Page 76 of Playing Hard to Get

Curling into a ball, I pressed my palms to my eyes. Tried to wipe those images out of my mind. James, bleeding to death before my eyes. And Viv. Sweet Lord, I couldn't let that happen to her. Couldn't let the world take her away from me, too.

I dragged myself out of bed and into my jeans. Found a clean t-shirt in one of the drawers Viv let me have in her dresser. I brushed my teeth and scrubbed my face with a washcloth, trying to bring some life back into my tired body. Then I took one last look around before I stepped out of Vivian’s condo and headed across the building to Vinny’s.

The door was unlocked when I got there. I pushed inside and yelled out, “Please tell me you found her.”

Then I froze. Two sets of eyes stared back at me. Vinny's eyes were wide, though they looked as sick and burdened as mine.

It was the other set that stopped me in my tracks.

“Found who?” Frankie asked. She did a double take when she saw me, eyes going wide and back straightening before she crossed the living room to where I stood, stuck in my place by the door. “Mitch, what happened? You look like shit.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled as she threw her arms around my neck and dragged me down into a tight embrace.

Frankie pulled back. “What happened?”

I shook my head, glanced at Vinny before I responded. “Bad night.”

I never told Frankie of all the bad that went down when I was in the Marines. Never went into the nightmares that haunted me. But I always got the feeling she knew something happened, even though she never pushed. Never dug into anything I wasn't willing to say.

The way she looked at me now damn near confirmed my suspicions. With that sad, sad smile and the gentle squeeze of her hand on my forearm. She gave me another hug, just as tight, holding me twice as long. When she pulled back again, she ran her hand down my arm and tilted her head up to me.

“Who you trying to find?”

Wasn’t sure if it was because it took too long for me to find an answer, or if it was the glance I threw at Vinny. Suspicion seeped into that hazel gaze. Frankie's eyes swept between me and her cousin. She turned to face Vinny head on, staring up at him and making him shrink back a step.

“What's going on, Vinny?”

His eyes flicked to mine momentarily before he looked at Frankie. “I've got something you’ll both want to see.”

We followed Vinny into his spare bedroom and stood behind him as he adjusted one of his screens. With a flick of his finger on the mouse, a video started playing.

The quality was poor, grainy, but even if I didn't know what I was looking at, I'd recognize Vivian. She was at a table in a bar, one hand on her drink and the other on her phone. The image fast forwarded. Vivian didn't move from her spot. Vinny slowed the video down as a tall blond man crossed the bar and took a seat at her table.

“What is this?” Frankie asked. “You spying on your sister now? Is this the guy she's seeing?” Her tone was light and airy, but she didn't push when neither of us responded.

We watched in silence as the blond talked with Viv. Watched her look down at her phone. Watched as he flagged down a waitress. As she let him pay, took a glass from him and put it to her lips.

Frankie's hand reached out and clasped Vinny's shoulder in front of me. But no one said a thing as the guy grabbed Viv’s phone out of her hand and it fell to the floor. Or as he threw her arm over his shoulder, his arm around her waist, and led her out of the bar.

“Did he just…” Frankie’s wide eyes glanced between me and Vinny. “When… Vinny, what’s going on?”

Vinny turned to face us, his skin a shade of green. “This was New York, five days ago.”

The tremble in Frankie's voice made my knees go weak. “He slipped something in her drink, didn't he? When he paid the waitress and picked up her glass?”

“I'm pretty sure of it.”

“Oh my God.” Frankie paced the length of the room, and it was all I could do to not fall to the floor. “It's been five days? And nobody knew? God, Vivian!”

Vinny pushed back his chair and offered it to me, settled me into it, before turning to the computer. “We found a traffic cam right down the street.” Vinny's hands raced across the keyboard and screens popped up and disappeared quicker than my eyes could process. “Butterman was able to get a clean image of the guy before he loaded Viv into an old-model minivan. I'm running it through facial rec now, and Butterman’s working on tracking the van to see where he went.”

A picture of the van popped up on the screen, followed by a close-up of the blond’s face, followed by an image of the guy pushing Viv inside the van.

“Wait, go back.”

Frankie rushed over to the desk as Vinny pulled up the close-up. Her hands clutched at her mouth as she gasped. “Oh God, no!”

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