43. Jasper
Chapter forty-three
I can’t believe we’ve spotted Simon after all this time. The only photo we had to go off of was one from our security camera outside of Mina’s old house. That combined with Mina’s description, and we recognized him straight away. He wasn’t even trying to change his appearance, apparently. And why would he? It’s not like the police were looking for him. Right now, only we are.
We’ve only been here for a few hours, and it’s late afternoon. I thought it would be well into the night before we saw any sign of him, if we ever did. It takes everything I have not to follow him and beat the shit out of him before killing the bastard. When he goes inside the motel, we call the others to let them know.
I’m so excited for this to finally be over and for Mina to be safe. Dom calls to let us know the police are on their way, to bring him in for questioning, and hopefully, his DNA matches what was left at the scenes. And if we’re really lucky, this could all be over by the time we get home.
We hear the police sirens, and Tucker swears. “What are they thinking?!” he says, banging his fist on the dash. Sirens will alert Simon to their arrival, giving him a chance to run.
“Shit, he could take off round back!” I say angrily .
“I’m on it!” Tucker gets out of the car and runs around the building.
I watch from across the street, where I’m parked, as three police cars pull up right in front, and six officers get out. Four of them go inside.
It’s about twenty minutes before Tucker comes back around looking angry. “They lost him,” he says angrily. “I think he must have taken off before I got there. They managed to check the whole building. They’re stationing their men at all exits now and checking all the other rooms for Simon and Helen, but I have a feeling he’s gone.”
My phone rings, and I answer, seeing Ben’s name on the screen.
“Dom,” I answer with a sigh, knowing they’ll all be on the call.
“Jasp—Do not let your eyes off of Simon. Go inside and cuff him if you have to.”
“I can’t, Dom. He got away,” I say, whacking the steering wheel.
“FUCK!” he swears, and I hear the sound of something smashing.
“Get your asses back here right now. Mina is gone.” My heart stops at that moment, and I freeze. My eyes dart to Tucker, who looks as scared as I feel.
I pass my phone to Tucker and start the car, peeling out and heading home as fast as I can while Tucker speaks to Dom.
“What the fuck do you mean—GONE?!”
“Helen took her at gunpoint, knocked out Max to get to her.” I gasp.
“Max is fine, small head wound.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I slam my hand on the wheel with each word.
“What about Atlas and Ben? Weren’t they there too?” Tucker asks.
“We can share details later. Right now, we focus on getting her back safely. She was able to call Atlas from the trunk of the car—”
“She’s in the trunk of a car?!?” I yell .
“Listen—she called Atlas, and Ben recorded the conversation. He’ll send it to us all in a minute. They’re tracking her phone right now. They’re way ahead of all of us, but we need to get there as fast as possible. You have the tracking app for her, too. Follow it. I’ve gotta go, chief’s calling.” He hangs up and Tucker pulls up the app.
“She’s still on the move,” Tucker says.
“Good, that’s a good thing,” I say, nodding my head, convinced that as long as she’s moving, she’s not being hurt.
“They are headed in our direction. We’ll get there sooner than Dom. Depending on where she stops, maybe even sooner than Atlas.” I nod while grinding my teeth in frustration.
“She must be terrified,” I whisper. Our phones ping.
“It’s an audio file from Ben.”
“Play it.”
He hesitates for a second, then presses play, and we hear Atlas’s voice.
“…tracking you. I’m close, and the others aren’t far behind me.”
“I’m scared, Atlas. I can’t survive her or Simon again.”
“Baby, I need you to listen to me. You’re going to be okay. No matter what happens, I will always come for you. We will always find you. No matter where you go or how far you are, we will never, ever stop looking for you. You belong to us, with us, and we will stop at nothing to get to you. Now, I’m going to claim my favor you owe from the deal we made earlier. Whatever happens, you will not give up. You will fight as hard as you can to stay alive, safe, and come back to us. You will NOT give up. Do you understand me, Malishka?”
“Yes.”
“Baby, promise me you will fight to stay alive for me.”
“I promise. I love you, Atlas! ”
“Atlas, we’ve stopped. She’s coming!”
“Okay, don’t let her see your watch, pull your sleeve to cover it, quickly now!”
I wipe my face and see Tucker doing the same.
“Jasper, we have to get her before they hurt her again,” Tucker says with fear and worry in his voice.
“I know. She sounded terrified. We were supposed to keep her safe.”
“We will. We’ll get her. She promised she’d fight, and that doesn’t stop when we save her. This won’t break her.”
I just hope that’s true.
Atlas
I can’t believe she’s been taken on my watch. I’ll never forgive myself if something bad happens to her. Something worse. I already know this kidnapping isn’t something I’m going to get over easily, even if we do get her back unharmed. Thank god she has her watch on her so I can track her, I could kiss Ben for giving her that.
“I think they stopped!” Ben yells. He’s sitting beside me in the SUV, with Max in the backseat with a bandage around his head. When I saw him lying there in a pool of blood, I was terrified. Thankfully, head wounds often look worse than they are.
He was already waking up before I reached him, pointing to the drive where a car was pulling away and yelling, “Mina!”
Ben speaks, pulling me from the memory. “It’s moving again, but really slowly. She must be walking.”
“Where are they? What’s there?” I ask him.
“It’s—nothing. Just forest.”
“Fuck!” Max and I say in unison. You don’t take a girl to the woods to do anything other than rape or kill her. Or both . I press my foot down on the gas.
“I think we’re less than ten minutes out if we can keep up this speed,” Ben tells me.
“Are they walking towards something in the woods? Is there a cabin out there, or are they on a trail or something?” Max asks him, leaning forward to look at Ben’s phone over his shoulder.
“Hmmm. I don’t see anything. It’s literally the middle of nowhere. We might even lose her signal since it’s so remote.”
“We better not,” I grind out, gripping the steering wheel harder.
“Zoom out more,” Max tells him. “That, there. What is that?” He points to something on the screen.
“I think it’s like a dirt road. Probably where people drive in with their trucks before taking their bikes through the woods or something.”
“We need someone to cover that road. Max, call Jasper, they’ll be closest,” Ben instructs.
“Max?” We hear Tucker answer.
“Yeah, we’re closing in on them.”
“You see her walking through the woods, right?”
“Yep, we’re following her signal, too. I’m gonna send you a pin. It’s a dirt road that’s past the area they’re headed. You guys need to go there and cover that road in case they head that way to escape. There could be a second vehicle there or something, trying to cover their tracks.”
“Yeah, we got it covered,” Tucker tells us.
“Eight minutes out,” Ben says.
“We’re about twenty,” Jasper says through the phone .
“Okay, radio silence, texts only. I’ll let Dom and Gideon know,” Ben tells everyone.
“Hold on, Malishka… we’re coming,” I say to myself. I just hope she takes what I said to heart and remembers it. She better not fucking give up on me. I can’t live without her.