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Tears sprang to my eyes. I slammed my hand into the table before I inadvertently crushed the petals.
“Fuck!”
Cole appeared in the doorway, waving his phone at me. “Elijah’s on his way.”
“What in God’s name are you still doing here? Go find them!” I pointed at the door, incredulous I actually had to issue that command. Half the town should have been in flames by now until Cole foundsomeonewho could tell me something, anythingthat would get my husband back.
“But, we don’t—”
“Fucking find them, Cole! I don’t want to see you again until you have the owner of that fucking van with you! So help me, God!”
He backed out of the room quickly, hands raised in submission.
I spun and grabbed ahold of the first thing I found, launching it through the air as hard as I could. The antique mister shattered against the inside wall of the house, spraying shards of glass and water everywhere.
Tearing my hands through my hair, I prowled back and forth, my mind racing a hundred miles an hour. I ranked every enemy I’d ever made, theorized the outcome of a dozen different scenarios, and came to the same conclusion — Bennett was going to diebecauseof me.
The next thing to shatter was an empty pot. Then a filled pot, scattering soil and poisonous flowers all over the stone floor. Even one of the wicker chairs fell victim to my rage, crashing through one of the panes of glass in the conservatory wall and tumbling out into the garden.
Collapsing where I stood, I drew my knees up to my chest and buried my face in my arms.
“Oh my God! What happened?!” Olivia’s voice rang out sometime later, her heeled steps crunching over bits of terra-cotta and ceramic. She squatted next to me and laid a hand on my shoulder gently.
I lifted my face from my arms and looked at her, unable to do anything about the pitiful tremble in my voice. “They took him. They took him from me, Olivia.”
“Who? Who did?”
“I don’t know!” The answer, the fucking helplessness, burst out of me with another wave of tears. “If I knew then I wouldn’t be here right now! I’d be out there, slaughtering every single person who so much as touched him!”
Olivia wrapped her arms around me and pressed her cheek to the top of my head, holding me tightly. “We’ll find him.”
“We should call the police,” Jake said.
Olivia and I both glared up at him, but she was the only one who spoke. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“He was kidnapped!” Jake exclaimed, spreading his hands. “They can’tnotdo anything. They’ll have to investigate.”
“And how long do you think that will take, Jacob?” Slipping out of Olivia’s arms, I got to my feet slowly. She rose with me, keeping ahold of my forearm. Despite the pressure, signaling me to stop, I kept going. I couldn’t help it. Without Bennett, anger was the only thing I had to sustain myself. “How long do you think it’ll take for the fine officers at Easton PD to locate him? How hard do you think they’re going to look for someone associated withme? Do you honestly believe they’ll find him in time before those people send him home in a fucking body bag?!”
Jake swallowed and slid backward a step.
“Leander,” Olivia snapped, grabbing onto both arms from behind and holding me still. “It’s not his fault.”
“Let go of me, Olivia.”
“Not until you calm your ass down.”
“Calm down? Calm down?!” I tried to turn to face her, but she held on, her grip tightening so hard her nails dug through my sleeves. “Do not tell me to calm down while my husband is out there! God only knows what’s happening to him! Meanwhile I’m here, unable to do a fucking thing to find him!”
“And how the fuck is taking my head off going to help Bennett?” Olivia let go, taking a step forward and coming nose-to-nose with me when I whipped around. “Or Jake’s? Or anyone’s? If you want your husband back so goddamn badly, then use your fucking head, Leander.” She jabbed two fingers into the center of my forehead and shoved my head back roughly.
Before I could retaliate, she grabbed Jake’s hand and dragged him out of the conservatory.
Seething, I stormed back to the closet and pulled up the footage again. There had to be something. Anything. A license plate was good, but it didn’t tell the whole story.
Bennett was counting on me to find a breadcrumb, no matter how small. And once I did, these fucking people were done for. By the time I was finished with them, I’d make them wish they’d never been born.
21
