I should have known that tonight was going to be fucked up. From the moment I walked into Sixes and found Carter drunk doing some stupid “poof” hand gesture, I should have known. I sat there listening to him rant about I have no idea what and watching him pound beers. He was a fucking mess, and I had no idea why.

When my phone rang, I was relieved. Ariel would give me an excuse to leave. I fished my phone from my pocket, and my eyebrows pinched together. It wasn’t Ariel.

“Deputy Christakos.”

“Kayson, I need you to come into the station. We have Genevieve Christell LaRoux in interrogation. I know that you’re on leave, but some of the shit she is saying, I think you should hear. It’s about Brandon Fagan. Once she realizes that she’s in deep shit, she’ll lawyer up. I want to try and keep her talking as long as she is willing, it might help your case and bring the DA down.”

“Shit. Okay. I’ll be right in.” I disconnected and dialed Ariel’s phone but it went straight to voice mail. Of course, she was with her girls. When her recorded voice stopped talking, I left my message “Hey, sweet, we had a major breakthrough in the case against Brandon. I’m running into the station, Gigi is there and wants to talk to me. I will hurry back to Sixes, let Carter entertain you, he’s on his way to one hell of a hangover. Love you.”

I found Gigi and Callum, one of the most respected detectives on the force, in an interrogation room. They both turned to me as I walked in, and I sat my stuff down, ready to take notes.

“Kayson, thanks for joining us. Can I have a word with you before we begin?”

“Sure.” I stood, and we headed to the office across the hallway.

“It appears, Brandon convinced her that he could help her win your heart, and in exchange, he wanted her to help him get Ariel away from you. Gigi claims that she was so desperate for your attention that she bought every word he said and agreed to help him.”

“If she told you all of this then why did I need to come in? Obviously, she’s willing to talk.”

“She says there’s more but will only tell you.”

“Okay. Let’s go find out what she has to say.”

I made a move and felt Callum’s arm on my shoulder. “Keep your cool, if you lose it then I’ll ask you to leave.”

I gave a nod and pulled the door open and took a seat across from Gigi.

“I’m sorry, Kayson, I really am. It was me and a few of the other girls that made the phone calls to internal affairs. Brandon promised that you wouldn’t get in trouble. He said that he’d make sure to sweep it all under the rug.”

“Can you tell us if you know this man?” Callum pulled out a photo from a folder of the guy that drugged Ariel’s drink. “Look closely?”

“I’ve seen him before, you know at Sixes, but I don’t personally know him. He was there the night Vivian made me leave.”

“Did you notice who he was talking to?” Callum asked as he flipped to a clean sheet in his notebook.

“Well, um, he met with, well . . . well, he met with Brandon, but that wasn’t at Sixes. That was during lunch.”

“How do you know this?”

I was interested in this question because it seemed as if Brandon wasn’t at work a lot anymore since he had time to follow Ariel around town.

Gigi’s face turned beet red.

“Miss LaRoux, I think it’s a little late to play innocent schoolgirl. How do you know that Brandon and this man met earlier in the day?” Callum waved the photo in front of her face.

“He came to Brandon’s house, okay? Brandon and I are just friends.”

“Friends with benefits?”

“Sometimes. We took care of each other’s needs while we waited for the two of them.” She pointed at me, but if she was going to say anything else, she didn’t because people started moving, hustling outside the window of the room, then Finn and Porter, two guys from SWAT opened the door to our room.

“We have a possible kidnapping from Sixes,” Porter said and my heart sank. “Kayson, I’m sorry, Ariel is missing.”

I wrapped my hands on the edge of the table, my knuckles turning white from lack of blood because I was gripping so tightly and I stared into Gigi’s eyes. “Where the fuck is she?”

“I don’t know? How would I know, I’ve been here with you the whole time?” The tiny smile lifting the corner of her mouth made my blood boil.

“That’s why you made them bring me down here. You and Brandon planned this whole thing out. You are just as sick and twisted as he is. You have two seconds to tell me where he took her. If anything happens to her, you will be tried right along with Fagan. You better start singing, you fucking canary.”

“I promise, I know nothing. I was just supposed to get you away from her, I swear, that’s all. Nothing else.” Gigi stood and reached for me. “Kayson, listen to me. I’m in love with you.”

“Don’t you fucking touch me. You are under arrest for falsifying information, obstructing justice, and for acting as an accomplice to kidnapping, which is a felony. And if you know where Fagan is, I suggest you tell us, now!”

“I don’t, I swear. Believe me.” Callum let out a snort. “Little late to ask for anyone to believe you. I think that ship has sailed.” He signaled for a deputy to come and read Gigi her rights before hauling her off to central processing.

I picked up my phone to call Ariel, only to realize I had missed two new incoming calls from her. I pressed the icon that would bring up the call information, and my heart started to jackhammer in my chest. The first one lasted a minute, and the second call, which came in five minutes later, lasted two minutes.

I yanked the door to the interrogation room open and yelled, “Stop!”

When the deputy escorting Gigi away in cuffs turned, and I met Gigi’s eyes, I knew. “Where is Ariel? I know that you answered my phone and spoke to her.” I could feel my blood boiling as I restrained myself from not breaking this woman’s neck.

She looked down at her feet.

“Get her the fuck out of here, see if you can find out anything.” I swiped my phone and searched for Piper’s number.

“What?” Her curt answer took me back.

“I’m heading down there, what do we know so far?”

“Kayson this place is a madhouse. I don’t think that is such a great idea.”

There was a commotion in the background and then Stella was yelling. “Tell him he’s a fucking asshole, this is all his fucking fault. If anything happens to her, I’m coming after him.”

The sound cut off as if Piper covered the phone with her hand, and I waited, growing more impatient by the second. Finally, Piper came back on the line.

“As you can tell, tempers are flaring. I know you want to come down here, but I think it may be best if you went home. You can check to see if she’s there.”

“Piper what the fuck is this about? I’ve been at the station. We just arrested Gigi. Callum interviewed her, but she insisted they bring me in and that she had something she would only tell me. The whole thing was a plan to separate us. Now stop playing games and tell me what you fucking know.”

“Okay. Hold on.” She covered the phone again, but I could clearly hear her telling Stella to calm the hell down and that she didn’t think I was having an affair with Gigi.

“What the fuck did you just say?” I screamed it loud enough that she heard me, and she gave me her damn attention back. I swore that I was making them all go on ADD meds. This was not the time for them to lose focus.

“Kayson, I’ll explain while you drive.” I listened to Piper rehash tonight’s events from Sixes up until the moment that Ariel went to the restroom and never came out. “We watched the surveillance videos, she came out of the restroom, returned to the main dining area, then made a one eighty and hightailed it out the back door. I’m not sure if she saw something . . .”

“Or someone.” I added for her, I disconnected from Piper and then dialed the first number I’d ever learned.

“Hello?”

“Pop, I need help, and I don’t have time to give you all the details. Ariel is missing, and I need you to go to the house and check it just to make sure that she’s not there.”

“Okay.” He hung up, and I knew at the core of my being that he would do everything that he could to help me find her.

I pulled into the Sixes parking lot and took a slow breath to take in the situation. I had to find Ariel, she was it for me. I picked up my phone and dialed Ariel one more time before entering the madhouse of people but it went straight to voice mail, again.

I fought back the anguish that wanted to overtake me, this couldn’t be happening to Ariel, my Ariel.

Walking in, Stella’s voice rang above the din, “I’m going to her apartment. What if she’s there? Has anyone gone to Bayhill and checked that motherfucker’s house?”

“Calm down.” I placed a hand on her shoulder and jerked back as she twirled, met my eyes, and then broke down. The badass bitch wasn’t so badass. “Shhh, we’re gonna find her. I’ll take you to her apartment.”

“I’m going, too.” Leo jumped up then pointed to Carter. “Someone needs to get him home, he’s plastered.” She shook Carter’s shoulder. “See?”

“I’ll watch him. You go and call me,” Vivian said.

Leo, Stella, and I piled back in my truck and as I pulled out of the parking lot my phone rang, I looked down and saw it was Piper, I pressed speaker.

“You’re on speaker,” I answered as a way of greeting.

“I’m standing next to Aiden and a call just came across his radio about a disturbance at Ariel’s complex, Coconut Bay apartments.”