Chapter Seventeen #2
“He’s five years old,” Eddie scoffed. “Julio wouldn’t run away. He’s got nowhere to run and nobody to help him get food and stuff.”
“If he ran away, why would he take off?”
“I’m telling you he wouldn’t!”
“Let’s say he did, just to consider another possibility. Why would he run?”
Eddie thought about that for a beat. “If he ran away, he did it to protect someone or because he was scared.” His hands fisted. “Somebody is going to pay for this.”
“Eduardo,” Maria snapped. “That’s enough. We don’t want the police to think you had something to do with this.”
“Let them. I got nothing to hide, Ma.”
Sedona needed to do something before this spat between mother and son became a shouting match. “Eddie, Julio told me you’re dating someone, but he didn’t tell me her name. Would you mind sharing it? I might know her.”
Although his first response was a shrug, a sparkle of excitement lit his eyes for the first time. “Her name is Daisy Cole.”
She smiled. “I know Daisy. She’s a beautiful girl. Have you been dating long?”
“A month. She’s special.”
Excellent description for such a smart and sweet girl. “Yes, she is. You’re a lucky guy, Eddie. She’s a jewel.”
They remained silent for a few minutes, then Eddie glanced over at her. “What about you? Are you dating someone?”
She nodded. “Cameron Sims.”
He frowned. “Julio didn’t tell me that, and he tells me everything.”
“He didn’t know until Cam accompanied us to the zoo.”
“Have you been dating long?”
She shook her head. “It’s new.” So new that the shine hadn’t worn off yet. The longer they dated, the more the relationship would have dings. And it was more than time to take the spotlight off herself and back onto him. “You’re a sophomore, right?”
A nod.
“Ah, then you’ll be attending the prom next year. Are you looking forward to it?”
“I am now.”
Adolescent love could either be amazing or the pits. Sedona hoped Eddie and Daisy were still together when it was time to go to the prom. They’d make a cute couple.
While Eddie and his mother talked, Sedona shifted her attention to Spencer, who stood at the window looking out at the street below. She joined him. “Everything okay?” she asked.
“For now.”
She shivered. “That is not what I wanted to hear.”
“I’ll always tell you the truth.”
She studied him a beat, then said, “All right, then answer a question for me.”
“Shoot.”
“Why isn’t Cam back yet?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“But you know something. So let’s hear it, Spencer.”
“Like the sheriff said, he’s following a lead with Isaac and Dario.”
Sedona pounced on his statement. “What does that mean?”
His eyebrows soared. “Exactly what I said. He’s following a lead.”
She inched closer and lowered her voice. “What kind of lead?”
“One that we hope will lead them to Julio.”
“Did they say what the lead was?”
“No, and I can already tell that you want to grab your phone and call Cam. Do yourself a favor and don’t. Let him run this lead as far as it takes him. I promise you he’ll be back here as soon as they run into a dead end or when they find the boy.”
“Doesn’t it bother you that they left you behind?”
“Why should it? Everyone has unique skills, Sedona. It would be foolish of me to be angry about being separated from the rest of the team. Cam needs me here so he can focus. They don’t need me at the moment, so I’m doing what I can to help Cam concentrate.
Because he knows I’ll take care of you and he trusts me, that is one less worry on his shoulders. ”
She sighed. “I wish I could help.”
“Your skill is communication, and you’ve already used that to ensure Maria will let the boy talk to Cam and the others when they find him.”
Sedona turned to face him. “Will your team find him?”
“It’s what we do, Sedona. We find people.”
She chuckled. “That’s what Cam said.”
“He’s right. We’re military-trained trackers. That’s what our Special Forces unit did. We tracked high-value people. We found them no matter where they hid.”
Spencer didn’t say what they did with the people their Special Forces team tracked, and she was wise enough not to ask. “That’s good for Julio.”
He grinned. “We’ll get him back, Sedona. We don’t give up. Ever.” Spencer paused and pulled out his phone. He glanced at the screen, then turned it around for Sedona to see.
The text message was from Cam. “Coming back for now. We need Rhys’ help.”
“What do they need Rhys for?”
“They would have lost the trail they could follow on foot if the perp got into a vehicle.”
Ah, she got it. “Rhys can pick up the trail through traffic and security cameras, right?”
“You got it.”
She waited with him for thirty minutes, and yes, she had kept such a close eye on her phone that she saw the numbers change almost each minute of time that moved forward.
Finally, Sedona heard the voice she’d been longing to hear.
Cam and the rest of his teammates paused for a minute in front of the officer guarding the door, then entered the waiting room.
She eyed the group of men. Holy smoke. These guys were big enough that they made the waiting room seem tiny. Cam was the last one to enter the room. As soon as she saw him, all her jitters and anxiety over his safety vanished.
When he stopped walking and opened his arms, Sedona finished the final few feet at a dead run. Man, those muscular arms closing around her felt so good. Still, she needed to be sure he was safe. “You’re all right?”
He squeezed her a little tighter. “You can’t tell?”
“You’re good at hiding things behind a blank expression, and that’s what you have on your face right now.”
Cam chuckled. “You’re too observant for your own good. I’m fine, Tiger. I admit I’m a little ticked that we ran out of lead.”
Dario snorted. “A little? I think you would have taken a baseball bat to your own SUV if it had made any difference.”
The rest of his teammates chuckled.
Cam signaled his team members, and one by one they introduced themselves to Eddie and Maria.
“Thank you so much for helping to look for Julio,” she whispered. “You didn’t find him?”
Cam stepped forward. “No, ma’am. We found the kidnappers’ trail and traced them to the woods across the street, through to the other side. They had a vehicle parked there.”
“They?” Eddie swallowed hard. “There was more than one of them?”
“That’s right. Based on the evidence we saw, at least two men came after your brother.”
“Did they get him? Do they have Julio?”
Cam glanced at Isaac and gave a slight nod.
“Based on the evidence we found in the woods, we believe they have your brother,” the sniper said.
“What evidence?”
“Scuff marks, boot impressions in the dirt, and part of a shredded pediatric hospital gown where the vehicle was parked.”
“How do you know they parked there?” Eddie demanded to know.
“The driver burned rubber leaving the area. He left us a nice trail to show which direction he went.”
“Why aren’t you following him now?” Eddie hopped up, evidently ready to go out there himself to hunt these men down.
“As dumb as these guys are, the driver didn’t burn rubber all the way to their destination. Once we reached the end of Philmore Street, we didn’t know which way to go. That’s why we needed Rhys’ help.”
“Well, where is he?”
“Right here.” Rhys hustled into the waiting room with his laptop in hand. “What do I need to know?”
Cam glanced at Dario, who dropped into a chair beside Rhys. While Rhys brought up a search engine on his laptop, Dario spoke in low tones with occasional glances at Maria.
“My turn,” Cam said. “Are you okay, Sedona?”
She thought about breezing over his concerns, but that would be a serious mistake. Cam must trust that she’d be honest with him. Otherwise, he would continually worry about her. “No.”
He loosened his hold on her and eased back enough to see her face. After one look, he clasped her hand and drew her to the opposite side of the room and into a corner. Cam cupped Sedona’s nape. “What’s wrong, and how can I help?”
“I don’t understand why The Collector came after me, and now it seems he has Julio. We’re nowhere near important enough for him to focus on us. It makes little sense.”
“I’ve been thinking about that.”
“Come to any conclusions?”
“Yeah, and you won’t like them.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Try me.”
“Have you considered the possibility that The Collector was originally after Julio, not you?”
Her breath froze in her lungs. What did that mean? He couldn’t be serious. Julio was five, for goodness’ sake. Why would a killer-for-hire be after a kindergartner? She waited a beat, expecting him to grin and tell her he was joking. He didn’t. “You’re joking, right?”
“Nope.”
More waiting. He was serious. “How could that be true?”
Cam wrapped his arms around Sedona and held her close. “It’s easy. Julio had to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, like we think is true of you.”
“So, what does that mean? What would a killer-for-hire want with a five-year-old boy?”
“The same thing he wants for you. Dominic Simpson wants you and Julio dead, Sedona, and he’ll do anything necessary to see that his mission is completed.”