What if Addy had problems with me doing that? What if she thought I wasn’t serious about her? What if she thought I was embarrassed by her?
I’d been a total dick doing it that way, but I’d swear to any entity, any historical Greek god, any spirit, any statue, literally anything that I was going to change it as soon as she got back.
“Dexter’s going to come and help,” Elijah told us as he hung up the phone, talking about our brother Jesse.
Elijah was the eldest, but Jesse—aka Dexter because we used to tease him the character from the series Dexter was based on him—was two years younger than him and serious as fuck about everything.
Hearing a beep, I watched as Jackson looked at his phone screen and how his expression changed as he read the text. “Welp, the good news just keeps on coming. Webb is forty minutes away, and apparently, Dex let him know what’s going on, so he’s coming, too.”
Nothing like throwing Addy in at the deep end. I’d only just been kicking my ass for not introducing her to my family, and when we found her, she’d be meeting three of my brothers. Given that she’d already met Elijah, that only left Wes and my parents.
Straightening up from his squat, Jackson focused on Remy. “What have we got so far?”
Not taking his eyes off his computer screen, Remy filled him in. “Adrienne was meant to be having a video meeting with the orchestral conductor for the song she’s writing for an animated movie this morning. Her phone and Apple watch are still at Marcus’s place, and her Jeep—a black Rubicon—is parked at her grandmother’s house at the end of the dirt road up to the ranch.
“Addy didn’t drive here last night, one of the hands, Santana, gave her a ride, so her vehicle being there is mainly irrelevant, other than it tells us she isn’t out driving around in it.”
Something hit me as he filled them in on the shit we’d encountered on the ranch and that Marni was the only problematic ranch hand.
“Have you managed to find the missing security camera clips again?”
Nodding, he glanced up at Jackson. “Previously, we’ve had some issues that coincided with footage being deleted. Our security cameras capture twenty-five-second recordings once something passes in front of the sensors, and while I managed to retrieve them, they never showed us anything specific.
“We do have a recording of Marni coming into the office and looking at paperwork, though, the day before we realized that some slides and reports had been tampered with that could have resulted in the loss of some lucrative contracts.”
Jackson walked around the back of Remy’s desk to stand next to him in front of the computer, both of them discussing the footage and watching through the clips together.
“Sadie’s back at the house with Bronte, Toby, Sasha, and Santana. She says she’ll keep us updated if Addy’s phone rings or she turns up,” Elijah told us, getting nods of acknowledgment from Remy and Jackson.
Finally, they both sighed.
“There’s jack shit on them, so why were they deleted?” Jackson growled, pushing his fingers through his hair.
“However she disappeared wasn’t caught by our cameras,” Remy muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “That means she wasn’t on our land when it happened.” Focusing on me, he asked, “Does Mrs. V have any cameras at her place?”
Standing up so fast my chair hit the wall, I began walking for the door. “Let’s go and find out.”
The ordinarily unflappable Mrs. Valtolina was a mess.
“She’s already gone through so much after that evil woman put those drugs in her drink,” she croaked, dabbing at her eyes with a hanky. “What could she possibly have done for someone to steal her?”
“That’s what we don’t know and are trying to find out. Do you have any security cameras around your house?” Remy asked her, looking around us.
I would have, but I was numb. As we’d driven down here, me on my Harley, Remy in his SUV, Elijah in his, and Jackson in his truck, I’d been holding onto the hope that we’d find her with a sprained ankle or lost in the moment as she thought up a new song in her mind. When none of us saw anything, I had to accept the brutal truth—Adrienne, my thunder, was lost.
We’d decided to take our own vehicles before we’d left the ranch so that we could split up and cover more area if need be. My choice to bring my bike was because I was feeling breathless and didn’t think I could handle being in an enclosed space at that moment, and also because I was hoping the noise from the engine would wake her up if she’d fallen and knocked herself out.
While Remy and Mrs. V talked, I thought about my family and the stuff they’d been through over the years.