Page 54 of My Hotshot

“We’ll find her,” Duane said.

“How can you say that?” I snapped. “We don’t even know what happened—how can youpromisethat?”

The air shifted.

Something passed between the men like silent conversation.

Theyknewsomething. Something they weren’t telling me.

“What the hell is going on?” I demanded. “Tell me the truth!”

“Lainey—just trust us—”

“No!” I yelled. “This is my daughter! Tell me what the hell is going on!”

Yarder gave Duane a sharp nod. “Tell her.”

Duane looked like he might throw up. His jaw worked before he finally spoke. “There are two psychos out there,” he said, his voice low. “Boone and Gibbs. They’ve got it out for the club. Anyone close to us is a target. We thought it was under control.” He met my eyes. “But now, with Lottie missing… we don’t think it is.”

My breath stopped. “You’ve got crazy guys trying tokill you, and you didn’t think that maybe—just maybe—they’d come after me and my daughter?!”

I couldn’t breathe. My chest was closing in.

This wasallhis fault.

Before I could scream, my phone rang in my hand.

Unknown number.

“Put it on speaker,” Yarder said.

I hesitated, glaring, then did what he said. “Hello?” I called.

“Mom!” Lottie’s voice cracked through the speaker.

My knees almost buckled. “Lottie?! Oh my god—where are you? Are you okay?”

“I don’t know where I am,” she sobbed.

“Honey, breathe. Talk to me. What happened?”

“Julie and Tiff wanted to go to John’s house…”

I froze. My gut dropped.

“Who isJohn?”

“Julie’s boyfriend. He lives in the country. We got there around one. It was fun at first, but then they started drinking. A lot.”

“You were drinking?” I snapped, stunned.

“No! I didn’t! I kept telling them I needed to be home, but they wouldn’t stop. They couldn’t even stand up. I didn’t know what to do, so… I took the car.”

I closed my eyes. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I lost my phone. We were out in the woods earlier—I must’ve dropped it. I didn’t notice until we were back at the house.”

“Oh, Lottie…”

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