The Wedding Rescue, Book Four(7)
“Yes, sir. I’m on it. Anything else?”
“No. I’ll be right there.”
If she’d left the casino, I’d know in minutes. And if she was still here, I’d have my security team pick her up and deliver her to my office. For a second I wondered if she’d sneaked off to gamble downstairs. As soon as the image hit my mind, I laughed. Not Leigha. I couldn’t imagine Leigha gambling her hard earned money for fun, much less sneaking out of my bed to do it. She was my good girl. And as my head cleared, worry made a tight ball in my chest.
She was my good girl. If she was going to leave me, she’d at least tell me goodbye. She wouldn’t disappear in the night like this unless something was wrong. I was dressed in the jeans and button down I’d been wearing earlier in the day, but I needed shoes. Flicking on the light to the bedroom, I noticed that everything was in place.
Her jewelry was still on the bathroom counter, her dress neatly hung up in the closet. There were two empty hangers among the clothes Melissa had bought her. Probably jeans and a shirt. If she’d taken a dress, only one hanger would be empty. Pins littered the sink. And her phone was missing. The last I’d seen it, she’s left it on the bedside table. Now it was nowhere to be seen. Had someone called her?
Shoving my feet in a pair of worn sneakers, I grabbed my wallet and keys before heading for the door. I was going to find her. And when I did, she’d have some serious explaining to do. I was worried, but I was still pissed off.
I tried her cell in the elevator and got her voicemail. I thought about hanging up, but decided not to. Instead, I waited for the tone and said, “Leigha. I woke up, and you weren’t here. Call me.” Calm and thoughtful. Nothing that would piss her off if she’d decided she was mad at me. I didn’t like that she wasn’t answering her phone.
5
Dylan
The security room was hopping when I got there. It usually was on a Friday night, no matter that it was past three o’clock in the morning. I ignored the bank of screens in the front and went straight for the back office. Up a half-flight of stairs, the office was sealed off with glass and overlooked the rest of the security nerve center. Randall glanced up from the screen in front of him when I opened the door. He’d been with me since I opened the Delecta. With thirty years in the business and a kid’s enthusiasm for the newest tech equipment, he was the ideal head of security. Every potential card cheat or scam artist was a new puzzle for him to solve. I knew he’d track Leigha down at warp speed if just for the rush of answering the question of what she was up to.
“I got her, sir,” he said. I sat beside him and studied his monitor. Divided into four sections, he had Leigha on one, frozen in the act of pressing the button for the casino floor inside the elevator. The second frame showed her outside the door to the casino, getting into a taxi. The third was scanning cars in the garage. I glanced to my left and saw one of Randall’s top techs examining the cars on his own monitor. The fourth frame showed vehicles exiting the parking garage.
“She got in the cab at two twenty eight. Went straight down to the lobby and outside. Didn’t stop or talk to anyone on the way. Nothing in her hands but a cell phone. Not even a purse. Here, I’ll show you.”
Randall clicked open another screen on the monitor and clicked a tab. The cameras tracked Leigha from the moment of pressing the elevator button, through her ride to the lobby. A different camera picked her up as she left the elevator, the frames changing quickly now as she moved from camera to camera on her path to the exit. The last shot showed her carrying only her phone, getting into a cab. Through it all, her face was blank, her jaw set. She looked pale and shaken. If I’d doubted it before, now I was certain. Something was very wrong.
“Find the car,” I said to Randall. “If it’s still here, keep eyes on it, just in case.”
Standing up, I pulled out my phone and paced to the far corner of the room, dialing Axel. Everyone would hear my conversation, but these guys were smart enough to pretend not to listen. I didn’t have time to go to my office for privacy, I needed to be here until I got another lead.
“Hey,” I said when he answered with a clipped, “What?”
“Leigha is missing. She left without her purse or keys and caught a cab about an hour ago. Something’s wrong.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. I’m sure. Do you have a guy you can send to her house? If she’s not there, you need to track her down. Her car is still here, so are the rest of her things. I don’t want to go running all over town looking for her if she’s planning on coming back.”