Chapter 56
DEX
It didn’t matter that Kol and I had just run a solid mile, following the coordinates and a trail I knew wasn’t on any map.
It didn’t matter that we’d pushed our bodies to the breaking point, Yeti at our sides.
My body was still ice-cold. The eighty-something-degree weather didn’t touch it.
And I knew I wouldn’t feel any warmth until I had Brae in my arms.
Yeti let out a soft whine, pulling up short as a cabin came into view.
“Wait,” I clipped, bringing Kol to a stop. I turned to the dog, watching as she scented the air. “I think she has something.”
Kol looked into the distance. “ATV’s over there, but no one’s around.”
I held the bag out for Yeti to sniff. “Find Brae.”
Yeti’s nose twitched. She seemed to be following something in the air and led us toward the trees. Not exactly back the way we’d come but sort of.
Within a matter of minutes, she dropped her nose to the ground again.
“She’s got a trail,” I surmised.
Kol bent, picking up some threads that had caught on some brambles. “Someone’s been through here.”
I adjusted my grip on my weapon, the weight of it burning into me as we followed Yeti deeper into the forest. The sounds of the river built with each step, pounding against my eardrums.
And then everything stopped.
The world I’d known tipped on its axis because, standing on the bank of the river, was a man I’d known for half my life. A friend. Someone I fucking trusted. And he had a gun pressed to Brae’s head.
Yeti let out a low growl as I dropped the scent bag and lifted my weapon—the one that felt like it carried the weight of the world.
“Stay.” My command wasn’t loud, but it held a finality that had the dog pulling up short. But still, her body quivered. She waited for a single command from me to let her loose on the monster who had Brae. On Travis.
“Fucking hell,” Kol swore.
Travis’s eyes flared at Yeti’s growl, true panic swirling through the green depths as he caught sight of us. He yanked Brae in front of him, pressing the barrel of his gun to her temple. “You’re a little early to the party, I’m afraid, boys.”
“U.S. Forest Service,” Kol stated. “Lower your weapon.”
“Kol, come on now. No need to be official.” Travis grinned at my brother, but sweat broke out over his brow. “We’re all just having a little fun here.”
“Fun?” I snarled, the darkness swirling and spreading as I held my gun steady in Travis’s direction. There was only one problem: That was also where Brae was.
Her golden eyes were wide, and dirt was smudged across her face. Her blond hair was tangled, and brambles had gotten caught in it somewhere along the way. But amid it all, she was still so beautiful. Because she’d become my home, my resting place.
“You don’t know the meaning of the word,” Travis taunted, his creepy grin spreading wider.
“You know, it really added something, you coming back here. And even before that, you were an influence on me, so I’ve really gotta thank you.
Knowing what your dad did showed me I wasn’t alone with my darkness, but it was your obsession with computers that added to my game.
Helped me do things I never thought possible. ”
My face twisted as my gut roiled and guilt swirled. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Every time I took someone, you gave me the gift of watching exactly what it did to the people around them. Their emails, their text messages, their phone calls. I knew it was possible to hack them because of you. I might not have your skills, but the internet provides a wealth of knowledge.”
That coldness coursing through me burned now. It left scars I knew I’d never recover from.
“I got to feel every ounce of pain I dealt them. Every tear, every shred of fury.”
Travis’s hand fisted in Brae’s hair, and she yelped. I could see she gave her all to swallow it quickly and not give him the satisfaction of the reaction. But I saw the pure joy on Travis’s face—joy at causing others pain.
“You took Nova.” I spoke the words I already knew were true.
Travis’s grin widened. “Want to know where I buried her? Want to know how loud she screamed in the end? Begged for her life? How close you were to finding her? How recently she lost it all?”
Tears filled Brae’s eyes, cresting her lids and spilling down her cheeks.
And I wanted to kill him. For the first time, I knew for sure that I had darkness in me.
The kind that lived in my father. Only I knew now, with the certainty Brae had given me, that it only came out in protection of those I loved. It came out in search of the light.
“Let Brae go,” I growled.
Travis laughed. “Or what? You’ll throw your gun at me? I know you won’t shoot it. Your head’s too much of a fucked-up place.”
He knew because I’d shared that I hated guns when he offered to take me hunting in high school. He knew because I’d given him that knowledge, the weapon to use against me.
My gaze flicked to Kol. He didn’t have the shot. Brae was fully blocking Travis in his line of sight.
I struggled to swallow as my eyes locked with Brae’s tear-filled ones. And then she mouthed the words that meant more than even I love you, the words that meant everything because I knew what it cost her to give them.
“I trust you.”
My eyes closed, just for a moment. But I felt a lifetime in that smattering of seconds. Images of Brae. The infinite incarnations of her face. Laughing. Determined. Angry. Joyful. Coming apart. Telling me she loved me.
My eyes opened as Travis’s taunts filled my ears, but I couldn’t hear them. All I could hear were Brae’s words. She might not have spoken them aloud, but my brain still formed the sounds. I trust you.
I fired.