Chapter 25 #2
“Yeah.” She sniffed, the tears still falling. Then she smiled, the relief and joy hitting me square in the chest. Sweet relief. “I mean, a lot could still go wrong but—”
“It won’t.”
They’d called in the OB/GYN for us, the doctor who delivered all the babies in Clifton Forge.
First, he’d ordered a blood test. Then he had wheeled in a cart, covered a wand with a condom and done an ultrasound of her womb.
From everything the doctor could see, there weren’t any risks to the pregnancy at the moment.
We stuck around, waiting for the blood test. When he confirmed hormone levels were where they needed to be and they’d picked up a heartbeat on the ultrasound, we were sent home.
And yeah, shit could still go wrong. But I wasn’t going to think like that.
“I need to call my parents. I’m sure my dad is worried since I didn’t show up for Sunday delivery.”
“Want to just go to their house?”
“Not like this. I’m a mess and they’ll worry. Can I borrow your phone?”
“Sure, babe.” I handed it over and let her call as we sat in the parking lot. She assured them she was fine and that she’d explain everything later. When the call ended, I pulled away from the hospital, driving to my house again.
“Should we go to the garage?” she asked. “I want to make sure Genevieve is okay.”
“Dad will come to my place. Let’s start there.”
“Okay.” She was so tired, her eyes drooped as we drove. But when we arrived home and there were three bikes in the driveway, she sat up straight.
I pulled into the garage and helped her inside where Dad, Leo and Emmett were already waiting in my living room. Leading Bryce to a couch, I sat down and put her right at my side.
“Did you get him?” Bryce asked before anyone else could speak.
Dad’s jaw clenched as he shook his head.
“Fucking bastard,” Leo hissed from the leather chair across from us. “We were close. Followed his trail right up past the cabin, but then he just disappeared. He had to know that area.”
“Goddamn it,” I growled as Bryce tensed. The last thing we needed was this guy still breathing. If he came after Bryce again, he wouldn’t find her alone.
“We split up and searched the area,” Emmett said. “Then hightailed it back to the road in case he got around us but then had to leave.”
“Why?”
“Fire.” Dad shook his head. “Fucker must have torched the cabin to cover his tracks. We saw smoke billowing up from the trees, knew we had to report it. We called it in to the forest service, then got the hell out of there before the authorities showed up.”
“And Genevieve?” Bryce asked. “Where is she?”
“We don’t know.” Dad shook his head. “When we got back to our bikes, Isaiah’s was already gone. Figured we’d find him at the garage but it’s empty. Tried calling him but he’s not answering.”
“What if the guy got her?” Bryce clutched my hand. “We have to find her.”
“Isaiah wouldn’t leave the mountain if he didn’t have her with him. He ran right after her.”
Except they should have been here already. With the time it had taken me to get Bryce home and shower, then for us to go to the doctor, Isaiah should have had Genevieve back in town by now.
I shot Dad a look, silently conveying my worry. With one nod, I knew he felt the same. But I didn’t want to worry Bryce even more.
“He probably took her someplace to get warm,” I assured her. “We’ll give them thirty minutes to call back. Then we’ll go looking.”
“Okay.” She nodded.
“All right. Since we’ve got thirty minutes”—Dad faced Bryce—“what happened?”
“I went to my parents’ house for dinner last night.
It was almost dark when I got home. I was tired and didn’t bother turning on the lights because .
. . I was tired. I just wanted to go to bed.
” She sucked in a ragged breath. “Then he was there. I tried to fight him off but he was too strong. He taped my hands and ankles together, gagged me so tight I could barely swallow. Then he hauled me out the back door to the alley. No one would have seen us out there, not in my neighborhood. Everyone’s asleep after seven.
He stuffed me in the back of a car. In the trunk. ”
My stomach pitched. She’d been in a trunk? This fucker was dead. He’d put my woman in a trunk. If I had just been there, if I hadn’t left after she’d told me she was pregnant, none of this would have happened.
“It’s not your fault,” she whispered, lacing her fingers with mine as she read my thoughts.
“Should have been there.”
“He would have found another way. This was planned. He wanted you to think Genevieve had taken me so you’d go after her.”
“Why?” Emmett asked. “Did he say why?”
Bryce shook her head. “Just that he wanted to win an old war.”
“The Warriors,” Leo bit out. “Tucker lied to us.”
“You’re right,” I said. “It has to be the Warriors, but Tucker isn’t the kind of man who would hide his intentions. If he had a beef with us, he’d own it. Hell, he’d brag about fucking us over. So why hide behind a ruse? Why try to frame Genevieve? How did he even know about her?”
“My gut says it’s not the Warriors.” Dad stood, moving to stand in front of the fireplace.
“That Tucker’s been telling the truth from the beginning.
This is someone else. Someone knows I went to meet with Amina that night.
He knows she—we—had a daughter and went after Genevieve too.
Bottom line, this is all about me. Making me pay. ”
“Who?” Emmett asked. “We’ve been trying to come up with a target for a damn month and we’re no closer now than we were the day you got arrested.”
“What else happened?” I asked Bryce. “After he loaded you into the trunk, what else happened?”
“We drove,” she said. “For a long time. Then he parked and got out. It was a while later that he came back with Genevieve.”
“Bozeman. Bet he took you to Bozeman to grab Genevieve after her flight got in. Probably took her from the hotel. Which meant he had to know she was coming. Do you know who else she told about coming here?”
Bryce shook her head. “As far as I know, it was just me. But if he was watching—I don’t know, can you hack someone’s credit card transactions?”
“Yeah,” Emmett told her. “It doesn’t take much.”
“That makes me feel safe,” she muttered.
I’d wait until a different day to tell her Emmett had broken into her accounts the day after she’d shown up at the garage.
“Let’s find out what hotel Genevieve was at. Maybe they have video footage of him taking her.” Though I wouldn’t hold my breath. This guy was smart. He’d taken precautions. Even in the mountains, he’d been covered head to toe. “Did he show his face?”
“No.” Bryce’s shoulders fell. “Not once.”
“Then he took you up to the mountains, right?” Dad asked.
“Yep. He made us pose for the picture. He said he wanted you guys to find me dead because then you’d kill Genevieve.
He had me on my knees. The gun . . .” She swallowed hard.
“The gun was to my head. I really thought that was it. Thank God, it wasn’t.
I guess you got there faster than he’d expected. ”
“Did he . . .” I swallowed hard. “Did he hurt you?”
“No.” She gave me a sad smile. “He pushed me and Genevieve around, but nothing more.”
Other than trying to kill her.
He’d die for that. Except we’d missed our shot. “Fuck, I wish I hadn’t missed.”
When was the last time I’d missed a target?
Years. But I hadn’t shot a gun in a year either.
I needed to fit in time at the range. I’d been so close with my shot, but after sprinting up the mountain, my heart had been racing.
Then to see the guy holding Genevieve, I’d made a split-second decision to shoot at him instead of Genevieve.
“I’m just glad you didn’t shoot Genevieve,” Bryce said. “Where are they? Can you call them again?”
Dad took out his phone and made the call. He didn’t leave the room as he pressed it to his ear. The rings were loud enough for us to hear until they ended and he dropped the phone. “No answer.”
Shit. Something had gone wrong. Maybe this guy had caught up to Isaiah? I didn’t want to drag Bryce along to go find them, but it might come to that. I wasn’t leaving her alone or in anyone else’s care.
“After he got Genevieve, did you go anywhere else?” Emmett asked her.
“No, we drove right to the mountain. He made us walk to the spot where you found us.”
“Any trace of a car up there?” I asked Leo.
“None. Wherever he parked, it was far. Probably a trail we don’t know about.”
“Did you get a look at the car? Maybe a license plate?”
Bryce shook her head. “He took us out, faced us away, and I didn’t even think to look at the plates. The car was nothing special. It was a typical black sedan. Sorry.”
“It’s okay, babe.” I put my arm around her shoulders. “You did good.”
She’d lived. That was all she’d had to do. She’d fought. And when it was time, she’d run.
“He seemed so determined. Angry. This is . . . personal. It has to be someone you know,” she told us. “I could feel it, when we were up there. He hates you.”
Dad’s eyes met mine. Who?
We’d been asking that question for a month.
“If we haven’t figured it out by now, we’re not going to today.” I stood from the couch, pulling Bryce to her feet. “We need to find Isaiah. Let’s check the garage first.”
“Wait.” She tugged on my hand. “Don’t you think we should go to the cops and tell them about the kidnapping?”
I looked to Emmett and Leo, both shaking their heads. I sighed, turning to Bryce. “Babe, I know you trust Marcus. But I think this would be better kept between us.”
“Why? We’re trying to prove that Draven is innocent here. To show reasonable doubt that someone is out to frame him. If me being kidnapped makes them investigate, then shouldn’t we try?”
“They won’t find anything. If we didn’t, they won’t.” And if the cops were involved, I wouldn’t get the vengeance I wanted against the man who’d taken her.
She narrowed her gaze. “You don’t know that.”
“I do,” I said gently. “I’m not saying they aren’t good at their jobs, but no matter how hard they tried, they never pinned much on the Kings. We’re just . . . better than they are. We don’t have to follow the same rules.”
“What if we don’t find who took me? He can’t get away with it, Dash.”
“He won’t,” I promised. “But we’ll have an easier time finding him if we’re not worried about Marcus in the middle of everything.
If we bring in the cops, we’ll be constantly worried they’ll stumble onto something they shouldn’t.
Some secrets need to stay secret. If they’re hovering over us, it’ll break us. Trust me. Please?”
Her face softened. “Okay.”
“Come on.” I put my arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go to the garage and find Isaiah.”
Except when we got there, it was deserted. Open and empty, the way we’d left it this morning. It seemed like years, not hours, since I’d been working on the Mustang.
“Where are they?” Bryce asked as we stood together in the office. Emmett had gone to the clubhouse to make sure nothing had happened there while we’d been gone. Leo and Dad had just run upstairs to check Isaiah’s apartment.
“I don’t know.” I hugged her to my chest. “We’ll find them.”
I took out my phone, calling Isaiah’s number and not expecting him to answer—and he didn’t. Boots thudded down the metal stairs at the side of the building, preceding Dad and Leo as they came into the office.
“Nothing,” Dad said. “Leo and I are going to head back up to the mountain. You guys wait here. Stay safe.”
“Call as soon as you can.” There was plenty of light this time of year. They had until almost nine before the dark would creep in and make a search impossible.
“Will do. Lock down tight. Everything. Call Presley and make sure she’s home. Tell her to stay there and lock the doors.”
“You think he’d go after her?”
Dad’s gaze drifted to Presley’s desk. “Don’t know what to think anymore.”
When the door closed behind them, I took Bryce’s face in my hands. She leaned her cheek into my palm. “You’re dead on your feet. Let’s go home. Get some rest.”
“I want to be here in case they show up. Can we wait in the office?”
I wouldn’t tell her no. Not today. “I’ll call in for some food. What do you want?”
“Whatever. I’m not all that hungry.”
“Well, you have to eat.” It had been twenty-four hours since she’d eaten.
I led her into my office, where I had a couch. I made sure she was comfortable, then called for pizza. She did her best to eat two slices while I inhaled the rest. Then we sat in the silence. Waiting.
Other than Emmett stopping in to tell us he’d found the hotel and was trying to get security camera footage, no word came. Eventually, Bryce fell asleep on my lap. I kept one hand on her hip. The other ready to grab my gun from its holster.
The light behind the window blinds in my office faded slowly. It got dark, enough for the timed lights outside to flicker to life. And that was when the buzz of a motorcycle caught my ear. The sound didn’t belong to Dad’s bike.
“Babe.” I gently shook Bryce awake. “Someone’s coming.”
She roused from sleep, rubbing her eyes. “Do you think it’s them?”
“Don’t know. Come on.” I held her hand, keeping her hidden behind me as I went to the office door. I cracked it an inch, taking out my gun. When the machine came into view, I put it away. “It’s Isaiah.”
“Finally.” She opened the door wider, pushing past me as he pulled into the parking lot.
His face was haggard as he shut off his bike. His shoulders slumped. When he spotted us outside the office, at the base of the stairs that led to his apartment, his frame fell even further.
“Where’s Genevieve?” Bryce asked after he climbed off his motorcycle and walked our way. “Is she okay?”
“She wanted to leave. I drove her to Bozeman.”
“And you left her there?” Bryce’s jaw dropped. “We don’t know who took us. What if he got to her again? He took her from that hotel once, he could have—”
Isaiah held up a hand. “I took her to the hotel and went in and got her stuff. Then I drove her to the airport, waited until her plane took off. She’s on her way to Colorado if she’s not there already.”
“Okay.” Bryce relaxed. “But she’s all right?”
“She’s fine.”
“What happened? Why didn’t you answer?” I asked. “We’ve been calling.”
Isaiah dropped his eyes to the ground, his jaw set tight. He looked awful. More haunted than the first day he’d shown up here, desperate for a job and to get on with his life.
I put my hand on his shoulder. “What happened?”
He didn’t answer. He brushed past us to the stairs, taking each one with heavy footfalls.
“Isaiah,” I called his name.
He paused and glanced over his shoulder. “I got her out of there. Just like I said I would.”
Something else had happened, but before I could ask for more, he was up the stairs and out of sight.
Bryce and I shared an anxious look.
We weren’t going to get any more answers tonight.