Chapter 31
CHAPTER 31
S tupid adorable dog collar charms. She’d thought they were cute. So cute that she’d rifled through the box while driving to have another look. And what had happened? She’d dropped the entire stupid box everywhere. Yep, that was right.
Sky reached under the seat and yelped when she scratched her arm against something sharp.
Ow. Why was everything a mess today?
A huge…colossal…mess.
Okay, maybe things weren’t that bad. Maybe a certain six-foot-five tower of annoying was affecting her on a deeper level than she cared to admit. She shouldn’t let him affect her. So he’d temporarily blocked her fence from going up, and now she had to watch him walk outside his house every morning, gloriously shirtless, for a while longer. And so he had a camera pointed right at her driveway and was basically filming her comings and goings. She shouldn’t care so much. She still owned the fence, and as soon as she got the right permit, it would go up.
Maybe she cared so much because he was annoying. Had she mentioned annoying? It was like he got his kicks out of seeing her angry. This morning, he’d whistled at her as she’d climbed into her car and followed it up with a, “Hey, peaches,” a nickname he knew she hated. She’d been so startled, she’d hit her head against the doorframe. Then she could have sworn she heard a chuckle.
She hated him. Big move-next-door-to-someone-else kind of hate.
She grabbed the last charms she could find and dropped them back into the box. More would probably pop up. Heck, she’d probably find one a day until Christmas.
Really, she shouldn’t be complaining about this or her neighbor.
She needed to focus on the good. Her doggy daycare business was going well…really well. Why she was here on a Sunday evening though, she had no idea. Because she didn’t have a life? Because work was her life?
That should be okay though because she loved her work.
She climbed out of the car, dog charms in hand. There was a parking lot around the back, but she hated entering through there when the place was empty. It kind of creeped her out, probably because it was so dark and quiet.
She stopped at the entrance and frowned. The door was open. Wide open. Only…she hadn’t left it like that. Unlocked? Sure. No reason to lock it in the small town of Amber Ridge when she was coming right back…but not open. She’d once left a door open when she’d worked in a café and a stray bird had flown in. It had taken an entire afternoon to get the creature out. Never again.
She took slow steps forward and quietly set the charms down on the counter.
Was someone here? The thought made a chill sweep over her skin.
Slowly, she moved toward the hall. A voice whispered in her head that this was a bad idea. That she should go back outside where it was safe. But she’d never listened to that voice in the past, so why start now?
She turned into the hall and inched forward, sticking close to the wall, glancing inside empty rooms as she moved.
Silence and stillness surrounded her.
She was just passing one of the dog playrooms when a noise stopped her. A man stepped out of the second playroom—and in his hand, he held a gun. Her heart stopped. But he didn’t so much as glance her way. He turned straight toward the kitchen.
Silently, Sky slipped into the room. The air in her lungs whooshed so quickly she almost felt lightheaded, and when she pulled her cell from her pocket, her fingers shook.
She didn’t want to make the call. She didn’t want to make any noise at all, but she needed help. She didn’t know who the guy was, but the gun told her he wasn’t friendly.
She dialed 911, praying someone could get there, and they could get there fast.
“Faster,” Jesse growled from the passenger seat.
“I’m going as fast as I can, Jesse,” Holden said, far too fucking calmly.
It wasn’t fast enough. He’d wanted to drive, but Holden refused to let him. And yeah, maybe he wasn’t in the best state to be behind the wheel, but sitting here in the passenger seat, knowing Aspen was with Dylan…he felt so fucking helpless he could barely breathe.
Deputies were scouring the streets looking for her. Pulling over cars. Running license plates and looking for rentals or stolen vehicles. But the asshole could be anywhere, including already in hiding.
There were too many options and not enough answers.
His fingers tightened around his Glock as he scanned the streets around him.
“Remember when Lock went missing?”
Jesse frowned. “The mission in Frankfurt.”
“Yeah, we thought we’d never find him, but not only did we find him within the hour, he was kicking ass. He’d basically done all the work before we got there.”
“That was different. Lock’s trained in a hundred ways to kill someone. He knows how to protect himself.”
“He still shouldn’t have made it out. He was outnumbered and the assholes had machine guns.”
“Lock’s smart.”
“So’s Aspen. Don’t lose hope.”
Aspen was smart. But this asshole had almost killed a woman before, and hell, there might be women he had killed that they didn’t know about.
“She’s going to be okay.” Jesse said the words quietly, and more to himself than to Holden, almost like he was willing them to be true.
“She’s going to be okay,” Holden repeated.
They turned a corner—and Jesse straightened. A crashed BMW. It had hit a telephone pole and sat partly off the road.
He lifted his phone and called the station.
“Amber Ridge Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Finch speaking.”
“Claudia, I need you to run some plates.”
“Give them to me.”
They pulled over behind the car, and both climbed out as Jesse relayed the plates.
The typing of keys sounded over the line before Claudia spoke again. “Rental car, under a Karen Davies.”
Aspen’s mother. “It’s him.”
Jesse studied the inside of the car. Blood. It was on the driver’s side, mostly on the headrest. But where was the driver?
Holden popped the trunk. “Empty.”
Where the hell were they?
He was about to tell Claudia to send all the deputies to his location when she spoke again.
“Hang on, Luke has a call on another line from a woman by the name of Sky Williams. She’s in the doggy daycare on Fifth and says there’s a man with a gun in the building.” There was a short pause. “He matches Dylan’s description.”
“Get everyone there now .” Jesse hung up and turned to Holden. “They found Dylan. This way.”
Jesse took off, pushing his body to move faster than he’d ever moved before. It was just around the corner, but it felt too far. He had to make it to Aspen before it was too late.