Chapter 48
Caleb parked in the lot and shut off the engine. For a second, he just sat there, hands still on the wheel. Then he checked his watch.
Eighteen hours.
Then the thought hit him hard and unwanted. What if they were already too late?
He shoved it aside. Wherever Mia was, she was running out of time.
And they still had nothing. No location. No direction. Not a single clue as to where she might be. Just the growing sense that they were already behind.
The guys piled out of the truck.
Inside, the campus felt almost wrong in its normalcy. Conversations carried on. People laughed. Dogs barked. Everything looked exactly the way it should, like nothing bad was happening at all.
Ava and Jeannie stood in the hall mid-conversation and offered quick hellos as they passed. From the training room came yips and excited barking. Melissa was still running a class.
Life was moving forward.
They weren’t.
They cut through Chase’s office and into the conference room.
“What’d you find?” asked Chase, not looking up from his computer.
Nate set the receiver on the table. “The receiver’s fine. Still powered. But since the transmitter is dead, there was no signal. We documented everything before we left.”
Chase’s fingers stilled. He finally looked up. “So, the feed didn’t stop on this end?”
“No,” Caleb said. “The transmitter just ran out.”
Chase leaned back in his chair. “Okay. We’re missing three people, one vehicle, and the only lead we have is something that was never meant to be found.”
Caleb exhaled slowly. “As we were coming over here, I remembered something. Mia once mentioned she had a storage unit near a marina. Didn’t say which one.”
“That helps,” Chase said. “A little. But there are half a dozen marina sites tied to the lake. I don’t even know how many are active.”
Dex was already typing. “I’m pulling property overlays now.” He paused, then frowned. “There are about six storage units directly adjacent to marinas. Another dozen more within about three miles.”
Caleb groaned. “That’s not narrowing anything down.”
“What about FEMA lockers?” asked Nate.
Dex’s fingers moved again, then stopped. “I’m locked out. They updated the access protocols. I don’t have the clearance.”
Caleb swore under his breath.
Chase didn’t blink. He picked up his phone, hit a contact and put it on speaker as it rang.
“Yo, Mad Dog. How are you?”
“Been better,” Chase replied.
Caleb recognized the voice instantly. John “Tex” Keegan.
Former SEAL. One leg, sharp mind, lived somewhere in Pennsylvania now with a wife and kids.
He was the guy Chase called when the doors stayed locked and the trail went cold.
The one who knew how to work systems from both sides and usually found a way in. They’d used his expertise before.
Tex asked, “What’s going on?”
Chase gave him the short version. Missing people. The truck. The disabled transmitter. Possible lockers near marinas. Dex jumped in with technical dead ends.
Tex listened without interrupting.
“Okay,” he said when Dex finished. “Stop trying to force access.”
Dex frowned. “Then what do we do?”
“Give me the parameters instead,” Tex said.
“Parameters?” asked Dex.
“Age of the structures, proximity to water. Any overlap with FEMA, state emergency or Army Corps staging during hurricane season,” Tex said. “I don’t need access. I need patterns.”
Caleb paced the room. “Mia said the storage unit was older.”
There was a brief pause on the line.
“All right,” Tex said. “Let me work it. Stay put.”
The call ended. The room went quiet.
Caleb stopped pacing and checked his watch again.
Still eighteen hours.
And counting.
Mia drifted in and out of shallow sleep.
It wasn’t restful. Just brief slips where the pain dulled and she wasn’t thinking about water or air or how long she’d been in here. Or even if someone was coming for her.
She put her ear to the seam and listened.
In the distance, water lapped against the shore. Somewhere birds chirped, and a crow cawed. Little scritches here and there. She was grateful she wasn’t outside exposed to animals and bugs and God only knew what else.
She shifted carefully, easing pressure off her ribs. The movement sent a fresh wave of pain through her side, sharp enough to make her pause and breathe through it.
Earlier, she managed to stand and try to move around the locker. The concrete floor was slick with condensation. She lost her footing, went down hard and landed on her side.
She closed her eyes against the memory.
That fall had changed things.
Now, every breath reminded her to be careful and just how vulnerable she was.
As she listened, a sound drifted across the water. No voices. No footsteps.
An engine.
Mia felt a sudden surge of hope.
She lifted her head, straining to listen. The sound was faint, uneven. Maybe a boat farther out on the lake.
Hope crept in anyway. Stupid. Unhelpful.
She waited.
The engine revved once, then faded.
Nothing followed. No footsteps, no voices, no one to save her.
Mia let her head sink back to the floor, disappointment settling heavy in her gut. She forced herself to breathe slowly and steadily, pushing the panic back where it belonged.
She couldn’t go there yet.
She held on to the belief that Caleb, someone—anyone—would find her.
If there was a hell, it was waiting for Tex to call back.
Dex sat hunched over his computer, fingers flying, jaw set in concentration. No one spoke.
Then Chase’s phone rang.
He answered on the first buzz and put it on speaker again. “Go.”
“All right,” Tex continued. “I’m seeing six old storm lockers near marinas. All shut down, but the paperwork was never fully cleaned up. A couple are officially unsafe. A few got dumped on the town and forgotten. And one never transferred properly.”
Caleb closed his eyes briefly. “That fits.”
“Which one?” Chase asked.
“I just sent you a map,” Tex said. “You’ve got two old marina sites tied to the lake. Both were decommissioned years ago. Different ownership histories, same level of neglect.”
Chase turned the screen so they could all see.
Two clusters of pins glowed against the map.
“That’s both marinas,” Nate said. “Docks barely holding together. Not maintained.”
Chase zoomed in on the eastern shoreline. “Three storage lockers here.”
He shifted the view. “Western shore has fewer, but they’re close enough to matter.”
“We’ll take the western side.” Chase stood. “Finn, Will, Ford, you’re with me.”
“I’ll take Titus, Nate and Dex and hit the eastern shore,” said Caleb.
They gathered tools and weapons, not sure which they’d need, just knowing time wasn’t on their side.
Caleb’s heart pounded as he pulled out of the lot. He prayed Mia was in one of them. If she wasn’t, he had no idea where else to look.
They bypassed the marina itself and followed the access road instead.
Then sirens cut through the air.
Nate glanced toward the lake. “You hear that?”
Caleb stiffened as the sirens surged past, angling north, away from the shoreline they were heading toward.
Before Caleb could answer, Chase’s voice came over the radio. “Sheriff just called it in. Body recovered at the north inlet.”
Caleb swallowed hard.
Mia? Please, God. No.
“Marine unit confirms adult male,” Chase continued. “Matches Roy’s description.”
Caleb closed his eyes.
That meant Mia was still out there. Alive, he hoped.
Caleb drove a little farther, then stopped near a stand of scrub and pines and killed the engine. Music drifted in the air from the Rusty Anchor, competing with boat engines and bursts of laughter easing in and out of slips. It was prime fishing time.
Too many people. Too much noise.
“This is the first one,” Nate said, checking the map. “Farthest from the docks.”
The men got out of the truck. The air smelled of stagnant water and old fuel.
They moved fast.
The locker’s metal door was streaked with rust, padlocked tight. Nate cut the lock. The sound echoed through the trees.
Caleb shoved the door open.
They swept it in seconds. There was no recent activity, no footprints, nothing but an old coil of rope and several warped planks.
“Clear,” Nate said.
Caleb stared hard, hoping Mia might magically appear. Nothing.
“Let’s check the perimeter.”
They circled the structure. No tire impressions. No drag marks. Nothing to show someone had been there recently.
He exhaled slowly and keyed his radio. “First unit’s a negative.”
Chase’s voice came back. “Copy. Same on our end, so far.”
Caleb looked toward the waterline. Two lockers left.
The one he didn’t want to be empty was still ahead.