Midnight Vigilante, Leonor Bass [top business books of all time .TXT] 📗

Chapter Eleven

Before Santino, before Mickey, before the whole ordeal that her life had become, Riley was a normal person. She liked to read with a glass of wine or mug of coffee, sometimes go out with her friends. But after Santino, she became more secluded, more aware of her surroundings, more on guard with everything.

Lydia was missing.

Riley didn’t want to take her suspicion too seriously, probably because she hardly knew her sister. Lydia simply walked out of the door without saying goodbye each day. They saw each other the next morning and the routine repeated.

But she couldn’t ignore her gut, not after all the times it’d been correct, and now Riley was heading toward the police station. There was something painfully familiar about it, bringing bad memories into her subconscious, all related to the death of her husband and how unconcerned those officers had been to bring justice to his death. To them, he was just a mob boss who had been shot.

The group of men in uniform that passed next to her almost gave her the impulse to leave, but she couldn’t. Riley was there for her sister. This had nothing to do with Santino, or the strangled relationship she had with law enforcement.

Riley breathed in and out, shook her head, and stepped inside. There was one person she knew that could help her.

“Hello, miss, is there anything I can help you with?” a young officer asked.

Riley blinked twice when she noticed him close by and had to step back a little bit. It wasn’t his fault she felt so suffocated.

“Yeah, I’m looking for Detective Castelló.”

The young man pointed down the long corridor to the lonely office at the back, and she thanked him before moving along.

“It’s open,” Adrian replied to her knock from inside the room. “How can I help you?”

“My sister is missing,” Riley said quickly.

Adrian lifted his head and frowned when he saw Riley. He immediately got up from his seat to close the door. “Miss Spencer, please have a seat,” he offered. “When was the last time you saw her?”

“Yesterday. Before she left to work. She said she was in a hurry and left.”

Adrian closed the blinds, but not before peeking outside as if he were looking for somebody or something. “And she’s not picking up her phone either?” Riley nodded. “Is there any chance she could be with friends?”

“I have no idea. All I do know is that she should have come home this morning, and she hasn’t.”

“Well, you have to wait at least twenty-four hours to file a missing person’s report,” Adrian replied absentmindedly as he sat back on his desk.

Riley stared at him, awed at the coldness of his words. “So that’s it. My sister is missing and you’re gonna sit there writing reports?” Adrian shrugged. “What kind of fucking cop are you?”

“Listen, that’s just the way things work. We have to wait twenty-four hours. There’s a gap in which a person can come back home, and that’s what we have to wait for. It’s just protocol.”

“That’s bullshit! If I came here it’s because I don’t think she’s coming back. Lydia might be a pain in my ass, but she’s a responsible woman who would at least answer the phone to curse me. I’m telling you, something happened to her.”

“We’ll see,” Adrian said.

Riley shook her head and headed toward the door. “You’re a fucking asshole, did you know that?”

Adrian was furious—at himself, mostly, for letting it all go too far. The minute Lydia had offered her help, he should have said no. He should have pushed her away from dangerous territory, but no. He was so desperate to catch his half-brother that he would take any help he could get, so on an impulse he said yes, and damn the consequences.

Now those consequences were hitting him in the face like a bucket of cold water. He couldn’t explain to Riley that the chances of finding her sister alive were zero, and it hurt him more than he could describe.

Lydia was dead; of that he was certain, but it didn’t mean he was going to let Julius win without a few slaps of his own.

The two men guarding the entrance of Julius’s house eyed him with irritation. One of them stepped between him and the door, not allowing Adrian to step any further. He was a police officer, and he couldn’t pass without an invitation from the boss.

Since the man had refused to move when he politely asked, Adrian decided to use force: a kick to the crotch and a slap with his gun across the man’s face before pointing it at the other.

Once inside Julius’s bedroom, gun still firmly in his hand, Adrian found himself prepared to shoot if necessary.

“Wake up!” Adrian shouted.

Julius opened his eyes, blinking a couple of times, and sat upright in bed, hands up in surrender when he noticed the gun directed at his forehead. “Hey, bro. What are you doing?” he asked in a shaky voice.

Adrian stepped away, his gun still raised as he unlocked the safety. Julius flinched again. “Where’s Lydia?”

“That’s why you’re here so early? God, you could have called you know?” Julius rolled his eyes. “I don’t know where she is. I haven’t seen her.”

“I don’t believe you. You liked her. You were obsessed with her. Couldn’t keep your hands off her. Now answer my question.”

“My God, are you deaf? I already did! I don’t know where she is, she could have left somewhere. Maybe she’s at home, sleeping,” Julius suggested.

“She’s not. Her sister came to me looking for her. She’s not home, she’s not at work either–” Adrian was interrupted by Julius giggles.

“Her sister! Riley, right? That beautiful redhead you had a crush on when we were kids? Of course you would be doing this because of her! You still have a thing for her?”

Adrian lowered his gun and rubbed his face with his free hand. He didn’t correct Julius; the man was right. He’d had a crush on Riley