Chapter 11
Jake
As soon as she got in the front seat, she said, “What’s going on?”
I didn’t answer until I got in the truck with the doors locked and moving out of the parking lot. My mind was racing, connecting dots I should have seen days ago.
“Caleb told us he got a call from the vet about Scout improving,” I said, checking the mirrors as I pulled onto the main road. “But Dr. Miller had no idea who Caleb was.”
Ella’s eyes widened. “Maybe he called the front desk? Or another vet on staff?”
“Maybe.” I tightened my grip on the wheel. “But that’s not all. The truth is that something about Caleb had been bothering me since the moment he showed up on my porch. At first, I’d chalked it up to time and distance—five years changes a person. But now I wasn’t so sure.”
“How so?”
“He showed up out of nowhere, Ella. Bloody and half-frozen on my doorstep. Said he’d caught his hand in a car door, but the wound was too clean, too precise.” I swallowed hard. “And he knew things. Things he shouldn’t know.”
“What things?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“He mentioned being worried about me because of your mysterious ex. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it.
But I never told him about Mikhail. To my knowledge, no one did.
” The realization made my stomach turn. “And when he first arrived, he asked specific questions about you and Nora. Like he was confirming information he already had.”
“Oh God,” Ella breathed. “You think he’s working for them? For Mikhail’s father?”
I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, but my silence was answer enough—my own brother. The thought made me sick.
“What about Nora?” Panic edged her voice. “We left her with him!”
I pressed harder on the gas, the truck fishtailing slightly on the icy road. “Call Kane. Tell him to get to your place now.”
She fumbled with her phone, her hands shaking so badly she could barely dial. When Kane answered, she explained in rushed, fragmented sentences.
“We’re ten minutes out,” she finished. “Please, Kane. Hurry.”
I could hear his response through the speaker: “We are on the way. I’ll call when we get there.”
The drive back to Ella’s house was the longest of my life. Every second felt like an hour, every mile stretched into eternity. Beside me, Ella sat rigid with fear, one hand braced against the dashboard, the other clutching her phone.
“I keep thinking about the signs,” I said, needing to fill the silence. “The way he showed up right before the threats started. The bandaged hand that he never explained properly.”
“But he’s your brother,” Ella said softly. “How could he betray you like that?”
I had no answer. The Caleb I’d grown up with wouldn’t have. But the man who’d appeared on my doorstep was a stranger wearing my brother’s face.
“People change,” I said finally. “Especially when there’s enough money involved.”
Her phone rang, making us both jump. Kane’s name flashed on the screen.
“Kane? Are you there? Is Nora okay?” Ella’s voice was frantic.
I could hear his response clearly: “Yeah, Declan, Connor, and Rory too, we are at the house. Door’s unlocked, but no one’s here. No sign of struggle. Looks like they just... left.”
My blood ran cold. “Check the security system,” I instructed, loud enough for Kane to hear. “See if the cameras caught anything.”
A pause, then: “System’s been disabled. Screens are blank.”
Ella made a sound like she’d been punched. I reached for her hand, squeezing it tightly as I pushed the truck faster.
“We’re almost there,” I told her. “We’ll find her. I promise.”
When we pulled into Ella’s driveway five minutes later, the four men were waiting on the porch. Scout whined from the backseat, sensing the tension.
“I checked everywhere,” Kane reported as we approached. “The house is empty. Nora’s fox toy is gone, and so is her backpack.”
“He took her,” Ella whispered, her face ashen. “He just walked in and took my daughter.”
I placed my hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look at me. “We’re going to find her. Right now. But I need you to focus, okay?”
She nodded, visibly pulling herself together. “What do we do?”
“First, we check the security footage. Caleb disabled the live feed, but the cameras store backup recordings on a cloud server.”
Inside, I went straight to my laptop, which I’d left on the kitchen table. The security app required a password—one Caleb didn’t know. Within seconds, I had the footage from the past hour playing.
There it was: Caleb and Nora, walking calmly toward my house. She was carrying her backpack and fox, chatting animatedly—no signs of force or fear. Minutes later, they pulled out of the driveway in my UTV, and he looked directly at the camera and waved.
“He knew we’d check the footage,” I muttered. “He wanted us to see this.”
Ella leaned closer to the screen. “Where would he take her?”
I rewound the footage, watching the direction they headed when it left the driveway. “North,” I said. “Toward the old logging road.”
Rory was already pulling out his phone. “I’ll call the police, get roadblocks set up.”
“No,” I said sharply. “No police. Not yet.”
Everyone stared at me.
“Jake, that’s my daughter,” Ella said, her voice breaking.
“I know. And if Caleb is working for whom we think he is, bringing in the police will only make him desperate. Desperate people make mistakes.” I ran a hand through my hair. “He took her without hurting her. That means he needs her alive and unharmed.”
“For what?” Connor demanded.
Declan pointed at me. “He’s right. Caleb knows what he’s doing.”
“But why?” Ella asked, tears pooling in her eyes.
I looked at her. “For leverage. To get you to go with them willingly.”
Understanding dawned in her eyes. “A trade. Me for Nora.”
“Possibly.” I turned back to the laptop, pulling up a map of the area. “And I think I know exactly where he’s taking her.”
I grabbed my keys and headed for the door. Ella was right behind me, her breath coming in quick, panicked gasps.
“Where?” she demanded.
“The old Miller cabin,” I said, already climbing into my truck. “It’s remote, defensible, and has only one road in. Perfect place to set up an exchange.”
Kane stood on the porch, looking torn. “I should come with you.”
Declan shook his head. “Stay here with Connor and Scout. If we’re not back in two hours, call the cops,” he said as he and Rory walked over to their truck.
Ella slid into the passenger seat beside me, her face set in grim determination. As I started the engine, she reached into the glove compartment and pulled out my handgun.
“You know how to use that?” I asked, surprised. “Didn’t you want me to teach you how to shoot a gun?”
“A rifle. I know how to shoot a handgun,” she said, checking the magazine with practiced ease. “Drive faster.”
The old logging road was treacherous in winter—all hairpin turns and ice-slicked gravel. I took it as fast as I dared, each second stretching into an eternity. Beside me, Ella stared straight ahead, her knuckles white around the gun.
“I should have seen it,” I muttered. “All the signs were there. The way he kept asking about you, how he conveniently showed up right when the threats started.”
“This isn’t your fault,” Ella said, her voice steady despite everything. “He’s your brother. You trusted him.”
“That’s exactly why it’s my fault.” I gripped the wheel tighter as we hit a rough patch of road. “I knew something was off, but I ignored my instincts because he was family.”
The trees grew thicker as we climbed higher into the mountains, branches heavy with snow forming a tunnel over the narrow road. Dusk was setting in, the light fading fast. I switched on the high beams, illuminating the swirling snowflakes that had begun to fall.
“We’re getting close,” I said. “The cabin’s just over this ridge.”
“What’s the plan?” Ella asked.
I realized I hadn’t thought that far ahead. All I knew was that my brother had taken Nora, and I needed to get her back.
“I’ll go in first,” I decided. “You stay hidden until I can assess the situation.”
She shook her head. “No way. That’s my daughter in there.”
“And that’s exactly why you need to stay back,” I argued. “If this is a trap to get you, walking right into it won’t help Nora.”
Ella looked like she wanted to fight me on this, but after a moment, she nodded reluctantly. “Fine. But if anything happens to her...”
She didn’t need to finish the threat. I understood completely.