Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(118)

Where?

Why?

“Was there any sign of a struggle? Blood?” I demanded.

“There was a trace amount of blood,” he admitted.

“Oh, shit.” I gulped, trying not to throw up. “And you have no idea where she is?”

His eyes narrowed. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out right now, Mr. Gamble.”

Oh. Right. The questioning. I suddenly needed to get this out of the way so I could go look for her. “We didn’t fight,” I repeated. “We argued with her dad, but Julianna and I didn’t argue with each other. Not at all. We were a united front.”

Detective Hall nodded. “What did you argue about with her dad then?”

I shifted impatiently and glanced toward the door. “Didn’t he tell you?”

“I’d like to hear it from your point of view.”

Detective Wilson returned with the water, and I took a gulp because it felt as if I’d been swallowing shards of glass. As I sat the Styrofoam cup down, I said, “He doesn’t like me. Well, that can’t be true. He doesn’t even know me. We just met last night. I should’ve said he doesn’t approve of me. He basically told Juli he’d cut her off if she stayed with me.”

Detective Hall glanced at my black eye. “Why doesn’t he approve of you?”

I shrugged. “As far as I can tell he doesn’t want a white boy dating his daughter.”

That answer seemed to surprise the two, but they didn’t comment. Instead, Hall looked at my eye again. “Where’d you get the shiner?”

I shook my head, growing irritated because that was so not important and explaining it was a huge waste of time. “Just some altercation with a drunk guy on the sidewalk over in Aggie Ville. That has nothing to do with this at all.”

“Miss Radcliffe wasn’t involved?”

“Well…” I scratched my ear. “Yeah, but…that dude was a complete stranger. He—”

“What happened?”

I ran through the events of that night, giving them Cliff Notes. “We both gave a statement to the officer that night. And that guy didn’t know us from Adam. He was just some idiot drunk stranger bugging people walking by, and he went to jail for it.”

“We’ll look into it,” Detective Hall murmured as he jotted down some notes. “So…you last saw Miss Radcliffe in her apartment at approximately eight this morning. You two parted on good terms and hadn’t argued recently. Do you know anyone who might want to do her any harm?”

I began to shake my head before I remembered, “Yes! Her ex, Shaun.”

I explained to him Julianna’s short marriage and why she told me she’d divorced him, then went on about how he’d been bothering her and how I had almost talked her into coming here to file a restraining order against him.

“But you never came in?” Detective Hall wondered.

“No.” And I was probably going to hate myself for that for a very long time, too. I told them about how our families had waylaid us and then how Tyla had needed moral support. “I probably would’ve made her come in today after classes, though.”

Would’ve.

I hated saying that.

I still would. Just as soon as I found her.

The detectives asked me a handful more questions. By the time they walked me out of the interview room, Noel, Brandt, and Caroline had shown up to wait on me with Aspen.

My two sisters immediately converged to yank me into a hug. I hugged them back, needing their support.

“She’s missing,” I told them in a hollow voice, glancing with worry toward my two brothers. “They found her keys and broken phone laying on the ground outside her car with her driver’s side door hanging all the way open, and she’s just… She’s gone. She didn’t make it to class. No one knows where she is. They…” I shook my head, trying to wrap my head around all this. “I think they thought I took her.”

“Of course you didn’t take her,” Caroline said, rolling her eyes.

“But they had to ask,” Aspen returned logically.

“They don’t have any leads at all?” Brandt wanted to know.

Noel just studied me with watchful eyes.

From behind us, a throat cleared. “I find it very interesting,” Juli’s father started, his voice dripping with disapproval, “that this happened to my daughter on the very night after I learned she was dating you.”

I spun to him and narrowed my eyes. “And I find it very interesting that she disappeared the very morning after you showed up in town, issuing threats to her.”

“Excuse me?” He straightened with offense. “Why would I abduct my own daughter?”

“To keep her away from me,” I shot back before countering, “Why would I take my own girlfriend? If we were trying to run away together, wouldn’t I be with her right now?”

“I couldn’t even pretend to know what kind of schemes you’d carry out to hide your nefarious plans.”

I took a step toward him, growing fed up with this shit. “You want to talk nefarious plans, why don’t you look at your little pet project, Shaun. He’s been harassing her for almost two years now. Just the other night, he confronted her at work and grabbed her arm.”