Model Investigator

It all happened so fast. Everyone said that sort of thing after a traumatizing event, but it was true. It had all happened so fast. Levi hit me in the head and disarmed me. Jacob was bound. Kade was then shot with my Taser, then his own gun.

Kade, the love of my life, bleeding.

A gun pointed at my head with an order to drive. Kade trying to reassure me while he bled out fifteen feet away. The cops chasing us first with sirens blaring and then just in a silent flash of red and blue. Everything else was lost in soundless bursts of memories until the blockade.

A police car in the road, and Kade shouting my name as Levi came at me. I swerved and slammed on the brakes. Then we were spinning, and my already pounding head hit the steering wheel, dropping me into darkness.

* * *

The steady beep of a machine woke me from the reoccurring nightmare. I couldn’t remember ever being so tired, groggy, and light-headed. The hospital was familiar, but I expected to wake up to find Kade by my side, only it was Jacob, my ex-lover, a rock star, and perpetual pain in my ass, not Kade, who sat dozing in the chair next to the bed. My heart raced as I remembered the blood pouring from Kade and the sound of his pained scream.

Jacob jerked awake like he’d ripped himself out of his own nightmare. Maybe about the very same event. He glanced at me and sat up. His headphones were back on. Jacob’s hearing had been damaged by a bomb planted in an amp before a show. If he was wearing the headphones, he was still experiencing pain from a burst eardrum. He held up a finger and bolted to the door. Hope filled me. Maybe Kade had just stepped out a minute to get something to eat or some air. Maybe it had all been a nightmare. Maybe he wasn’t hurt and it hadn’t been his blood I kept seeing creep across the floor of the tour bus toward me.

Only it was Will, San Francisco Police Officer and my elder brother’s best friend, who appeared in the doorway a few seconds later. His handsome face set in a serious frown and his salt-and-pepper hair askew like he’d been running his hands through it.

“Where’s Kade?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking even though my voice sounded like I hadn’t spoken in weeks.

“You should rest,” Will told me.

My blood turned icy. “Will…”

He shifted Jacob’s chair away so he could hold my hand and still be at eye level if I turned my head. “You really should rest more first. One too many hits to the head.”

He was trying to be funny to distract me and failing miserably. There was no tube in my nose or throat. No catheter. Just the IV in my arm. So I couldn’t have been that badly hurt. Even if my head still hurt, I could see okay, ignoring the little sparkles of light on the edges of my vision, and while I ached a little, it seemed to only be bruising. “Tell me,” I demanded.

Jacob returned and stood at the end of the bed, notepad in hand. He’s gone, he wrote.

I frowned and shook my head, at first thinking the worst but knowing it couldn’t be true. “He’s not dead…”

“No. Not dead,” Will assured me, holding my hand tightly and glaring at Jacob. “Missing.”

“Missing? We were all on the same bus, Jacob’s tour bus, how can he be missing? Levi shot him through the leg. His injured leg!” Kade’s right leg had been badly damaged in a roadside bomb over a year ago. He had trouble with it ever since. The sound of the shot and Kade’s pain made my gut churn, and it was only a fading memory. Then the gun had been pointed at me, and I couldn’t do anything. Didn’t do anything. Just did as I was told and drove. I could have hit Levi, lunged for the gun, tried to shield Kade. Something…

“It wasn’t your fault,” Will whispered like he could somehow see inside my head. “You were in shock. In fact, I think you’re still in shock. Why don’t you rest some more, and then we’ll talk about this?”

“No,” I snapped at him, coming back into the present, though a panic attack was beginning to make my lungs heavy and my chest ache. “Tell me.”

Will let me go and sat down in the chair Jacob had vacated, making it creak under his weight. “He was already gone by the time I arrived. When I started asking about both of you, the hospital staff got all bitchy. Apparently the closest place to the crash was some tiny Catholic hospital. Shouldn’t have been an issue, but when I brought up that you were each other’s emergency contact, they got stony. I ended up calling Ty in. They wouldn’t even answer any questions about you.” He let out a long sigh. Will must have been desperate if he’d gone to Tyler for help. He and Tyler didn’t get along on a good day. But Tyler was another one of my ex-boyfriends, only he also happened to be a powerful attorney. “By the time I got in to see you, made sure you were okay, Kade was gone. The hospital claims they released him to his family.”

“I’m his family,” I growled, struggling to sit up. I was so going to hurt someone for taking him away from me. “We’re his family. We have all the documents in place and tied so tightly together we might as well be married. And he was shot. How can a hospital release a badly injured man to anyone?”

Jacob held up both his hands and waved at me to indicate I shouldn’t get up and shook his head.

Will just put a heavy hand on my shoulder and shoved me back onto the bed, which actually really hurt. I sucked in several deep gulps of air as the room spun. The left side of my temple began to ache with a rising dull throb.

“You’re not going anywhere yet. Concussion and a couple broken ribs. Your doctor is most worried about the concussion. There will be tests. Lots of tests,” Will assured me.

“I can’t just sit here. Do you have any idea what his family did to him the last time?” Just the idea of them putting him in another mental institution and loading him with drugs to convince him he was crazy made me nauseous. I had to get to him before it was too late.

“Probably better than you do,” Will said quietly. He had been the one to save Kade the last time. No one should have to be rescued from their biological family. “We’re looking, Ollie. I promise we’re looking. Britney and I, Ty and Tomas, even Jacob’s got people searching.” He glanced up at the rock star, who still lingered at the end of the bed.

“They won’t use his name,” I told Will. “They’re smarter than that.”

“I know.”

“You’ll have to search by other factors. I have everything on file. His DNA, blood type, medical records, dental records, everything. Hell, even the serial numbers for the pieces in his leg and hip.” Kade had been amused by my need to know so much, but he’d complied. “I have everything on my computer.” Which had been in my car. I hoped they’d recovered it from the scene.

Will patted the back of my hand. “We’re looking. We’ll find him.”

“I should get up and help.” It was just a bump on the head and a few broken ribs. I could function with those. Maybe, probably.

“You are going down for a head scan in a little bit,” Will told me. “Jacob is your escort.” He glanced out the open door to several men dressed in suits with their backs to the door. “And his guards.”

“You’re going to look for Kade?”

“Of course,” Will said like I was slow. “I’m sure by the time you’re ready to get out of here, we’ll have him back.”

But my heart hurt, and fear lodged itself in my throat. Kade had been badly injured. I remembered the mess of bone and tissue that had been his damaged right leg. The horrible stink of burned flesh. Apparently the Taser and his replacement pieces didn’t mesh well. How would he recover if his family was too busy fucking with his head?