Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Penny frowned and looked at her phone for what seemed like the hundredth time. She was done working, and Pyro hadn’t texted or called. She’d contacted him and gotten no response. The phone just rang and rang before going to voicemail. And the messages she’d sent hadn’t been read.
Something was wrong. She felt it in her gut. It was only about forty-five minutes after the time he said he’d be back, but that was forty-five minutes too long for someone as reliable as Pyro.
Being alone in the apartment suddenly seemed creepy. She felt as if she was being watched. With shaky fingers, Penny pulled up Casper’s contact information on her phone. She pushed the Call button and held her breath, hoping like hell he picked up.
“Hey, Penny, what’s up?”
Relief made her feel light-headed. “Something’s wrong.”
“Talk to me,” he said, his voice completely different now. More serious, no-nonsense.
“Pyro went to pick up Bowie at school. He said he was taking her to the park, but they’re almost an hour late getting home, and he’s not answering his phone or messages.”
“Stay where you are. I’m sending Laryn to you. I mean it, Penny—stay at the apartment. I’m on this.”
She appreciated more than she could say that Casper didn’t patronize her.
Didn’t tell her that she was overreacting.
That Pyro had probably lost track of time.
They both knew Pyro would never worry her for no reason.
And he certainly wouldn’t forget to let her know if he was running late.
Casper’s reaction both reassured her and stressed her out even more.
“Okay,” she whispered.
“I’ll be in touch,” Casper said, then hung up.
Fifteen minutes later—fifteen minutes that Penny spent pacing and trying to call Pyro about ten more times—she was notified that someone wanted to be buzzed up to her floor. It was Laryn.
Relief filled her. She needed to not feel so alone.
When she opened the door, she found not only Laryn, but Mandy and Zita as well. Zita had been at Obi-Wan’s place, but she left as soon as she heard what was going on and met up with Mandy and Laryn in the lobby, after they’d already asked to be buzzed up.
The three women immediately surrounded Penny and enveloped her in a group hug.
No one said anything for a long moment. Out of everyone in the world, these women knew the stress Penny was feeling.
Not completely, because they’d never had a child go missing, but they knew what it felt like to be in the middle of an uncertain situation.
“I had Tate call Jen,” Laryn said, after she’d pulled back. “She’s going to meet up with him and the other guys at the park with Fred. That’s where you said they were going, right?”
Penny nodded.
“Right, so Fred will pick up their scent and we’ll find out what happened. Okay?”
Penny nodded again. She couldn’t get her voice to work. She was so worried.
“Come on, let’s go sit,” Mandy suggested, linking her arm with Penny’s. “Chaos is coming over as soon as he sees what’s what at the park. He didn’t think it was a good idea for us to be alone over here, so he’s going to come and keep watch over us, and be our point of contact.”
Penny felt as if she was living in a nightmare. How could this happen? How could Bowie and Pyro simply disappear? Something had happened. She felt it in her bones.
She sat on the couch. But what felt like two seconds later, she sprang back up, unable to sit and do nothing while her baby was missing. She paced back and forth, ignoring the worried looks her friends were giving her.
“Penny, honey. Come sit down,” Zita cajoled.
She shook her head. “I can’t stop wondering where they are.
What happened. Are they hurt? Scared? Pyro is super-protective of Bowie.
If someone tried to take her, he would’ve done anything necessary to prevent that, then he would’ve gone straight to the police station, or the base, or back here.
He wouldn’t go radio silent. Not unless he had no choice.
Not unless…” She let her voice trail off, unwilling to say the awful words.
“Don’t make any assumptions,” Laryn warned gently.
“I’ve known Pyro a long time, and you’re right.
He is protective. He’ll do anything he can to protect Bowie.
But let’s not jump the gun. We don’t know what happened.
It’s possible—not likely, but possible—they just lost track of time.
Don’t think the worst, Penny. It’ll drive you crazy. ”
She stopped in her tracks, shut her eyes, and took a deep breath. Laryn was right. She needed to stay positive. If something happened, if her baby was in trouble, there was no better man to be with her than Pyro.
One night, after Bowie was in bed, they’d had a long conversation about his training.
She’d expressed worry about him and the missions he went on, even though she didn’t know exactly what they entailed.
Pyro spent a long time reassuring her, telling her all about the long hours he and his fellow Night Stalkers had endured training in hand-to-hand combat, how to evade enemies.
Even the psychological training they’d received on manipulating captors.
Not to mention, she was very familiar with how physically fit her man was.
Of course, none of that would matter against a bullet.
No.
She wasn’t going there.
Opening her eyes, she looked at her watch.
Shit, it had only been two minutes since the last time she’d checked.
What was going on at the park? What were Casper and the others finding?
She needed information! Not knowing anything was driving her nuts.
She heard a whimper…and realized with mortification that it had come from her.
Once again, her friends rallied, surrounding her, supporting her, making her feel not quite so alone.
“Hang on, Penny,” Mandy whispered as she tightened her hold. “We’ve got you.”
And they did. If there was anything good about this situation, it was the three women doing their best to hold her together. They’d clicked immediately, and Penny had no idea what she’d do without them right now.
She trembled, trying like hell to remain strong. But all she could think about was how scared Bowie had to be.
Maybe she was overreacting…but she didn’t think so. Whatever happened to Pyro and her daughter was bad. Really bad. Like, soul-crushing bad.
It was extremely difficult not to fall into despair. She had to have faith. In Pyro. In Bowie. In the Night Stalkers. In Jen and Fred. Wasn’t she always telling her daughter that it was better to be a positive Polly than a negative Nelly?
Easier said than done. Especially when the two people she loved most in the world, the only two people who’d ever loved her unconditionally, were missing. But if anyone could bring Bowie home, it was Pyro. He’d keep her safe or die trying.
And that was what scared Penny the most.
* * *
“Everyone stay back,” Jen ordered, as she prepped Fred to begin his search.
Casper had brought a pair of gloves Pyro recently wore so the dog would have his scent.
He figured that wherever Pyro was, Bowie would also be, so they’d start with his scent and, if necessary, he’d get something of Bowie’s from Penny.
But the woman was already stressed out beyond belief.
He’d heard it in her tone when she’d called.
And asking her for something of Bowie’s for the dog to scent would freak her out even more.
Jen stood at the edge of the playground and watched as Fred raced around, running from a bench on the other side of the area, to the swing set, back to the bench, to the slide, and back to the swings.
Then he abruptly turned and headed toward the school—but he hadn’t gone more than twenty yards before he changed course again, coming back to the playground before dashing toward the sidewalk on the other side.
“Fred, sit,” Jen ordered. The dog immediately obeyed, but his entire body was shaking.
“He’s on scent,” Jen said, as she went up to the dog and clipped a long lead to his harness. “Stay behind me,” she told Casper and the rest of the team.
“Not happening,” Edge retorted. “We aren’t in the woods, and that’s a damn long lead. Fred’s not getting hit by a car on my watch.”
“If you walk in front of us, you could dilute the scent,” she argued in exasperation.
“Then I’ll walk next to you, so I can stop traffic if I have to.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
In any other situation, Casper might’ve been amused at the bickering of one of his best friends and the dog handler. But nothing could make him smile right now.
The six of them headed out, led by Fred, whose nose was working overtime. He didn’t walk in a straight line, which Jen explained was normal. Pyro’s scent was in the air as well as on the ground, and even though it didn’t feel windy out, scent was constantly moving.
“Where was he going?” Chaos mumbled as they headed down the sidewalk, away from the apartment complex.
“Could someone have forced him to walk this way?” Jen asked.
“Not likely. No one really forces us to do anything,” Obi-Wan said with no arrogance.
“He could’ve been running after someone. If someone snatched Bowie, he would’ve given chase,” Buck said.
Casper looked around and saw no security cameras in the immediate area, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Tex was already on his list of people to call, and now he mentally added another thing to talk to him about.
No one was better at finding footage from security cameras than Tex Keegan.
And ever since the man had been taken from his own family not too long ago, he’d gotten even more involved in finding missing people.
Not just military men and women and their families, but runaways, single mothers, abused spouses, prostitutes, anyone and everyone who seemed to disappear without a trace.
He was partnering with police departments around the country to do what he did best… analyze technology.
Rumor had it the man was also thinking about accepting a teaching position at Harvard. Instructing others on what he did. It was a much-needed specialty, something Casper, his friends, and countless other military men in their circles knew firsthand.
“Wait, you know what? There’s an ice cream shop not too far from here,” Edge said.
“I overheard him talking to Laryn one day at the hangar, before a flight test. Telling her that Bowie’s favorite flavor was bubblegum, and how gross he thought it was, and how he wished the local ice cream place he took her to would rotate it out. ”
“That’s right,” Jen said. “It’s about three more blocks from here and over one street.”
If they were correct, they could hopefully look at video from the ice cream place and see if Pyro and Bowie had been there, what time, and if anything had happened there that might shed light on where the two were now.
But instead of continuing down the sidewalk, Fred took a left turn into a parking lot of an out-of-business taco restaurant. There was grass growing through the cracks in the asphalt and the windows were boarded up.
Everyone stopped as Fred and Jen began walking in circles. Fred’s nose was in the air, and he whined as he walked.
“Shit,” Edge said under his breath. The same time Jen confirmed, “The scent ends here.”
This was bad. Penny said Pyro’s car was still at the apartment complex, and if his trail ended here, it was likely he’d gotten into someone else’s vehicle. But whose? And why?
“What’s that?” Buck asked, pointing toward something in the weeds at the edge of the lot. There was a strip of extremely overgrown bushes and grass on one side of the lot, and Casper immediately saw what his friend had pointed out.
Everyone jogged over to that side of the lot to see what it was.
“Fuck.”
“Shit!”
“This isn’t good.”
No, it wasn’t. Lying in the dirt and grass was a Pokémon backpack. One they’d all seen before. It was Bowie’s. It was proof she’d been here…or at least her bag had.
“Spread out, look around. See what else you can find,” Casper ordered. He prayed that they wouldn’t find the little girl’s body in the underbrush, and to his relief, after a quick search of the area, they confirmed Bowie wasn’t there.
He felt guilty for being relieved, but the alternative would’ve been worse. Pyro and Bowie had gotten into a car, voluntarily or involuntarily, and the little girl’s backpack had been discarded here probably in the hopes no one would find it.
Fred let out a small woof, startling everyone. Turning, Casper saw the dog sitting on the other side of the lot, with Jen and Edge by his side. As he walked over, Edge bent and picked up something off the ground.
Casper recognized what it was immediately.
Pyro’s phone. He’d seen his friend and copilot using it hundreds of times. And Fred had obviously found it, since he’d been locked onto Pyro’s scent.
“Screen’s cracked but it seems to be working,” Edge said grimly.
Looking around the area, Casper tried to imagine what happened here. How in the hell Pyro had let someone get the jump on him. Then again, he didn’t have to wonder too hard. Someone had probably threatened Bowie, and he’d done whatever was necessary in order to keep her safe and unharmed.
But was she unharmed? Was Pyro? He couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would take Pyro as well as the girl.
Yes, they had their share of people in the world who hated their guts, but it would be extremely difficult for any terrorist to find out the names of the pilots in the helicopters who ferried the Delta Force and Navy SEALs in and out of their areas.
And if someone wanted to kidnap Bowie for nefarious reasons, it seemed unlikely they would’ve taken a grown man along too.
It would be too risky. It would have been smarter to shoot Pyro or beat him up, leaving him in this parking lot.
But he wasn’t here. Neither was Bowie. And they were no closer to figuring out what had happened to them than they were when Penny had called to say they were late getting home.
It was time to call in reinforcements. Casper and his team had done everything they could at this point.
Once they had more info, a location, then he and his friends could attempt to retrieve their teammate.
No one fucked with a Night Stalker. It didn’t matter that they weren’t in their helicopters or on a mission in some country on the other side of the world.
They’d find their teammate, and Bowie, and bring them home.
There was no other option.