Chapter 66
sixty-six
JO
Jeanne is loving the chaos that my friends have brought into her home. I have a feeling the bed-and-breakfast hasn’t seen this many people at once in years. Maybe we can all come back together once Patrick is taken care of.
“What if—no, that won’t work,” Willa says, cutting off her own thought.
We’re all seated around Jeanne’s massive dining room table.
The seven of us aren’t even taking up half of it.
Willa has been holding my hand since the minute she walked into the house.
Neither one of us is the most physically affectionate, but she won’t let go, and I honestly don’t want her to.
I think she might be the only one grounding me right now.
Harrison has papers all over the table in an order I think only he understands, but he’s so lost in his process that I don’t bother asking him anything.
I’ve seen him like this before, and he probably isn’t even aware that there’s people around him.
Harlow and I used to watch him and try to guess what he was thinking.
We’d make ourselves laugh until our abs hurt, mimicking what we thought his voice sounded like while guessing his thoughts.
He’d never even flinch or acknowledge that he could hear us.
I wish Harlow was here. It’s probably the most selfish and ungrateful thought I could have right now.
She’s safe where she is and everyone else has shown up.
But while I know they care about me, they’re here for Ezra and Maverick.
Harlow would be here for me. She’s the one constant and the only person who ever felt like she’s in my corner no matter what.
She loves me the same way I love her, always and with no conditions.
“Uh oh,” Declan whispers from the other side of Willa.
“What did you do?” Willa asks, her head snapping in his direction. She must have heard something in his tone. He holds up her phone, and I see an incoming call from Harlow. I frown, not understanding something. “Well, answer it.”
Declan looks resigned as he hits accept, and my best friend’s shrill shriek echoes throughout the room.
“Declan Monroe! You tell me what the fuck is going on right now!” I can hear Cal in the background trying to yell out an apology, but it’s cut off abruptly with an oomph. “I swear if you do not start speaking, I will get in my car and—”
“Harlow!” I yell, interrupting her. Even though I want her here, I can’t actually let that happen.
“Jo?” I can hear the question in her voice that she’s not asking. She knows if I’m with everyone else, something bad happened. Because if it was good, I would’ve called her already. I take the phone from Declan, noticing that his hands are a little shaky.
“He has them. Patrick has Ezra and Maverick.” I hear Harlow gasp, and I break down crying.
It’s the first time I’ve cried since everything happened, but even the sound of my best friend’s voice makes me feel safe enough to do it.
Willa gently takes the phone from my hand and explains to Harlow what happened.
Her grip on my fingers tightens as she assures Harlow we’ll keep her updated and she doesn’t need to drive here right this minute.
“Uh . . . I have something to say,” I hear Cal yell. “And I need everyone to remember this might be helpful before you’re mad at me.” Harlow sighs loudly over the phone, making the speaker crackle.
“What did you do, Callahan?” Harlow says, exasperated.
“Jo, do you know what shoes Mav was wearing?” Cal asks, sounding closer to the phone now.
“Combat boots, I think.” I have no idea where this is going. Usually, I can follow Cal’s crazy train of thoughts, but not today.
“The black ones or the brown ones?” he asks. There is no scenario where I can figure out why that would matter.
“Brown. He complained that he was wearing the brown ones instead of the black ones when everyone had to go into hiding. Apparently the black match more,” I say, a smile making the edges of my mouth twitch, but not able to actually form.
“What’s this about, Cal?” Kai interjects, having lost what little patience he had for this. I’m right there with him.
“I may have put trackers in all of Maverick’s shoes after that time he disappeared on us.
” The entire house goes silent, like even the old plumbing is waiting for someone to react.
Jeanne is leaning over in her seat, her milky blue eyes wide.
I know the old woman is enjoying the real-life movie unfolding in front of her.
Cal means the time Maverick turned off his phone after having lunch with Eva and everyone worried he was too depressed to function.
He wasn’t even missing. That must have really freaked out Cal, though, if he went that far.
Maverick does have a tendency to wander when we’re out shopping or exploring a new city.
I don’t think that really calls for being tracked without his knowledge though.
I want to be pissed and I will be later, but if this helps us find Maverick, I’ll let it slide.
I can hear Harlow muttering something and the sound of typing.
Cal will be in enough trouble with his wife after this call is over.
“I’m going to send over the coordinates to your phone, Jo,” Cal says.
“This says he’s still in Maine. But like the middle of the woods.
” Well, that brings up every horror movie I’ve ever seen right to the forefront of my mind.
My phone vibrates in my hand, and I look at the pin Cal sent me on the map.
“This is where they are?” I ask, already writing the longitude and latitude with a quick note on the back of a napkin and sliding it in front of Harrison. He takes the napkin, frowns, and then starts typing on his laptop.
“It’s at least where Maverick’s boots are,” Cal says before I hear another oomph.
“Don’t go all guns blazing. Gather information and do this smart, Jo.
I know you, and I know you’ll do anything for the people you care about.
What you need to do for them right now is make a plan and then a back-up plan and a back-up plan to the back-up plan.
Be prepared or stay where you are.” Harlow’s tone leaves no room for argument.
She’s right. I know she is, but as I stare at the location on my phone, I know the best I can do is a single plan.
They don’t have time for me to sit here and think.
I need to get to them, and I need to get to them now.
“I will, Harry. I promise to call you with any updates. Love you.” I hang up before she can say anything. She knows when I’m lying, and I’m sure she’s trying to wrestle the car keys from Cal right now.
“At least let me have my guy map out the area before we leave. He said he can have it to me in an hour,” Harrison says, looking up from his work for the first time.
“We?” I ask. I didn’t think he would let me go. I was fully planning on sneaking out of the house.
“I’m not letting you go alone, and I know you won’t stay put unless we tie you down.
” I don’t know if the tears in my eyes are from the overwhelming anxiety this is causing or because Harrison is the only parental figure that’s ever made me feel loved, so I just nod at him.
He returns it and quickly goes back to whatever he was looking at before.
“I’m going too,” Kai says. Everyone around the table says the same. I’m pretty sure I even heard Jeanne’s voice in there.
“No,” Harrison and I say together. The arguments all start at once, and I can’t decipher one voice over the other, but they’re all saying the same thing. They want to help. They feel useless and helpless just sitting around. And I get it, I really do.
“It has to be just me and Harrison. We need to focus on getting them out of whatever situation they’re in right now and can’t have our attention divided by having to protect you.”
I can feel Willa frown next to me. She took a kickboxing class with me a few times when I lived with her and honestly, if anyone in this group could hold their own, it’s her. But I still won’t risk it.
“Jo can kick all of your asses six ways to Sunday,” Harrison says.
“I don’t know what that means,” Declan whispers.
“I trained with Ezra every day, too. He taught me how to shoot.” I leave out the part where I never really mastered it, but I’m hoping I won’t need a gun.
I look across the table to see Kai frowning.
He must be realizing how much he doesn’t know about his twin.
Belle wraps her arms around his shoulders and leans into him.
“How about a compromise?” she says. She’s looking at Kai, but I know the question was directed at me.
“What are you thinking?” I ask, realizing that just like there was no way of keeping me from going to Maverick and Ezra, there might not be a way to keep Kai here either.
“What if we go in separate vehicles and stay a good distance away? That way we’re there when you find them and if you need help.
” I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from immediately saying no.
“I know how to shoot a gun, too.” I freeze, not expecting that.
Out of everyone in our group, Belle is the softest. Not in a bad way, but she definitely feels things the most and tries to be the peacekeeper.
Her having a gun in her hand isn’t something I can picture.
“Since when?” Willa asks, sounding offended that she either didn’t know or wasn’t invited to whatever class Belle must have taken.
“Probably about a year ago now,” Belle says. “I hated feeling helpless after everything with Brad, but I hate exercise. So I learned to shoot, and both Kai and I have gun licenses. We keep the gun in our bedroom in a safe.”
“I can throw a pretty good punch,” Declan adds like he was feeling left out. We’re all aware of his on-ice fighting ability, but this isn’t hockey, and Patrick isn’t going to stop himself from killing them.
I groan and drop my head into my hands. I can tell from the look on Kai’s face that he’s not going to be left behind. Agreeing to let any of them come with us is a terrible fucking idea, but at least that way I’ll know where they are. If I tell them no, they’re just going to find a way, anyway.
“Fine. Harrison and I will go in Ezra’s truck. Once he has the information on where they’re being kept, we’ll come up with a plan, but you have to stick to it.”
“Yes, Mom,” Willa says, rolling her eyes. I know she’s trying to break up the tension with humor, but I’m too stressed.
“Lovely!” Jeanne exclaims, making us all jump. “To the armory!” We all watch, slack-jawed, as the tiny old lady bounces up out of her chair and practically skips her way down the hall. “Are you coming?”
“What is this place?” Declan whispers, getting up to follow her. The wonder in his eyes finally gets a laugh out of me. Because I don’t know the answer, but I kind of love it here.
Jeanne wasn’t kidding when she said she had an armory. I’d call it more of a hunting shed, but the small building at the back of the property is full of hunting rifles and handguns. There are a few different bows and quivers of arrows hanging neatly on hooks.
“Dibs on the crossbow!” Declan yells, snagging it from where it was mounted on the wall. Jeanne hands him the bolts that must go with it.
“We might actually be helpful,” Willa says, taking two of the black and mechanical-looking bows off their hooks and handing one to Belle.
They’re not just a stick and a string like I picture in my head when I think of a bow and arrow.
I watch in confusion as Belle examines it, pulls the string back, and adjusts her grip.
“We were on the archery team in our town for like ten years. Belle even won awards.”
“I’m way better with a bow than a gun,” Belle says, accepting the quiver of arrows Jeanne hands her. “Never thought archery would come in handy in real life.”
“Anyone else have any secret talents they want to share with the class?” Harrison asks. He’s wearing a leather chest holster Harlow gave him for Christmas years ago and has two of his own guns already strapped into it, but he’s looking at the hunting rifles with a lot of consideration.
“No?” Declan says.
Willa snorts and pats him on the arm. “Being able to fold a fitted sheet is an amazing talent, baby, but I don’t think that’s what Harrison meant.”
“Why do you have all of this, Jeanne?” I ask.
“My late husband was an avid hunter. He would keep the meat stocked for all the tourists we hosted here year ‘round.” Jeanne looked like she was staring at the wall, but her eyes were unfocused, like she was reliving a distant memory.
“Sorry I’m late!”
I spin to see Martha jogging to the shed wearing all black, her red hair tied up on top of her head the only color on her. The sight of Martha in anything except colorful plaid is so jarring it takes me a minute to process what she said.
“Late for what?”
“Hunting, of course,” Martha says with a wink.
“Martha holds the record for the biggest bear in the county,” Jeanne says proudly. I didn’t grow up in Maine, and I always forget how much a part of their culture hunting is.
“Martha—” I start.
“We’re going to get our boys back, Jo.” She grabs a hunting rifle and cocks it, looking me in the eye and daring me to argue.
I want to. I want to tell them all to stay behind because I can’t risk them, but that would be a lie.
I don’t want to risk them, but it’s becoming more clear as the minutes tick by that I would risk anything for those two men, but I’m not alone in that.
Everyone here would, too. I won’t stop them, but I can at least give them a head start.