29. Chapter 29 – Maddox
Chapter 29 – Maddox
M y fingers flew over the keyboard, hitting dead end after dead end as my phone rang next to me. I was in my old apartment at the loft because I couldn’t stomach walking back into the perfect space I shared with Liv without her.
The shrill sound of my phone continuing grated on my nerves, and I glanced at it and saw Dane’s name.
Taking a deep breath, I answered it as calmly as possible, given the hell he was currently living at the moment. “Any news?”
His own answering sigh made him sound years older than he was, “Peyton’s out of surgery, but still asleep. They had to recreate her entire leg bone out of metal, but she might walk on it again someday.”
“She’s tough, she’ll own that son of a bitch in no time.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I faintly heard the beeping of monitors behind him and imagined him pacing around a small hospital room where his injured wife lay unconscious in a bed like a caged animal. He wouldn’t leave that building without her, I knew that. If the roles were reversed, I’d be the same way.
Liv.
My chest ached, not knowing if she was hurt or not. If she was scared or being hurt as I sat around helplessly only fueled my inner demons and eventually they’d break free and control me for good.
“Maddox, focus.” Dane interrupted my thoughts, and I grunted in response. “I listened to the audio repeatedly while P was in surgery and pulled every camera angle possible of the attack. Something that I missed the first few times of listening to it through all the chaos was something Peyton said right before they took Liv.”
Olivia’s terrified scream from when Damon pulled her through the wreckage echoed through my brain like a horror soundtrack stuck on repeat as I held my head in my hands. “What was it?”
“I think Peyton tried to give her the bracelet I got her. But I don’t know for sure since P’s still unconscious and I haven’t been back to the car to check. I don’t know if they took it off her when she went into surgery or if she managed to give it to Liv in time.”
“What’s special about the bracelet?”
“The tracker in it.” He replied, “I’ve tried pulling the location of it up, but it’s coming up blank. So, I don’t know, maybe it was just broken off in the crash. But maybe,”
My mind spun as I tried to figure out how to use that information to my advantage in finding Liv. “Send me the code for it, and I’ll see what I can find.”
“If Liv has it, then they have a system in place, blocking its coordinates from transmitting to me.”
“But if she has it, we have our first actual lead in hours.” I challenged, “And there isn’t a digital hurdle we can’t get over between the two of us.”
“Okay, yeah, you’re right. I’ll send it.”
“Thanks. Keep me updated when P wakes up. Maybe she remembers something, anything.”
“I will.” He paused, “Madd?”
“Yeah?”
“Peyton won’t survive losing her sister like this. It’ll kill her even if the crash and surgery don’t. And I won’t survive losing my wife. We both know if anything happens to either of these girls, you and I are better off being put down. Promise me if Peyton doesn’t make it, you’ll—”
I nodded my head, overcome with emotion by the overbearing weight of so many lives on my shoulders. My only loyal friend was asking me to make sure I killed him if he lost his wife before he could destroy the rest of humanity in his grief. “Right back at you, D.”
“I promise.”