Lords of Mayhem #1: Lachlan and Elowyn

Chapter 3 (Lachlan): A Hundred Thousand

For what felt like the millionth time in the last forty-eight hours, I ran my hands through my hair. At this fucking rate, I was going to be bald before the end of the day.

"How can you not fucking find her?" I demanded for what also seemed like the millionth time in the last two days. My brother was supposed to be a world-class hacker and tracker and couldn't find Elowyn. She was out there who knows where and I had no idea if she was safe or even alive, and didn't that twist my gut. I always knew where she was. She was a homebody who didn't stray far from our neighborhood unless I was with her. Wyn loved our home and she especially loved the little community she helped foster.

When we'd decided to move in together, Elowyn had asked for a neighborhood with people our age in it and I'd researched neighborhoods and found this one, a small, quiet community of one hundred fifty homes. It'd had three homes for sale at the time, and of the three, Elowyn had chosen ours.

"It's not too big, Lach," she'd said. "And it feels just right to me, like it can be cozy and homey. And it has a great backyard that's a blank slate." She'd confessed to me that she'd always wanted a garden and had plans for turning it into a flowery paradise, complete with a fish pond.

The biggest selling feature to me was the three-car garage; I didn't need much more than that, so if the house made Elowyn happy, I was sold. Not wanting to risk losing the house, I'd put in an offer right away and we moved in before the month was out.

Those memories crowded my head, keeping me from focusing on Wyn's whereabouts. The second I'd realized I couldn't track her phone because she'd left it behind, I'd started knocking on doors, talking with her friends in our neighborhood, and met confused stares and shrugs and concerned expressions. As far as they knew, she was still at home. No one knew where she was or when she'd gone.

Until I knocked on Marisol's door after she got home, our neighbor to the immediate right and the one who was mentioned in one of Elowyn's notes that the prospect had seen on our front door. She was also Wyn's best friend in the neighborhood.

"Yes?" she asked, blank faced and slightly hostile as if she'd never seen me before, as if we hadn't attended dozens and dozens of neighborhood parties together over the years. But her very hostility told me she knew something about my girl.

"Do you know where Elowyn is?"

"Elowyn. E-lo-wyn," she tapped her finger against her lips, drawing out the syllables. "Sounds vaguely familiar. Can you describe her?"

"You do not want to fuck with me on this if you know something, Marisol. I just got home, she's taken off, and I need to know she's OK. Tell me what you know," I demanded.

"Oh, I know her new man's taking good care of her," she purred to me with a wink. "Really good care of her."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I demanded.

Not possible. No way. There was just no way. Elowyn wouldn't -- would she? Marisol had to be lying. She had to be making shit up just to fuck with me.

"Should I repeat it slower so you can follow along?"

"Quit fucking with me, Marisol." If she'd known me better, my tone should have warned her I wasn't in the mood for her messing with me in the slightest.

"Great guy...well, as much as a cheater can be. Anyhoo, he's in an MC so that makes it all OK. Has an ol'lady, but they have an arrangement so he can step out whenever he wants and he wants with Elowyn. They're so damn hot for each other. When he pulls up in my driveway, she always runs over and jumps in his arms and plants a big kiss on his lips. So you can rest assured that on those nights you're away on club business, he keeps her busy, so to speak -- too busy to be missing her man and thinking about what he's doing at the clubhouse when she's getting a little somethin'-somethin'."