Blaze: A Small Town, Nerdy Girl, Opposites Attract, Protector Romance (Ghost Ops Book 1)

Chapter 52

A lot had happenedsince Blaze got Emma’s message. Though he and the guys were on a tight countdown to infiltrating Royal Shipping later that evening and destroying the microprocessors, they’d dropped everything to go find Emma.

When they’d reached Rory’s place, the sight of Emma’s car had formed a knot in his gut. Theo’s car was there too. The front door wasn’t locked, and he and Chance breached it with a single nod of understanding and guns drawn. Kane and Ethan were on the back door. Ghost and Seth had gone to check the barn and outbuildings just in case.

What they’d found inside the house dropped Blaze’s heart into the soles of his feet. Theo Harper lay in a pool of blood, breathing but barely. They’d assessed him for injuries while Kane dialed 911.

It looked like he’d been kicked in the face with a boot. There was a print on his cheek, and his nose was broken. That didn’t explain why he was passed out, though.

As soon as the call was made, Chance was on his feet, running throughout the farmhouse. When he skidded back into the room, his eyes wild, Blaze knew.

Rory was gone, too. He’d known Emma wouldn’t be there, because Simon wasn’t done with her yet, but the fact he’d taken Rory was chilling.

“What’s that?” Blaze asked as Chance bent down to pick something up off the floor and examine it.

“I’m gonna guess it used to be an insulin pump. Jesus, Blaze. He tore her pump off her body. She’s not getting insulin.”

Blaze’s blood chilled. “It’s how he’s getting Emma to do what he wants.”

Or got her to do what he wanted. Emma and Rory could both be dead by now. It had been hours since Emma’s message. Hours that Theo had lain there, bleeding and slowly dying.

Ghost and Seth returned. “Rory’s truck is still here,” Ghost said. “The driveway is gravel and so’s the parking pad. No way to tell if any other cars were out there.”

Seth was tapping his screen. “Emma had her phone when they left here. It’s turned off now, but the last place it pinged a tower was south of town on Church Road.”

“What’s out there?” Blaze asked.

“Just a second, I’m pulling up a map… A few houses out that way, and a church, but it dead ends before the river. There’s a road on here, probably a dirt road, that branches off before that. It goes into the Refuge.”

“He could have taken them into the woods.” And maybe dumped their bodies. Blaze ground his jaw. No, he refused to believe they were dead. Not until they found bodies would he give up on Emma and Rory being alive. “We need more information. Where does that road go? What’s out there?”

“Let me try something,” Seth said. He tapped away on his phone, pinching and expanding until Blaze thought he’d lose his mind. Chance paced. Kane sat on the floor beside Theo, and Ghost went out onto the front porch to make a call. Ethan was also at work on his phone, probably looking at Google Maps and getting an idea what lay down that road into the Refuge.

Blaze shoved a hand through his hair and joined Chance in pacing without realizing it. If he lost her now, if he didn’t get to tell her how he felt…

If he didn’t get to marry her and maybe have that kid with her.

Jesus. It was too much. He’d spent his life not belonging, wanting out, not getting close to anyone except his brothers in this room and on the front porch.

But then Emma came into his life not too long ago and somehow she was it. The one. The person who soothed all those dark spaces in his soul. If he lost her now, he’d lose a piece of himself he’d never get back.

Didn’t matter how fast it had happened or how crazy it was to be in love with her so quickly. This thing between them just was.

“I think I have something,” Seth said, sounding excited. “I checked for any other phones that pinged the tower at the same time Emma’s did and how close they were to her phone. I’ve got one. It’s pinged the tower a few times today, though not from the same location as where Emma’s phone went dead. It’s moved around town, even went across the river to Decatur.”

Blaze didn’t know how Seth managed to get that kind of information so quickly, and he didn’t care. That spark inside him was hope, and he clung to it like a lifeline. “Where is it now?”

“Last ping was south of town on Church Road.”

“That’s where he’s got them. In the woods.” Hope rose like a phoenix, swelling and burning inside his belly. “If he’s going back out there, he hasn’t killed them yet.”

Chance started for the door. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go get Rory and Emma and make Simon Marsh wish he’d never been born.”

The sound of an ambulance cut through the night, coming closer.

“That’s what we’re waiting for,” Ghost said, coming back inside. “You think Rory will forgive you if you leave her brother before he’s inside that ambulance?”

Chance closed his eyes for a second. Blaze’s gut churned. He put a hand on Chance’s shoulder and squeezed.

“That’s the woman I love out there, but we need to figure this out, brother. We can’t just go charging in without a plan. We’ve got one shot to get them back. Because if we don’t do it right, he’ll kill them when he hears us coming.”

Ethan looked up from his phone and grinned. “Did someone say plan?”