Chapter 42
Forty-Two
Enoch
My eyes quickly scanned the group of people in front of Shiloh’s apartment door and for half a breath I almost relaxed, expecting to see her red hair amongst them.
The sound of the elevator doors closing behind us had Mason looking over his shoulder.
“Oh thank—Where is she?”
Lottie and Hannah spun away from the door, revealing a kneeling Cole, who looked to be trying to pick the deadbolt lock on Shiloh’s door.
Nausea curdled my stomach.
“Inside,” I muttered, Jae’s hand on my arm, dragging me along towards her door and the crowd of her friends who looked equally as scared as I was. “According to her phone’s location.”
“Her car and bike are in the garage,” Mason added. “I checked.”
My heart thumped faster, and I leaned over Cole to pound my fist on Shiloh’s door.
“Already tried that,” Cole muttered, resuming shoving the nail file into the deadbolt. It clearly wasn’t doing anything when it didn’t even fit the hole.
“Shy!” I shouted, after pounding three times. “It’s me, baby. Open the door.”
Jae roughly cleared his throat, “When’s the last time any of you saw or heard from Emory?”
Fuck if her friends hear me call her by her name. I just need to see if she’s okay.
“She was at work yesterday.”
“Yesterday?!” I nearly shouted. “She was supposed to meet you for book club this afternoon.”
“Well, yes, but she didn’t show. When she didn’t respond to any of our calls and texts, we decided to come over. Rally and get her to come out. She…she’s done this before. I was worried,” Lottie trailed off softly.
That sinking feeling in my gut, the one that told me something was wrong the moment she didn’t answer my text from this morning only worsened.
She could be in there hurting herself. She could have cut too deep. She could be bleeding out.
My vision blacked out momentarily at the thought alone.
No, I wasn’t going to lose her.
“Baby, no one’s mad. It’s okay if you relapsed. We just need to see that you’re alive.”
“Relapsed?” Lottie whisper-shouted. “Relapsed?!”
I gave her a pointed glare, “You didn’t hear that until she tells you herself.”
Cole fell back on his ass and dropped his hands into his lap, “Fuck. This is impossible.”
“Fuck,” he repeated, throwing the nail file at the door.
“I’m calling the police,” Hannah said, swiping to unlock her phone.
I quickly snatched it.
“Hey!”
Heart racing, my eyes found Jae’s as he gave me a small nod. “It’s your call, brother.”
My hand fisted at my side.
“What are you doing? Call them!” Hannah demanded, eyes wide with frustration.
“We can’t call them,” I replied with as much calm as I could muster. “She wouldn’t want us to.”
A door unlocked behind us, and I turned around to find an elderly woman staring at us all with a frown.
“Have you seen the girl who lives here today?”
Her lips thinned as she eyed each of us warily.
“Please,” Lottie said, stepping closer. “Were her friends and we think she’s in trouble.”
The lady adjusted her hold on her purple cane before grumbling, “Last person I saw here was him,” she said, lifting her cane to point it at me.
“So, you haven’t seen her leave since I dropped her home last night?” I asked.
The lady shook her head.
“Fuck. That was ten-thirty last night.”
“Shit,” Lottie cursed under her breath. Mason dragged a hand up and down her arm, pulling her closer.
“We’re gonna have to kick the door down,” I concluded. My mind refusing to believe what was likely the truth—Shiloh was in there, unconscious or…No! Shut up. You’re not going there.
God, let her be okay. Let her be okay.
Mason didn’t hesitate and I jumped out of the way as he pounded his foot into the door.
Nothing happened and he limped away with a growl.
“Someone else go,” he gritted out, “I think I just tore something.”
Jae stepped up, twisting the handle, and falling forwards into Shiloh’s apartment.
“It wasn’t locked,” Cole muttered with shock.
Fuck. Why wasn’t it locked?
“You didn’t fucking check if it was locked?!” I yelled, pushing past Jae.
I raced through the living room, straight to her bedroom.
“Shy! Where are you?!”
I glanced around the empty space, stepping into her bathroom.
She wasn’t here.
Jae dropped down, looking under her bed and coming to stand with the shake of his head as Cole shook his head from the entrance to her closet.
Sweat beaded on my hairline, and I looked around the space again, like she might miraculously appear.
My eyes caught on the bathtub.
Jae followed my gaze, “What?”
“She’s afraid of the bathtub,” I breathed.
Tears threatened and I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat.
The tub was filled nearly to the top. I felt the water, praying it was still warm, but it wasn’t.
The pair of my sleep clothes that she was wearing last night when I kissed her goodnight were in a pile beside the tub.
I stood, staring back at her bedroom for some clue as to where she went. Her phone was on her nightstand, plugged in like she’d likely left it before going to sleep. Her book on the floor, the covers pulled back off of her bed.
This doesn’t make any sense.
I slammed the heel of my palm against my head.
None of this made any sense.
Where the hell is she?
“I don’t understand,” Lottie spoke, sitting on the edge of Shiloh’s bed with tears on her cheeks. “Where would she go without her car or that bike? And without her phone.”
I raced over to her bedside table and ripped open the drawer. Part of me wanted to cry with relief that her gun was still inside, the other part wanted to scream with frustration.
I refused to believe that Shiloh would have left me again like this. Which meant only one thing. Rage ripped through me so hard and fast I couldn’t stop myself before my fist was breaking through her bedroom wall.
I panted, pulling my hand out of the drywall and shaking my wrist out. Fuck, that hurt. But dammit if the pain didn’t do something to ground me. If I held onto the anger, maybe then I’d avoid feeling the pain in my chest, the fear coursing through my bloodstream.
Lottie sobbed and Hannah curled her arm around her waist, sitting beside her.
“Still gonna tell me we shouldn’t call the police,” Hannah glowered.
I realized I was still holding her phone.
I unclenched my jaw to speak.
“No one calls the police,” I said firmly, catching all their eyes. “No one.”
“Why the hell not?” Mason demanded.
“Because,” I said, grabbing Shiloh’s phone and typing in her passcode, 366247, “the police can’t help her. But I know who can.”
My hands were sweaty and shaking as I scrolled through her list of contacts until I found the one I was looking for. I tapped call and held it up to my ear.
“Emory?” the man asked with a small amount of shock. “What’s going on kid?”
I swallowed. “It’s Enoch.”
“What the hell did you do?” he accused gruffly.
“No-nothing. I don’t think. She’s gone.”
“Gone? Gone where?”
“I think someone took her.”
I shut out the voices of her friends gasping and whispering in shock.
There was a beat of silence on the other end of the phone line. “Who?” he demanded.
I eyed the bathtub. “Her ex-husband.”
“Fuck,” Bradley hissed. “Fuck!”
I heard something crash in the background and I ran a hand through my hair, pulling at the roots.
“What do I do?”
“Dammit! I told her…fuck. Kid, I can’t…” Bradley sighed with exasperation. “I can’t get involved. I don’t have any power here with the Marshals Service. She signed away my power when she left WITSEC. I can’t get involved.”
Anger left a bitter taste in my mouth as my chest heaved. “Then tell me where he lives. Surely you can manage that much, right?”
The silence dragged on. “Dammit, Bradley, just fucking tell me where the piece of shit lives!”
There was another loud bang on his end before he sighed roughly.
“How do you know it was him?”
I eyed the tub once again. “Because I’m not looking at her dead body, right now. And if it was them, I would be.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered to himself. “How long she been missing for? You sure she's not just out with a friend or something?”
I growled with impatience. “No. She's not out with a fucking friend, Bradley.
She's fucking missing. Her phone is here.
Her gun is here. Her car is here. Her bike is here.
Her backpack is here. Everything is fucking here except for her!
The only clue I have is that her bathtub is full.
She wouldn't go fucking near a full bathtub of her own accord. So I know it was that fucker, Theodore. Now tell me where the fuck he lives so I can go get her!”
There was a long silence before he finally responded.
“Fuck it. Fine. They own a compound, over two-thousand acres, an hour outside of San Antonio. But you’re not gonna get on without help.
They used a fucking mercenary team to get her out the last time and I can guarantee you that if he found a way to find her and take her, he’s got someone helping him that will only make things more difficult. ”
My dad. I need my dad. He has to know someone from his time in OSI that could help. He has to.
Jae stepped closer to me, taking Hannah’s phone from my other hand, only to slip his hand into mine, squeezing hard.
“If I can get some people to help, some qualified people, will you help us?” I squeezed Jae’s hand. My voice shook with emotion, and I clung to the anger even harder. “You’re the only one who has the information we need. You know what we’re walking into. Please.”
I wasn’t above begging. I’d do anything to get her back. I’d blackmail the guy if I had to, but I was going to get the information I needed. I was going to get her back.
I promised her I’d keep her safe. I promised her.
Agent Bradley sighed and some hope blossomed in my chest.
“Get your ass to the mainland. If it’s really the cult that’s got her, then she’s likely alive and we’ve got time to come up with a plan to get her out of there.”
Cult. My stomach bottomed out.