Chapter 38 – Emmett
Chapter Thirty-Eight
EMMETT
“S he’s not here,” I say, feeling defeated as we walk beside the creek. I stop and put my hands on my hips, looking down at my boots. “She has to be fucking somewhere.” My voice cracks.
“We’ll find her,” Charlie assures me. “We’ll get her back.”
We turn and stop walking when I see him. The man I’ve only seen in pictures, the man I’ve secretly hated since Lilah walked into my life. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I can’t help the hiss that comes out of my mouth. Charlie holds my arm, making sure I don’t do something I shouldn’t.
“I just heard the news,” he replies, running his hand through his hair. “I wanted to tell you guys that I saw her the night before.” The minute he says the words, Charlie lets go of my hand and steps in front of me.
“You have five seconds to talk before I let him loose on you,” Charlie hisses.
“I came to walk, just to clear my head, and she was here, I guess doing the same thing also. I—” He shakes his head. “I wanted to tell her how sorry I am for what I did to her.” He holds up his hands when I take a step. “Honest to God, man, we had a good talk. I said what I had to say, and then I left. I didn’t follow her, and I didn’t go after her. She went one way, and I went the other.” His face shows that he’s telling the truth. “I don’t want any more trouble.”
“Whatever,” I retort, touching Charlie so he knows I’m going to be okay. “Stay the fuck away from her,” I warn, walking by him with Charlie following me. “If he gets close to her when she gets back, I’m going to fuck him up,” I vow, walking back to the truck and getting in. “Any news?” I ask. He shakes his head, and I let him drive us back to the barn.
“We’re missing something.” I run my hand over my face and into my hair. The only hope we really had was the phone. Except we can’t trace it, so we have nothing. “What is it we aren’t getting?” My eyes roam over the whiteboards we have in the barn, then back to the four computer screens that are set up on my desk as Pops does whatever on it. The minute we called him and told him what was going on, he was here, and he brought everyone with him.
“You need to take a break and sit down,” Charlie advises from beside me. “You are better if you rest.”
“I’m not resting until I have her back,” I hiss, turning and seeing his face as tired as mine. He hasn’t left my side. “It’s been three fucking days and nothing. Not a single fucking thing.” Three fucking days of closing my eyes, and the only thing I see is the pain in her eyes after I let her go. Guilt from her not being with me is slowly eating me alive. Nothing will take me away from here. Nothing will stop me from looking for her. “We need to find her soon.” I shake my head, not willing to think of what might come after. The pain in my chest when I think of never seeing her again is too much to bear.
“You are going to fucking fall soon,” Pops interjects, coming into the barn where we’ve set up a sort of command post. People have been coming and going since we informed the sheriff that she’s been missing. They of course didn’t want to do anything until it was twenty-four hours, but I wasn’t going to wait. So we set up in the barn. “How can she just fucking vanish?” He looks at the map I’ve been studying in front of me.
We have the timeline from when she left her house and then nothing after that. A couple of Ring cams caught her going through the streets, and from what we can gather, she made it to the barn, but apparently, all feeds were cut off at one a.m. No one noticed since it was the middle of the night. “We’ve set up extra search parties to the town line,” Pops tells me as he pulls up a screen of the town map. “After that, I don’t know where else to search.”
“There is this whole area here.” Charlie points at the map. “Has anyone been there?”
“Yeah.” Pops nods. “Sammy went since he lives not too far from there.”
“Did they get anything on the cameras?” I turn and look at Charlie, who shakes his head.
“He said he is going to swing by the houses again tonight when he comes back.”
“Comes back?” I look over, confused by this.
“Yeah, he was having a nervous breakdown,” Charlie informs me. “Bobby came and said he needed to take a break, and I forced him to go home for a bit.” I turn back and look at the map.
“There are four businesses up there,” I note, “and two gas stations.”
“The BOLO is still going on and people are also looking for her truck,” Brock announces when he makes his way to us. “Everleigh sent coffee and donuts.” He motions to the table on the side where people have been dropping off food and such.
“Lucy and Saige are going to go to the store to pass out flyers,” he says, and I nod.
“Thanks for taking her in, man,” I say, bending my hand to hold my neck. “How’s she doing?”
“She wakes up crying and asking for you and then Lilah,” he shares, and I exhale deeply. “It’s okay, man. You’ll find her, and everyone will be okay.” He slaps my shoulder. “You guys need to get away for a bit after this”—he takes a sip of his own coffee—“visit a beach or something.”
He turns to walk away, and I watch him go, the cup in his hand. “Her mug.” I snap my fingers. “It was on the counter, right?” I ask Charlie, who is holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a donut in the other.
“Yeah,” Charlie answers while he chews his donut.
“And Benny said he put it in the dishwasher the night before when he left.” I look back at the timeline. “And then when we came in, it was the only cup taken out.”
“Okay,” he says, not following what I’m saying.
“Someone took it out to give it to her,” I tell him. “Someone who knows her. Someone who she knows.” His mouth hangs open. “It’s one of us,” I say, looking around, feeling like the floor is spinning under my feet. The hair on the back of my neck sticks up when I think of all of the men.
“Emmett,” Charlie says, “you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bobby!” I shout, and he comes running over. “Where is Sammy?”
“Sent him home,” he replies. “Man had a nervous breakdown, saying she’s probably dead.”
I look back at the map. “Who went with him to see the businesses?”
“I think Jeremy and King.” He motions with his chin toward the two guys who work the night shift.
“Jeremy, King,” I call them, and they come over. “You went with Sammy to canvass the area?” They both look at me like I’m crazy. Charlie turns and rushes over to Pops. “This area.” I point. “It’s next to his house.”
“No.” King shakes his head. “I didn’t go with him.” I look over at Jeremy, who shakes his head.
“I was with King the whole time, and we hit up the couple of rest stops.” He points at the opposite side of town.
I run to my truck. “Where the fuck are you going?” Charlie shouts and gets into the truck with me. “You don’t think Sammy…”
“The only one I’m ruling out,” I state between clenched teeth, “is you.” I pull out of the parking lot while Charlie’s phone rings.
“You need to rein him in,” Pops says, his voice tight. “I’m trying to get eyes on the house.”
“We got it,” Charlie assures him as I swerve to the right and make my way over to his house.
“If he touched a hair on her head…” I say, my eyes on the road. “If he hurt her in any way.”
He doesn’t say anything because his phone rings. “Yeah?”
“We’re on our way to you,” Pops says. “Do not go in that house unless you have backup.”
“I’m going in that fucking house,” I vow, “even if it’s on fucking fire.”
“We don’t know if he’s alone,” Pops continues, “or if he’s armed.”
I look at Charlie. “I won’t be able to stop him,” Charlie says. “You better fucking hurry.” He hangs up the phone.
“I’m going in,” I tell him. “You are staying out.”
“I’m not letting you go in there without me,” he snaps.
“You have a kid at home and a wife,” I remind him. “They need you alive.”
“You have a kid at home also,” he quickly counters.
“Yeah, but half of my life is in that house,” I tell him, parking two houses away from Sammy’s house. “No matter what fucking happens, she’s going to know how much I fucking love her.” I get out and walk down the sidewalk, looking at the small houses that line the street. “Whatever happens”—I look over my shoulder, knowing he’s not going to wait for me outside because he’s a stubborn son of a bitch—“don’t worry about me. You get her out of there.”
“We don’t know she’s in there,” Charlie reiterates.
“I know it,” I declare when we walk up the steps. “I can fucking feel her here,” I say, holding up my hand to knock on the door. “She’s fucking here.” That’s the last thing I say before I decide to kick down the fucking door.