Chapter 28
Jaxon
It’s three in the morning and we’re all still awake. Refusing to give up, we read through everything we have for the tenth time. James called Kayden earlier, so now he’s here as well, looking over everything on Franklin’s laptop.
“We should probably get some rest,” says Franklin, yawning and stretching his arms.
“We won’t be any help to Melody if we don’t rest and go at this again in a few hours with fresh minds.”
I slam my file down on the table. “Melody might not have a few more hours, Franklin. We have to keep looking.”
James puts a hand on my shoulder. “Franklin is right, Jax. We have to be at our very best, and we can’t do that if we’re running on no sleep.”
Shrugging his hand off my shoulder, I tell them to go ahead without me. There is no way I am sleeping without Melody at my side.
Kayden is the only one that stays behind with me. I don’t know why that is, maybe because he’s used to club hours and staying up ‘til 6 A.M. Whatever the reason, I’m grateful for it. Kayden has always been more of a loner and rarely comes to our family dinners or spends time with any of us on holidays. However, I feel like he knows how important Melody is to me, and I’m really just grateful for any help we can get right now.
Kayden sets down his file and moves back over to Franklin’s laptop to watch the video recording of the masked attacker. His distorted voice comes through the speakers and I turn back to my file, combing through everything for the twentieth time. I’m so desperate, I feel tears building in my eyes. I’m exhausted and still hurting from the car accident, but I can’t stop. I need Melody back in my arms, safe and sound where she belongs.
“Where is 305?”
“What?”
Kayden turns to me fully. “I said, where is 305? He mentions in the video, ‘I smell you all around me, much like in 305.’ What is that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know, play it again.”
I don’t understand how we missed this… but what does it mean?
I rush up the stairs to Franklin’s second floor and burst into his room.
“Wha—” Before Franklin can even get a word out, I’m turning on the light and telling him to get up. James comes in a second later, looking between the two of us.
“I think Kayden found something.”
After bringing my brother and Franklin downstairs, Kayden played the clip over again for them.
“Do any of you know what 305 pertains to?”
They both shake their head no, and it feels like we take two steps forward and one step back. This might be something or it might be nothing at all. In my gut though, I have a feeling that the guy messed up. He said himself that Melody makes him uncontrollable. This is something big, and I’m going to figure this out.
Each of us are turning back to our files; we scan them for any mention of 305.
What feels like hours later, I finally come across a 305.
“I got something,” I announce to the group. My heart is racing, and I truly believe this will lead us to Melody. My little sparrow has to be so afraid, and the thought alone kills me.
“OK, so what is it?” asks Franklin as he takes a seat next to me.
“I was looking over her school records and stumbled upon a course number that ends in 305. It’s one of the advanced classes she was taking, so it probably won’t be with anyone from her graduating class.”
“Holy shit… OK let me go to my laptop and see if I can pull up info on who was in that class with her.”
A few minutes later, Franklin turns in his chair and has a smirk on his face. Why he always leaves us hanging is beyond me.
“What did you find Franklin? Spill it,” says Kayden, looking like he wants to throttle his neck.
“There were forty-three students in that course and twenty-six of them were males. Not sure how else to narrow it down, I sorted through Melody’s course work and found a few projects that she worked on with guys in the classroom. One of them stood out to me though. His name is Damian Merikh, and he did quite a lot of projects and essays with her. When I did a search on him, I found that he owns multiple properties in Southern California, but what I found really interesting is that he owns a few warehouses in downtown Silicon Valley.”
“Holy shit, if this is the guy, how do we narrow down which warehouse Melody might be in?” I ask, getting up from my seat and starting to pace the room. My little sparrow is coming home, I feel it in my bones.
“Well, that’s the thing. So I checked the surrounding area for cameras. Only one of the properties has cameras across the street, and I could see the entrance to the warehouse in the camera footage. Going back through video footage for the past week, the first warehouse has absolutely no movement. So that eliminates that building—at least I hope.”
Franklin continues, “So now we are down to two buildings. One is newer and has a legit business running out of it, so I doubt he would keep her where there are people coming in and out. That leaves the last building. According to google images, it’s pretty run down, but there aren’t very many windows and the windows it does have, appear completely blacked out. I think this is the one.”
“Let’s go then,” Kayden says gruffly, running a hand through his hair. “We can’t really afford to waste any time.”
“We need to think about this, make a plan. We can’t just go in all willy-nilly,” says James, being his typical rational self.
“What do we do?” I ask, feeling hope simmering in my chest for the first time in four days.
We all put our heads together for an hour or two and come up with a solid plan.
We’re going to bring Melody home if it’s the last thing we do.