Chapter Twenty Seven

Carson

 

My phone was buzzing in my pocket and I pulled my bike over to the side of the road. It was Tinder’s. A bad feeling flashed through my stomach but I answered anyway.

 

“Hello?” It was hard to hear with all of the highway noise in the background. “Hello?”

 

“Hey, Carson,” I heard the other security guard say. “Hey, man, there’s been a robbery.”

 

My heart sank. Caroline. I’m sorry. I was too late. “Okay,” I said. “What do you need? Do you need me to come in?”

 

“Yeah, do you mind?”

 

“I’ll be there soon,” I said shortly. Getting back on my bike, I pointed it towards Tinder’s and sped as fast as I could. All I could think about was Caroline. Why had she done it? Why hadn’t she just fucking called me? A horrible thought ran through my head: what if Lucas was keeping her prisoner so she couldn’t reach out to anyone? The idea was too horrible to comprehend. Gritting my teeth, I pushed my bike faster and faster until the shopping center came into sight. It was partially a relief and partially something I was dreading. I didn’t want to be confronted with evidence about Caroline, but it was about to happen anyway.

 

Fuck, I thought. Why do things like this always have to happen?

 

The security guard wasn’t happy to see me. “Hey,” he said shortly. “Thanks for coming out. Do you want to see the footage?”

 

I nodded. “I’d better,” I told him. “Thanks, man.”

 

“No problem,” the guard said. “I don’t know how they managed to do it. I was outside the whole time, and I didn’t see anything.”

 

I rolled my eyes. “I should have come in today,” I said after a beat. “I knew something bad was going to happen.”

 

The other guard looked at me with his eyes narrowed. “Wait, you knew? How come you didn’t say anything?”

 

“It was an expression,” I said gruffly. “I was joking.”

 

The guard led me wordlessly inside the store. The place was crawling with cops. Aside from a case being opened towards the back of the store, I couldn’t see that anything was missing.

 

“Sir, were you present at the time of the robbery?” One of the cops walked up to me and took out his notepad. “Can I collect a statement from you?”

 

“I just work here,” I told him. “I had nothing to do with it. I got a call telling me there had been a robbery, and I wanted to come down here to check it out.”

 

The cop nodded, as if I’d just given him something valuable. He scribbled something down on the notepad and nodded again. “Thanks,” he said. “Can I get your name?”

 

“Uh, yeah, it’s Carson Dover,” I said, glancing around. “Do you know how bad the robbery is? It doesn’t look like they took very much.”

 

“The safe is cleaned out,” the cop said. He gave a low whistle through his teeth. “I know, I couldn’t believe it either,” he said. “But I guess they worked pretty fast.”

 

In the back of the store, one of the sales associates was crying. She was a cute girl, young, with red hair that made me think of Caroline. She looked up at me and burst into a new wave of fresh sobs.

 

“It’s all my fault,” she cried. “I was helping them! Then Will told me that I had to go take my lunch break! I was mad because I thought they were going to get an engagement ring, and I really wanted the commission!”

 

“Oh, fuck,” I said. “Do you have the security tapes? Can I watch?”

 

The girl stood up and scurried off to a cabinet. She returned with a tape. “There’s a TV in the break room,” she said. “Come with me.”

 

Some of the cops were sitting in front of the television, smoking cigarettes. When they saw the girl was carrying the tape, they tried to shoo me out of the room.

 

“No, guys, I work here,” I explained. “I’m a security guard. I was off today, but I got a call informing me of the robbery.”

 

The cops shot suspicious looks at each other. “Fine, stay,” one of them said after a beat. “Anything you can share with us, the better,” he told me. “So pay close attention.”

 

I closed my eyes and thought briefly. I knew that I had to help Caroline, but that it would probably wind up risking my own safety, especially if I got in a fight with Lucas. And after finding out all that he was capable of, I wasn’t sure that I’d be ready to let him go down without a fight. Plus, he was obviously insane. I couldn’t believe that he’d be willing to just let everything go. After all, he’d tricked Caroline into helping him somehow. I still couldn’t believe that she’d done it! I was angry with her for not calling me and reaching out; it was as if our fight from the other night had vanished. Angrily, I balled my hands into fists at my sides.

 

“Go ahead and play the tape,” I said.

 

The girl wiped tears away from her eyes and stuck the tape into the VCR. It whirred for a minute, making the cops look anxious, but eventually a grainy black-and-white window showed up. There were four cameras in the store, each pointed in a different direction. In one camera, I watched as the girl sped up the tape to just before noon.

 

“They came in around eleven thirty,” she said softly. “I always go to lunch at noon, but it was such a slow day that I figured I could help them.”

 

“It’s fine,” one of the officers said gruffly. “Keep playing the tape.”

 

The girl hit play and I leaned in close. Caroline, looking fabulous and a little nervous, walked into the store with Lucas. He reached out and took her hand just as they opened the door. The security guard didn’t even look twice. With fury, I watched as Lucas slid his hand down Caroline’s back and groped her ass. Rage filled me and my fists got tighter at my sides.

 

“They’re really enjoying themselves,” one of the cops said. He snickered. “Maybe this is how they like to role-play.”

 

“Shut up,” one of the other cops muttered. “This guy’s a sick fuck. He looks like someone who’s been wanted for over a year now.”

 

I rolled my eyes. “And you couldn’t keep a closer eye on him than that?”

 

“It doesn’t work like that,” one of the cops said snidely. “Shut up so I can pay attention.”

 

The video didn’t have sound, but we all watched as Lucas kissed Caroline, shoving his tongue into her mouth. I could tell by the way her body was tense and nervous that she wasn’t enjoying it, and I burned with hot rage. I’d wanted to hurt Lucas before, but now I wanted to tear him limb from limb. Watching him exploit Caroline in the grossest manner possible brought an animalistic side out of me that I hadn’t felt in months. This was war.

 

“That little couple’s really being hot with each other,” the cop said. “This is a pretty fuckin’ unusual case.” The rest of them snickered and I had to shut my eyes to avoid looking. I knew that if I had to watch Lucas molest my Caroline for another second, I’d fly into a rage and break everything—and everyone—in the room. Finally, I opened my eyes and watched Lucas and Caroline chatting with the female associate. She pulled out a tray of rings from the shelf, and Caroline tried on one.

 

“They said they were engaged,” the girl said in a shaky voice. “She kept calling him Lucas. And he kept talking about how he’d finally settled down with her. He kept calling her a little minx, whatever that is. It was kind of weird,” she admitted. Her forehead creased. “And they both flirted with me. He asked if I had a boyfriend and told me that if they weren’t getting married, they’d wanna take me home with them.” She sniffled. “It sounds so gross now, I feel so stupid!” she wailed. “I had no idea what they were up to, I thought they were really in love!”

 

One of the cops eyed her darkly. “Definitely some kind of weird sexualization,” he said. “Maybe kind of a sex crime later, maybe this couple commits a robbery and then gets off to it afterwards.”

 

“I think it’s pretty obvious that woman is frightened,” I said, trying to make my voice plain. “I think it’s clear she’s coerced, or not there because of her own free will.”

 

“She looks pretty excited to me,” one of the cops mentioned. “Check out that grin on her face!” He pointed to the screen. “She’s totally getting into it,” he said, making a note on his pad.

 

Panic clanged through my body, and I shook my head. I was careful to protect Caroline, but I didn’t want to give away too much information. It was only a matter of time before the other sales associate recognized her, and then the cops would realize that I’d been working before when she came in alone. I knew that I had to be subtle, but also work as quickly as I could.

 

“She’s definitely faking it,” I said. “Look at her arm and how she keeps twitching. She keeps making all of these unconscious little gestures, you know, like how people act when they’re lying. Look, she keeps touching her chin!” I said, pointing to the screen. One of the cops hit pause. “She’s definitely uncomfortable,” I added. “Only liars touch their chin. And they don’t look you in the eye either, they always look slightly above your head.”

 

“She was looking at me funny,” the girl broke in. “I wanted to ask her if there was something wrong with my hair.”

 

“See,” I said, pointing to the girl. “She saw it. That woman was obviously dragged to the store against her will.”

 

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” the girl said, scrunching up her nose. “She did seem like she wanted to be here.”

 

“We’ll decide that,” the first cop said, breaking in. He glared at me. “I think you’ve seen enough,” he said. “Time for you to go.”

 

I got up from the table and sighed. I really had my work cut out for me, but I was going to act fast.