13

Lee waited for Lo to come out of the duplex for about thirty minutes. He had already sent the location to Ty when he had parked a few houses away but now, he was getting suspicious. He wasn’t sure what it was she was doing but he didn’t like what he saw about the guy that opened the door. For some reason, he perceived danger and called Ty immediately.
“She’s been in there for thirty minutes. Is whatever she’s meant to be doing there supposed to take that long?”
“No,” Ty replied gruffly.
“That means she’s been in there way too long. Get over here, man.”
“I’m parked a few houses away from you. I came immediately you sent me your location.”
Lee couldn’t say he was surprised at all, “I suggest we knock on the door and say we know Lo is in there. Her car is still parked out front anyway.”
Ty didn’t answer but hung up. A few seconds later, Lee saw him at his car window and got out. Together, they walked to the front door and Lee knocked. After half a minute of complete silence, they heard footsteps and the door was yanked open by Ben who was scowling at them like he wanted to squash their little cockroach faces.
“What the fuck do you want?” he asked, sounding annoyed.
Lee opened his mouth to speak but Ty beat him to it, “Where’s Lo?”
Lee could hear the time bomb ticking in Ty’s head. Only two people could trigger this kind of reaction in Ty: Gem and Lo. Lee knew what it would feel like to be on the receiving end of Ty’s protective wrath and it definitely wasn’t an experience he wanted to relive.
All Ty could see was red. Through the cloudy haze of anger, he could make out Ben’s features just barely and the rest of the room was almost impossible to make out. He knew he his senses had to be in tip top shape if he was going to get Lo away from these psycho men. He still didn’t understand why she had decided to come on her own in the first place. Part of his anger was definitely directed at her for not letting him follow her here. Now he was going to have to pry her away from this psychotic duo.
Carefully and with very much effort, Ty concentrated on his breathing and slowly felt himself calming down. His vision was becoming clear again and his sensed returned.
The house smelled terrible and so did Ben. Ty was sure he saw a rat scurry past the clustered kitchen table. These men clearly hadn’t heard of hygiene in a very long time. No wonder they wanted Lo to just hand them money. They were a lazy pair of assholes.
“She’s not here,” Ben replied to Ty’s question.
This time, Lee answered, “Don’t fucking lie. I saw her come in here.”
Ben shrugged, “Then you must’ve seen her leave too.”
“No,” Lee said, trying to study Ben, “she didn’t leave.”
“Yes, she did,” Ben said, “you’re welcome to come inside and have a look for yourselves.”
Before Ben could finish his sentence, Ty had shouldered past him, which was easy considering he was almost twice as broad as the older man, and was already looking around the filthy living room and calling Lo’s name.
As Lee had expected, there was no answer.
They went upstairs and checked around but still, they found no smile of Lo, not even the smell of her perfume. However, Ty didn’t think there was any perfume that could permeate the horrible smell of Ben’s house.
When they got back downstairs, Ben was lounging on the sofa with a bottle of beer, waiting for them. It was just then that Ty realized that he hadn’t seen Lo.
“Where’s Lo?” he asked, trying not to allow the fear of losing Lo show in his speech.
“He went to work this morning,” Ben replied.
“But you weren’t the one that opened the door for Lo when she got here,” Lee pointed out. He hadn’t seen Lo before but he definitely knew it wasn’t Ben who had led Lo over the threshold.
Ben smiled and shrugged. At that point, Ty snapped and in a second, he had Ben on the wall held by the scruff of his neck.
“DO YOU THINK I’M FUCKING PLAYING WITH YOU?” he screamed. He could hear his heart beating in his ears. He was so fucking scared for Lo and he hated the fact that Ben was making it so difficult for him to do anything about it. He just wanted to take his woman and go home.
Ben didn’t even look fazed, “Set me down or I'm calling the police.”
“And what are the police going to think when they see Lo’s car outside?” Lee asked from beside Ty.
Ben looked directly into Ty’s eyes with no remorse whatsoever and asked, “What car?”
Seeing the colour drain out of Ty’s face, Lee ran to the door and snatched it open.
Lo’s car which had been there when they had entered the house was nowhere to be seen.
“What the fuck?” Lee whispered but Ty didn’t hear him. All he knew was that he needed to punch something.
Of course, Ben’s face just happened to be the closest thing to him. He heard a satisfying crunch as his fist met Ben’s face and dug in. Ty almost smiled. Almost.
Ben wheezed and spat out a bloody tooth while blood ran from his torn lip. Ty was extremely tempted to give him many more injuries but Lee put a hand on his shoulder, silently cautioning him. Slowly, Ty dropped the smaller man.
They wouldn’t get anyway with brutality, even though Ty wanted to fuck some shit up so badly, he could feel his hands trembling and tears gathering in his eyes. Before either Ben or Lee could see his weakness, he turned and walked out of the house in ground-eating steps.
Lee had to sprint to catch up with Ty but once he did, he caught onto him and jerked him around. They were already very close to Lee’s car. Ty’s eyes were red and harbored a dark look which Lee recognized as despair. If anybody had ever doubted Ty’s love for Lo, they surely wouldn’t after seeing this.
“Call JT, Tye,” Lee advised, knowing Ty probably wasn’t thinking at that moment, “call him now and have him get some men to watch over the house. Give him Lo’s car details so he can have men looking for her car too. Have him track her phone. But emphasize that he has men watching this house around the clock. They can slip up at any time and we don’t want to miss it.”
Ty couldn’t do anything but nod knowing Lee’s advice was the best course of action to take. JT was a retired police officer who now worked as Ty’s private detective. He was the best Ty had ever seen and he knew that if anybody could find Lo, it would be JT.
“Come, let’s call him in my car.”
They called JT, gave him the necessary details of the situation and with Lo’s name, he was able to retrieve her car details and plate number, along with her cell phone IMEI.
“Just don’t worry about it, son,” he said assuringly, “I’ll find your lady.”
“Thank you, JT,” Ty replied.
“Just doing my job.”
The call ended and Ty stayed silent for a while before speaking up, “I’m going home, Lee. I have to digest everything that’s happened in the past 2 hours.”
“I get it, man. It’s a lot,” Lee replied, actually understanding.
Ty left and walked to his car. Lee waited for him to drive off before driving off behind him.

Getting home was the most heart breaking thing that Ty could remember ever happening to him. Gem, knowing how he had rushed out when Lee had sent his location, was waiting for him in the parlour. When he came in, she ran up to him and held both his arms with her hands. She didn’t know what was going on but she knew her big brother well enough to know that something was terribly wrong. She looked up at him was a questioning expression on her face.
“Lo’s been kidnapped,” he said bluntly.
“What?” Gem gasped, “but she left here like two hours ago. Do you have any idea who took her? Are they demanding ransom or something?”
“Nope. Just a bunch of sick fucks. I have an idea of where she is but they’ve hidden her. We will have to proceed with caution. But I’ve called JT.”
“Good. JT will know what to do,” Gem said, rubbing his hands comfortingly, “but I'm very sure you’re not comfortable just watching and waiting right?”
Ty didn’t answer but Gem could see the pained look in his eyes. She knew how much her brother hated feeling helpless, like he couldn’t do anything. She knew how much it must kill him not to have Lo with him, knowing she was in danger and there was nothing he could do about it.
Unable to bear the sympathy in Gem’s big eyes for a moment longer, Ty gently pulled her hands off his arms and walked past her, heading towards his room. Memories seemed determined to haunt him as he walked through his house, remembering the various times he and Lo had spent there; laughing, playing, arguing, just having a good time with each other. He remembered the day she had stubbed her toe and he had fussed like an old nanny. Of course, she had made fun of him and told him she was fine. A sad smile came to his face when he remembered the look on her beautiful face and the twinkle in her eyes as she laughed at him; skin glowing and cheeks flushed.
She was meant to be here with him right now, touching, kissing, loving. But instead, she was in a place he couldn’t reach and it shattered his heart to imagine the horrible things being done to her.
His guess was that they had hidden her somewhere in the house and Lou had driven her car away when he and Lee where searching the house. Being upstairs and busy, they wouldn’t have heard the engine of Lo’s almost silent Audi.
“I promise you, Lo,” he whispered while laying on his bed that night, “I’ll find you. Even if I have to turn the Earth off its axis to do so.”
He couldn’t sleep that night. And many nights after that.