Mr. Good Bad Guy

17 - The Truth?

"Irene!" I turned around to find Axel running over to me. I fell into his arms and sobbed. "Hey, hey, it's okay, mami. No es tu culpa."

"I-i-it is my f-fault!" I wailed. "I should have f-f-forced her to come back i-inside."

"You couldn't have known."

"I would have known, if I hadn't gotten drunk!"

That made me so mad. Why did I drink so much last night? If I had been sober, I would have successfully persuaded her to go back inside. Maybe then this entire disaster wouldn't have happened. I looked up at Axel, tears still streaming down my face.

"What if...they kill her?" I asked.

"No one is going to kill her," he assured me. "You don't even know if she was really taken. Maybe she's just hiding somewhere."

I shook my head, still unable to believe it. "No, she wouldn't do that. She wouldn't just leave like that."

"Look, the police are here now, mami. They'll look through the footage and see what happened. Everything is going to be fine." Axel kissed my forehead, his words not nearly as convincing as he probably intended. The truth was, I wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe she had been taken, maybe she'd just had enough of this place. I knew she'd never left without saying goodbye, but it seemed like there was no other explanation.

"Ryna!" Jamie and Kaiya ran up to us. "Are you okay, babes? Did you get hurt?"

"What? No." I wiped my face. "I'm fine."

"Where's Parker? Is she okay?" Jamie asked.

"She's upstairs. Beside herself." I sighed.

"Then what are all these cops doing here?" Kaiya asked. "Did someone try to break in?"

"No. Klara's missing."

"The sweet Palestinian from 305?"

"Yeah..."

"Maybe she ran away," Jamie said.

"How could you say that?"

"How could I not? I was coming over one day to drop something off. They had their music blasting. I thought maybe I'd do everyone a favor and ask them to turn it down." Jamie looked around, lowering her voice. "Majid opened the door. His knuckles were all bruised. It looked like he had been in a fight."

"Get to the fucking point," I snapped.

"He turned the music down, but you know Parker's room is right next to theirs. I heard Klara crying. When I was leaving, she was coming out of the apartment with her head down. I usually give her a hug whenever I see her, but when I touched her shoulder, she jumped out of her skin. I thought I'd hurt her."

I froze and finally understood why Majid was angry she was gone. He knew there was going to be a day when she finally had had enough of his crap. If she'd really been taken by the unsub, then he was in trouble. That meant the unsub had been watching them. Watching us. They had been looking for the perfect moment to get Klara alone and now it seemed like that moment had come.

"Oh my god," I whispered, feeling a chill run down my spine. "It has to be that serial killer."

Ezra pulled up on the scene like he was on a mission. He got out of his car and immediately went over to Captain West. They spoke animatedly, their bodies leaning in towards each other as if they were sharing a secret. It was clear they knew something was going on. As if sensing my eyes on them, Ezra glanced in my direction and gave me a small nod before returning to his conversation with the captain.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to find Axel looking at me. "You okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," I replied, forcing a smile.