Chapter 27
VOSS
“Where are you going with those?” Dad asks as I leave my backroom with more than a dozen laptops in my hands. I have another six on my back in my pack. He follows, with Jessica right on his heels.
“I need help,” I say without stopping to talk.
I’m making a very rash decision, and the more I look at the reserve, the more dark dread fills my chest. The trees are too thick to see through the canopy. There aren’t any fucking cameras around there that I can find.
There are no electronic eyes on the inside, which means I’m blind.
I have to do this a different way.
He and Jessica join me in the elevator. Jessica takes a few of the laptops, and Dad takes half a dozen more to lighten my load.
“Voss,” Dad says.
“You’re right. We need to know what we’re getting into, and our deadline is running out. We need to be on the next delivery, but going in blind is stupid. I can’t see through the trees. There aren’t any fucking security feeds that I can find. Which means I need to… find this place another way.”
The elevator door opens into the parking garage. I head for the closest vehicle that’ll have keys in it. Another white truck. My father and Jessica hurry to climb in.
“What’s your plan?” Dad asks as soon as I start speeding out of the garage.
“The only place we’re going to find something like this is on the dark web. I don’t know what we’re looking for, so there’s not enough of me to follow all the avenues. I need help.”
I slam on the brakes, and the truck slides to a stop beside the big house. Dad grabs my hand after I throw it into Park, and I meet his eyes.
“I’m going to teach everyone to search the dark web until we find it,” I tell him.
Dad frowns. “Is that a good idea?”
“No. We have forty-eight hours before the next pickup. I’m out of options. Do you have a better plan than this?”
He doesn’t. I can see that written on his face. Dad lets go of my arm, and I grab my pack and the laptops. Wordlessly, Jessica and Dad follow me with the laptops they have.
I’m not in the least bit surprised to find all Brek and Jessica’s friends with my brothers, Uncle Noaz, and Emerson in the parlor room.
Except the two/thirds triplets. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ellory is still playing with the Shuttled driver.
He has a weird bloodlust that I try not to acknowledge since it makes my skin crawl.
“Did you find him?” Oakley asks as he jumps to his feet.
“No. I need your help.”
“What do you need?” Uncle Noaz asks.
I set the laptops down on a table. Jessica and Dad’s piles join mine, and I pull out a half dozen more from my pack.
As I open the top one and power it on, I explain.
“I don’t know what you’ve been told, but the information we have so far is that Brek is a victim of a pattern of abductions over the last year.
Once a month, they’re delivered to a truck stop where a tractor-trailer truck takes the unconscious victim away.
I’ve tracked the truck.” I pause as the computer boots up.
“Uncle Kairo tracked the truck,” I correct.
“The victims are deposited on a wild game reserve in Colorado. From what we’ve uncovered from the man who abducted and sold Brek, this usually only happens once a month, but for some unknown reason, there are two drops this month.
The second is in forty-eight hours. I’m going to be on that truck, but it’d be helpful to know what I’m walking into. ”
“You’re not going to be on the truck,” Myro says.
“I am. We’re not arguing about this. There’s no time for that.”
“Voss, you don’t—”
“I just said we don’t have time for that,” I tell Myro as I cross the room with a laptop. I shove it into his hands. “I’m going. Period. Start searching.”
“What are we looking for?” Haze asks.
Jessica and Dad are starting laptops. They each hand them to me once they’re up, and I bring the browser into the dark web.
With two more laptops in hand, I cross the room and hand one to Haze and one to Imry.
It’s only then that I realize Axl is here in Imry’s arms. I pause as I look at my sleeping baby.
“He needed family,” Imry says quietly.
I take a breath. “Thanks.”
Turning back to the computer pile, I explain.
“I don’t know what we’re looking for. That’s why I need help.
There are a million different avenues to follow, so…
follow your gut. The only other bits of information we think might be useful are that the targets they’re told to abduct should be ‘able-bodied and relatively fit.’ Just start poking around.
Try different searches. Different keywords. ”
“We can make some assumptions,” Dad says.
“Jessica has followed this particular truck’s trail with Uncle Kairo.
Every month for the past ten months, this truck has traveled the same route, and people have gone missing.
One person on the same day that the truck drives through.
Not a single one of those cases has been solved, nor has the person shown back up. ”
“We can assume they’re dead,” Levis says quietly.
Dad inclines his head. “Yes. A delivery a month means that if luck is on our side, we have some time to find Brek before they… replenish their victims. Obviously, we don’t want to try that theory.
Statistics say that after the first twenty-four hours that a victim is missing, the likelihood of recovering them alive declines drastically. We’re racing a clock right now.”
“I’ve never seen search results like this,” Briar mutters.
I glance in his direction to see him staring at the screen with horror. Uncle Noaz kisses his temple. “This is the dark web,” they answer. “Steel your resolve. All we’re looking for is Brek.”
“This is awful,” Oakley whispers. He’s also staring at the screen.
I sigh. “If you can’t stomach—”
“No,” Oakley says quickly, shaking his head. “I’m just… You hear stories about what you can find on the dark web, but they’re just stories. Having never seen it, you can pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s… mortifying to see that it does.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell him and the room in general. “If I had time to look on my own, I would never ask you to. I just…”
I turn away and focus on the laptop again, unable to finish the sentence. I’m surprised when Jessica wraps her arms around me from behind and hugs me fiercely. My jaw trembles as I try to keep myself together. Fuck. My fear is getting the better of me.
“It’s okay,” she says quietly. “We’re relieved that you’re barreling full speed ahead to find him.”
“We are,” Levis agrees. “We’ve been sitting here doing nothing, so as horrifying as these results are, I’m glad to be doing something useful in hopes we’ll find him.”
I take a deep breath, trying to clear the emotion from my eyes. I pat Jessica’s hands on my stomach, silently thanking her.
“So… I need some suggestions,” Haze says as he taps the backspace button several times. “I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
Myro sighs. “Look for all the gross things. Rape. Murder. Torture. I’m going to guess that this is a service of some kind. Otherwise, the repeated deliveries don’t make sense. So there’s someone out there offering customers a live victim.”
“Able-bodied and relatively fit suggests they want someone to fight back. This isn’t supposed to be an easy victim,” Imry says.
“How will we know when we find it?” Oakley asks. Loren leans closer to look at his screen.
“A matter of location. That’s why I told you where the truck stops.
Websites that offer you the opportunity to orchestrate or murder or rape or torture or something, look at the location.
Start with the state of Colorado to begin with.
They’re not going to give the exact location right off the bat,” I answer.
“This is sick,” Jessica mutters. She’s sitting at the table with a laptop in front of her. She’s currently backspacing too. Didn’t find anything promising on the last search request.
“Also,” I say, “they prefer men. I don’t know what that means, but keep that in mind when you’re looking.”
“I’m not sure if we should,” Dad says. “Maybe this particular driver is assigned men. We know the truck makes a dozen stops before delivery.”
I sigh.
“Actually, the missing people are largely men,” Jessica says. “There are some women… and some children, but mostly men.”
I didn’t realize that.
Silence fills the room for quite some time. I join the rest of my family and search. Ellory and Avory join us after a while and pick up laptops. Uncle Arath, Uncle Oxley, and Huntley join us. Uncle Kairo does not.
“What’s the plan when you get on the truck?” Jessica asks. “Are you going to rescue Brek and leave the rest?”
“I don’t know. That’s difficult to plan when I don’t know what I’m walking in on,” I answer.
“Ultimately, I’ll get Brek and get out. Then Myro can handle the rest however he wants.
I don’t want to risk announcing our presence and them killing everyone they have with Brek among them. Yes, that’s selfish, but I don’t care.”
“Voss,” Myro says gently, and I know he’s going to argue. “You’re not the best option for this job. We need a success. You’re best behind the screen.”
“I’m going,” I say without looking up.
“Then you’re not going alone,” Loren says. It’s the first thing he’s said since I stepped into the room.
I meet his eyes. “Are you volunteering?”
He presses his lips together and looks at Oakley. Oakley is very visibly torn. He doesn’t want Loren in that place—whatever the place is. But Brek is there, and he, like the rest of us, is desperate to get Brek back.
“No,” Myro says.
“You’re not going,” Jessica says, shaking her head.
“No,” Myro agrees. “I don’t think any of us are the answer. I think we need to get Azlan involved.”
“Who’s that?” Jessica asks.
“A psychopath who works for Dad,” Myro says, smirking.
Dad is already nodding. I watch as he picks up his phone and begins tapping away. “Yes. Azlan is a good option.”