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They shoved us both into the van that had bench seating. One guy got in, sat down on the opposite bench, and aimed his gun at us as though we were dangerous. The other man slid into the driver’s seat and sped off.

I prayed thatsomeonehad witnessed this and called the police.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-EIGHT

FORREST

After an hour of chatting with my friends about Bruce’s confession, we’d discussed the status of our individual investigation into the elite clubs.

Arrow had organized the growing list of aliases we had to check on. Some might pan out; others could be meaningless names that were thrown around at parties. Regardless, we had something to go by. Organization gave us a snapshot of the big picture. The Trogyn was linked to underground clubs all over the world, but we wanted to focus on the local clubs that were more accessible before looking into foreign countries.

To rest my brain, I played the demo version of Level Four. My video game world was set in a magical jungle where the trees became portals to other worlds. Some connected to parallel modern worlds, while others took the players to fantastical places. The rare plants offered bonus lives and boosted life force.

As I played the game, I thought about Kiera, and an idea percolated in my head. I stopped playing and switched to creative mode. It would be cool to have a goddess with the ability to grow rare blood plants named Agoona. The plant produced the Agoona fruit, which contained magical blood that healed diseases and boosted the body’s life force. It would upgrade the WaterFyre Rising energy for skilled players who could obtain it.

Enthusiasm rushed through me, and I knew adding Kiera to Level Four was the perfect addition. I’d been stuck on the plot for a while until this moment. She came into my life and made sense of everything, so it was no surprise that she unraveled the plot for my game too.

When I finishedrendering her face and body, an avatar of Kiera looked at me—my perfect Goddess K. Outside of the game, she was my Sexy K, but in this fantastical world she was the sorceress that held all the power.

What would she think if I showed her this?

I looked at the time on the computer, and it was already seven in the evening. Where had the day gone? Where was Kiera? Grabbingmy phone, I checked for new messages and didn’t see any new textsor a voicemail from her.

The last text message I received from her notified me she was going with Olivia to visit a showroom for her job tomorrow. That had been three hours ago. She should’ve been home already.

An uncomfortable feeling stirred in me. I called her number, and it went straight to voicemail. Icy knots twisted in my gut.

I called Hank. “Are you busy? Can you help me?”

“How can I help?”

“Go to the main lodge and let me know if you see Olivia’s car.”

“Something wrong?” he asked.

I was too concerned about Kiera, otherwise I would’ve pointed out that his stuttering had improved. It motivated people when you acknowledged their progress, but I didn’t want a waste a single moment right now.

“I can’t reach Kiera.”

“Okay. Stay on the phone,” he said, and I heard a door open and close.

Fear clawed at me as wild scenarios played out in my head.

The sounds of footsteps and heavy breathing filled the other line. I prayed Hank would tell me Olivia’s car was there. Maybe Kiera was hanging out with Olivia and forgot to tell me. The cellular reception around the campground wasn’t the best, so she could’ve missed my calls.

Something in my gut toldme she was in trouble. I didn’t know how I knew that, but I did.

“The car isn’t h-here.” I could hear the stress in Hank’s voice. “Maybe they took her. The same people who took Nikky.”

Fuck.

“If anything strange happens at the campground, let me know. I’m going to make some calls.”

“Do you need me to d-do anything else?”

I didn’t want to drag Hank into this mess. Stress would make his condition worse, and he’d been more than helpful.

“You help me by monitoring the recordings. Call me if someone comes around again.”