Vinnie was restless.
After tossing and turning half the night away she finally was able to get to sleep, but she didn't feel rested.
Even though she was in a second story hotel room, she never felt like she was alone. Maybe she was paranoid. She was hoping to run into Stella at every turn.
It was uneasy to say the least.
It wasn't a great start to her search. So Vie begrudgingly dragged herself out of bed as the sun climbed in through the window.
The continental breakfast at the hotel was better than the stale granola bars she brought with her, and Vie carried her half eaten bagel and coffee cup back up to her room.
She planned on going back out to the boardwalk, but first she needed to check in with the ladies back at the office.
"Vie baby, it's about time!" Betty chirped into the phone line. "We've been worried sick."
"Not me." She heard Rae grumble in the background. "Leave the poor girl alone. This kind of work takes time."
Vie smiled lazily as she looked out the hotel window.
"Did you find anything?" Rae pestered again.
Vinnie pulled a hand through her hair.
"No, but I thought I would." Vie admitted. "I did feel something." She offered quietly. Vinnie faded off before shaking her head and doubling down. "I did feel something. Like I was so close to finding something."
There was a pause.
"Intuition." She heard a low breath on the other end. "Give me the phone, Betty Lou."
There was a shuffling over the phone.
"Tell me everything." Rae implored, and Vinnie straightened up, trying her best to recall her night.
"I felt it in some dive bar of all places." She scoffed. "It felt so right, Rae. I felt so close, but I lost it. I didn't find her. I didn't find anything."
She heard a low hum, a noncommittal noise that they were still on the phone.
"It's still early, so don't get discouraged. Trust your gut feeling. It'll lead the way."
So she decided to do exactly that.
After breakfast Vinnie decided to search a different part of the boardwalk. She slipped past security down to the beach, and it was still early enough for surfers to be thrashing waves off in the distance.
Under different circumstances she would have loved to just relax and enjoy it. The beach was quiet and the morning sun was warm against her skin. But that would have to wait.
And before Vie knew it she felt it again.
Whatever it was. It was brief, just like the wind brushing past her, but she listened to it.
Vinnie followed the sandy beaches down and away from the sounds of the people starting to arrive.
She kicked off her shoes and walked along the shoreline, and passed groups of people sleeping in the sand. A scary thought struck her.
If Stella and her friends were out of money they could have slept on the beach. It was a dangerous acquisition, but it could happen.
They would have been vulnerable and out in the open.
No, Vinnie tried to convince herself. Stella was smarter than that.
So she kept moving. Alcoves of trees started to pop up, and inclined to look a little closer she inched away from the water.
Old bonfires were snuffed out and charred wood and ash was all that remained. Vinnie bounced from one to another, trying to find anything that could lead her to the girls.
And again, like the wind was guiding her she felt that same, strange spark lingering at the edge of the tree line. One last bonfire was there. She poked around the dying fire and scattered beer bottles that were forgotten.
The feeling was stronger here. Maybe Stella really found her way all the way to the outskirts of town. Maybe she left one of her bracelets or hair ties or something.
Vinnie looked up and back out towards the boardwalk after a little while of searching. The Big Dipper was only a small dot in the distance.
Maybe it was a mistake to go this far out.
Her spirits were starting to fall.
So she moved on. But maybe, just maybe if she would have looked around a little longer she would have found something in the sand.
Not Stella, no, but she would have seen something that didn't belong. There, hidden under the ashes there was a smashed molar. A human molar.
But Vinnie didn't find it. She followed the shore until the sand turned into rockier terrain and tree line.
Faint motorcycle tracks were imprinted in the sand and the mud, but she didn't make a move to get closer.
But it was strange to see them this far from the streets.
She fought the tug in her belly to keep going. Her head told her she wasn't going the right way.
So Vinnie doubled back. She thought of another idea.
Maybe the girls illegally parked. Maybe their car got towed away. She was going to head into town and see if there was an impound lot.
And maybe , just maybe, she would just treat herself to a snow cone while doing it.
The impound lot was a dead end. None of the impounded cars locked away looked anything like the Oldsmobile Vinnie was looking for.
She had overheard that a lot of the cars had been there for quite some time. The owner gravely mentioned that most of them belonged to the same people on the missing person flyers.
They didn't count on their missing owners to turn up.
So Vie regrouped after lunch. Well, she tried too.
Her bones were tired from the walk and being out in the sun, and after lunch she went back to her room.
She had been overthinking what the man at the impound lot said. Maybe it was a good thing she didn't find the car there. That the girls weren't really missing. With heavy thoughts she laid down, and had every intention to take a catnap.
And it lasted well into the afternoon.
Vinnie was going to have another go at scouring the town at night. Maybe she'd ask vendors and booths if the girls look familiar. Vinnie had a picture of Stella and her friends on her, and she planned to make good use of it.
She went back down to the boardwalk just after six o'clock and bought a few arcade tokens and ride tickets to blend in. Vinnie was going to do a thorough sweep of the place.
The boardwalk itself was a maze, and the rides and lines stretched on and on.
She had honed in on more than a dozen groups of girls that blossomed hope in her chest. None of them knew Stella or the other girls.
She even stopped in a few of the local shops, like the video store and shoe store, and hell, she even asked about the girls in the comic shop she passed by.
Everyone she came across wished her noncommittal good luck. It was like they were desensitized to the missing people. Like they had been asked the same question over and over again.
How many people were really missing in Santa Carla?
Vinnie's spirits were starting to dampen.
It was nighttime when she felt the strange inclination again. Intuition, she reminded herself.
Rae followed her intuition. Maybe she should stay out a little while longer.
She stopped at an open rail overlooking a concert playing below. It was a busy place to be. Everyone was crammed into the space, thrashing and dancing to the rock and roll.
It looked kind of, well, it looked like fun. She couldn't deny that.
Vie let her shoulders relax and she leaned against the rail.
She wished she could have been there under better circumstances. Vinnie loved the music. She loved rides. Santa Carla would have been the perfect place to visit.
She frowned, feeling the tug of intuition again. She needed to turn around. Something wasn't right.
Vinnie turned on her heel, and instead of seeing Stella she came face to face with the man from the bar.
Dark and imposing, her breath hitched as she caught his frigid gaze. He exhaled a puff of smoke, letting the tobacco permeate the air around them.
"You're still here."
Where else was she supposed to be?
Vinnie couldn't hide her frown, and she waved her hand to break up the cloud of smoke before glaring at him.
"I'm still here." She confirmed. She was cold towards him but her tone was even.
She looked around, noticing it wasn't only the blonde watching the concert behind her. The others from the bar were there too, offering her varying degrees of interest.
"Are you still looking for that girl?" Paul jostled the rail next to her, patting his hands along to the beat. "You're not even appreciating the music or the sights."
This time she visibly held back a groan. She didn't come all the way out there for a vacation of her own. If anything, she was starting to feel the weight of looking for Stella bogging her down.
And she didn't realize it, but the others must have noticed the way her shoulders slumped forward.
Vinnie was tired. She didn't know what she was doing.
"What if we helped you look?" The curly haired one, Marko, offered with an insightful grin. "We're basically natives."
She looked at him for a moment, gauging how serious he was. Certainly he didn't mean it. Why would they help her?
A subtle calming feeling brushed over her, and she thought twice about the offer. He surely looked sincere.
She looked back over the rail to the sound of the music with a frown.
Vie didn't want to drag them into her mess. She was supposed to be under cover, keeping this all to herself. And she definitely didn't want to owe them anything.
Not to mention the matter of her own safety.
"No, no." She insisted. "Thanks for the offer," she quickly added, "but I'm not trying to be on one of those missing person billboards.
There was a pause among the men, and when she looked at the leader again he met her stare with a slow smirk. He tossed out his smoke and stepped on it before looking back up to her.
"What's the matter?" He goaded with a toothy smirk. "Are you afraid of making new friends, Vinnie?"
A shiver travelled down her back and her mouth went dry. She never gave him her name. She gave Marko her name.
They talked about her.
"Maybe I don't need new friends." She retorted with a low, dejected smile. "Have a good night, boys."
Vinnie had every intention to make an exit. She stepped away from the rail and planned on getting lost in the crowd and getting away from them.
But before she could retreat someone shuffled up the steps away from the music, barreling into Vinnie's shoulder along the way.
"Hey, watch it lady."
She snapped back instinctively.
"You watch it, buddy." She argued before a hand at her elbow coaxed her back. The cool material of the glove against her skin made her stop in her tracks.
Vinnie's outburst faded as she looked up to a wall of a man. He was huge and clearly faded. He smelled like an entire skunk farm. He must have been stumbling over his feet, not watching where he was going.
Neither was Vinnie, but her temper had flared before she could stop it.
He was imposing and scary in a different way, a reckless way, hovering over her with a sneer. When the man was about to bark at her again the hand on her arm pulled her back a step.
"We got a problem here, Greg?"
The leader of the biker's challenging tone was enough to drag the skunk man's attention away, leering at him before shaking his head.
Vie glanced over her shoulder for a quick moment, watching as it was the blonde who pulled her back. The others had formed a half circle behind him, almost in a flank.
"Not you fucking punks." Skunk man hissed, a hit of lucidity hitting him when he saw the biker's cold expression. "What, 's this your girl David? Tell her to fucking watch where she's walking."
David.
She had a name. Vinnie caught his frigid stare, trying to pinpoint his expression. He wasn't happy, that was for sure.
The skunk man, Greg, swayed on uneasy legs and Vinnie rolled her eyes as she looked forward, but she didn't pull away from David's grip. In fact, she had almost forgotten he was still holding onto her.
She couldn't see David's expression melt into an icy smirk from behind her, but it was there.
"You should keep your eyes on your own girl." Paul spoke up with a carefree warning. "She was getting real cozy with me the other night. And she was wearing that one skirt, you know the one with that real cute leopard pattern-"
"Paul." David warned, but it held no malice towards him. "Besides, it was the one with the zebra pattern."
"Shit, you're right." Paul feigned surprise, and this time Vinnie turned, trying to hide her amused smirk.
She caught Marko's gaze and he offered her a playful wink, and the fourth man was even cracking a lazy grin of his own. When she looked back at the skunk man he was shaking his head in disbelief.
David's grip on her arm didn't lessen, but she did relax into it.
Greg was trying to hold his ground, but he was severely outnumbered. And he wasn't trying to get kicked off the boardwalk for fighting.
"Keep your grubby paws away from Shelly." He warned, but he couldn't back it up.
Paul offered a non committal ooh. The others laughed lowly to themselves. David's detached laughed stopped and he warned the skunk man again.
"Greg, I think you should apologize to the girl."
Vinnie tried to smother the smirk on her lips, but he must have seen it.
"Like hell-" Greg started, but he stopped abruptly to cover his mouth.
The weed was starting to get to him. He was going to ralph.
Vinnie took a half step back and watched as Greg turned on his heel as quickly as he could, running to the nearest metal trash can.
Gross.
"Kick rocks, shithead." Vinnie mumbled as he stumbled away.
Her nose was scrunched up and a scowl was etched into the side of her face. It was only when she heard the clearing of a voice around her that she snapped back to her senses.
She had backed up into David, and when she turned to take a half step away she realized he was still holding onto her. She could smell the faint smoke on his clothes and an underlying cologne.
And there, standing so close to him, she could have sworn there was a familiarity in his eyes.
"Alright, firecracker." He taunted slowly. "You sure know how to make an exit."
The cool leather of his gloves finally let her go, but she wasn't sure where to go. Not after the run in with the skunk man.
Not only that, but she couldn't help the nagging feeling that maybe she shouldn't just run off.
These guys had tried to help her, even defend her. Maybe they weren't so bad, she thought.
The longer she looked at David the less confident she felt. Why was she trying to leave again? It took her a moment to try and think back.
She could hear a group of girls laughing as they walked past. She blinked once, looking away from those blue eyes. Oh right. Stella.
Stella was more important than her run in with the guys from the bar.
"I appreciate the help." She insisted. "Really, I do, but I better keep looking for the girls."
David eyed her with a poker face before putting his hands in his pockets.
"The offer stands." David spoke slowly.
Vinnie stopped from turning away, giving him a skeptical look. His eyes bore into hers. She couldn't understand the closed off expression David wore. If it was supposed to bring her any comfort it only left her with more questions.
"Why would you want to help me?" She challenged. "What do you get out of it?"
"What, aren't we gentleman?" Paul teased, nudging her shoulder. It broke her staring contest with David and she looked over to the wild blonde. "Can't we help the pretty lady that needs our help?"
"It will give us something new to do." Marko pursued thoughtfully. Vinnie turned to him, and the sincerity in his eyes made her doubts fade. "We also know all the ins and outs of this place. The boardwalk is our stomping grounds."
"Not to mention you're doing a pretty shit job of finding this girl on your own." Paul taunted playfully.
"Hey." She barked back. "I've been here for two days. Give me a break."
There was a moment of a pause. Of contemplation and consideration, and she looked back to David.
"Well?" David's tease was cold and dark, and there was not a hint of breaking his poker face. "What do you say?"
What could she say?
Maybe this was the way to find Stella. She had to think of Stella. Vinnie took the half step closer to David and poked at the front of his jacket.
"Fine." She slowly huffed.
What was she doing?
"But this isn't some game." She warned. "These are four young, high school girls that didn't come home. They have families that are scared to death. It's not some runaway troupe of vagabonds."
The brevity behind her words gave Vinnie an edge she didn't know she possessed. She doubled down. "Four girls, four minors with little money in a place they've never been."
"We get it."
"Yeah, chill out, girl." Paul blew off her sincerity with a playful smirk.
It earned him a venomous glare. She met their playfulness with contempt before turning back to David.
"And if I happen to end up on one of those missing person's flyers there will be hell to pay."
With an amused smirk David held up his gloved hands feigning surrender. The light that bounced off his eyes made Vinnie feel nervous. Something about him made her nervous.
"Wouldn't dream of it, princess. Let's get started."