Page 52 of B-ry
It wasn’t two blocks from the bar when I found something. A shoe. It could have been anyone’s, but I knew. I fucking knew it was hers. Right there in the tall grass beside the road. I picked it up and hung my head. It was all the confirmation I needed. Something had happened to Laurel.
“Did you find something?” Ky asked coming to my side.
I couldn’t speak so I held up the shoe to tell him what he needed to know. I couldn’t move either. I was frozen in my spot, staring down at the ground like she’d somehow appear there. Even as Ky patted me on the shoulder and stepped away I couldn’t unglue my feet from their place.
“Hey,” Ky called out a moment later. “This hers?”
That was enough to have me snapping to. My head jerked up and sure enough, there was Laurel’s tiny purse thing. A clutch, I think she’d called it at one time.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she had something like that.”
“Let’s, uh, take it back to Cami. She can look through it,” Ky said knowing full well it was a big no-no to go through a chick’s purse. While I tended to agree with that, this was kind of a different situation.
“Just open the damn thing,” I grunted and continued to look around. There had to be something else. Something to tell me what happened here.
I looked back the way we’d walked. Then turned and looked at the area ahead. Though it was slight, I could tell the grass had been trampled down in a clear curved line. Like a car had veered off the road and then back on. There was no way to tell if it had stopped or not but I was desperate for the answer. There seemed to be two options here. One, someone swerved and possibly struck Laurel while she was walking. Or two, they had wandered off road on purpose and Laurel had been taken. Both thoughts made my blood boil. And for whatever reason, I didn’t even think that there was another option where the car tracks had nothing to do with her. I may have had tunnel vision and was grasping at anything to find an answer.
Whatever Ky was trying to say to me I didn’t hear because I was too focused on finding something that gave me some kind of clue.
“No blood,” I mumbled. There wasn’t anything that might have resembled spots of blood anywhere but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t have fallen and hit her head. Or the impact of the car could have broken her leg.
Had she been out here, left for hours, or days, all alone? Had she crawled her way somewhere trying to find help?
But Cable said he couldn’t find her in any of the hospitals.
“Search the fucking area,” I bellowed causing my brothers all around to come running. “Something happened. Right here.” I scanned the thick brush and trees that were just six feet back from the road.
“We’re losing light,” someone said. Mouse, it might have been.
“Get fucking flashlights. A fucking search dog out here. Something. Don’t tell me what I already know. If she’s out there, then we need to find her now!”
“Uh, B,” Ky said coming up beside me, Laurel’s tiny purse thing still in his grasp and something pinched between his fingers. “I think it might have been less one sided than you thought.” He reached out, a thick folded piece of paper pinched between his pointer and middle finger. For some reason, my hand shook as I reached out and plucked the paper away from him. “I didn’t read much. I stopped when I figured out what was going on,” he said the words low so that only I heard them then he walked off.
I shook my head and tucked it into my pocket. My emotions were too heightened right now for me to add anything else. I had no idea what was there but if what Ky had said was any indication, I had a strong feeling I needed to be alone and locked away before I read it.
An hour of searching later and we came up empty-handed.
At a loss, we all shuffled back to the clubhouse. The look on Cami’s face when she realized we had nothing was heartbreaking. I couldn’t take it. I needed a moment to collect myself but I didn’t feel like I deserved it.
“Cable,” I barked, causing everyone’s eyes to turn to me. “You got feed saved from a week ago?”
“Yeah, don’t know how much good it will do. Cameras barely catch anything beyond the parking lot. Might be lucky if we see some tires.”
“I don’t fucking care if we see a shadow. If there was a car and it passed by here, I want to fucking know about it.” I was losing it. But luckily, Cable just snapped his mouth shut, nodded, and walked out of the lounge.
“Take a breath, man,” Mouse said placing a firm hand on my shoulder.
I turned my head and glared at him. His hand remained in place and he didn’t even so much as flinch.
“I get it,” he said softly. “I do.” Then he gave my shoulder a squeeze and backed off.
“B-ry,” Iron called out. “Take a fucking break.”
And because it sounded more like an order rather than a suggestion, I turned and left the room.
