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Z ip pulled up outside the restaurant where Talia’s apartment was located and spied her car. His heart picked up speed, and he waved Kevlar over. “That’s her car.”

“She lives upstairs?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go. Maybe she’s just up there asleep.”

He hoped she was up there going through her stuff or taking a nap but knew she wasn’t here. She would have called or texted. There wasn’t any way she would have stayed here, not after what had happened with her new landlord.

When he got to the top of the stairs, he tried the door and found it open. “That’s concerning.”

Kevlar nodded. “Let me guess, there’s no way she would have left it unlocked.”

“No way.”

They stepped in and paused. Kevlar pointed to the phone on the floor. “Is that hers?”

“Fuck.”

“Don’t touch anything. We should call the cops.”

Zip pulled out his phone and checked for a message from Talia, but he didn’t find one. Kevlar was right. They had to call the police. She was missing.

Before the police arrived, he and Kevlar had time to look for anything that would tell them what had happened. It looked like Talia had boxed up the rest of her stuff. She’d probably been here to clean out her place and move the rest of the boxes to his house.

“Is she moving?” Kevlar asked.

“Moving in with me.”

“You two haven’t known each other long.”

“No, and she’d been sleeping in my guest room on the futon, but we were getting closer, and I told her I was in love with her before I left on the mission. She said it back to me. Everything was going great.”

Kevlar nodded. “I don’t like this. Who would want to hurt her?”

Zip blew out a breath. “Her sister.”

Right then, the cops showed up. They made a note about the phone on the floor and the boxes. One of the officers raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

“Where were you this last week?”

“On a mission.” Zip couldn’t believe this was happening.

“Where exactly?” the officer asked.

Zip shrugged. “Sorry, it’s classified.”

The officer raised his eyebrows and was about to say something when Kevlar spoke up. “He was out of the country. We should probably call one of the Jags.”

“Oh,” the officer said. “She wasn’t military, was she?”

Zip sighed and shook his head slowly. “No, sir. But her sister is awful.”

The officer looked up from his notepad and narrowed his gaze. “What do you mean awful?”

“This is a long story. She was talking to a detective.” He squeezed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “The detective’s name is Hyatt.”

“You mean Huett?”

He nodded. “Yes. Huett. That’s who she was talking to. He knows some of the stuff going on.”

“Let me call him.”

The officer stepped away, and Kevlar came closer. “You okay?”

“Not really. Listen, there’s something bad.” He put his hands on his hips and blew out a breath. “She had some really bad things that happened in her past. Her family pushed her into it. Some shit is going to come out.”

“How bad?”

“People are going to talk and say shit about her.”

“I’ll shut that shit down fast. She’s family.”

Relief slid through Zip. His friends really were great. “Thanks, man.”

The officer came over as he shoved his phone into his pocket. “Huett is coming by. He is having Dave’s visitation and call log checked. Said to canvas and ask neighbors, but this isn’t a huge residential area. There are only about eight apartments occupied in this area. We’ll figure this out.”

“Thank you.”

“We’ll find her.”

Zip didn’t want to tell this officer that he knew the statistics, knew just how many people were found. He sent a text to Thario, telling him what they knew, which wasn’t much.

Kevlar squeezed his shoulder. “You need to tell your team and CO. They need to know.”

“Thank you, man, for being here. You can go. There’s not much more I can do.”

“I’m not leaving yet. I’ll wait until the detective gets here and they have some idea what their next moves are. Also, if she’s still missing, I think we should get a group together this weekend and see what we can find.”

“Thank you. You’re a good friend.”

Kevlar squeezed his shoulder. “We have to be. That’s what makes teams strong.”

Zip knew what happened with Kevlar and Howler. The betrayal had been a punch to the gut. It had caused some SEALs to leave and others to grow closer. He was lucky his team took it as a sign to be even closer to each other. They would support him through this. He just had to ask for their help.