Chapter 35
CHAPTER 35
CALLUM
I hefted the last of the climbing gear onto the storage hooks, rolling my shoulders. Good session with the tourists this morning. The family of four had listened to instructions—always a bonus. We’d managed a safe but challenging climb that had made their two teenaged boys drop the affectation of boredom in exchange for whoops and smiles. That was what we liked to see. They’d be back. The whole job had been clean, uncomplicated. The kind of work I could still do without my limitations getting in the way. And I realized that my brain was finally starting to compensate for the lack of depth perception. It wasn’t the same—not by a long shot. But it was better than it had been.
Maybe the doctors had been right about the need for time and patience.
I checked my phone for more texts, though it hadn’t buzzed. All I saw was Parker’s earlier message.
Parker
Having lunch with the girls! Back in an hour.
Though I itched to see her—I’d been out since early this morning—I knew she needed this. Time away from all the security protocols and watchful eyes. Though she never complained, I’d seen her chafe at the restrictions. I’d done everything I could to offset them, to give her all the socialization she craved—God save me. But I knew it hadn’t quite been enough. For better or worse, my woman was a social creature.
Still, it had been a little over an hour. She should’ve been back by now. Maybe they’d taken a slightly longer lunch. Or maybe her flare had kicked back up. It had been fading over the past few days, but what if it had gotten suddenly worse?
I squashed the quick surge of worry. Jade was with her, and Jade knew better than I did what to do for her, if that was the case. And if she was flaring, one or both of them would let me know. More likely, she’d just gotten caught up at the pub having a good time. She deserved that.
A booming bark pierced the quiet of the storage bay. But it was wrong, desperate, nothing like Falkor’s usual cheerful greeting. The big white dog barreled through the open rolling door, barking frantically, his hackles raised.
Alone.
My gut clenched. Falkor never left Parker’s side. Not ever.
The moment he spotted me, he charged over, limping slightly. Blood stained the fur at his shoulder.
Finn appeared in the doorway. “What’s going on?”
“He’s hurt.” I dropped to my knees beside the dog, hands searching through his thick fur. The cut wasn’t deep. Had he been clipped by a car? Gotten into some kind of fight with another animal? I was no vet, but I didn’t think the gash had come from teeth or claws. The edges seemed too smooth.
Why had he left Parker?
“Where is she, lad? Where’s Parker?”
Falkor barked again, limping toward the door. My fingers were already pulling up her contact on my phone as I followed. Straight to voicemail. Fuck. Was she hurt? Had her legs given out? I hit Jade’s contact next, cursing when it, too, went unanswered.
Impatient, the dog grumbled at me and took my trouser leg in his teeth, pulling me along faster.
“Something’s wrong. Parker was having lunch with the girls at the pub. She should’ve been back by now.”
“You see where he takes you on foot. I’ll grab my keys.” Finn disappeared down the hall, and I broke into a run with the dog, my mind conjuring up increasingly horrific scenarios for what I might find.
But despite my vivid imagination, there was no cluster of vehicles in the road or emergency services loading her onto a stretcher. In fact, there was nothing at all on the residential street where Falkor stopped and circled, his cries growing more frantic by the second.
“I don’t understand. What are you trying to tell me?”
I looked around for… anything. Signs of a struggle or evidence that Parker had even been here. This wasn’t part of her usual route back to the office. Why had Falkor brought me here?
Finn drove up in his 4x4, Alex in the front seat. “Get in. We’ll go check the pub.”
I loaded Falkor into the back, still whining. “We’ll need to call Saoirse to get him seen about.”
“And we will, but he’ll be all right for long enough that we can check this.”
The drive to the pub took forever and no time at all. I scanned the streets, searching for any glimpse of her dark hair, her bright smile. But there was nothing, only the villagers I was coming to know despite myself, along with a dozen tourists strolling the sidewalks.
Zo looked up as we came in, her usual welcome dying on her lips at our expressions. “What’s wrong?”
“Where’s Parker?”
She flinched at the snap in my voice, but I wasn’t capable of pulling it back. Not now.
“She left about fifteen minutes ago.”
I zeroed in on what she hadn’t said. “She left? What about Jade?”
“Jade ran back to her flat for something before they finished lunch. She didn’t make it back.”
A muscle in my jaw ticked. “So Parker left alone?”
“I mean, as alone as she could be with Falkor. What’s happened?”
I was already moving as I heard Finn explain that Parker was missing and Falkor had been hurt and to spread the word around the village. He and Alex fell in behind me as we bolted for the flat down the street.
Everything outside the law office looked normal. The exterior door leading up to the flat was closed and locked. But everything felt too quiet. The silence scraped along my already raw nerves as I circled around to the alley beside the building.
A form lay crumpled against the wall.
I bolted forward. Blood matted Jade’s close-cropped natural curls where she’d been struck from behind. Her eyes fluttered even as I touched her throat to check for a pulse.
“Parker?” Her voice was slurred and thick. “Where’s—” Her eyes focused on me and widened. She tried to sit up, panic flooding her features as memory returned. “Fuck. No. They got the jump on me. Tell me she’s not…” But the look on my face had her trailing off to a whisper. “No.”
Pain shot up my arm as my fist connected with the wall, but I barely felt it through the rage and fear running through me like wildfire.
Despite every precaution, every protocol, she’d been taken.
Finn already had his phone out. “I’ll call in some favors. We’ve got resources.”
Alex helped Jade to her feet, steadying her as she swayed. “We’ll find her. We’re trained for this.”
But all I could see was Parker’s face this morning, sleep-soft and smiling as she’d kissed me goodbye at the office before I’d left for my climb. I’d promised to keep her safe. Promised nothing would happen to her on my watch.
Now she was gone, and I didn’t have the first clue how we were going to find her.
Finn squeezed my shoulder. “Lock it down. You’re no good to her panicked.”
I exhaled a hard breath out of my nose and drew another in, my hands balled into fists. He was right, of course. I was trained to regulate my emotions so I could do the job. I was literally a deadly weapon, and I’d bring every ounce of my training to bear against the people who’d taken Parker. God help anyone who’d touched a hair on her head.