Chapter 43
Forty-Three
Ava
You know that feeling you get when you’re on a rollercoaster, when you’ve travelled all the way to the top and you’re looking over the edge from the front row, but the coaster has to wait for the rest of the cars to overcome the hump to fall?
That feeling when everything stands still for the briefest of moments before your stomach drops and you’re screaming and your chest hurts?
That’s what it’s like to realize that Elsie is gone. That’s what it’s like to understand that after everything we’d prepared for, it wasn’t enough.
He has her. That bastard has Elsie.
Suddenly, the thought of him living after this is too much.
I was wrong before. I’d been realizing it, but the answer hits me hard now.
As my eyes slowly rise to meet Wylan’s, I realize I’m no better than Ric.
I’m not above murder. Not when it comes to protecting my child. Not when it comes to Elsie.
“Find her,” I croak. “Find her right now.”
The elevator opens and reveals both Dagen and Felix standing outside the building next to the black car. Felix has his laptop out, his fingers flying over the keys as Wylan rushes me through the lobby and out the doors.
Felix furiously types on the keyboard, the sounds punctuating my thoughts before I even understand what he’s doing. I don’t know what he’s searching for, but the hard look on his face makes my stomach twist. This isn’t Felix right now. This is Otto_Bot, and he’s pissed.
It takes only three minutes for him to pull up the footage from outside Elsie’s school.
Together, we all watch Ric enter the school, a gun in his hand.
Five minutes later, he leaves the school dragging Elsie behind him.
She’s crying and clearly terrified and it makes something in my chest feel so savage, I have to grab Wylan’s arm to keep on my feet.
I see red, but I take a deep breath to still my beating heart.
I can’t lose my shit. Not right now. There’ll be time for that later.
I’ll make sure I lose my shit on that asshole when Elsie is safe.
“Where is she now?” I ask, my voice low.
Felix glances at me because of my tone, but he doesn’t comment on it.
Dagen and Wylan are close enough to offer comfort, but they don’t insult me with lies of, “it’ll be okay,” or, “we’ll figure this out.
” I’m not stupid. I understand how bad this is, and if something happens to Elsie, there will be nothing on this earth capable of saving Ric. Not from me. Not from them.
“There’s some interference,” Felix begins, typing furiously, moving from camera to camera, tracking him as he moves through the city. He’s gone from not being found to being scene on every camera. “I think he’s in—”
“He wants us to know where he’s at,” I say, staring at the footage. “He’s baiting us.”
My phone rings, the shrill sound grating on my nerves.
I look down at the caller ID and tense, already knowing what this is. The bastard didn’t even bother getting a different phone. It’s his same old fucking phone number.
I press the green button and give him no chance to say hello before I put it on speaker and speak. “If you’ve hurt even a single hair on her head, I’m going to kill you,” I snarl. My hand starts to shake where I hold the phone too tightly between my fingers in front of us.
Ric laughs, clearly amused at my threat.
“She’s my daughter. I can do with her as I please, just as I can with you, wife.
” He grunts. “You always were the self-sacrificing lamb, Ava, so let’s make a deal.
Her for you. You show up unarmed and come with me, I’ll let her go.
You have twenty minutes. The warehouse district.
Number twenty-five hundred. Don’t be late.
” He chuckles. “I’d hate to see what happens to Elsie if you are. ”
He hangs up before I can respond, and I’m left to stare at the phone.
Wylan grabs me so roughly, I shriek in surprise as he starts to drag me away.
Felix and Dagen follow close behind. Felix is on his laptop still typing away, his brows furrowed.
Dagen has his phone open as he barks commands to someone on the other end.
Wylan? He drags me to his motorcycle and grabs the helmet.
He shoves it onto my head and buckles it with quick fingers, not asking me anything.
He climbs onto the all-black motorcycle and drags me on behind him.
“Arms around me tight, crumpet,” he orders and I do as he says. “Hurry up,” he tells Dagen and Felix. “Because I won’t be waiting.”
And then without another word, he starts his motorcycle and takes off, my arms wrapped tightly around his waist as he pops a wheelie and guns it.