3. Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Royal
“ T here’s no one in the house.”
Dejection colors Ronan’s voice as he walks back into the bedroom and sits next to me on the bed.
After we’d searched the entire house, I came back to this room– her room, hoping to find any kind of clue. But there’s nothing here besides Em’s little white horse.
Clutching it in my fist, I stand from the bed and walk to the window. This is where the picture was taken– in front of this window. I recognize it now. She’s so close I can feel it.
I stare out into the forest through the frosted glass, trying to run through every possible move we could make next. We are too close to finding her to let this lead slip through our fingers. It’s the first lead we’ve had and the only one I think we will ever get.
“We’ll keep looking. We won’t stop until we find her,” Ronan says, squeezing my shoulder in reassurance.
My mind reels with ‘what ifs,’ but the thoughts come to a halt in my head when something peeking through the tops of the trees catches my eye.
“What the fuck is that?” I mumble, straining to see through the coating on the glass. But it’s distorted. Tossing the white horse on the bed, I frantically pull at the window to open it up.
“What is it, man?” Ronan asks, helping me lift the window from its near-fixed position. It might as well be nailed shut.
Grunting and straining, we manage to unstick it, and when it finally slides free, it slams loudly against the frame.
“There.” I lean out the window, pointing off into the forest. “Is that a roof?” He leans out with me, squinting off into the distance.
“Well, would you look at that? That’s a goddamn roof,” he says, slapping me on the back and grinning like an idiot.
“Let’s go,” I tell him, grinning back at him with renewed hope. I grab the little white horse from the bed, stuff it into my back pocket, and stride from the room.
By the time we make it back into the kitchen, where the rest of the guys are gathered around Dax, hope has spread through my whole body, filling me once again with vigorous determination.
“Can you hold on a little longer?” Ronan asks Dax as he squats down and examines the bullet wound.
“I’m fine,” he grunts. A grimace paints his features when Ronan leans him forward, searching for an exit wound.
“It’s still in there, but it looks like it missed everything major. We’ll have to get a doctor to remove it once we’re done here, though,” Ronan tells him, gently pressing him back into the cabinet. Dax grumbles under his breath but doesn’t make his obvious opinion on it known.
“There’s another structure on this property, just through the forest,” he continues as he stands up, his voice laced with authority now as he addresses everyone. “Jasper, stay with Dax. The rest of us, let’s check it out.”
“She’s got to be here, man. There’s no way we missed them leaving the property altogether and no reason for those men to be here if they weren’t here to guard her.”
Maddox rambles on as we trek through the thick forest. Hope still fills my chest, but the closer we get, the more on edge I feel because I know Maddox is feeling it, too.
“She’s here,” I whisper, mostly to myself, but it seems to calm his chaos just a little.
Alek is quiet. He’s not like me or Maddox. Whereas I bottle my emotions up until they explode, and Maddox wears his like a badge of honor for the whole world to experience– Alek keeps his emotions level. He doesn’t suppress them or flaunt them, but rather, he keeps them right at the surface.
I wish I could be like that. I think I can be, especially with Raena’s help. When she let me unleash myself on her, a sense of peace settled over me in a way that’s never happened before. With time, I think my Angel can help me channel my control issues into something more…pleasurable.
Even now, thinking of her has helped quell the storm that’s raging in my mind on this walk. I feel more at peace than when we walked out of the house. My breathing is more even, and my heart’s not pounding quite as hard. But I know I won’t feel completely at peace until we find Em.
“You’re learning, Royal,” Alek says as we walk in step with each other.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re learning to let yourself feel things and not let them control you.”
I didn’t know he was watching me so closely, but I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s just how he is. Always the observer– making sure everyone else is okay. When I don’t respond, he continues.
“She’s helping you. I can see it. Before her, you would have never let someone come in and take control of this mission. You would have insisted on being in charge.”
“I know,” I admit, feeling lighter about that decision with his acknowledgment of it.
“I’m proud of you.”
Warmth spreads through my chest at his praise, surprising me. I’m not used to the feeling. It doesn't feel bad, though. Just different. Like I want to do more, just to feel it again. “It’s her.”
“I know. She is changing us for the better–” he starts, but Ronan stopping in front of us cuts his response short.
“There,” Ronan says, pointing through the dense trees to a round stone structure.
It looks like an old folly tower, standing a little taller than the trees surrounding it. Vines have grown up the side, giving it a medieval, castle-like appearance. With a hollow stone archway revealing an entry door in the front, it appears to have only one window at the very top, at least from this side.
“Where the fuck did this come from?” Maddox asks, sounding as confused as all of us look.
“No fucking idea, but I don’t see any guards,” Alek says, scanning the area for any potential threats.
“Let’s move. Keep your eyes open,” Ronan commands, and we trail behind him in formation, weapons raised and on alert. We make it to the archway without a single sight of anyone else. “This is going to be a tight space. We won’t be able to get out quickly or get to cover if we run into any problems,” he says when he opens the wooden door without any issue.
For a moment, we stare into the dark, winding staircase that seems to circle the outer edge of the tower structure.
“Shoot first, ask questions later,” I tell him, giving him a sharp nod. We each understand the fact that we could die here today, but that doesn't change anything. We will turn this property inside out before I go home to my Angel and tell her we couldn’t find her daughter.
He understands. I can tell just by the brief interaction I’ve seen between him and his girl that he would lay down and die for her, too. He gives us a commanding nod before turning to the doorway and crosses the threshold.
As we wind around the tower, the light from the open door at the bottom fades away, cloaking the narrow stairwell– and us– in darkness. We move almost silently, listening for any threat that might pop out of the stonework, but it's eerily silent all the way to the top.
When we get to the last bit of stairs, the floor opens up into a loft. Ronan stops just before his head peeks over the ledge, looking back at us with silent commands. Spread out and stay alert .
We move in a flash, spreading out into the narrow room.
“Clear,” I say, almost in unison with the others.
A silence falls over the room once more as defeat blankets each of us. There’s no one here. Alek walks over, resting his hand on the back of my neck as my head drops between my shoulders. Then I hear it. The faintest little whimper.
“Did you hear that?” I ask, frantically spinning in a circle, searching for the sound as Maddox and Ronan step over next to us.
“What is it?” Ronan asks, his eyes scanning the dark crevices of the room as well.
“I heard someone– Em. It’s got to be her,” I say hastily, stepping away from them and moving towards the bed that’s sitting across the room.
“Em?” I call out, stepping into the darkness that the light from the window doesn’t reach. Silence greets me, but I don’t stop. I know what I heard.
“Royal, I don’t think she’s he–” Alek says sympathetically, but he stops short, his eyes widening with hope when a restrained whimper sounds louder through the room, and everyone freezes.
“Em?” Alek calls out.
“Mmhmp-.”
Maddox points to the bed, and I drop to the ground and flip the dust ruffle up. The sight I find makes my heart soar in my chest, and my blood boils– simultaneously.
A wide-eyed woman stares back at me, clutching Em to her body with her hand covering her mouth. Rage coats my words as they grind out of my mouth, laced with fury.
“Let. Her. Go.”
“No! Don’t hurt h-her!” She cries, her voice breaking as she tightens her hold on Em, making me pause.
She’s trying to– protect her?
Em cries harder, struggling against her, breaking my heart as her eyes plead with me. She remembers me. Letting out a relieved sigh, I soften my tone when I address the frightened woman again.
“She is struggling against you because she knows me. She’s trying to get to me,” I explain gently.
Her eyes quickly dart to Em, searching her face for a moment before slowly releasing her mouth as she asks, “Do you know who this is, Emma?”
“Ro,” she tries to say, but it sounds like ‘whoa.’ She’s shaking her head up and down and struggling to get her arms up to reach for me. Smiling at her, I reach my hand out to her, running my knuckle down her cheek, and she relaxes in the woman's hold.
“Bring her out, please. We won’t hurt you,” I say gently. It’s like trying to coax a scared kitten from a corner.
“Okay,” the woman relents, fear still evident behind her words. She keeps her arms tight around Em, holding my gaze as she slowly scoots forward.
As soon as Em reaches the edge, the woman releases her. She scrambles to her feet and launches herself to me, knocking me back onto my ass as I crush her to my chest. Her whole body shakes against me with sobs, and she clings to me like her knight in shining armor.
“Shhh. I’ve got you now. You’re safe, Little One,” I whisper, soothing her with one hand cradling her head and the other rubbing her back.
With my eyes squeezed shut, I feel my brothers surround us. Alek’s huge frame kneels next to us on one side as Maddox comes to the other, bringing all four of us together on the floor.
“We’ve got you, Em. It’s okay,” Alek says, emotion straining his deep voice as he places his hand on top of mine. When she hears him, she raises her head, and the smile that splits across her face splits my heart in two.
“Bear!” She shouts, launching out of my arms and clinging to his arm like a spider monkey. He sits back on his ass, too, bringing her around to cradle her in his big arms.
“That’s right, Little One. I’ve missed you,” he says into her messy blonde curls.
Maddox is practically shaking beside me, holding onto my shoulders while he impatiently waits for her to acknowledge him. He might be chaos incarnate, but he loves her just as much as we do. No one could make her laugh like him. Alek opens his eyes, and when he sees Maddox, he helps him out.
“Little One, look who else is here.”
She lifts her head and turns to us. When she sees Maddox smiling at her, she wastes no time scrambling to him.
“Maddie!”
She throws her arms around his neck, clinging to him the same way she did with us. “Sunshine,” Maddox whispers softly as he holds her tight.
It doesn’t escape my notice that a tear trickles its way down his cheek when he squeezes his eyes shut and soaks her presence in.
When she pulls back to look at his face, she cups her tiny hand to his cheek and presses her nose to his.
“It’s o-tay, Maddie. Don’t cry,”
And if that doesn’t just rip my heart right out of my fucking chest, I don’t know if anything else ever will.
“I’m okay, Sunshine. I’ve just missed you so much,” he tells her, giving her a crazy smile that makes her giggle.
“I hate to interrupt…” the woman says quietly from where she stands in front of the bed, bringing my attention back to her. I forgot she was even here. “But who are you?”