Fallen Stars (Stone Bay Series Book 3)

Chapter 26

Elbowson my knees and head in my hands, I press the heels of my palms to my eyes and curl my fingers in my hair. One steadying breath after another, I work to calm the perpetual anxiety living in my chest.

As I do most days, I focus my thoughts on the minor details we’ve discovered since Phoebe and Delilah joined the mission a little more than three weeks ago. I concentrate on the map inundated with pins and strings and try to see it from different points of view. I stare at it with a faux predator’s mindset and do my best to think strategically rather than irrationally with my heart.

Today marks fifty-three days since we were beaten in a parking lot and Levi was abducted. Since he was stolen from my life and robbed of his.

Fifty-three days have passed since I last held him in my arms and pressed my lips to his. Since I last told him I love him and heard him say it in return.

In those fifty-three days, I’ve aged just as many years.

Fuck, I miss him. My best friend. My boyfriend. The one person who understands me when no one else does. The only person that makes me want a longer life, just so I have more time with him. I miss his profound intelligence and the explosive way he loves. I miss his addictive eyes and broody silence. I miss the smell of him on my skin and the smile he reserves for me and gives no one else.

I miss him more than a limb. More than every damn limb.

Words will never adequately describe what I feel for Levi. Love is nowhere near enough. Levi is embedded in every cell of my body. He is rooted deep in my bones. Tattooed on my soul.

When they took him from me, they pried my rib cage in two and wrenched my heart from my chest. They stole the air from my lungs and left me to wither to dust.

A life without Levi is meaningless and dark.

Fifty-three days have passed since I last looked into his eyes. Fifty-three exhausting and excruciating days. But if I have to spend every day of the rest of my life looking for him, I will. And I’ll count every single one of those days. Whatever it takes, no matter the cost, I will not rest until we find Levi.

He is worth every second, every breath, every heartbeat.

“Holy shit!”

My head snaps up and I lock onto Tymber at Levi’s desk. “What?” I shoot up from my seat and cross the room, eager for more information.

“Holy fucking shit!” Tymber shouts with more enthusiasm.

I step up behind him and stare at the countless rows of code on the screens. To me, it’s gibberish. But to tech-savvy people, it’s simply another language.

“What?” I ask again, anxiety and impatience evident in my tone.

Tymber points to the screen, peers over his shoulder, and meets my gaze. A glint of hope shines in his weary eyes. “I found something.” His attention returns to the screen. “At least, I think I did.”

My eyes scan the screen where he points, but none of it makes sense when I read it. I huff out my annoyance. “I have no clue what that says.”

Everyone else in the office crowds around Tymber and focuses on the screen with the same perplexed look in their eyes. Not a single one of us breathes as we wait for Tymber to relay the news.

Shortly after Phoebe and Delilah joined the search party, Levi’s parents walked through the front door of TWSIS. A mixture of surprise, heartache, and uncertainty swirled in my chest at the sight of them. When they said they wanted to help find their son, that whirl of emotion grew tenfold.

Levi may have a strained relationship with his parents, but seeing them in that moment… His family let go of their past differences. For the first time since I’ve known Levi, his parents’ love for him outshines their status and outward appearance.

By the time they walked into TWSIS, they’d spoken at length with Chief Emerson at the Stone Bay Police Department, as well as county, state, and federal law enforcement. Though the departments are working together to locate this human trafficking ring, they directed the Wests to TWSIS, dubbing it the local headquarters for this case.

“It’s a coded message in one of the chat logs.” Tymber spins in the chair and faces the group. “Levi lingered for the most part, reading and deciphering various chats and announcements. But there were a few threads he interacted with to get more information. Some of which he told me about but never gave in-depth details.”

“And?” Infinite hope shapes the small word as Mrs. West waits for Tymber to continue.

“If I’m translating it correctly”—his eyes dart between me and Levi’s parents before he swallows—“the auction he mentioned before he was taken, it will happen soon.”

“An auction?” Mr. West asks in disbelief.

Mrs. West gasps and covers her mouth with her hand.

I stare at the code on the screen, looking for something to contradict Tymber’s interpretation. Anything. But a faint voice in the back of my head says it’s pointless.

Levi hunted this trafficking ring and fell victim in the process. Now, he may be sold to some sick, rich fucker halfway across the world. If that happens, I might lose him forever.

And that’s not an option. I can’t lose him. Not like this. Not ever.

Every inch of my body turns to ice as fear and panic swirl low in my belly and twist their way up my spine.

“When?” I demand. “How long do we have?”

Tymber turns his attention back to the screen and points again. “This comment says not long after the gust passes.” He twists and points to a different screen, one with Levi’s personal notes on the case. “When this popped up in the thread, Levi deciphered the comment as an auction happening at the beginning of September. He decoded gust as August.”

Not a single day has passed since Levi’s abduction that I didn’t know the date or how many days he’s been missing. Yet, I still take out my phone, wake it up with a tap, and stare at the date on the screen.

August 28.

August ends in three days.

Three. Fucking. Days.

We are out of time.

We have to find him.

Right the fuck now.

“Fuck,” I mutter. The backs of my eyes burn and my nose stings as this new reality takes center stage.

An arm wraps around my shoulders a moment before the air is hugged from my lungs. Mrs. West shushes and rocks me gently.

“We’ll get him back,” she says, her proclamation laced with conviction.

I close my eyes and count to ten. Silently absorb some of her confidence and let it bolster my own.

In the days since Levi’s parents walked through the doors of TWSIS, I’ve witnessed a big change in their acceptance of my relationship with Levi.

Mrs. West had treated me with kindness over the years, but she’d still sided with her husband when it came to Levi’s future. They’d wanted him with a prominent woman and to produce future West heirs. Like some of the other Stone Bay founding families, they never asked Levi what he wanted for his life.

Before he spoke his first words, most of Levi’s life had been mapped out for him. Appearance, profession, marriage. When Mr. and Mrs. West envisioned Levi’s future, they didn’t include the idea of him choosing his own career path or falling in love with a same-sex commoner.

Fifty-four days ago, they disliked that their eldest son was in love with me—an ordinary man.

Since his disappearance, they have put aside their archaic ideals and embraced me with open arms. For the first time in years, they see me as someone their son loves rather than someone robbing him of his future.

“I’ll call Emerson with the news,” Mr. West says.

Tymber grabs his phone. “And I’ll call my buddy at missing persons.”

The room erupts in chaos as Mrs. West releases me and takes out her phone. She taps the screen a few times and brings the phone to her ear. In seconds, she prattles instructions to whoever she talks with.

Phoebe and Delilah are near the map with the pins and string, pointing and chatting quietly. I join them and stare at the map with a new perspective. Tough as it is, I try to insert myself into the shoes of these bastards and think like a heinous criminal.

“If I was a sadistic motherfucker selling hundreds of human beings, where would I be?”

Delilah, Phoebe, and I get lost in our thoughts as we gaze at the map of Washington and Oregon.

“In my case”—Delilah starts then pauses to take a deep breath—“they took me to a place that people rarely visited. Somewhere away from homes, businesses, and general traffic.”

Delilah makes a good point.

“So we should look in more rural areas?”

Turning to face me, her steel-blues meet my greens. She tips her head from side to side. “Yes and no.” Returning her attention to the map, she studies it for a beat. “They’d need somewhere big. Even crammed together, that’s a lot of people.”

Phoebe takes her eyes off the map and roams Delilah’s profile. “What’s going through that pretty head of yours, Fox?”

Delilah’s eyes narrow on the map as she rolls her lips between her teeth.

“If this is too much?—”

“No.” Delilah cuts Phoebe off. She closes her eyes, inhales deeply, and gives herself a moment to move past her own dark memories. A sense of calm fills her features when she opens her eyes. “I need to do this.”

Phoebe slips her hand around Delilah’s and nods. “Okay.”

The clap of boots on the tile echoes through the room as Travis and Chief Emerson enter the office. Chief walks over to where Mr. and Mrs. West stand with Tymber. Travis heads in our direction.

Delilah doesn’t take her eyes off the map. “You asked where this person would be.”

None of us say a word as we wait for Delilah to continue.

“Step back and really look at the map,” she says.

We all do as she suggests. I study the board and try to see what she does. I shove aside the written-in-stone facts and look at what is literally in front of me.

“Majority of the pins are close to bodies of water,” Travis murmurs. “Holy shit.” He steps within inches of the map and trails a finger over several pinheads. “Inlets, rivers, bays, the state’s coast. All within a few miles.”

“Tymber says they talk in code but often sound like fishermen,” I say.

Without another word, Travis spins on his heel and moves across the room. I follow him with my eyes and watch as the other half of the group reacts to this discovery.

A hand on my arm startles me.

“Sorry.” Delilah gives me a gentle smile.

I shake my head. “No need to apologize.”

Her hold on my forearm tightens. “We’ll find him, Ollie.”

The backs of my eyes sting as my vision blurs. Saliva pools in my mouth as emotion swells in my throat. “How can you be so sure?”

Turning to face me fully, Delilah invades my space, wraps her arms around my middle and hugs me, unlike anyone else since this whole fiasco began. I drop my head to her shoulder, close my eyes, and let my tears fall freely. Delilah hugs me with inconceivable strength as everything I’ve felt for the past fifty-three days streams down my cheeks. Up and down, Delilah gently strokes between my shoulder blades.

When my tears slow, Delilah inches away to meet my eyes. “Call it intuition, instinct or whatever you want, but I knowwe’ll get him back.” She takes my hands in hers. “I feel it in my bones.”

Unable to speak past the emotion in my throat, I nod.

She strengthens her hold. “This isn’t the end. You and Levi will love each other for decades to come.”

More tears stain my cheeks as I hold her resolute gaze.

God, I hope she’s right.

August 28th

We haven’t brought L home yet, but today was a better day. After weeks of no change, we found something in L’s computer history. A clue. It’s vague as fuck, but it’s more than we had yesterday. Right now, any new information is better than nothing at all.

Then we figured out something else. Not sure if it’ll lead us in the right direction, but I sure as hell hope so. Almost everyone went missing near the water. In a matter of minutes, the news went out to other law enforcement. T says the Coast Guard and police are flying up and down the coast, over all the smaller bodies of water, and a little inland.

Everyone seems optimistic after the discovery. They’re all more animated and energized. But for whatever reason, I’m not. It feels weird to be auspicious so soon. I hold on to hope that we’ll find him. But I don’t want to be so clouded by it that we miss something important.

I just need him to come home. I just need to wrap him in my arms and tell him I love him.

My life is pointless without you, moje srce.