. I forgot she was in here watching it as well. I walk over to her and place my arms around her.

“I’ll find her,” I promise.

She wraps her arms around me as her body shakes, and I hold onto her tighter, afraid if I let go she will fall to the floor.

Tate storms past us as he dials a number on his phone while Parker speaks on his as well.

“I’ll get her back,” I say aloud. I have to.

An hour later I’m standing in the back parking lot. It’s full of police cars and even an ambulance.

I have passed whatever fucking state I was in, and I’m so fucking pissed I feel I may explode. I want to punch something. I want to knock something to the ground. I want to treat someone as if they are my personal rag doll. My heart is breaking for Angel. And my mind is going in all different directions.

Is she alive?

Maybe she was more than knocked out.

Where has he taken her?

What was he planning on doing with her?

The cops have asked me questions, and I just play stupid. As if I know nothing, but I know everything.

They wanna know what happened to the monitor and Holly told them that it had broken a couple days ago. So they had to watch it on another device. She also managed to clean up the mess of broken glass before they showed. I was just going to leave it.
Fuck them.

“What do you know?” I hear Parker ask another cop.

He points to some black marks on the concrete. “Not much, man.” He sighs. “There are two sets of tire marks.” He then points to the others that I know were from her car. “We have an APB out on her car. Waiting to hear something back from it.” He runs a hand over his short golden hair.

They’ll never find it.
He probably ran it off into a lake. Even if they do, she probably won’t be near it.

“Slade?”

I spin around to see Tate placing his phone in his pocket. It’s the first time he’s spoken since he walked out of the office.

I walk over to him. “Please tell me you have something.” He’s my only hope. He’s been on his phone nonstop—he has to have something.

He looks around the parking lot and then his eyes land on mine. “Let’s go.” He turns around and starts to walk off.

I don’t even ask. I take off after him.

“Wait,” Parker says. “Where are you guys going? The cops will have more questions for you.” He looks at me.

Tate looks at Parker then to me. “These cops can’t help Slade.”

“They can and they will,” Parker insists. “The tires. They can match skid marks to tread. Then that will help narrow…”

“Help him what?” Tate demands. “Help find her body?”

I flinch at that statement. No. She’s not dead. I’ll find her.

“No offense, Parker, you guys have too much fucking red tape. I don’t,” Tate continues.

“What are you going to do?” Parker asks with concern.