Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Lovell stared at the coffee mug on the table.
Hours. She’d been gone for hours. And the picture.
The fucking picture. The message had pinged on his phone two hours and thirty-two minutes ago.
Along with a message telling him he’d receive instructions the next morning on what he needed to do to get her back.
He’d forwarded the information to HICC, and they were working their magic to find her, but they weren’t working fast enough.
Shoving back from the table, he began pacing the lodge room.
The storm had forced him off the road an hour earlier, and now he felt like a caged lion.
And he didn’t like it. He had a reputation for being levelheaded and the opposite of hyperbolic—hell, that’s how he’d earned his nickname.
Jim Lovell and the famous “Houston, we have a problem” quote.
Those weren’t his actual words, but the sentiment held—not many people would calmly refer to an explosion onboard a spacecraft as a simple “problem.”
But the understated calm everyone took for granted was something he fought tooth and nail for.
He had a quick temper, and his mind constantly roiled with thoughts.
Everything boiled and bubbled below the surface, and he worked damn hard to keep it from exploding.
No good would come of it if that happened.
But more to the point, if he let go, he’d be no better than the string of useless, violent men his mother had invited into her life, into the lives of her kids. And that would destroy him.
More than anything had before, though, this waiting, this limbo, was wearing away his control. He needed to keep calm, he needed to have his head—not his emotions—fully in the game, but with every minute that ticked by, that grew harder and harder.
“I’m stepping out,” he said to the room.
“The storm is still going strong,” Mantis said.
He hadn’t considered getting back in his car; he just needed air.
And space. But maybe he should. He glanced around the room.
Twenty pairs of eyes watched him—all fourteen of his brothers, plus Charley, Juliana, Lina, Amber, Kendall, and Dottie.
Every one of them was shadowed with concern.
The only person not eyeing him was Callie.
She’d fallen asleep with her head on Philly’s lap.
As much as the idea of leaving appealed to him, he couldn’t do that to them. They were worried enough already. He didn’t need to add to it.
“Just getting some fresh air,” he replied. Mantis nodded, and the tension in the room dropped a notch.
Tugging on his coat and hat, he pushed through the heavy wood door and out into the storm. Staying under the deep eaves, he leaned against the building, closed his eyes, and inhaled, savoring the pain of the cold air filling his lungs.
Inhaling again, he let the night sink into his body.
It didn’t calm the storm inside him, but the prickling mess of thoughts and emotions untangled themselves enough for him to catch a glimpse of the person he needed to be right now—strategic, tactical, patient.
The last didn’t sit well with him, which told him that of the three, it was probably the most important.
He had to trust that Daphne would do everything in her power to protect herself.
He had to trust that HICC would come through.
They’d trace the call that sent the picture, they’d analyze the metadata in the image itself, they’d find the ties between Daisy and Weeks and Beeker.
Ties they could use to end this nightmare.
Nightmare.
His thoughts lingered on that word. He’d been through a lot worse than what was happening tonight.
Things he’d seen, things he’d done. And yet this felt infinitely harder.
Was he out of practice? Or, more likely, did his guilt amplify everything?
A quiet thought whispered through his body that it was both of those and more.
That it was Daphne herself that made him feel out of control.
He’d known her less than two days, so it couldn’t be that he…
felt something for her. Well, something other than the obvious.
Stunning, confident, smart, and gorgeous, anyone attracted to women would have to be dead not to be attracted to Daphne, so that feeling wasn’t unexpected.
If not that, then what, though? Why did it feel as if a dozen whirling dervishes were having a party inside his body?
The door swung open beside him with an urgency that had him straightening from the wall. When ten of his brothers filed out, all dressed for the weather, anticipation sliced through him and his heart leaped.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
“Perimeter breach,” Mantis said. “Single person in the woods, heading north toward the driveway.”
They were already on the move, fanning out toward the forests circling the clubhouse. He didn’t have his weapon with him, but his brothers would have theirs, so he paired up with Mantis.
Away from the building, the wind surrounded them, seemingly blowing from every direction. “What do we know?” he asked, leaning into the weather and practically shouting to be heard.
“Visibility is shit, so the cameras didn’t give us much, but we have a single heat signature.
Tall, moving well for the conditions,” Mantis replied.
They reached the edge of the forest, and although the trees provided some shelter from the wind, the ground was much more uneven than the parking area.
“You think it’s Weeks or Beeker?” he asked, keeping pace with his brother.
“Of the two, it would be Weeks. He’s taller. He could be setting up to catch you by surprise.”
“You mean ambush me after they call next?”
Mantis inclined his head. “It would be a good play on their part. Call, give you directions to where to go in order for them to release Daphne, then when you head out—”
“They take the shot when I’m least expecting it, before I even leave the property.”
Mantis’s silence communicated his agreement.
“The plan?”
“North, Superman, and Hawkeye are circling around behind the target. Wesson, Marley, and Viper are coming in from the west. Dulcie, Monk, and Juan will get eyes on the road in case they run. You and I are going to come at them head-on.”
Head-on. That sounded like a good plan to Lovell. Maybe the fucker would run and give him an excuse to burn off some of the aggressive energy rippling through his body. A thought to hold on to.
With nothing but the sound of their feet trudging through the deep snow, they walked through the woods parallel to the driveway.
Ten minutes in, Mantis pulled his phone out, tugged his glove off with his teeth, and opened an app.
Turning the device for Lovell to see, they looked at the infrared image on the small screen.
A figure moved through the woods in shades of green and yellow.
Lovell could make out the leg movement, but they appeared to have their arms and hands tucked close to their body.
As Mantis said, the trespasser was tall but dressed for winter, making it hard to tell their build.
The figure stumbled and went down on one knee. Rather than a sense of satisfaction, though, alarm curled through Lovell’s body.
Whoever it was remained kneeling for a count of eight, then pushed themselves up and kept walking, lifting their knees high to navigate the snow.
“Another five minutes and we’ll intercept him,” Mantis said, his finger moving to click the app shut. “I’ll give the others an ETA.”
“Stop,” Lovell said, reaching for the device.
Mantis hesitated, then handed it over. Lovell studied the intruder’s movements, oddly familiar, even through the lens of thermal imaging.
The person stopped and straightened. Lovell stared. Then they turned, twisting at the torso to look over their shoulder. Familiarity morphed into knowing, and he nearly dropped the phone.
“That’s not an intruder, that’s Daphne,” he said, tossing the phone to his brother and taking off in her direction. To his credit, Mantis didn’t question him, and a few seconds later, he was at Lovell’s side, both of them running the best they could in two feet of snow.
Despite the short distance to Daphne’s location, his lungs and legs burned as he neared her position. The wind picked up, kicking snow into the air, reducing visibility even more, but he pushed himself forward, needing to see her, needing to confirm what he already knew.
The wind died suddenly and the snow settled, giving him his first glimpse of her thirty feet ahead of them.
“Daphne!” he shouted.
She didn’t seem to hear him, so he shouted again. This time, it caught her attention, and she looked up, as if confused. The distraction cost her, and she tripped again, this time going down face-first.
He bolted the last ten feet, dropping to his knees at her side.
“Daphne!” A gray wool blanket covered her head and the top half of her back. Gently, he reached for her shoulder and rolled her over.
Her face was pale, her cheek cut and swollen, but he felt the rise and fall of her chest under his arms.
“You’re safe,” he said, hoping he was right.
He turned and barked an order at Mantis to bring the guys in for help.
Between the snow and Daphne’s height, it wouldn’t be easy to carry her in, but he and his brothers would do it.
In fact, if they made it to the driveway, he’d manage it on his own.
It had been plowed earlier that night, and while a layer of snow had fallen since, it wasn’t nearly as thick as the woods.
“Daphne,” he said again, a gentle brush of his fingers across her jaw.
Her eyes shifted under her lids, then fluttered open. She stared at him for a heart-stopping moment, then smiled.
“Oh, good, I made it. I was starting to worry.”