Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
Hunter
You take my heart, you take my soul, I will take your life.
I ’m trying to convince myself the squeezing in my chest is not a bad sign when I hear the rumble of an unfamiliar engine behind me. It’s too light to be my truck, which means… what? It could be a tourist looking to spend the unseasonably hot day at the lake—it’s not like we own it. I stand at the same time as William, who catches my eye with a frown. He feels it too, and the churning in my gut solidifies when I spot the familiar passenger in the back seat.
I stalk to the white sedan as it rolls to a stop and yank open the door. Carlson tumbles out clutching an open laptop, his hair sticking up at the sides like he’s been pulling on it.
“Hey man! You need to pay,” the young guy shouts. William stiffly digs in his jeans pocket as I glance in the back, my heart falling to the floor. No beautiful hacker in sight.
“Where is she?” I snap.
Carlson’s frightened eyes meet mine, and he steps back toward William without realizing it. Fuck. I am not going to like his answer. What have you done, Eleanor?
“T-there was a call f-from Green Hay,” Carlson starts as my heart skips a beat. There are a hundred things I expected, a thousand possibilities I planned for, and Steph being forced into this hellscape was not one of them. “Ghost answered, and there was this guy, Jonathan?—”
No. Fury descends over me, and Carlson takes another step back, his face going pale. William joins us as the car spins in a circle and leaves, placing a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“Keep going,” William encourages.
“He has Steph,” Carlson confirms with a strangled gulp, avoiding my gaze. “He blackmailed Ghost. She left me at the store. I didn’t get the burgers.”
My hand runs through my hair as I urge Carlson to stay on topic and not take off on a random tangent.
“That’s okay,” William tells him. “Keep going.”
Carlson nods and turns to me, straightens his spine, and takes a deep breath. Fuck me. “She said to tell you to call Fox, that the tracker is on, and she gave some woman named Gail permission to discuss anything about Ghost’s history with you. I have her number.”
“Tracker?” William says, shooting me an incredulous look. “Won’t he know to dump her phone straight away?”
“It’s implanted.”
William’s eyes widen. He’s aware of what Jonathan is on paper, but the reality of someone taking the drastic step of placing a tracker inside their body makes shit real. The threat against her has never been clearer, it seems.
Welcome to Ellie’s reality.
Carlson waves his laptop in my face, a near manic gleam in his eye. “I solved it! The pattern. The roads all lead to the water.”
I shake my head at his nonsense. I don’t have the luxury of entertaining his ramblings right now. I’m sure they make sense to him, but a sociopath has my girls. All bets are off. I snatch my phone from his hand and stalk to William’s truck, with him and Carlson hot on my heels. I climb in the driver’s side and start the engine. The passenger door flies open, and Carlson is shoved inside, followed by William.
“Get out,” I snap, my fingers flexing on the steering wheel. “This is not your fight.”
William slams the door closed. “Put your seatbelt on, C.”
Cheryl runs in front of the truck with her arms raised. “Your wife needs you.”
William lowers the window and hangs his head out, making it clear he’s not leaving. I grumble under my breath, my thumbs rapidly beating against the soft leather. Fine, but every second spent here is one more Eleanor has to put distance between us. Glancing at C, I see him furiously typing on his computer, his fingers a blur against the keys. I need a signal to figure out where she is. Come on, Eleanor, help me out here.
“Eleanor and Steph are in danger. Carlson figured something out, so we’re taking him with us. Cancel camp, get everyone back to the compound, and go on lockdown until I call you.”
Cheryl’s eyes harden, and she nods her head, spinning on her heel and heading toward the bonfire pit. My breath catches in my lungs. I wish Eleanor was here to see this. The trust and responsibility William puts in his wife to protect the Reapers doesn’t exist in other MCs. Church is only one part of the whole picture.
I spin the truck in a circle, gravel spraying into the trees, and put my foot down hard as I head toward Green Hay. It’s about an hour’s drive from here. My stomach clenches, my knuckles white as my hands shake. If Eleanor dropped Carlson at the store, which is halfway, that means she is already at Green Hay and Jonathan is making his move. Speeding down the deserted road, the trees blur in an unidentifiable mass of green and brown. I need to get to a point where I have a signal, then I can see where she is and check in with Fox.
“Take it easy,” William mutters, grounding me back into the truck. “You can’t ride in and save your girl if your horse is wrapped around a goddamn tree.”
The display on my car suddenly comes to life as it finds a signal, and hope surges through me. Glancing at the screen, I note the missed calls from Green Hay, and my excitement fizzles.
“She kept ignoring him,” Carlson informs me, seeing the look of fear on my face.
Clever girl. Jonathan would have become more incensed and focused on tormenting her, desperate to get her to obey, rather than torturing my sister. I yank the wheel, pulling the truck over on the verge, and take out my phone, bringing up the tracking app. It blinks, sending off a signal to locate Eleanor. Seconds stretch, and I panic it won’t work. Could Jonathan have found it? What does that mean for Eleanor? It zooms out, then starts moving. Fast. Too fast. What kind of car are they in? William stretches to look over Carlson, noticing the same thing I do.
“They aren’t on land. They can’t be at that speed,” he observes, and the vice around my chest tightens.
Adrenaline surges through my veins, making me lightheaded. Focus, Hunter. I scroll through my phonebook and dial Green Hay, and Hannah, the head nurse, picks up after the first ring. I need to check Stephanie is okay, then I’ll hunt the fucker down and lay waste to his world for daring to come anywhere near the women I love.
“It’s Hunter, is?—”
A whimper echoes in the truck, making my heart sink. “He took them.”
“Them?”
“Your girl and your sister.”
I hammer my fist on the steering wheel, making C jump, the computer nearly toppling off his lap. I force myself to take deep breaths, fighting off the darkness threatening to take over my vision.
“Hunter?”
“Still here. Any other information?”
“I think he took them in a helicopter.” I’ll never catch up to them now. “Hunter? You bring that girl back to us safe, you hear me?” There’s more steel in her voice now, helping to center me.
“I hear you.”
“Stay safe. And your girl? She’s a keeper.” I’m very fucking aware. A smile I can’t control lifts some of the darkness away, and I end the call.
“That makes sense with where he is taking her,” Carlson says.
I whip around and glare at him. “What do you mean?”
“I tried telling you.”
William shoots me a warning glare. “Try again.”
Carlson opens his laptop screen and points to a familiar display of information. How does he have Eleanor’s data on Jonathan? My heart skips a beat. She must have given it to him. That is the only thing that makes sense. While I am raging that she ran off without me, going against everything she promised, Eleanor did more than I ever expected. All the access she left isn’t the actions of a woman on a vengeance mission. She analyzed everything and made the best call, given the resources she had. She went because Steph was being threatened, but left me with all the pieces I need to find her, hoping I can put the picture together quickly enough to save them both.
My heart thrashes in my chest. I am dangerous like this and likely to make mistakes. I suck in a sharp breath through my teeth. I need to fall back on my training, hyper focused on the cold, hard facts. I empty my lungs completely, the fog in my brain lifting. Emotions will get us all killed.
Carlson squints at my phone, cocking his head as his brain moves faster than anyone can keep up with. Besides Eleanor. She can keep up with him. “Can I make a mirror of your phone so I can see the tracker info?”
“Yes.” There it is. The ice. The armor. The brutality hidden beneath the surface.
Two minutes later, the little dot speeding across the country is on his laptop. He nods, pushing up his glasses with a smile. “Like I thought.”
“C, spit it out. Time is of the essence here,” William tells him, his voice hard but his face open.
“She had all the information, but she limited herself to land.”
“That is the norm, since we’re land dwellers,” I grumble under my breath.
“Think about it. A floating warehouse of humans with no escape and no authorities. It’s impenetrable. It’s secure. It’s perfect.”
I swipe a hand down my face as everything clicks into place. “They are on a ship.”
“Yes. Off the coast of California is my best guess.” That’s where Jonathan’s wellness retreats take place. “There’s an airfield on Ghost’s radar, but she discounted it too quickly. My best guess is he flies clients out so they can pick their victims at leisure.”
My fingers tap against the steering wheel as I sort through and discard plan after plan. The issue is Jonathan clearly knows who I am. The second he sees me, he will kill Eleanor and Steph, if he hasn’t done so already. I shake my head, my jaw ticking. No. I can’t think like that. Emotions need to stay locked up until we’re back on land and I’m balls deep in my girl. A smirk lifts my lips. I do have contacts that Jonathan won’t recognize.
I stab my finger against my phone, and he answers immediately.
“Hunter, thank fuck. I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“He has Ghost and my sister.”
“What do you need?” Honor asks, focused despite the tremor in her voice.
“Transport to the coast,” I say as a plan solidifies in my mind. I need to get on that boat without him knowing until it is too late.
“Done. Send me the coordinates and a helicopter can be with you in minutes,” Fox says.
“Jonathan is holding them on a boat, we think?—”
“We know with a high degree of certainty,” Carlson interjects.
“His inventory is kept on a boat.”
Honor curses. “He needs to die.”
“Give me the contact information and names of some known buyers, and I can arrange a viewing today,” Fox says. I don’t want to know how, but Fox moves in the societal circles Jonathan aims for.
His victims disappear from the world to feed the sick games and desires of the wealthy who see laws as a loose guideline rather than an absolute authority. Whipping the truck around, I pull back onto the road and speed toward the airstrip.
That’s okay. I can be judge, jury, and executioner. This is the last time Jonathan will ever see the sun.
This ends tonight. I promise.