Page 50 of Bullseye
“Mine, Harry’s, and Nick’s. But how?”
“She must have gone through the bathroom window,” Nick replies.
“I’ll check if she’s in there.” Dr. Holly runs to the back and comes back out, moments later, shaking her head. “No, she’s not there. Sorry. And the bathroom window is open.”
“Damn it, Sen!” Picking up a barstool, I’m dying to throw it across the room, but I don’t want to scare Dr. Holly. Instead, I force my anger down, and rushing to the back room to grab my piece from the safe where we keep the weapons when we don’t need them, I stuff my Ruger into the back of my jeans.
“She must have walked her bike pretty far if we didn’t hear the ignition turn over!” Nick calls after me.
He’s right. That’s the only shining spot in all of this. She could not have gotten that far on foot pushing a bike.
But now, I’ve got to figure out where the hell she went, and how the hell to find her.
Chapter Thirteen
Bullseye
“Seneca? Seneca!” Rushing around the parking lot and checking the perimeters of the building, my heart is pounding. This is useless. She’s gone.
But where the hell would she go, and why?
One thing’s for sure, running around like a freaking chicken with its head cut off in the dark Arizona night isn’t going to get me anywhere. She could be gone in any direction by now. That means I need to go home and call in some favors…
“Bullseye?” Harry’s calling to me from the door of the Taphouse, but I can’t stop now. “Where should we look?”
Lifting my arm in a gesture of thanks, I hope he understands I appreciate it, but I just can’t stop to explain. I’m sure he does. No matter what he knows or doesn’t know about my life, he’s still my best friend.
Jumping onto my bike, I spin out of the parking lot and speed back to my apartment building. I damned near throw my bike into its parking spot. Hopping off, I rush around the courtyard of my building, past the pool, and up to the front door. Slipping my key into the lock, I glimpse the elevator to the right, but deciding the stairs will be faster, I rush to the back of the building and slip into the stairway. Taking the stairs two at a time, I nearly burst out onto the fifth floor and stumbling from momentum, I catch myself before sprinting down the hallway and to my apartment door.
Quieting my racing breath, I slip the key in the lock and push open the door. Tossing my keys onto the kitchen counter, I rush for my computer. After flicking on my small desk lamp, I light up my computer.
“Come on, come on…”
All right. A quick Google search turns up the usual—pictures of women who aren’t her, profiles on social media that also aren’t her, and Whitepages results that promise her arrest records. Nothing different than the first time I Googled her—that night she was nominated into the Steel Knights. Nothing strange.
In fact, there’s nothing about her at all. And that’s what’s strange…
I didn’t think about this the last time I checked. I just figured she wasn’t a woman who liked people to know a lot about her. And that may very well be true, but shit, even my dad turns up on social now and again, and there’s no one more careful than the Bordono family.
As I sit hunched over my desk, I rub my burning eyes and force my shoulders down from my ears.
“Come on, Bullseye,” I mumble. “Come on. Where do I look?” It’s obvious that regular methods aren’t going to get this done, so, hurrying to my kitchen, I yank open the drawer nearest the fridge. Pulling the drawer all the way out, I turn it over to find my burner phone taped to the bottom. The one I use for absolute emergencies. Like this.
Peeling off the tape, I know the phone’s got to be dead. Plugging it in, I wait for the lightning bolt. As soon as it shows, I text my connection in New York.
“Need info on Seneca Villetrio. Female. Age: 24. By any means necessary.”Without pausing, I hit the send button. Yeah, this particular connection of mine flies under the radar, but I need his help to get this done.
Then, fishing my regular cell out of my pocket, I text Seth. I hate to interrupt his “date”, with Dr. Holly at the bar, but these are desperate times. Yeah, Seth is a numbers guy, but he’s more than that. Like me, he has some “abilities” and connections that he doesn’t talk about from his time managing a construction company. And from knowing what I do about the Bordono family, I know they are nose-deep in the construction business. Since I can’t call in any of those favors right now, I need to see if Seth can.
“Need help tracing a phone.”Send.
Crap. I would have hated it if someone interrupted Sen and me.
“Sorry to interrupt.”Send.
If I believed in luck or were superstitious at all, I’d be crossing my fingers and toes right about now. Before I can even contemplate how I’d do that, my phone vibrates in my hand.
“All cool. Just walked her to the car. Be there in 10.”
