Chapter 31
CHAPTER 31
NATE
Placing my street shoes in my locker, I grab my phone and shut the door, throwing the lock onto it. It’s been almost two weeks since Savanna saw Vincent at the bar, and there’s been no sign of him since.
We’re both starting to go a little stir crazy. Being locked up in the house, or stuck at the bar, isn’t the best way to start a relationship, but I haven’t felt comfortable enough having her out somewhere that makes her readily available to him. It’s why I’ve decided to ask Liam and Brody to stand watch while I take Savanna on a date so we can both let our guards down and enjoy our time together. I hate that we need to resort to that, but I don’t know what else to do.
I just want this to be over.
I want to be able to take my girl out without feeling like I have to check around every corner or look over my shoulder to see if he’s there. Everyone I know has been put on alert for him, including some cop friends beyond what Captain Bernard called in for us. So far, no one has seen a thing.
After having a taste of what Savanna has gone through the last six months, two weeks of it has been enough to last me a lifetime. Every day that goes by I’m left further in awe of her strength and resilience to keep moving forward. All I want to do is find the asshole and kick his ass into next week and out of our lives.
I glance at my watch as I walk out of the locker room. I’ve got a couple minutes before morning roll call, and I debate going back to check on Savanna, or going straight to the conference room to get myself prepared. I should probably do the latter, but the former seems a lot more enticing.
“Hey man.”
I look up to see Brody heading straight towards me. “Running behind?”
“Caught a good wave,” he grins at me. “Not as behind as Liam, though.”
“Yeah, well, he caught something else last night,” I tell him, rolling my eyes.
Liam was doing as Liam does last night. I watched from behind the bar as he picked up a pretty little blonde that was there with some friends. Savanna got a firsthand account of the way he works his magic, and she couldn’t stop giggling at all the corny lines she imagined he was using.
Brody stops in front of me, stopping me as well, and holds an article of clothing out to me. “Here.”
“What’s this?” I ask, taking it from him.
His head cocks to the side. “Uh, your jacket.”
I’m perplexed as I look at it, then back to him. “I can see that. Why do you have it?”
“Savanna gave it to me,” he responds, looking and sounding as baffled as I feel.
My stomach tightens in a knot. “When?”
Reaching up, Brody scratches his temple, refusing to meet my eyes. “Man, she told me you were looking for it.”
The knot grows into a leaden weight in my gut. Every alarm bell is going off in my head as I ask, urgency in my voice, “Where Brody? Where did you see her?”
“Outside,” he tells me, glancing over his shoulder at the door. “I know I shouldn’t have left her out there, but she said she needed a minute alone.”
I’m running before the last words are out of his mouth, alarms and sirens going off with blaring agony in my head. I was never looking for my jacket. I never said a word about it. I knew where it was all along.
Savanna giving it to Brody was a message. Something is wrong.
I can hear Brody following me, yelling down the hall at Mac to get Captain Bernard as I throw the side door open and spill into the parking lot. I’m just in time to see Liam shoot off like a rocket out of the parking lot, taking a right at the street.
My stomach bottoms out. I know without talking to him he saw something, and he’s going after whatever he saw. I need to follow, but when I reach into my pocket for my keys, I come up empty handed. Fuck. Savanna has them.
Cursing again, I turn towards Brody. “Give me your keys!” I snarl at him.
“What’s going on?” Captain Bernard asks with the commanding authority only a Captain can possess as he and Mac come out the side door.
“He’s got her,” I tell him. “Liam went after them.” I look at Brody again, my hand outstretched. I need to get going if I’m going to catch up. “Give me your fucking keys.”
“Dude, you’re not driving,” Brody says, then looks at the Captain.
I’m about to lose my fucking mind on all of them.
Captain Bernard nods at him. “I’ll handle things here. Go.”
Christ. The last thing I give a shit about is work, but Brody’s right about one thing. I can’t drive. I’m trained to stay calm and collected in high pressure situations, but I’ve realized when it comes to someone you love, all the training in the world can’t prepare you for how you’ll feel, or what you’ll go through.
My phone vibrates in my pocket as I get into the passenger side of Brody’s truck. I pull it out, hoping to God it’s Savanna, but it isn’t. It’s the next best thing. Liam.
“Talk to me,” I say by way of greeting, grateful he’s got Bluetooth in his helmet.
“He’s got her. She screamed my name. They were in a blue Charger heading north on Crenshaw,” he says, and I can hear the bike whizzing through traffic. “When I came to that T in the road, I went left thinking they’re headed towards the interstate, but I can’t see them.”
“Fuck.” I pinch the bridge of my nose, squeezing my eyes shut as Brody puts the truck on the road. “Go right at the T,” I tell him.
If Liam went left, we’ll go right; divide and conquer.
“Fuck!” Liam shouts, echoing me, but more fervently. “Fuck!”
The sound of the bike has practically died, and my heart is pounding in my chest. I hear my own desperation as I yell into the phone. “What? What?”
“They were right ahead of me. I fucking saw them, and this fucking idiot cut me off. I missed the light,” he says angrily. “I can’t run this red. I’m at ninety-sixth.”
I slam my hand against the dash. It’s one of the busiest intersections in town, a spot we’re called to more often than we’d like to be for crashes.
“No,” I say even though I want to scream at him to keep going. “Don’t even think about it. You can’t help us find her if you’re dead.”
Just as Brody is about to take a right at the T, I flail a hand to the left. “Left! Left! They went left.”
I cringe as he navigates the truck left at the last second, causing a horn to blare behind us as he cuts someone off. This is exactly why I shouldn’t be driving.
The whir of the motorcycle is back, and I know Liam is through the light, doing his best to catch up. What neither of us has acknowledged is that once you’re through the lights where he was stopped, you’re on the interstate. If Vincent is driving a Charger, Liam may have his work cut out to catch up.
If anyone can do it, it’s him.
Brody hits me with a hand. “Where’s Liam?”
“The interstate,” I say automatically, then into the phone. “You’re on the interstate, right? Do you see them?”
“Not yet,” he answers, then falls silent again, hopefully to concentrate on the road.
I nod at Brody, and that’s when I clue in he’s on the phone with someone via the truck Bluetooth. I don’t recall him dialing, let alone talking, but the screen on the truck says he’s connected to 911.
Fuck. Of course.
I want to hit something for how stupid I feel right now. I’m a fucking firefighter and it didn’t even cross my mind to call the police. This isn’t how I normally operate, but I can’t seem to get my brain to make sense of anything except the fact that Vincent has Savanna, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
I’m fucking helpless. I promised her I would take care of her. That I wouldn’t let anything happen to her, and still this happened on my watch.
“There!” Liam yells into the phone. The sound shocks me, and I lean forward to look out the window like they’ll magically appear in front of me. “I got them. I got… no, no, no. Mother fucker!” There’s a frustrated growl and I can hear the bike slowing and then revving up again. “He cut over to the fourteen, but I’ve got him.”
“They’re on the fourteen,” I tell Brody and the operator still on the line. “They’re headed around the mountain. Someone needs to find them and get them pulled the fuck over.” My other line beeps and I glance at my phone, my heart lodging in my throat.
Savanna.
I don’t even tell Liam to hold on before I’m swiping right on “answer and merge call”. “Savanna? Where are you? Are you okay?”
I pause, listening intently. There’s the sound of a male voice that must belong to Vincent chattering in the background, but I can only make out every few words. It makes my blood boil, but it’s nothing compared to the sound of him suddenly screaming at Savanna.
There’s a fumbling sound, like something is rubbing over the mouthpiece, then a shriek, followed by the sound of the phone being dropped.
“Stop! Stop! I’m not doing anything! You’re hurting me!”
The sound of Savanna being more petrified than I’ve ever heard her dials me in. Everything comes into clear focus for me, and I grind my teeth together, my breath coming in harsh, heavy pants.
I might be helpless right now, but when I find this fucker, and I will, I’m going to commit murder.