Chapter 27 – CARTER
27
CARTER
I normally wouldn’t pick up a call from a number I didn’t recognize. But anything was better than sitting at my desk, just staring at Anna’s photo and obsessing over everything I could have done differently.
She’d asked me for space but I hadn’t expected this. It’d been days since I heard from her.
A week ago, I would’ve come for her, no matter how much she pleaded for me to leave her alone. But after my last night with her, everything changed.
Now, I understood that if I wanted Anna, I had to let her take control. She’d had enough with Josh manipulating her, living in her father’s cage, and it was my job to prove that I was different. That her freedom was important to me.
So I was stuck waiting, and all too happy to pick up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Carter?” said a familiar female voice. Summer.
About the last person I ever expected to call me, but I knew Anna was staying with her. Maybe she was going to ream me out on behalf of her friend. I’d take anything she wanted to sling at me and then some if she’d put in a good word. Make Anna return my calls.
“Is Anna with you?”
I sat up straight, tapping the speakerphone button as I flipped through to the app to track Anna’s phone. I’d just looked at the damn thing fifteen minutes before.
“No. Why are you asking?”
I ignored the stab of fear in my stomach as I opened the map, zooming in on the little red dot that blinked with her location.
“Well, she’s not here, but she left her phone. I told her she should go for a walk earlier, but I thought she’d be back by now. It’s almost nine and I’m getting worried. If she’s not with you, then where would she be?”
The dot hadn’t moved. It was still firmly over Summer’s townhouse.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
I sped over to Summer’s place as quickly as I could, calling Paulson for an update from his men along the way.
“Where is Anna?” I asked as soon as he picked up.
“Uh, just one sec.” I heard him tapping a few keys and speaking into a radio and every second felt like an eternity. “Yep, still at the best friend’s house. She hasn’t left in days.”
Someone was going to die for this.
Maybe a lot of someones.
“She’s not there,” I seethed down the line.
Paulson floundered. “That’s not possible. We have seven men around the perimeter. No one went in or out without us seeing it. Not a fucking chance.”
“I’m on my way there now, and if I don’t find Anna safe in her fucking bed, someone’s head is going to roll.”
I hung up just as I reached the foot of Summer’s driveway. She was already there waiting for me, anxiously shifting her weight back and forth in the doorway.
I took the stairs two at a time and shoved past her. “Show me where she was staying.”
“Do you think something happened? Hey! Carter .”
I cleared the hall in three strides and stalked through an all-white kitchen to a power pink living room, searching for the bedrooms with Summer right on my heels.
“Should I call the police?”
“You should call the fucking undertaker,” I growled, throwing open the door to the first bedroom and then the second, my hands shaking as something hot and uncomfortable slithered up my back.
“This is about her ex, isn’t it? She said she was worried he’d find her, but I didn’t think—I mean, she didn’t say that he was?—”
“Dangerous?” I filled in, whirling on her with enough lethal rage that she shrank back from me with a yelp.
I spied Anna’s phone on the nightstand of the next room and stalked inside, tearing it off the nightstand and the charger from the wall.
The blankets were all messed up and it smelled like her in here.
I scanned the room, looking for signs of a struggle, and finding none.
“What’s through there?”
I was already halfway over to the only door in the room when Summer answered in a squeak. “The en suite.”
I broke the door handle trying to open it and shouldered through to a dim en suite bathroom with a stand up shower and ring lighting around the mirror.
It smelled different here. Like…cigarettes.
Anna didn’t smoke.
She almost bit my head off when I brought a pack to the beach once, making me swear I’d never touch one again.
“What is that?”
I followed Summer’s gaze to the towel sopping wet in the base of the shower. Was that…blood on the corner of it?
Icy rage consumed me. Someone must have come for Anna.
I never should’ve let her leave my villa.
Idiot.
Fucking idiot.
Tile cracked under my fist, biting into the thin skin over my knuckles and raiding down over the floor.
A vision of Anna’s emerald eyes closing forever filled my head and I tore at my hair to get rid of it, as if I could pull it out by the root, hot air sawing out through my teeth.
If I believed that, it would break me—and I couldn’t afford to imagine it. Not when she needed me to find her.
I focused on the bathroom, looking for clues. The struggle was contained here. There wasn’t any other blood that I could see, and nobody had bothered to clean up. How the hell did they get in?
Paulson picked up on the first ring.
“She’s gone.”
“We’re already searching. My guys are trying to sort out what went wrong.”
“I don’t care what went wrong. I need you to find. Her .” Two more punches to the tile to sate the fire in my blood.
“I know and we will. Give me time, Mr. Cole.”
Anna might not have time.
“Do you have a location for Josh Porter?” I demanded, already moving back through the townhouse, ignoring Summer following several paces behind me.
Out the front windows, blue and red lights flashed over the neighborhood.
“Not exactly,” Paulson said. I heard him typing on his keyboard. “He’s been moving between motels like we said, but he did come closer to the city. Last known location was Prescott.”
That was way too close.
“But we don’t have a lead on his current whereabouts. The guy’s not a total idiot. He knows someone’s following him, and?—”
“Find him. Or it’s your head. And Paulson?”
“Yeah boss?”
“Which of our men was responsible for watching all movement coming in and out of the house?”
He paused, sighing. “Chris Waterstone.”
Chris Waterstone was a dead man walking.
I turned on Summer as I peered from the window to the two police vehicles parked at the end of the driveway. “Did you call the fucking cops?”
She shook her head, eyes wide. “No. No I didn’t.”
“Wait, I have something coming in,” Paulson said and I held my breath.
“The cops aren’t there for you,” he said. “They were called by Summer’s neighbor. Something about a stolen vehicle.”
“What vehicle?”
“A silver Prius. We’re trying to get the plates. Hold on.”
I pulled the phone from my mouth. “Your neighbors drive a Prius?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It belongs to my neighbor’s son, Alec. I let him park it in my garage when he comes to town.”
That’s it.
That was how the fuckers got in. How they got her out.
“Paulson, do we have the plates?”
“Got it. Texting to you now.”
“Start searching every motel in a hundred mile radius.”
“That will take?—”
“I don’t care how long it takes, just fucking do it. Start with the most likely suspects and work your way north. I’ll start to the south.”
“On it now.”
I hung up, rushing back outside to my car. Summer followed me out.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“To find Anna. If they have her, then they’re bringing her to him.”
“To her ex?”
The panic in Summer’s voice was not fucking helping me right now.
“He’s been staying in motels outside the city. That’s where he’ll have her.”
She gasped. “Oh my god.”
Summer chased me all the way to my car, like a stubborn puppy.
“How do you know which motel he’ll be in?”
“I don’t. Until my PI has a better answer, I’ll go to them all.”
“Then I’m coming with you,” she said fiercely.
“No.” There was no time to waste arguing. Summer would be a liability, just slowing me down. Summer’s heels clattered insistently behind me on the pavement. I opened my driver’s side door, and saw a flash of baby blue underneath me.
Summer had dived into my seat. She glared stubbornly up at me.
“You’re not the only one who cares about Anna. Maybe I can help.”
“Get the fuck out of my car.”
“I can help you search the motels. We can check twice as many rooms in half the time.”
Logical.
“Fine,” I barked. “But I won’t slow down for you, and you might see some shit you wish you could unsee. I don’t have time for hysterics.”
Summer nodded and scrambled into the passenger seat. “I promise, no hysterics. I watch true crime documentaries to relax. I won’t slow you down.”
I wondered how long it would be until she broke that promise.
Neither of us spoke while I drove to the first location in a long list Paulson had sent via text—the most likely suspects based on the parameters of every last motel Josh had stayed at leading up to today.
The first was a shitty motel in the part of town where I grew up. Back in the day, my dad used to meet his loan shark here. I doubted it’d gotten much classier since the last time I’d walked by it.
I was quickly proven right. Multiple rooms had their windows boarded up, but the neon OPEN sign still blinked from the lobby door. I parked my car right outside the front entrance and stormed in, Summer scurrying behind me.
The front desk was manned by a skinny, redheaded guy in his early 20s. If he wasn’t selling weed, he was definitely using it by the reek permeating the entire room. He looked up at me with glassy eyes.
“Hey man, checking in?”
“I’m looking for a tall man, brown eyes, brown hair,” I said, not wasting time. “He’ll have a young woman, pretty, long dark hair with blonde highlights and green eyes. Are they here?”
The redhead blinked. “I can’t tell you who’s staying here, man.”
Reaching into my wallet, I pulled out three hundred dollar bills and put them on the counter. “Yes, you can.”
“Sorry, I’m really not supposed to,” he said, scratching his chest.
I grabbed the collar of his polo and pulled him forward. “The woman is in danger. Talk.”
He shook his head. “Man, privacy. I can’t.”
I slammed his head down hard against the desk. The guy cried out, while Summer shrieked behind me. So much for no hysterics.
“Have you seen a silver Prius?”
“I…I…”
I punched him in the jaw. His bones felt damn good under my fist. When he didn’t answer I grabbed his hair, pulled him out from behind the desk, and kneed him in the stomach. Each cry of pain soothed the rage building inside me.
Anna’s gone. She might be dead. Every minute this asshole wastes is the minute I might have needed to save her.
“Carter Cole!” Summer screeched. I looked up to see her standing beside the desk, holding up a ring of keys. “Enough wasting time. We can check the rooms ourselves.”
The front desk clerk was huddled on the floor, a bruised and bloody mess. I had no idea how long I’d been punishing him. Wordlessly, I took the keys from her, pulling the first half from the ring and pushing them back into her hand.
“Go, you get the ones on that end.”
She nodded and took off.
I unlocked each door, then made a quick look around the room. Most of them were empty, with no traces that anyone had been staying there. Three rooms had guests; none of them were Josh or Anna. I could hear Summer squeaking apologies to the motel guests the closer we got to meeting in the middle.
The motel was small; it only took ten minutes to thoroughly search the entire place.
Summer didn’t say anything when we got back in the car. I texted an update to Paulson then plugged the next hotel into the GPS. After fifteen minutes on the road, she finally opened her mouth.
“I really hope she’s okay…”
She trailed off, holding back tears with a sniff.
“What will you do to her ex if you find him?”
“ When ,” I corrected her. “When I find him, I’ll kill him.”
For two straight nights, I hadn’t slept.
My men and I tore through every motel, trailer park, and camping site in northern California. Paulson managed the entire thing with the sort of organized precision that might save his life when this was through if it led to my Anna back where she belonged.
I declined his insistent offers to have a small team accompany me on my end. Truthfully, at this point, I’d end up throttling my backup soldiers the minute they breathed wrong or did anything to piss me off.
Last night at midnight, Summer called me for an update. She sighed when I reported back that I still had nothing.
“I figured out how he got in the building, if it helps,” she said. “Apparently, Josh sold Alec some pills. They met at a park and after the drug deal or whatever, Josh knocked him out and stole the keys to his car. He drove right into the parking garage and used my spare key to get in. Your guards couldn’t have known it was him.”
I rubbed my brow, annoyed. Paulson and I circulated photos of Josh to all Anna’s bodyguards. Even through tinted windows, they should have recognized him. As soon as I found Anna, I’d have them all fired and their careers torched. They’d never work in security again.
“Have the cops found the vehicle?”
“Not yet. I asked Ms. Bailey to let me know as soon as they do. Where are you now?”
I checked my GPS with bleary eyes. “Super 8 by the San Jose airport.”
“Get a room. Seriously, Carter,” she said bossily. “You need at least a few hours of sleep, or you’re going to lose your edge and fuck up when Anna needs you. I can bring you supplies. James and I want to help.”
“I already told you?—”
“Yeah, yeah, stay here in case she comes back. But both of us don’t need to be here.”
“Just stay there. Keep your phone on you and keep me posted on that Prius.”
I hung up on whatever she’d been about to say next.
Blinking awake, I cursed to myself, not realizing I’d fucking fell asleep. I pinched the sleep from my eyes and blinked to look at the time.
Fuck.
Sitting in the passenger seat was a pink and white duffel bag with Summer’s initials embroidered on it. She’d left a note in pristine cursive right on top. I told you to get a room.
I unzipped the bag and found energy bars, water bottles, and a set of clean clothes. The clothes must have belonged to her boyfriend. The hoodie and workout pants weren’t my size or style, but they would fit well enough. The clothes I was wearing reeked by now. I stripped and changed quickly right in the parking lot, not caring if anyone saw me.
I was downing a bottle of water when Paulson’s name appeared on my phone. I picked it up immediately. “What?”
“I think I have a lead,” he said. “A motel just outside San Jose. It was listed as sold last week. Looks like it was purchased by a subsidiary of Porter Holdings.”
Josh’s father’s company.
I was already driving.
“Keep looking, see if you can get security footage or anything useful. I’m on my way there. Send backup and a medic.”
I hung up, putting the location in my GPS.
The Castle Inn was every bit the piece of shit I expected it would be. There were two levels of rooms, each with their own outside entrance. The exterior hadn’t been painted with anything but graffiti in decades, and the parking lot was full of potholes. Several rooms had broken windows covered in cardboard and duct tape.
It looked completely empty. Abandoned. Not a single car in the lot.
Nothing for a mile in either direction.
The perfect place to make someone disappear.
I pulled the pistol from my glovebox before carefully making my way to the first door.
I pressed my ear against it and listened, my skin tingling with anticipation. Nothing. I walked quickly but quietly, not wanting to give anyone who might be inside any heads up that I was coming.
The next three rooms were just as dead silent as the first.
Just before I moved to the final room on this floor, a cold sweat broke out over my back. It was like my intuition was telling me, this was the one. Gripping my pistol, I set my jaw and leaned my ear against the rough wooden pane.
Was that…
A woman sobbed softly, distantly, in the room.
Anna .
My vision went black at the edges as I kicked in the door.
Anna lay in the corner, slumped against the radiator in just a pair of panties. Her breasts were streaked with dried blood. Her hair was a tangled, ratty mess.
Crouched next to her was the man I meant to crush with my bare hands.
His grubby hands were on her legs. He’d pay for every tiny bruise and cut on her thighs.
I aimed the gun right at his face. “Step the fuck back.”
Josh looked over at me with genuine surprise. The asshole was high as a kite, his eyes unfocused and movements strange and jerky. He raised his hands and stumbled to his feet.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, chill, man,” he said.
I didn’t bother saying another word. There wasn’t a real, rational person behind those eyes. Just some pathetic fuck-up pumped full of drugs.
“Sorry. Y’know I was lookin’ fr Annie. But turns out, thas not Annie.”
He was slurring, not making any fucking sense.
Josh pointed over his shoulder at Anna. She was coming to groggily, swallowing slow, blinking those big beautiful eyes open.
“Carter?”
Christ, she sounded so weak.
“ On your knees, ” I bellowed to Josh when he turned to look at her. I didn’t want his eyes on her another second.
Josh looked confused. Instead, he stumbled a few steps closer to me.
“I said, on your fucking knees!” I shouted.
Josh rushed me without warning, and I fired the gun. With his wild movements, the shot missed the kill zone, cutting through the flesh at the side of his skull.
He kept coming, too high to feel the pain, his fists flying.
I got him with a knee to his gut but as he went down he got hold of my arm and sank his teeth into the meaty flesh at the base of my thumb, biting down to the bone. The gun fell from my grip, misfiring into the ceiling.
Anna shrieked and distracted by her, it took me a second to register that he was making a grab for it.
Fucker.
I threw out a knee to catch him in the side of the head and he staggered to the right.
I searched the floor for the gun.
“Carter!”
Something hard slammed into the side of my head, making my right ear ring and my vision go spotty. Double.
A wet laugh, and I blinked, finding two of Josh with pipes in their hands. Which one was the double?
Fuck.
My vision swam and I felt rough carpet under my palms.
“Carter! Carter, get up!”
I tried to stand, but the floor tipped up and I went down. I willed my eyes to fucking focus, and they did—a moment too late.
“Nice gun,” Josh slurred, and I blinked, finding the double image of Josh holding my Beretta, twisting it this way and that before turning it to aim at me.
He leaned back, staggering a step, fighting for balance. He couldn’t seem to keep his arm from swaying in messy lopsided circles.
“Josh, please ,” Anna begged, her voice breaking. “You don’t have to do this.”
He grunted in frustration and found his balance, steadying the weapon, his finger on the trigger.
“Sorry, man, you really shouldn’t have come here.”
Anna screamed.
Anna.
She was behind Josh, throwing her chains around his neck.
I was up, moving, falling, up again, moving.
Josh gasped for air and spun wildly, but she clung to his back like a fucking koala. His face turned purple as he struggled to breathe and the double image merged back to one.
He threw himself back, slammed her into the wall, hard enough that she lost her grip and gasped, slumping to the floor.
I bent to scoop the rusted pipe from the floor, advancing on him with an animal sound in my throat. His skull made a crunching sound as it caved in under the metal.
He went down, the gun clattered away.
And then I was on him, seeing red, seeing black.
Seeing nothing but the violent rise of the pipe over and over again in my hands as I smashed his fucking brains all over the floor.
I came back to myself with the feel of his blood on my face and an icy cold climbing down my spine like a winter frost.
The soft sound of Anna crying reached me through the ringing in my ears.
Anna.
I rushed over to her, dropping the pipe, holding her face in my hands. Her cheeks were wet with tears. Her eyes wide with horror.
Her still manacled hands clung to my jacket sleeves as she shook like a fucking leaf in my arms. “I’m sorry,” I said, not recognizing my own voice, the wobble in it as something burned in my eyes. “Anna, I’m so sorry.”
I pulled her into my chest, wrapping myself around her, shielding her. “It’s my fault. It’s all my fault. I should’ve been there.”
My little siren’s body wracked with the force of her tears as she cried into me.
Pulling her back enough to look into her eyes, I scanned her face, her neck, the dried blood on her chest. “Are you hurt?”
“My wrist,” she sniffed. “I think it’s broken.”
“Did he…”
She swallowed hard and her face broke. “He…”
Oh god.
My hands shook.
There was a burning in my chest.
“He t-tried,” she managed between hiccupping gasps. “I—s-s-stopped him.”
“What do you mean, he tried?”
“I d-don’t want to think about it,” she said in a rush and I wished I could smash his fucking head in all over again.
He might not have raped her but the fucking bastard had still scared her, kidnapped her, put his filthy fucking hands on her body.
Anna let her head fall heavy against my arm and let out a shuddering sigh.
“It’s okay. It doesn’t matter. You found me.”
I sucked in a trembling breath and dropped a long kiss on the top of her head. “I found you,” I echoed. “And I’m never letting you go again.”