Chapter 27
Brycen
Something had been nigglingat me since just after dinner at Mom and Dad’s, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was, or when things had changed.
Jana had gotten progressively quiet and withdrawn as the evening wore on, and now that we’d just gotten back into the car after handing Eloise off over to Jason, who was back from work, I aimed to find out what was up with my woman.
“Everything okay?” I asked, threading my fingers through hers, giving her hand what I hoped was a reassuring squeeze.
“Huh?” She looked at me, then continued, “Oh, yeah. I’m okay. Just tired.” Her smile looked a tad forced. “Your family is a lot, but I love them.”
I smiled at that, lifting her hand so I could kiss her knuckles. “I still can’t believe our parents knew each other.”
She emitted a soft laugh. “Right?”
“Small world.”
“Hmm,” she agreed with a single nod. “I’m happy they got to reconnect.”
Parking the car in the garage, I switched the vehicle off, then turned toward Jana, cupping the side of her face, glad when she nuzzled against my palm.
“Sweetheart?”
“Hmm?” She turned her head to kiss the side of my wrist, her eyes snagging mine.
Christ she was sweet. “Baby, you sure you’re okay?”
Jana’s hesitation was a moment too long for my liking and my gaze narrowed. “Come on,” she said in answer, “I’m feeling just a little off-kilter after today, but I’m sure you can help me with that.” She reached for the passenger side’s door handle and started to exit the car, meeting me at the front of the hood after I exited.
As she grabbed on to the front of my shirt, I leaned closer, grabbing her face in my hands. “I’d do just about anything for you, baby, I hope you know that.” I leaned in and kissed her forehead.
“Then take me to bed, Brycen,” she whispered as I pulled back.
So that’s what I did.
Jana
With one final look, I wiped the tears from my cheeks thanks to the too long sleeve of the sweatshirt I’d highjacked from Brycen’s closet and closed the door behind me. Tiptoeing down the hall, I geared myself for a hasty retreat with nothing but the clothes on my back, a few more outfits in the backpack I’d pilfered from my borrowed bedroom, and my purse.
I loved him—Brycen Matthews.
But I couldn’t stand by and risk his life…or his family’s.
I couldn’t risk Jason or Mom either, say nothing of the crew at Nightshade and their families who’d come to mean more than simple passing acquaintances.
Whoever this guy was, he’d shown me tonight he could get to me no matter the magic mumbo-jumbo Devolin or Brycen could concoct with their computer genius minds.
It left me with no other choice but to run.
And that’s what I was about to do.
A seedy motel on the outskirts of Jacksonville is where I decided to rest for the night—maybe the next couple of days, after having stopped at a random bank to withdraw as much money as the machines would allow me.
Once I was tucked away, locked tight in the mildew-scented room with a bed that looked as if something was growing within its mattress due to the lumpiness of it, I took my first breath, heading for the windows and closing the curtains.
Grabbing the rickety chair from the table in the corner, I added it as an extra layer of protection by wedging it under the room’s door, double-checking the chain lock and deadbolt that looked as if it would snap off in my hand with little force.
Not for the first time, I questioned my sanity, let alone my decision on going at it alone.
Grabbing my purse, I dumped its contents on the tabletop, and started to remove the packaging from the two phones I’d picked up during my first stop after I’d fled Brycen and the safety of his arms. I knew that using the new cell phone Devolin had provided me a week and a half ago was a hard no, but I wanted to keep it on my person no matter what. I’d use it only if in dire emergency, but until such a time, I would leave the device charged up and turned off. Instead, I’d use the burners I’d procured, limiting my call times and alternating between devices so I wouldn’t be traced.
Now what?
Now I waited.
Assessed my options.
And tried to bide my time until either this sicko was caught, or I found an alternative to disappear altogether—even if it killed me. I had the distinct feeling that things were coming to a head.
Rex
“What the fuck?” I muttered in the emptiness of my truck, tucked away at the end of the row of motel rooms.
I was chasing a skip who was wanted for assault and battery of his girlfriend, and the woman’s best friend, when I spotted an all-too-familiar woman cautiously peering over her shoulder as she unlocked the end unit closest to me.
Grabbing my phone, I dialed Matthews and as soon as the man answered, clearly having been asleep, I lit into him, “Where the fuck is your woman right now, Matthews?”
“Rex?”
“Yeah, Bryce, it’s me,” I growled, my blood at a low simmer. “Tell me your woman is snuggled up to you right now and I’m seeing things because I haven’t slept for over forty-eight hours, chasing a skip. Tell me what I just saw less than fifty seconds ago was her doppelg?nger, because, fucker, if Jana’s who I saw at the No-Tell-Motel I’m scouting, heads are going to motherfucking roll.”
“Fuck,” Brycen muttered under his breath, and I heard him scrambling across the line as the man evidently rushed to search his home if the slamming of doors was anything to go by, let alone the barking of his mutt. “Fuck! Fu-uck! She’s gone, Rex.”
A fire burned deep in my gut as I heard the bereft tone in the man’s voice. “Fuck yeah, she is, but she ain’t gonna be for long, Matthews.”
“She’ll be lucky if I ever let her up and out of bed before this shit is over and done with,” Brycen grumbled. “Where you at?”
“Coastal, on Wilmington.”
“Don’t go in. I’m on my way.” The man hung up before I could say anything else.
Flicking my phone onto the passenger seat, I tilted my head against the headrest and stared at my truck’s ceiling. “Jesus, fuck! This is why I don’t bother with women.”
Brycen
Hitting up my office, I fired up the tracking program Devolin and I had built and tweaked. The partnered piece of this software had been installed on Jana’s cell phone, a failsafe we’d snuck onto the device, thanks to too many close calls with past clients and some of NSI’s women having upped and disappeared in the past.
When my cell buzzed, I hit speaker and growled, “No time, Huss.”
“Too fucking bad, Babyface,” she matched my growl in return. “You need to hear this. That fucker got to her. Just pulled up her message logs, and he’s threatened those she loves most.”
That’s why she left?“When?” I demanded.
“Tonight. Uh, last night since it’s just after three now.”
Realization slammed into me right then. “Fuck.”
Jana had behaved quieter than normal, withdrawn to the point of despondency. And when I’d pushed a second time to reassure myself that she was okay, thinking her state of mind had more to do about having spoken about her mom’s declining health with my folks, and the exhaustion she claimed to be feeling, I couldn’t have been further away from the truth.
“Can you turn on her phone?” I asked. “I’m on my way to her now, but I’m not waiting to talk to her. Forty minutes out is too fucking long for me to see for myself that she’s safe, and I know she’d have turned off her phone before leaving here so she couldn’t be traced. Rex just happened to be hunting a skip and he’s sitting on her right now, so she’s safe.” For now.
“On it,” Devolin confirmed. “Flicked the switch, and I’ll let you know if anything changes. Bring her back, Bryce. She’s one of us.”
“You’re fucking right she is, and it’s high time she knows it too.” Hanging up, I grabbed my phone, walked to the kitchen, and went for the weapon I kept stored in a secret compartment in a drawer next to the fridge, only to find it missing. Riffling through the compartment, the box of bullets I had there was lighter. Upon opening it, half of its contents were also missing.
Despite the terror that tried to choke me out, I ran to the safe in my bedroom closet, fetching the Glock I kept in there, checking that it was loaded, disengaging then reengaging the safety before tucking it into the back of my jeans, and grabbed the two loaded clips I kept beside it.
Bailey whined as I grabbed my keys, heading for the security alarm. “Sorry, boy, but it’s time I go get our girl.” Bailey barked then nudged at my pant leg. “Hold the fort for us.” I gave him a reassuring scratch behind the ear.
After locking up, I rushed to my truck, opened the driver’s side door, and cranked the ignition before I’d closed the door.
Shifting into gear, I dialed her number, hoping to holy hell I would be able to convince her to come home.