Reid stared at a vending machine trying to figure out what to get. The airport only had one restaurant and it was upstairs. Getting back through security to grab a burger or something wasn’t going to happen, so whatever the machine had to offer would have to do until they could find something heartier. Sarah clearly had her mind preoccupied when she mentioned the lines, because the lines were nonexistent. There were people walking around, but it was nothing like the crowds they saw in other airports.
He couldn’t blame her for being a million miles away. He remembered the first time he met her and how far she stood off from everyone else. Meeting people wasn’t her thing, and he had a feeling she knew there was a small black box burning a hole in his duffel bag. He’d been careful about packing it while she wasn’t looking, but Sarah always seemed to know what was on his mind.
She probably even knew that his extra-long trip to pick them up Chinese two days after he proposed wasn’t because of the traffic jam he claimed tied him up. He’d relied on the fact that when he saw the ring, he’d know it was the one, so the trip was supposed to be a quick in and out. It took him a little longer than he thought to look through all the rings and find the perfect two-carat square diamond ring set in white gold with five smaller diamonds and five emeralds lining the band.
It was more than she’d want, only because she didn’t think she deserved flashy things, but at the same time, it was understated. The ring reminded Reid of Sarah, which is why he hoped he’d put it on her finger sometime during their little trip.
He was about to finally pick a bag of chips when he heard a loud bang that sounded like a car backfiring outside. Reid would’ve ignored it, as he heard the noise plenty of times in the city, but the screaming that followed instantly made him forget all about the chips and head back to the spot he was supposed to meet Sarah. He didn’t have a direct line of sight, which was stupid of him. Since they were miles away from their trouble in New York, he’d let his guard down.
With the bang sounding far enough away that it was outside, Reid wasn’t too worried about Sarah inside the airport, but the people running by their meeting spot without any sign of her red hair was cause for mild concern. He didn’t know how long she’d planned on being in the bathroom, but he’d expected her to be only a minute or two.
“Sarah,” he called out.
There weren’t hundreds of people running around him, but the few dozen of them made it a little difficult to see anything. He rounded the corner they were standing at and still saw no sign of her, but he did notice his mom running in his direction.
“What are you doing out here, Reid? There’s a crazy guy shooting at people out front. Come on,” his mom said as she grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away from his course.
He saw that his dad, youngest brother, Connor, and his sister, Kelsey, were right behind his mom. They all looked a little dazed as the rest of them ran by without stopping to acknowledge his presence. Reid didn’t have much of a chance to even register what they were wearing.
His mom continued to try to pull on him, but Reid busied himself looking for Sarah’s hair in the crowd. He was sure she wouldn’t have run by him without grabbing him.
“I need to find Sarah. She went to the bathroom and I don’t see her anywhere.”
Reid tried to keep the panic that he felt in his stomach from setting in too deep. Sarah surely was still in the bathroom. If she heard the shot, she would’ve thought it was a backfire like him and the screaming could’ve been muffled or something.
He pushed his mom over to the bathroom he noticed, assuming it was the one Sarah would’ve used because it was the closest one. The running around them was done, so it was just them in an empty hall.
“Go in there and see if Sarah’s in there. You can’t miss her, bright red hair and a purple summer dress that is totally impractical for the weather.”
Reid hadn’t said anything about that impracticality. She wanted to look nice when she met his parents, so he stood behind her on that. He’d also made sure to pack the biggest coat he could find of hers in his duffle bag.
“Red hair? Purple dress?”
His mom’s voice sounded a little distracted. Reid could understand it with all the excitement, but he needed her to focus. To try to accomplish that, he turned her to face him and shook her arms gently.
“Yes, she has red hair and is in a purple dress. If she’s in there, you won’t miss her.”
Reid opened the door and tried to nudge Renee inside, but she reached out and grabbed the edge of the door. It was hard to fight the growl welling inside of Reid, but he managed not to take his frustration out on his mother.
“Mom, please just go check on her. I haven’t heard any more shots and if you look out the front windows you’ll notice that security is all over the situation outside. I need to know that Sarah is okay. Sarah.” He finished off his words yelling.
He should’ve called for her from the get go, but he wanted someone to physically see her and verify she was in there. There was no immediate reply, so he hoped that meant she hadn’t noticed the bathroom and had walked off in another direction to find one. As preoccupied as she was sometimes, it seemed like something she’d do.
“She’s not in there, Reid,” Renee said softly. “You’re right that I can’t miss her, because I saw her outside with a guy pulling her along.”
“What?” Reid asked as the panic he’d been fighting let loose.
Dropping their bags on the floor, he didn’t stand around waiting for her to explain. Renee shouted after him as he ran towards the exit. What her words were meant little to him as he ran into a wall of security and the sound of sirens as police cars started appearing.
“Where is she?” Reid yelled at the first person he could find.
The portly airport security guard shook his head and shrugged. His eyes didn’t show an emotion Reid could quickly pick up on, other than maybe a little confusion. Whether that confusion was because of the crazy look Reid was sure marred his face or the lack of knowing what was going on, Reid couldn’t tell.
“Where’s who? Everyone cleared out from around here pretty quick, so if you’re missing someone, you need to look inside.”
“No, I was told she was last seen out here, possibly being kidnapped judging by the fact a guy was with her. Red hair, purple dress. Has anyone seen her?”
Reid made sure to say the words loud enough that the people around them could hear. The description meant something to the guy in front of him, judging by the slight spark Reid picked up. Sarah was easy to notice and hard to forget, but the flash wasn’t a guy remembering a woman he was interested in.
“You need to talk to Brian. He’s the one over there talking to that detective.”
The man pointed towards a guy in a suit talking to another guy in a suit. Neither of the suits looked impressive by any means, but Reid didn’t have time to judge tailoring choices.
“First, just tell me if the woman was hurt. I heard the shot, and I need to know whether it hit her.”
The police were there, but Reid didn’t see an ambulance. With all the noise from the sirens and conversations happening amongst the people standing outside, Reid didn’t know if one was on the way.
“You need to talk to Brian for specific information, but as far as I’ve heard, they haven’t found any one hit.”
Reid should’ve felt relief from that information. The dread didn’t dissipate since he still didn’t have Sarah standing in front of him assuring that everything was okay. He could’ve stood around and tried to get more out of the guy, but there was no indication the guy really knew what was going on.
Pushing the guard out of his way, he took long, determined steps to get over to the guy he hoped was running things. If Brian decided he needed to talk to someone else, Reid was afraid his usually mild temper would be nonexistent, because the scene playing in his head included him punching the next person who couldn’t give him information.
“Which one of you is Brian?”
The men were in the middle of a conversation and neither one of them seemed to care that someone wanted to interrupt it. Their voices weren’t loud enough for Reid to hear. He assumed that meant maybe they hadn’t heard him, so he yelled the question.
“Which one of you is Brian?”
The thin guy with a goatee facing him looked up at him and back down at the shorter man in front of him. At a closer distance, it was clear to Reid that goatee guy was the cop and the man with his back to him was Brian. Goatee guy had his hands on his hip, pushing his jacket to the side to reveal the gun and holster it usually covered.
Brian stepped to the side so he was could see both men. He gave Reid a quick glance and then looked back to the detective for a second before his eyes did a double take.
“You’re Reid King from the New York Aces.”
Reid hated being recognized, which in New York wasn’t much of an issue, but it happened every once in a while. Dealing with a fan wasn’t something he had time for, so he avoided the statement.
“I was told to talk to Brian about my fiancé. My mom said she was out here with some guy and since I’m standing here, there’s something wrong with that picture. She’s got red hair and is in a purple dress.”
He was tired of repeating the description. Every time he did, the person hearing it showed signs of recognition and no one seemed to be able to point somewhere to reveal Sarah.
“You know the woman.”
Reid’s eyes shifted to the detective who said the words. His brown eyes weren’t showing the almost sad compassion that showed up when Reid started asking about Sarah. They had a hint of determination that Reid felt he was looking for to get answers about her whereabouts.
“Look, can someone just tell me where she is? The guy over there said he thought no one had been shot, so I’d like to verify that with my own eyes.”
“Tell me more about this fiancé of yours.” The detective paused for a second to take out a card from his back pocket and handed it to Reid. “I’m sorry, was the name Reid King right? I’m Detective Fletcher and I’m currently trying to piece together exactly what happened here.”
Reid felt like tossing the business card on the cement, but he just curled it in his right hand as he made a fist. The mild temper thing felt like it was going to play out exactly how he thought it would.
“Where is Sarah? I think that’s the thing we should focus on first.”
The detective avoided the question for a second while he wrote something in a notebook he held in his right hand. Since no one was talking, Reid reached over to try to grab the notebook out of his hand. He figured there was something written down about what was going on and it was possibly the only chance he’d have to find information.
Pulling the notebook closer to his chest, the detective shook his head. “Not a smart move. I’m waiting to get confirmation from my partner who’s inside looking over some security tapes. I can confirm that the woman we’re aware of matching the description you gave was not shot while she was here at the airport. While we’re waiting for confirmation of the eye witness stories we’ve heard in the few minutes we’ve been here, why don’t you tell me more about Sarah.”
“While she was here at the airport?”
Reid said the words as he blinked his eyes and tried to process what they meant. His mom had said someone was pulling her away, but with the shot and all the security, Reid hadn’t considered Sarah would be gone. If that was the case, he wanted a car and a direction to head to try to follow her.
“Yes, as I’m sure you’ve realized, we’re working with the possibility that the person who fired the shot is no longer here and that he had a woman with him matching the description you provided.”
“You say that like there’s a chance it’s someone else. Do you see a lot of redheads around here in a purple dress?”
Reid held out his right arm as he pointed around the loading zone. With only people in uniforms and suits around, the effectiveness of the claim wasn’t great, but it was thirty degrees out, so the chances of someone wandering around in a dress that only hit them mid-thigh was highly unlikely.
“Which is exactly why I asked you to tell me more about Sarah. We’re trying to figure out who she was with and whether she was with him against her will.”
Raising his hands to his head, Reid squeezed his temples with his palms. He thought it was pretty clear there was no way Sarah would be with the guy if she could help it, but apparently Detective Fletcher needed that spelled out for him.
“There’s no doubt she was with him against her will. His name is Aaron Wilson, and if he’s got her and a gun, I’m don’t know what you’re still doing standing around here. You need to find her before it’s too late.”
There was a chance the kidnapping was random, but Reid knew it was that creep. He didn’t know how he knew they’d been in Duluth, but Trevor had said he’d followed them to an airport before. Evidently, he decided this time he was going on the trip as well.
“You know the guy?”
There was a little excitement in the detective’s words, but not enough urgency bubbling in him to get him running to a car. Reid looked around to see if anyone else looked official enough to try to light a fire under. There were uniform officers talking to some of the security guards, but no one seemed to shout they were the boss by looking at them. From watching crime shows with Sarah, he knew his best bet was probably the detective, but he didn’t like it.
“I assume it’s her ex that we’ve heard wasn’t taking their breakup well.”
The detective was back to taking notes, which was at least a sign he was doing something. It wasn’t the rush into action Reid thought the situation necessitated, but he hoped that was just because the guy was waiting for his partner. If the camera was in the right angle, they could hopefully get a plate number or something and get the whole city out looking for it.
“How long ago was this breakup. You said you were engaged, right?”
“I don’t think that’s relevant. If you take me to where the camera room is, I can tell you whether or not it’s him.”
Reid had used the fiancé term to make their connection closer even if she wasn’t wearing the ring yet. He had a feeling the cop wouldn’t share his certainty that it was only a matter of time before the statement was fact. Reid also got the feeling the two-month timeframe he asked about wouldn’t paint things in the right light.
“Why don’t you just start by describing him for me.”
The only reason Reid had a clue what Aaron looked like was because he’d sat with Sarah while she deleted old pictures off her phone. She’d kept them for a while when she was still trying to decide whether Reid was messing around with her, but they finally sat down with a bottle of wine to keep them company while she scrolled through every one of them and hit delete.
“He looks like a douchebag. Is that a good enough description?” Reid didn’t figure it was, so he continued even though he thought his idea of looking at whatever footage they had was a better use of his time. “He’s got kind of medium brown hair that he usually styles on the top of his head and brown eyes that make you feel like the devil is staring at you if you look into them.”
“And his general size? Is he as big as you are?”
Fletcher raised an eyebrow when Reid had mentioned the devil. He thought it was the most telling description. All they had to find was the guy who looked like he had no soul and probably ate small children for breakfast, and they’d find him.
“I haven’t met him in person.”
Reid left off the obviously. If he would’ve had a chance to meet the little prick, Aaron wouldn’t have taken off with Sarah because he’d still be in a hospital bed somewhere.
“I get the sense that he’s about my height, but he’s smaller as far as everything else.”
The word everything was said with emphasis. At that point it was petty to imply Aaron had a small dick, but Reid didn’t care.
“And you’re sure this didn’t have anything to do with you being a hockey player? You still haven’t confirmed whether Brian was right about your name, but I’m assuming what I saw was a little dislike from being recognized and not an instant hatred of Brian.”
At least the guy was somewhat observant, and apparently knew his hockey teams, even if Reid thought he was an idiot. Brian hadn’t said a word since the initial question and made no attempt to interrupt since his name was brought up.
“Do a lot of hockey players’ fiancés get kidnapped?” Reid shook his head after asking the rhetorical question. “My profession has nothing to do with Sarah getting yanked out of here.”
“Okay, I have more questions for you, but first I need to go talk to my partner. Hang tight for a second.”
Reid looked behind him to where Fletcher’s eyes had zeroed in. He saw another guy in a suit dressed a little classier than the two men standing with him. That simply meant his light blue button down under the jacket looked crisper than the other two’s white shirts.
Detective Fletcher didn’t give Reid a chance to protest being brushed off before he weaved around him. Reid hoped he heard the growl following his footsteps. He looked over to Brian for a second and sighed. Trailing the detective seemed like the best way to get information on where he should look for Sarah, so he hurried to tail him.