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Jared
My frustration is mounting with every passing second Nia is missing. I want her in my arms, safe, whole, well, but I have to be content with scrabbling around in the dark for any slither of information.
We’re heading over to the storage unit company, intent on finding out who owned the storage unit Nia bought in the auction. I want details and I’m not afraid to throw my weight around to get them. All that matters to me is getting Nia back safely.
When we pull up outside the storage unit place, I get out of the car before Slider’s even brought the vehicle to a complete stop and head for the main office. I know my guys are on my heels, even if I don’t bother to turn around and check. I trust both men to have my back and keep my life safe. Brothers-in-arms… that’s what we’ll always be, even if none of us have served for years now. That doesn’t just go away and we fall back on old habits.
As soon as I push the door open, I see the man standing behind the desk has a swollen jaw and the start of what looks like a black eye. Did someone get here before us?
I don’t bother with any preamble. “Storage unit four-seven-two… who owned it?”
He blanches and I feel a little bad for eliciting that reaction from him. He already looks like he’s been through hell.
Immediately, he reaches for the phone. “I’m calling the cops this time.”
Beanie stops him by pressing the button under the receiver to cut the call.
“This time?”
“You can’t just waltz in here and expect me to roll with the punches. I haven’t done shit to you.”
“We’re not going to hurt you,” I tell him, “but the lady you sold that storage unit to… her life is in danger. I need to know everything about it, including the person who hit you.” I give him a sympathetic look. “Who was it who messed up your face?”
He clamps his jaw for a moment, before answering, “Someone else looking for details on storage unit four-seven-two.”
My heart freezes at this information, but there’s also a hint of satisfaction knowing I could be close to getting the answers I need—answers that could lead me to Nia.
“Can you describe him?” Beanie asks.
“I can do better. I got him on camera.” He nods up to the CCTV camera on the wall.
“You didn’t go to the cops with it?” Slider’s eyes move from the camera back to the man behind the desk.
“He told me he’d kill me if I did. I took that threat serious considering what he did to my face.”
“You two look at the footage,” I order Slider and Beanie before turning back to the owner. “Where’s it kept?”
“In the back room. The tapes are in date order. Don’t mess them up. He visited me the day before yesterday, although he’d visited before that to find out who I sold the unit to.”
My heart freezes. Nia is who the unit was sold to. “I need everything you have on the storage unit’s previous owner,” I tell him.
He watches Beanie and Slider. They step into the back room. “And if I don’t?”
“You’ll be responsible for the death of an innocent woman.”
He wrinkles his nose. “Fine.” Pulling a large book from under the counter, he places it on the top. “All the information is kept here. Knock yourself out, champ.”
I don’t miss the sarcasm. I also don’t care. I immediately start flicking through the book. It seems to be in storage unit number order, so I move to the end of the book and find four-seven-two.
It has a long list of owners, the last is Nia, the one before that is a Mrs. Wellford. There’s a home address and contact number.
Next to her name, it shows she was six months in arrears, then there’s a note saying ‘deceased’.
“Mrs. Wellford passed?”
“Yeah, I had no idea. I have five hundred storage units on this site. I don’t keep track of everyone’s personal lives, so I had no idea. I just kept issuing the debt notices. After a few months, someone called and said the lady who lived in the house was dead and they were the new owners. They wanted me to stop sending the notices.”
“So, it’s common practice to sell the storage unit?”
