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The world slowed as I tried to grasp her words. ‘Gone?’
‘She went to take the bin out and get some flour a few hours ago and she never came back. I tried calling the police but they say she needs to be missing for a whole day before they can get involved. But she left her phone, her keys, even her purse, she just grabbed some change from the bowl for the flour. She’s not with her mum, she’s not with you and she’s not with me. There’s nowhere else she would have gone without saying something.’
Lara’s voice shook with the same panic that I felt rising in my chest as I leapt out of bed and dressed.
‘I’ll be there as soon as I can. Is there no way she’s just stopped for a coffee somewhere?’
‘Logan, I know her. She always tells me where she’s going. Especially since the pictures. She would have come back in to grab her stuff.’
‘Right, hold tight, be with you soon.’
My chest burned as worry fled through me. Was it whoever sent her the images? Shit, had we angered them by being together on camera? I’d had my guys tracing everyone who had logged in to watch us, hoping that the instigator would send more images to prove he’d watched. But nothing had arrived.
My sweet girl.
If someone hurt her, I’d strip them to the bones while they watched for as long as I could keep them alive.
‘Is there anyone who would have taken her?’ I asked as I paced the sitting room to the kitchen.
The pictures were strewn on the table along with Valentina’s laptop and phone. We couldn’t find anything.
I went back into her room, searching for something, anything, that would lead to finding her. On the carpet near the far wall of her bedroom, a small pile of white dust gathered in one spot next to her wardrobe. It was only a tiny amount, but significant enough to be odd.
Following the wall in a straight line up the edge of the furniture, I found a tiny hole with a smooth glass fitting inside.
‘Who lives on the other side of this wall?’
‘Our neighbour, Tim. But he’s been home all morning. Muhammed said he got home just after Valentina left. He wasn’t with her.’
‘Tim’s been spying on her.’
Lara’s eyes widened before her face pulled into a frown. ‘I’ll kill him. He’s always had a thing for her, but I didn’t think he was an actual creep.’
She tore from the room and I ran to catch up with her as her knuckles rapped hard on the neighbour’s door.
‘Hey,’ he said as he opened the door. Confusion turned to fear when he saw me, trying to slam the door closed. Pushing my foot in the gap, I blocked the door from closing fully before forcing my way into the apartment and holding the scrawny little loser up by the throat.
‘Where the fuck is she?’ I growled as Lara went into his bedroom, coming back with a pin-hole camera in her hand.
‘You sick fuck!’ she yelled. ‘You’ve been watching her room non-stop, haven’t you?’
‘Only after the guy asked me to. He said that I needed to get him proof so he could make Logan go away and I could have her back on the site. I’m Footguy. I’d never hurt her. I love her.’
I punched him in the face, his nose bursting a red torrent down his shirt.
‘What fucking guy?’
‘He’s her brother or something?’
‘She doesn’t have a brother,’ Lara said.
Hugh. It had to be Hugh. But there was no way he knew about us. Unless he’d been watching Valentina for a while. Fuck.
I pulled out my phone and dropped the snivelling creep to the floor. Nicole’s Instagram did the trick.
‘Is this him?’
‘Yeah,’ Tim nodded while wiping at his nose. ‘That’s him.’
