Chapter 29
BUTCH
“You don’t remember anything?” Butch asked Demi.
She had been dropped off in front of their door, unconscious.
“I don’t,” she replied. “I remember Raelynn trying to get me out of there, and then a lot of pain before I passed out. Or well, knocked out.”
Butch sighed and leaned back in his chair. It had already been close to twelve hours since they had disappeared, and he needed to figure out where she was before it was too late.
“Do you remember hearing anything?” Deccan asked.
Demi shook her head and winced. “The room was dark. I didn’t even know Raelynn was in there until I heard her groaning as she woke up. I thought we were in different rooms.”
“And you couldn’t hear anything?” Deccan asked once again.
“No, it was oddly quiet. I don’t know how to describe it, but it wasn’t natural. It was almost like the room was insulated with foam or something to keep all the noise out,” she explained. “But when they opened the door, light flooded in, way too bright. Honestly, it hurt.”
“The door has to be facing the west,” Butch pointed out. “But that doesn’t narrow anything down,” he growled as he hit the arm of his chair.
“We’re going to find her,” Deccan said.
The door slammed open, and Reaper was leaning against the wall, his eyes searching the room.
“You should be in bed, resting,” Deccan looked over his shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard Demi was brought back. I needed to come. I needed to see with my own eyes that she was okay,” he explained. “What did the room look like when the sun was shining in there? Has she been to the doctor yet?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t get to look very well. I was more focused on the man who walked in… Edmund. He didn’t pay me any attention and went straight toward Raelynn. It wasn’t until I was talking that he remembered I was there, and that’s when…” Demi burst into tears.
“That’s when what?” he asked. “What happened?”
Demi shook her head and wrapped her arms around her stomach.
“Tell us,” Deccan demanded. “We need to know everything that happened so we can get to her. Any information that is left out could severely harm her.”
“That was when she got his attention off me and onto her. I don’t know why she did that, but she was trying so hard, and then she started to talk about trying to get me out of there, and I tried to tell her no, but she wouldn’t listen to me.”
Demi was full-on sobbing, and while it tugged on Butch’s heartstrings, he didn’t want to care too much. Right now, Butch needed to focus on finding Raelynn as quickly as possible.
“I’ll take her to the doctor and see if she remembers anything else,” Reaper announced.
“I’m going to get some fresh air,” Butch grumbled and walked out of the room.
Everything Demi was saying was useless. She didn’t know what the room looked like or anything. How were they going to find his Little Fairy with that information?
“Butch!” Reaper called out after him. “What shoes is she wearing today?”
Butch ignored him and continued down the hallway.
“Tell me what shoes she was wearing!” Reaper yelled.
“Why?” he growled out as he turned around. “Why the fuck do you want to know what shoes she was wearing? How is that important when she’s missing?”
“I put some trackers in some of her shoes,” he confesses. “I haven’t been able to place them in all of her shoes, but I got them in two.”
Butch thought back to what he had helped her get dressed in before she left. What shoes was she wearing?
“What shoes did you put them in?” he asked.
Maybe if he knew which ones Reaper put them in, he would know whether she was wearing them or not. Butch’s brain was short-circuiting right now with what she was wearing before she left. He was just worried that something was happening to her right now and he wasn’t there to help her.
“The pink runner shoes and her black slide-ons,” Reaper said.
Butch made his way toward their room and opened the closet to find both pairs those shoes there.
“She’s not wearing them,” Butch announced. “Shit.”
They both walked into the main room, and everyone in there quieted down.
“Any news?” Gears asked.
“Has anyone put any trackers on any of Raelynn’s things?” Reaper asked, ignoring the question.
Everyone stayed silent, none of them looking at Butch.
“He already knows that I put some in two pairs of her shoes, but sadly she isn’t wearing any of them,” Reaper said.
“I put one on one of her jackets,” Brick said.
“I sewed one onto a pair of her pants and made a cool design, so she wouldn’t know,” Razor admitted.
He stared at all of them in shock. “Why were you guys putting trackers on her without me knowing?”
It had been his plan to put them in all her clothes and her shoes. He wanted to know where she was all the time. Butch should have made her wear a bracelet or earrings with a tracker in them so this would never have happened.
But he had been too late in getting them.
“We wanted to make sure she was safe,” Gears explained. “You have been searching for her for years, but someone was after her. Of course we were going to help you.”
“Don’t even pretend that you weren’t going to do the same thing,” Hawk said. “Where did you place the trackers?”
“I haven’t yet,” he replied, and the whole room quieted again.
“I placed some in her stuffie,” Doc announced after several seconds.
“I was working on a way to get some in jewelry, but she doesn’t wear that,” Levi said.
Ace walked into the room, breathing heavy, staring at everybody.
“Where did you put a tracker? Wait, let me guess. You put one in her phone. It only works if she has her phone now, but I’m assuming you’ve already tried looking for her and she doesn’t,” Xavier said.
“I did place one in her phone, but I was also working on placing one in her cochlear implant without harming it. They cost a lot. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t ruin it if I attempted to place one there,” Ace replied. “But that’s not what’s important.”
“What’s important?” Butch asked.
Ace was the first person he had called when he found out Raelynn had been taken. He had been trying to find out where she was this whole time.
“I might have figured out where she is being held or where her last-known location was. Her phone was found at the coffee shop. He probably knew that it was bugged and got rid of it,” Ace explained. “However, she was wearing a pair of pants with a tracker in it, but the signal stopped.”
“It went out?” Razor asked. “There’s no way it could have gone out unless they found out where it was and broke it.”
“Is it waterproof?” Ace asked.
“Enough about this. Where is she?” Butch interrupted.
“Shit. I didn’t think about getting the waterproof ones. I figured she would be dry,” Razor mumbled toward the end.
Butch’s blood ran cold as he realized what was going on. Water. They must have done something with her and water. His mind wasn’t going in the best direction. Were they waterboarding her? Did they submerge her body in freezing cold water?
“You’ve got to stop thinking like that,” Reaper growled as everyone started to talk.
“I know you’re worried, but thinking the worst isn’t going to help right now.
You need a calm mind so you can think things through when the time comes.
You understand? You thinking about the worst is not going to help in the slightest. If anything, it harms Raelynn right now. ”
Butch took a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to calm himself down.
Reaper was right. If it were anything other than Raelynn, he would have been level-headed.
But when it came to her, his precious Little Fairy, everything flew out the window.
His primal instincts to find her overthrew everything he had learned over the years.
“From the last signal, which was twenty minutes ago, she’s still in town. I hacked all the cameras in the city and have put my software on it so she appears on any one of the cameras, I’ll get alerted,” Ace explained.
“What’s the address?” Butch asked.
“You’re not going there alone. We need to assess the situation and see if people are still there,” Deccan said.
Butch glared over at him. “Like hell I’m going to wait for someone to assess the situation. My girl, my Little Fairy, is out there, scared out of her mind, and I’m not going to just wait to see whether it’s safe for me. I would do anything to rescue her.”
“I know, but you need to carefully think about it. If you get hurt, then who’s going to save her?
If you get hurt, who’s going to take care of her?
” Deccan asked. “You need to think about the whole picture and not just getting her back. I know you want to save her. I would do that as well if it was Echo, but you need to think carefully.”
Butch growled and balled up his hand, punching the wall to let his aggression out.
“Shit. Doc,” Reaper shouted.
“I already have my kit here,” Doc replied.
“I don’t want anything stitched up until I get her back. Let me feel the pain. Let me have the pain to remind me that I’m safe while she’s out there by herself, probably terrified,” Butch said. “I have no doubt that she’s terrified being alone with Edmund.”
Just the thought of her going through all of that again, alone, brought tears to his eyes. She had been petrified about telling him who had held her hostage for so many years, and now she was there with him.
“Just let me look over your wounds to make sure that nothing gets infected,” Doc said.
Butch held his hand away and shook his head.
“I told you I’m not going to allow you to touch me until we find her.
She is in far more danger than my hand is right now.
Like I said before, she is probably scared out of her mind right now, not knowing what Edmund is going to do to her.
We don’t know whether they’re going to try and move her out of the city, where we won’t be able to find her again.
I’m not letting that happen, so let’s get a move on.
I want her in my arms by the end of the day. ”
He was going to make it happen, one way or the other.