Page 13

13

Tex

When I pulled my truck into the parking lot, I couldn’t get out of it fast enough. I wanted to see Salem and tell her Nixie’s baby wasn’t mine. Just thinking about seeing her face when I told her had me grinning as I jogged from the parking lot to the entrance.

Anson had been working the security gate when I pulled in, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him. I’d let Nixie handle that.

Pushing open the door, I headed down the hallway and heard voices in the kitchen and figured I’d check there first. Salem was often with Goldie and Nina. The smell of garlic and butter met me, and Goldie glanced over her shoulder at me from whatever she was getting out of the oven.

“She’s not down here,” Goldie called out. “Last I saw her, she was going for a walk outside.” She turned and set the sheet pan of bread on a hot pad. “But before you go looking for her, did you see the baby?”

I smiled and shook my head. “Nope.”

Goldie’s brows creased. “Why not? It was the ultrasound appointment, wasn’t it? That’s why Salem was so adamant that you go.”

“Baby ain’t mine.” It felt so good to say that. Like a brick wall had been taken off my shoulders.

Goldie’s eyes widened. “What do you mean, the baby ain’t yours?”

I wanted to find Salem and tell her all this, but I knew Goldie would chase me down if I didn’t tell her now.

“Seems Nixie has a regular who comes to Toxic to see her. He’s married, a deacon in his church, and he’s paid her for head several times. She found out that he worked at Lab Corp in town and blackmailed him to fake the paternity test.”

He had also cried like a fucking pussy, begging me not to tell his wife.

I’d gone into the lab on my way home and demanded to talk to whoever had handled the paperwork for the test. I’d stuck the test results Liam had given me in my glove department when I’d not wanted Salem to find it in my room before I could talk to her about it. The woman at the desk had said it was one of two people, but she couldn’t be sure which one. But they were both there. He had been easy enough to pick out because he’d gone pale the moment he saw the test results I was there about.

“Holy shit,” Goldie muttered, then started smiling. “Go find Salem and tell her!”

“That’s what I’m trying to do.”

She waved her oven mitt at me to go, and I headed for the back door. Goldie let out a squeal as I left, which made me chuckle.

The backyard was empty. I scanned it left to right, then decided to go right and walk around that way. There wasn’t much to see the other way.

It didn’t take me long to circle the place. My anticipation had me walking at a pace that would be considered a jog for most folks. I called her name a few times, and when I got nothing, I headed back inside to check the bedroom.

Goldie looked up at me, and her excited face fell when she didn’t see Salem with me.

“She’s not out there. She must have come in the front and gone upstairs,” I said, not stopping as I went to the door that led to the hallway.

“I guess that was three hours ago. I didn’t realize I’d been in here working on dinner so long,” I heard her say, but didn’t respond.

Salem had tried to hide the fact that my going to the appointment was hard on her, but I’d seen the pain in her eyes. It had twisted me up so much that I’d been in an even more foul mood than usual around Nixie. Salem had probably wanted to be alone. I was going to fix that. Put a smile back on my girl’s face.

Taking the steps two at a time, I got to my room and swung open the door, only to find it empty. My gaze scanned all the way to the bathroom door. It was open, and the light was off. Nina wasn’t here, and maybe she’d gone with her. But wouldn’t Goldie have known that? Anson would have seen her leave.

Where the fuck was she?

I walked over to the bedside table and searched around for a note of some kind. When I didn’t find anything, I started down the hallway to the room Pepper had used when she stayed here. I didn’t know why she’d be in there, but I was running out of places to look.

When I looked inside, the room was dark, and there was no Salem. I hadn’t heard anyone in the game room, but that was all I could think of. She could have gone to distract herself with a game of pool. Alarm was starting to set in, but there was no way she had left. Someone would know. There were cameras, and Anson was working the gate, where he also had a screen with the live feed of all the cameras. Salem had to be somewhere on the property. Getting myself worked up was stupid.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and hit the front gate number.

“Yeah,” Anson said in greeting.

“Did Salem leave with anyone this afternoon?” I asked him.

“Nope. I’ve not seen her.”

“What about Nina? She wasn’t with her?”

“Nope. Nina was alone. I did see Salem walking around by the shed about, eh, two hours ago, I’d guess. Before that, she was at the pond. Lick came and talked to her. But, yeah, I saw her walk near the shed, but I didn’t see her again after that.”

I was already back outside and headed toward the shed before he finished talking.

“Did she go behind the shed?” I asked him.

“I, uh…I don’t know. UPS came to the gate, and I had to get the packages. I didn’t see where she went. Since I haven’t seen her again, she’s probably in your room.”

I scowled. Did he not think I’d have checked there first?

“She’s not in there,” I clipped. “That’s why I’m searching for her.”

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Go rewind back to when you saw her last and see where she goes after,” I told him.

“Okay. Hey, I see you,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. I was on the east side of the shed. There wasn’t a camera behind it, just woods. As I walked back there, my heart started to race as I thought of things that might have happened to her.

What if a snake had bitten her or she had fallen and hit her head? Fuck, why didn’t we have a camera back here?

“Here it is,” he said.

I stood back there alone. No sign of Salem anywhere. The shed, a few old bikes that we had for parts, a barrel of smashed beer cans, and the fucking trees. Past that was a ten-foot-tall steel fence with an electric current running through it and spikes at the top. It wasn’t like someone could have gotten over it and taken her with them.

“Ah, she goes behind the shed and…” He paused as he checked the video. “Damn,” he muttered. “She’s back there somewhere, man. She never came back.”

I stalk toward the trees, my fear growing as images of her hurt flashed through my mind.

Why would she have gone into the trees? She was scared of snakes and shit. This didn’t make sense.

The sight I found wasn’t Salem injured, and I’d trade that any day for what I was seeing. Disbelief and horror flooded me as I stared at the ladder. There was a covering—which had to be rubber, a mat that blocked electrical currents—at the top of the fence.

She’d been taken.

“NO!” I roared.

Anson’s voice came over the phone, asking what was wrong. If I needed backup.

Fury, anguish, and fear crashed together, and I’d never felt so fucking helpless in my life.

“Tex, man, are you okay?” Anson asked frantically.

No, I wasn’t okay.

“She’s been taken,” I said through my teeth, then ended the call and immediately pressed Liam’s number.

My heart felt like it was going to beat through my damn chest. I’d left her, never thinking someone could breach our security and take her.

If I couldn’t find her…

FUCK! I couldn’t think like that.

I’d find her and kill every son of a bitch who got in my way.