Chapter 152: [Bonus Chapter] Catch You Later

- LUCIANO - 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

After doing a quick sweep of the banquet room and the balcony to make sure no one looks particularly suspicious, I start down one of the hallways. If someone was here looking for Raya, chances are they saw her leave and left themselves. But who knows? It’s worth a shot.

I catch sight of a very familiar ass swaying right in front of me, and my heart starts fluttering wildly. FLUTTERING. I can feel it in my throat, and I have to clear it to make sure there isn’t actually something lodged in there.

Rory turns and rolls her eyes. "Are you actually following me now?"

"No, but I can if you want me to," I say suavely—or at least I think I do. All the while my heart is apparently trying to exit this body of mine and maybe just leap right into her hands. I can’t be sure.

What the hell is wrong with me? She’s just a woman like any other woman. But seeing her like this, alone in the hallway, has me imagining all kinds of scenarios where we slip into one of these rooms and I start making vows. Delicious, pleasure-inducing vows.

"No thanks," she says, but there is a little twitch of her lips that threatens a smile.

"Maybe another time then."

Then she does smile, and it floods me with something I’ve never experienced before. God, this woman is going to ruin me for any other women after her.

"Catch you later, Luci," she says with a wink, delivering that line back to me.

She probably thinks the nickname is an insult, but I couldn’t hate anything coming out of that mouth of hers.

"I hope so," I say, biting my bottom lip as I shamelessly let my eyes trail down her curves.

The reply makes her laugh, and then she pushes into the women’s room and out of view.

Once she disappears, I have to run a hand over my face and collect myself. What in the actual fuck. Am I losing it? Already? At my age? I’ve killed people, and my heart has never reacted this way. In fact, I’ve often wondered if I even have a heart. Apparently it was waiting until now to make itself known.

After looking through room after room, I end up coming full circle to where everyone is gathered for the reception.

’No luck,’ I type out to Dex.

"We’re probably going to get going," Ma says, walking up with my father right behind. "I haven’t seen Dex for some time now."

"He texted me and said he left with Raya," I tell her, eyes straying in the hopes of seeing the girl who seems to be my new obsession.

"I’m glad Dex has her," Ma says. "And I’m glad you two boys are talking more."

"Yeah, me too." I give her a smile. "I’ll catch up with you two later."

Ma kisses me on the cheek and Pa nods in his usual silent way before they both leave.

Will is sitting alone at the table. When he sees me looking his way, he gets up and grabs something off of Rory’s chair.

"Have you seen my daughter?" He asks, brows tented in concern. It takes me a moment to realize that there’s also a flash of accusation there as well.

"Which one? Raya left with Dex."

"No, I know. I mean Lorelei. She left her purse to go to the restroom, but she hasn’t been back."

I glance down at the purse he’s holding and then toward the hallway where I saw her. It’s been at least twenty minutes since I looked through all the rooms and came back. Dark, insidious tendrils of fear start wrapping themselves around my lungs, and I quickly find myself back in the hallway where I last saw her—Will following close behind.

No fucking way did anything happen to Rory. No one was here for her. Right?

I knock on the women’s restroom door and then push it open. No one. I push every stall door open just to make sure, and in the last one there’s a black heel on the floor—one she was wearing. I pick it up to see that the actual heel is busted on it.

No. No, no, no, no!

I hand the heel to Will and rush out of the room, pushing into every other room in the hall that I’ve already checked and wondering when in the hell he would have taken her without me noticing. I was right here the whole time.

And how did he do it quietly? Rory would not have gone quietly. I may not know her that well, but I sure as hell know that much.

I pull my phone out and call Dex.

"Yeah?" He answers.

"He got Rory," I say, my voice sounding entirely unlike itself. Usually it’s cold or sarcastic. But it never sounds like this—scared. Panicked. And that terrifies me more.

"What?"

"You heard me. Rory is fucking gone. She left her purse behind. There’s a heel in the women’s room that’s broken."

"Why would anyone come after Rory?" He asks.

"What?!" It sounds like Raya in the background.

I pull the phone away from my ear and jog to the back door that Dex saw open. It’s shut now. Was it shut before when I saw it?

"Luci!" I can hear the tinny sound of Dex’s voice shouting through the phone in my hand.

"Fuck, Dex. I know it in my gut. Maybe he thought she was Raya. Don’t they have cameras here?"

I turn to check out the corners of the hallway. Will is just behind me, turning to follow my line of sight.

"Yeah, they should. We’ll be right there," Dex says.

"What happened to her?" Will asks, and my hands curl into fists after hanging up with Dex.

"I don’t know. We’re wondering if it wasn’t Raya’s stalker. Fuck!"

I push out of the back door and look for any clues. After pacing one way and then the other, I notice something black in the perfectly mown grass off near a tree, and I jog that way. It’s the other heel—this one not broken. It must have fallen off.

Somehow he got her unconscious, carried her to a car, and made a getaway.

This is my fault. This should have never happened when I was here to prevent it. If anything happens to her, there is going to be hell to pay. There already is. Just wait until I find him.

"Just wait until I fucking find him," I growl aloud, committing the promise to the air as I jog the rest of the way to the long drive where all the cars are parked.

But they’re gone. They’re long gone, and now I find myself doing something I haven’t done in a very long time. Praying.