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He laughed bitterly. “And sit in that car next to you, thinking about how much I want you the entire way? No thanks.” He spun on his heel and stalked away.
I watched him go. Then looked up at Harold Coker’s office.
The man gazed down at me, making sure I knew he’d seen everything. I stared right back, hating him with everything I had.
Like he fed on my emotions, Harold smiled, slow and calculating, before stepping back from the window and disappearing from view.
18
REBEL
I printed as many copies of my accusatory flyer on the home printer as I could before it ran out of ink. It wasn’t enough. A burning need to find the woman Caleb had kidnapped or maybe even killed spurred me on, so I took the flyer down to the local Walmart and had them print hundreds more.
The woman behind the counter had glanced at the flyer and frowned. “You sure you want to do this, honey?”
I nodded fiercely.
She hummed her disapproval but printed the copies anyway, until I had a full stack of them bundled up in my arms.
The heavy weight of them was satisfying.
They represented a thousand women who would be warned to stay away from Caleb and his friends. Each one had the potential to save a life or help me find the one who was missing.
I wouldn’t forget. She’d said nobody else was searching for her, so that responsibility was one that now fell to me. I wouldn’t take it lightly.
Vaughn’s car was missing from the driveway when I got home, so I called him, but it went straight to his voicemail. “Hey. Where are you? I thought you were coming with me to hand out these flyers? I went a bit overboard and have about a thousand of them printed, so I’m going to plaster every car in the hospital lot, as well as any car or lamppost within a three-mile radius of Black Industries. I’m too hopped up on Starbucks and red food coloring to hang around waiting for you, but if you get this and want to come give me a hand, you know where to find me.” I paused, then added, “PS, thanks again for the orgasm. We should do it again sometime.”
I ended the call and smiled the whole way to Black Industries. But the minute I saw Caleb’s building, the lightness left my body. I wanted to storm up the elevator and announce to every person there what Caleb and his right-hand man were into. That they raped women for fun. Held parties so other men could do it too.
But I knew if I did, I’d find myself sitting in the back of a cop car within minutes. If I could even get up the elevator at all without some sort of security card. I could have called Bliss and asked her if there was one, she should know, considering she’d been engaged to Caleb before she’d come to her senses and seen him for who he truly was.
But I didn’t want her coming down here. I didn’t know where Caleb was. War had pulled his guys from sitting around outside his house when he hadn’t returned after a few days, and I doubted he was coming in to work when he had to know there were people after him. But I didn’t want to take the risk either. Nash, Vincent, War, and Scythe weren’t the only ones concerned with Bliss’s safety. Especially since she was pregnant.
I walked the city streets around the building, handing out flyers to every woman I passed, imploring them to be careful if they hung out in bars or cafés Hugh and Caleb might frequent. When my feet got sore, I went into the café next door to Black Industries and ordered another coffee, handing over a ten-dollar bill along with a flyer to the young woman behind the counter.
She glanced down at it, then back up at me, her eyes wide. “I know them. Those two guys. They come in here regularly. Is this true?”
I nodded. “I wish it wasn’t.”
“They’re assholes. They make comments about the women who work here. Which of us they’d fuck. Which of us they’d fuck but have to put a pillow over our heads. They think we can’t hear them, I guess, or maybe they don’t even care.”
I pressed my lips into a line. She was so young. Probably not even eighteen. Caleb and Hugh were grown men in their thirties. They had no business even glancing in this girl’s direction. It made my blood boil.
I grabbed her hand. “Don’t ever be alone with them, okay? Have someone walk you to your car after your shifts if you finish late. Can I put a flyer up on your noticeboard?”
The young girl glanced over at an older man, working behind the counter. “I can’t let you do that. He’d have a fit.”
“I understand. But please at least let your co-workers know.” On impulse, I grabbed a pen from my purse and scribbled my cell phone number across the top of the flyer. “If they ever make you feel unsafe, and your boss isn’t doing anything about it, then you call me, okay?”
She took the flyer. “I’m Amanda.”
“Rebel. It’s nice to meet you, Amanda. But I hope you never have to call me.”
She folded up the flyer with my number on it and tucked it into her apron pocket. “Me too.”
With a renewed determination, I strode back through the café.
The bell above the door tinkled before I could get to it.