𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐌𝐞

42|| Open Up

Dante // February 26
•••

I'm speeding through the streets of Chicago, running every stop sign and red light.

This day has been a weight dropping down my mood.

First the catastrophe that was breakfast. Then I wasted my day on meetings with boring people only to come home and find Celeste gone.

She did tell me she'd go out today, but I couldn't find any sensible reason as to why she had to be in some random bar at night for two hours.

My first thought was that she was hooking up with someone, possibly whoever she send that money she stole from my safe to.

The thought had me pacing around my office for far longer than I'd like to admit, and it was only after a good handful of minutes that my common sense started to kick in – instead of overthinking I could just call her.

So that's what I did.

Thirty two times, until she picked up.

I wanted to berate her for ignoring my calls, drag her right back to the cellar and chain her to the ceiling until she told me exactly what the fuck she'd been thinking and doing.

That was, until I heard the panic in her voice.

It sounded small and fragile, yet it had the power to fling an emotion so strong through my body that I could do nothing but run to my car and drive to where she was.

I park my car right in front of Buzzed, the bar Celeste's phone had been located, and make my way inside. Instantly the smell of beer hits me and as I start searching for long black hair and grey eyes, I only find men yelling at a football game, people playing darts and wasted drunks near the bar.

Everyone here is too far gone to recognize me, which is good because the last thing I needed was to make a scene.

"You," I address a bald man wearing the security uniform. "A white girl, about 5'9, black hair, grey eyes and freckles, have you seen her?"

The man turns to me in annoyance, holding ice against his cheek before his face drops. He blinks, his mouth slightly dropped as his eyes move to look at one of my eyes and then the other.

For fuck sakes.

"Have you seen her or not?"

He snaps out of it, his skin visibly paling at the sound of my voice and he begins to stutter, "Look we don't- we don't want any trouble, alright? We're just a family-ran local b-" He gulps looking at my scowl- "bar. We'll send you the security footage if you want. I just-"

"Hey!" a brown-skinned girl walks up to the sweating guy, laying a hand on his shoulder. "What's going on?"

The man's wide eyes don't look away from her as he tips his head to me. "Eh- eh, Mr. Alessi, sir, is looking for that girl."

That girl? She must've made a lasting impression.

She frowns at me, not looking half as alarmed as her security guard. "Sweet face and clueless aura?"

That would be her, yes.

I grab my gun from my waistband, holding it low to not alert people beyond the two in front of me. "Look, I'd hate to make a scene here, so just tell me where she is."

The guard whimpers and she hesitates briefly before answering, "Toilet stalls."

I don't spare them a second glance before I'm making my way inside a small hallways leading to two doors. "Celeste," I call, pulling the first door open to find it empty.