Chapter 17
“We found him,” Doc said the next morning at ten-fifteen.
The entire team was gathered around Grover’s table listening as Doc gave a play-by-play of the money drop.
The pair had arrived at the Longspur complex around nine-thirty.
They’d scoped the place out and then parked, waiting.
Doc told them he knew why Rocky had chosen this place for the drop.
There were homeless men and women everywhere.
There was a sort of tent city in a field nearby, and it wouldn’t seem out of place for a homeless man to be panhandling along the road.
Lucky began to sweat at ten after the hour, when Doc had said they hadn’t seen anyone who was wearing a Cowboys jersey and black hat.
But then suddenly, he was there. Spencer got out, clutching the money, and Lucky prayed he didn’t try to do something stupid, like run off with the cash.
“Spencer is talking to the guy…and he just put the envelope in the guy’s bucket. They nodded at each other…now he’s coming back to the car.”
“What’s the other guy doing?” Grover asked.
They’d talked about it that morning, worried that the guy they gave the money to would double-cross Rocky. Take the money for himself. But they literally had no control over that and had to pray Rocky’s reputation was scary enough that no one dared go against him.
“He’s still standing there.”
“Seriously?” Grover growled.
God, the guy was either an idiot, standing on the corner in this neighborhood with sixty thousand dollars, or he was a genius. Lucky had to admit that he was probably doing a damn good job of not making himself stand out.
“Yup. He’s hitting up other people who are walking by,” Doc said.
They all heard the car door shut through the speaker of the cellphone.
“It’s done,” Spencer said.
“We’re headed back now. We’ll be there in about an hour,” Doc said. “Out.” Then he clicked off the connection.
Lucky wasn’t sure he could wait an hour.
He wanted to go get Devyn now. He prayed she was all right, and that Rocky’s henchmen hadn’t abused her in any way in the few days they’d had her.
He’d slept like shit the night before, waking up frequently, wondering where she was and what she was thinking.
He prayed she knew they were doing all they could to find her.
“She’s gonna be all right,” Trigger said quietly from next to him.
“She’s tough,” Lefty added.
“And stubborn,” Brain said.
“She loves you and will do everything in her power to hang on until we get there,” Oz threw in.
Lucky waited for Grover to add something positive about his sister as well, but when he looked over at him, his friend had his head bowed and was leaning on the table with both hands, as if it was the only thing holding him up.
“Grover?” Lucky said in concern. He felt sick inside, and he knew his friend was feeling the same way.
“I haven’t told the rest of my family what’s going on,” Grover said after a beat. He looked up. “Maybe I should? I’d be pissed as hell if something happened to Mila, or Angela, or anyone else, and I wasn’t told.”
“I’m thinking it would be better to wait until you had something to tell them,” Trigger said. “If you tell your parents that Devyn has been kidnapped, and you have no idea where she is or how she is, that’s just gonna stress them out. I’d wait until you have something concrete to tell them.”
Grover nodded. Then said, “Spencer’s going into rehab if I have to drag him there kicking and screaming.”
“I don’t think you’ll have to do that,” Brain said. “He seems pretty devastated by all this.”
“Did you see the way he looked at the money?” Grover asked no one in particular.
“Addiction’s a bitch,” Lefty murmured.
Lucky agreed with everything his teammates were saying, but he couldn’t participate in the conversation. All he could think about was Devyn. Where she might be and what might be happening to her.
“Hang in there, man,” Oz said quietly, putting his hand on Lucky’s shoulder. “Thinking about the what-ifs is the worst part.”
His friend would know too. When his nephew and niece had been taken, he had to have been thinking the same way Lucky was now.
“We’ve been taught to think through every outcome,” Lucky said softly.
“The good, bad, and ugly. And as much as I want to stay positive, I can’t stop running every scenario through my head. ”
“I know,” Oz agreed. “I was the same way when Logan and Bria were missing.”
“And then I feel guilty for hating how slow things seem to be moving, because while at least I know we’re doing something, Devyn doesn’t know that.”
“Wrong,” Lefty said. “She knows you and Grover and the rest of us are doing everything possible to get to her.”
Lucky took a deep breath and nodded. He glanced down at his watch. Fuck. Only three minutes had passed since he’d last looked at it. He needed time to speed up. For Spencer and Doc to get back here so they could call Rocky and get the coordinates to wherever Devyn was stashed.
He hated sitting around waiting. He needed to be moving. To be doing something. They couldn’t even make a plan, because they had no idea where they might be going to find her. Around the block? To Missouri? Mexico? She could literally be anywhere.
“Fifty-four minutes until they’re back,” Grover said under his breath.
It was actually comforting to know he wasn’t alone in his impatience. The other guys on the team were worried about Devyn too, but it was different for him and Grover.
Not able to stand still, Lucky began to pace.
Another day and she was still chained to this damn tree.
Devyn was sure she’d gone through all the stages of grief.
Denial that she’d actually been kidnapped—although that phase hadn’t lasted long, since she was sitting in the middle of nowhere with her arms behind her back.
She’d cried, she’d bargained with God, she’d gotten depressed thinking she was going to die, and now she was just plain mad.
How dare someone think it was all right to punch her in the face.
How dare they think it was okay to kidnap her and chain her to this tree.
How dare this tree be so big, she couldn’t get her arms all the way around it.
How dare no one want to hike this section of the forest and find her.
How dare her wrists not be small enough to slip out of the cuffs.
She took out her anger on anything and everything.
She wanted to get out of there. Didn’t want to be stuck in the forest another day, and definitely not another night.
Nights were the hardest. When the bugs came out and crawled over her legs and up her arms. When she couldn’t see a damn thing.
When she worried about a bear deciding she would make a great snack.
Devyn had no idea if there were any bears out here, since she had no idea where she was in the first place, but still, the thought wouldn’t leave her mind.
She’d been sleeping like shit. She’d done her best to shift positions to make sure she didn’t lose blood flow in her arms, but they hurt from being wrenched backward for so long.
And the birds…the damn birds! They never stopped singing and chirping. Didn’t they know how upset she was? They needed to shut the hell up, but they wouldn’t. They flew around her, chirping as if everything was perfectly all right. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t.
And just like that, her anger drained away and she was depressed again.
She had no idea if Spencer was okay. She had no doubt that what had happened to her was because of the money he owed.
He’d said that his life was in danger, and she never even considered that being around him could endanger her as well.
If she had, she would’ve said something to Lucky or Fred.
They would’ve done everything in their power to protect her.
But now maybe Spencer was dead. Maybe the people who took her had killed him.
Would he still owe money if he wasn’t breathing anymore?
She had no idea how loan sharks worked. Maybe the debt was passed down to the family when the borrower died.
She honestly didn’t have the kind of money Spencer owed, but she’d find it somehow.
Throughout her captivity, Devyn rarely allowed her thoughts to turn to Lucky. She knew he would be trying to find her, but the thought of how devastated he probably was tore at her insides. He’d be blaming himself, which she hated.
Devyn hadn’t even had time to defend herself after she’d opened his door.
She’d been too irritated with Spencer—and yes…
scared—for caution, which was just dumb.
She knew better. After everything that had happened to the other women, and after everything Fred had taught her, she’d just opened the damn door and invited whoever was there to kidnap her.
What day was this? Three? Four? Time seemed to crawl out here in the forest, and Devyn was having a hard time concentrating.
She needed water…more than she’d been able to swallow in the two light rains that had fallen.
She was dizzy and her mouth was completely dry.
Her lips were dry and cracked, and she could feel her heart beating just a little too fast. If she wasn’t found by someone, anyone, soon, she’d probably fall asleep and never wake up.
That thought jolted her. “No!” Devyn said out loud, the nightmare she’d had of Lucky finding her corpse chained to this tree still fresh in her mind. She didn’t want that for him. Or Fred.
“Hey!” she called out. “I’m here! Is there anyone out there? Help me! Fire! Fire! Fire!” Didn’t people respond better to a fire than for a generic call for help? A fire could affect them, but getting involved in an assault was more dangerous. At least that’s what Fred had taught her.
But no one answered her cries for help. The birds seemed to mock her, chirping merrily as if nothing was wrong.
Closing her eyes, Devyn rested her head against the tree trunk behind her. “I’m here,” she said softly. “Right here.”
But once again, no one answered.