Chapter Thirty
Thirty
Justin
“Where’s Olivia?”
I glanced up from the security plans on Kade’s computer screen to her mother’s concerned face. “She went to her room to clean up.” I suddenly realized that had been a while ago. “Maybe she decided to lie down for a bit?”
She was shaking her head before I could finish my words. “She’s not in her room. She’s not anywhere in the house.”
I snapped up straight. “What do you mean?”
“Just that,” she said as her husband and Camden rushed up behind her.
“Her car’s gone,” Camden said.
“What?” I bolted to the front window and peered outside to see for myself. Sure enough, her little blue sedan was no longer in its spot next to my truck.
She’d sneaked out on me and gone... where? More importantly, why?
“Mr. Ashford?” The lead detective walked over. “Is something going on?”
“I have no fucking idea,” I said, my cool very much rattled.
I turned to find Kade standing behind the laptop, his expression silently asking me how he could help.
I yanked out my cell phone and dialed her number. It rolled to voicemail.
“Baby, it’s me. Where are you? Call me back. Please.” I did not care that I sounded desperate in front of all of these people.
I texted her a similar message, then called again. Still no answer.
“Damn it!” I raked a frustrated hand through my hair, desperate and unable to think for the first time in my life. I was no longer professional, I was all man who was lost in that moment, his woman and little girl’s lives on the line. I needed to get it together, but I was having a hard time grasping that line.
Her father turned to the detective to explain the situation while Kade approached and pulled me aside.
“Justin.” He shook me by using my given name. “Think. Where would she go?”
“I have no idea, man. She wouldn’t leave here unless it was for Elizabeth.”
“You think he contacted her? Arranged a meeting without the cops or something?”
If he had, she probably would’ve gone along with that, if she thought it was the only way to guarantee Elizabeth’s safety. But why wouldn’t she have found a way to tell me first? Surely she knew I’d protect her.
“Maybe. How long to get her call history—wait!” I pulled out my phone again and opened the app that would show me her current location, praying she hadn’t turned it off.
She hadn’t.
“Got her.”
Sweet relief rolled through me when I saw the dot indicating her location, pinging slow movement. I zoomed in and frowned in confusion. Why was she back on campus? She did say she was feeling useless. Maybe she just wanted to double-check Sofia’s room for clues. But then why the secrecy? My sixth sense was doing more than whispering and I knew I needed to get to her.
“Go,” Kade urged. “I’ll hold down the fort here.”
I nodded and ran to my room to grab my weapon before rushing out the door, leaving Kade to handle the cops and the family’s questions.
I had my girls to find.
I kept theapp open as I drove, obsessively watching that locator dot. She’d stopped moving a few yards behind the dorms, making my stomach crawl. What the hell was going on?
I tried her phone again, and of course it rolled straight to voicemail.
I blew through every light, swerving around traffic like a madman, making it to campus in record time, slowing only as I approached the dorms, not wanting to give myself away. A small amount of relief hit me at seeing her car, but as I made my way around it with my pistol at the ready, it was empty, and there was no real movement in the lot other than a few students at the far end heading to class.
A part of me wanted to head to Sofia’s dorm room, but I checked my phone again. The locator dot was clearly not there, so I turned and headed around to the rear of the building, following where it led.
I found a trailhead and glanced around. Nobody.
Gravel crunched under my boots as I crept along, gun in one hand, phone in the other. When I reached a fork, I checked the app, but I didn’t really need to. My gut told me which way to go.
I tucked my phone away and wound through the weedy trail slowly until I heard the faint sound of voices. On instinct, I ducked off the path and into the brush, circling around the voices, using the top of a grouping of trees as my guide, until I was on the south side.
I fell to my belly and crawled to the edge of the grass and peered through, assessing the situation in stealth, holding everything back inside of me that wanted to rush in, guns blazing, until I knew what I was up against.
What I saw was quite literally the last thing I expected.
The hiking trail I’d been on ended near a large pond. The area had obviously once been well tended but was now in disrepair. Weeds, overgrown trees, and a chipped stone bench crowded the shore.
And there on the littered sand was Olivia, on her knees, begging for Elizabeth’s life... next to a crying Sofia.
My gaze swung to the man in the murky water, holding a whining Elizabeth clutched to him so tightly, it looked like she couldn’t breathe.
Tall, thin, dark-skinned, mop of curly hair... young.
I frowned.
It was clearly not Christoph.
What. The. Fuck.
“Alonzo, please,” Sofia pleaded. “She’s just a baby!”
“Do you think I give a fuck?” he spat, shaking her around like a ragdoll and stepping back farther into the water so it lapped at her chin, making her cry louder. “She’s the reason we don’t have a family anymore. Don’t you even care?”
“Of course I care! But it’s not her fault! She’s innocent!”
“But she’s not!” He pointed his other hand at Olivia, which held a Bowie knife that glinted angrily in the sun.
I heard Olivia’s gasp from across the pond. “Please don’t do this!” she begged. “I didn’t know he was married! You have to believe me!”
“You’re a damn liar!” he screamed. “And a homewrecker!”
Homewrecker? Wait. So, this was Sofia’s brother?
“Al, please!” Sofia tried again. “Please think this through. Mommy and Daddy were having troubles before Olivia came along. It won’t do any good to—” She screamed when he fell backward into the water, taking Elizabeth with him.
I moved to rush in and grab them both, but he broke the surface with a gasping and crying Elizabeth.
“Shut up!” he screamed. “Mommy and Daddy were perfect!”
But I was done. I was going to end this one way or another. The SEAL in me began to take stock of the details. She’d called him Al. I narrowed my eyes and took in his features. This was the same punk that had hit on Olivia at the dance club. I knew from Sofia’s interview she had a brother that had a history of mental problems who had disappeared for a while. Looked like he was about to have a bigger problem in me if he hurt Elizabeth.
I silently thanked the girls for keeping him talking, as they went back and forth, letting him bitch and complain about how sad his life was after his parents’ divorce, and blaming Olivia for their breakup. Apparently, Daddy Dearest had hired a PI to find out the truth about Elizabeth, and the kids found out about it. Sofia was curious, Al furious.
I kept my eyes on the scene as I crept on my belly to a more strategic position to make entry into the water for a takedown. As I slipped into the pond, I tuned out Olivia’s hoarse cries and Elizabeth’s whimpers. I couldn’t concentrate if I let them infiltrate my brain.
I sank my body down, letting only enough of my head show to breathe, as I slid along like a crocodile, gliding up behind him slow and silent.
“What do you want from me?” Olivia pleaded.
“Nothing.” He took a step back in my direction.
“Alonzo,” Sofia cried. “Let’s talk about this. You know you don’t really want to hurt her.”
It was silent for a moment just before a dove’s coo filled the air. Maybe it was a sign, a premonition, a symbol. I don’t know. I just moved on instinct at the same time as he raised his hand with the knife, its glint the only indication he was going to act, done speaking after all that bluster.
I grabbed his wrist and wrenched his arm behind his back, yanking him backward.
Shock made him flail and release Elizabeth as he sucked in a lungful of air and began to fight me. I had to make a split-second decision. I couldn’t use my gun and risk shooting the baby, so I used every bit of strength I had to hold him under the water, forcing him into submission as I dove under and searched for Elizabeth.
Eyes wide, I looked for her in the murky depths until my lungs burned. I offered up silent prayers to the God I’d long ago abandoned, and thought had abandoned me, hoping I’d been wrong.
I kept forcing Alonzo down as I swam in rapid circles, my other arm reaching frantically, until I finally, finally brushed against the softest of skin.
I reached again, stretching my fingers and gripping until I had ahold of cloth and yanked, pulling her to the surface. We came bursting from the water like a cannon and she coughed, then burst into tears, clinging to my neck.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. You’re okay now. You’re okay.”
“Bad man hurt me,” she said, crying harder.
“I know,” I said, swimming toward shore with the sheer force of my legs, dragging Alonzo along with my other hand, determined not to let him get away, even though every muscle in me was burning like fire. “But the bad man won’t hurt you now because I’m here.”
“Justin!” Olivia screamed, rushing into the water, swimming over to meet me and reaching for Elizabeth. “Oh my God!”
I let her have Elizabeth and concentrated on moving as fast as I could with Alonzo’s dead weight. We collapsed onto shore, where I pounded on his chest until he began to violently cough up water and breathe again just as police sirens sounded in the distance.
Kade had gotten my text and sent in the cavalry.
I glanced over at a sobbing Olivia who had Elizabeth clutched to her chest, then over to Sofia who was kneeling next to her brother with a mix of sadness and remorse in her eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“I know you are,” I said, tilting my head toward Olivia. “But you need to tell her that.”