Page 121 of The Murder Club

The woman shoved her phone into the front pocket of her shirt. “Ten minutes,” she snapped, her face flushing, as if she thought Dom was questioning her work ethic. “No more than fifteen.”

“Thanks.” Kari sent the woman a reassuring smile before closing the door. She regarded Dom with a chiding expression. “Andrea isn’t much of a worker, but she’s one of the few aides who are willing to come in on Sundays.”

Dom ignored the complaint. He couldn’t care less about the staffing issues at Pike Nursing Home. Instead, he pulled out his phone.

“Where else could Bailey be?” he muttered.

“Wait in the lobby,” Kari commanded. “I’ll look around. She has to be here somewhere.”

Dom did as she requested. Kari could complete her search faster without him tagging along, but, more importantly, he’d realized he didn’t have any cell service in the hallway. There had to be somewhere in the building where he could get reception.

Entering the lobby, he headed toward the windows, relieved when a bar popped up on the screen. He pressed Bailey’s number, listening as it rang, eventually dumping him into voice mail. His gut twisted into a tight knot. Why wasn’t she answering? Grimly, he ended the connection and called again. And then again. As if he could force her to answer.

He was still trying when Kari entered the lobby and crossed to stand in front of him.

“She’s not here.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.” Kari pressed her hands against her stomach, her expression troubled. “Should I be worried?”

Dom shoved his phone back into his pocket. An explosive terror was surging through him, pumping him with adrenaline. His heart thundered in his chest, a raw urgency to find Bailey making it impossible to stand still.

“There’s a deputy on the way,” he said. “Tell him that Bailey is missing.”

“Missing?” Kari reached out as Dom turned away. “Wait!”

Dom ignored her plea, heading out of the building. There was no way Bailey would have left the nursing home without letting him know where she was going. Which meant someone had forced her to leave.

Limping across the front patio, Dom instinctively glanced around the parking lot, making sure there was no silver BMW lurking in the shadows to run him down. He couldn’t rescue Bailey if he was dead.

Not that he knew where or how he was going to rescue her, he grimly acknowledged. But he knew where he was going to start.

The hunting lodge . . .

His fingers were wrapping around the door handle of his Land Rover when his gaze skimmed past the abandoned building next door. He abruptly froze, his breath hissing between his clenched teeth.

There was a car parked behind the nearby dumpster. He hadn’t noticed it when he pulled in, but now he easily recognized the rusty vehicle with the back window covered with duct tape.

Eric Criswell.

It couldn’t be a coincidence. The creep had to be involved in Bailey’s disappearance. Dom forced himself to take the time to send a quick text to Zac; then, with an unwavering determination, he headed toward the side door of the building.

Chapter 26

Bailey wrenched her head back to an awkward angle, meeting the glittering green gaze and mocking smile. She thought she’d heard the muffled ringtone of her phone, but she had no idea what had happened to her purse. She assumed it was at the bottom of the barrel Eric had used to haul her to this room.

At the moment she was more focused on getting out of the handcuffs. Once she was free she would worry about calling for help.

“You’re serious?” she rasped as he simply stared at her, as if expecting her to applaud his clever scheme. “This is all about punishing your mother?”

“Exactly. There are two things in this world that Lorene Donaldson cares about: Logan and the Pike Nursing Home,” he drawled. “I wanted to destroy both before putting them out of their misery.”

Bailey grimaced at the thought of the pain and destruction he’d caused because of his mommy issues. It wasn’t like he was the only child who’d ever been abandoned by an adult, she silently fumed.

“Fine. You wanted to punish them. Why hurt anyone else?”

He waved aside her sharp question. “I didn’t intend to. Not in the beginning. But then Nellie died and—”