Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 131888 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131888 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“Thanks, brother.”
“Stay safe. And if you need anything…”
“Hopefully, this is simply some misunderstanding.”
“Nox, what’s going on?”
His grip tightened on his phone to the point of pain. “I haven’t heard from Liyah, and I just want to check to see if she’s over there. Just get me that address as soon as you can.”
Relief rushed through him when Jamison responded with, “Will do.”
The type of house Nox thought Magnum lived in was not what he found at the address texted to him by the BAMC president.
He hadn’t expected it to look so… normal.
Like Magnum was some upper middle-class banker or something. It certainly didn’t fit the image most people had of the Dark Knight member in the least.
When the door was flung open, he stared at the most probable reason why.
Caitlyn Moore, Liyah’s stepmother.
“She here?”
Cait’s eyebrows pinned together. “What?”
Nox forced his way into the house by pushing past the petite blonde. “Please tell me she’s here.” He glanced around, but he didn’t see her. He didn’t hear her. He didn’t even see or hear Kee or Dev.
The alarm bells in his head began to ring at a deafening level.
“Liyah? No. What’s going on?”
He had to fight the temptation to grab Cait and shake the answers from her he wanted to hear. “I was hoping she was over here.”
“We haven’t seen her. What’s going on?” she asked again.
Her confusion was not helping his spiking blood pressure. “Liyah’s gone.”
She pulled her chin into her neck. “What do you mean, gone?”
He managed to swallow down his scream of, “She’s missing! She’s nowhere to be found!” But that wouldn’t help anyone. He needed to keep his shit together. To keep his head on straight and refrain from taking out his frustration out on someone not deserving of it.
He pulled in a deep breath to keep himself from unraveling in the house of someone who considered him an enemy. “She was supposed to come over to my place but never showed up.”
Cait’s brow furrowed. “She’s always running late.”
And while that was true… “I’m used to her being a few minutes late but after texting me that she was on her way, she never showed up.”
Cait started to pick up on his uneasiness. He could hear it in her voice when she suggested, “Maybe she’s at home.”
“That was the first place I checked.”
Her blue eyes widened. “At the office?”
He shook his head. “Called there, too.”
Her cheeks lost all of their color. “Meeting with a member of her grief group?”
While that technically could be a possibility, she would at least tell him she had to make a detour before heading to his apartment.
Not once had she left him in the dark like this.
Not fucking once.
This was not good.
The second he shook his head, she turned hers and yelled, “Magnum!”
Shit. Fuck. Shit.
Nox went over to their house for a reason, and he heard that reason’s heavy footsteps lumbering in their direction.
This was either going to go well, or it would be a disaster.
He braced for the initial impact of Magnum’s larger than life attitude. The man would not be happy that a cop was standing in his foyer.
Fuck him. He’d just have to deal with it. Nox was damn certain that Magnum would consider his daughter more important than his hatred toward anyone wearing a badge.
Or at least he hoped so.
“What the fuck you doin’ in my house?”
Before he could answer, Cait did it for him. “Nox thinks Liyah’s missing. He thought she might be here.”
The big man went completely still. So still it was almost like he morphed into a statue.
Suddenly, that statue came back to life and all it took was him barking, “What?”
“I said—” Cait started.
“Heard what the fuck you said, woman. Need more than that.” His dark eyes turned to Nox. “Better fuckin’ explain and better fuckin’ do it quickly.”
With a single nod, Nox did just that.
Chapter Forty-Two
The second the last word of his explanation slipped from Nox’s lips, the man before him turned into an atom bomb and exploded.
Nox never heard so many curse words used in one sentence. So many that it might not have been a sentence at all.
“Magnum, calm down!” Cait grabbed her husband in attempt to do that, but he shook her free to face off with Nox. “You won’t do anyone any good if you have a damn heart attack.”
“Who the fuck took her?” he roared.
On a good day the man was larger than life, but pissed off…?
No matter what Liyah’s father did or said, Nox would not back down. It was possible that Liyah’s life was at stake. Until he knew for sure, he would assume the worst and hope for the best. “I don’t even know if she was taken. But it’s not like her to send a text to tell me she’s on the way and then not show up. Or not respond to any of my calls or texts.”