Chapter 74
seventy-four
JO
I don’t get it. He’s supposed to be here. I’m standing in the barn that Gianna was murdered in with my phone in hand, pacing to see if it’s just my reception telling me I’m in the right spot.
“Did you find him?” Cal asks, answering on the first ring.
“No. There’s no one here,” I say, exasperated. “Cal . . . it’s the barn. The location you sent me is the barn from Ezra’s recording.”
I hear some muttering and a quick “give me that” from Harlow before my best friend’s voice fills the space with her no-nonsense tone.
“You need to check the area. It’s still pinging at your location.
Maybe look for a basement or root cellar?
Maine doesn’t really do storm cellars, but whoever owned that property could have been a doomsday prepper and have a bunker or something.
The tracker gives us about half a mile to work with, so you need to look. ”
“Right. Okay,” I say and take a deep breath.
The terror that I was barely holding back the moment I walked into the rotting, but completely empty, barn evaporates.
I needed a task and Harlow knew it, so she gave me one.
She’s right, but she’s also wrong. Right that we have half a mile to look in any direction, but wrong because these trackers rely on other devices to bounce off of and send a signal.
There’s a chance Maverick and Ezra were here, but no longer are and just aren’t near a device with internet.
Or they’re still here, and I’m wasting time panicking and overthinking.
“Do barns have basements? Maybe they’re just downstairs.” I hear Cal whisper-shout.
“How the hell would I know if barns have basements? We grew up next to the ocean,” Harlow yells back at him.
“Well, we didn’t know that corn fields had tornado shelters either and look how that turned out!”
“Uh, guys? I’m going to look around and call you back.” I hang up without waiting for a response.
I barely make it three steps before I hear the sound of feet crunching on the frosty leaves outside.
I hide behind the rotting pile of hay next to me, trying to stay silent on my feet, but I swear the whole building groans every time I so much as breathe too hard.
There’s definitely more than one person coming this way.
It sounds like a herd of animals with how loud they’re being.
Although, who would think they need to be quiet when approaching an abandoned barn in the middle of the woods? Hikers and the bad guys, probably.
“I swear if she isn’t in here, I’m going to skin her when we find her.” My shoulders relax at the sound of Willa’s voice. Even with the threat of bodily harm.
“I’m over here,” I announce loudly. I know they all have weapons, and my guys don’t have time for me to be held up after accidentally being shot by our friends.
I’m enveloped by several sets of arms before I’m even fully out from behind the hay. “Don’t you sneak off like that again!” Willa is squeezing me so tight I can barely breathe while berating me on my stupid choices.
“I love you, but if you do that to me again, I will lock you in my basement.”
I don’t think she’s kidding and from the quick glance I give around the room, I’m pretty sure all of them will help her.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but as you can see,” I say, gesturing to the empty space. “They’re not here.”
“We know the tracker wasn’t exact. Let’s spread out, but not too far. Yell if you find anything,” Harrison says and exits the barn the same way he came in.
“Harlow suggested there could be some sort of root cellar or prepper bunker on the property.”
“What about a house?” Belle says, frowning as she looks around. “It seems strange that it’s just this barn out here and nothing else.”
“It’s probably just a foundation at this point,” I say with a sigh.
I’m exhausted and overwhelmed. Patrick hasn’t contacted anyone, which means this can’t be a ransom situation.
I’m pacing and pulling at my hair, trying to figure out where to start looking when Belle clears her throat.
“What?” I ask, but from the look on her face it’s clear she was speaking and I didn’t hear a word of it. “Sorry. Can you repeat that?”
I don’t love the look of pity on her face, but I ignore it and pay attention to her words. “I was saying that houses usually have basements.”
It takes my tired brain a minute to process what she’s saying, but the moment I do, I’m running out of the barn door that’s barely holding on to the last hinge.
Ezra never mentioned a house, and I didn’t pass one on my way here.
Which means it has to be past the barn. Somewhere further than Ezra or I have been.
I hear my name, but I ignore it and keep running, my eyes darting around to find anything that could have been a house.
“To your left,” I hear Kai yell. I pause long enough to see him pointing at a large mound of dirt. I take off running in that direction.
“What the fuck?” I say the moment I see what caught Kai’s attention. It’s an underground metal door. A metal door with about six different locking mechanisms on it. There’s a set of concrete steps leading down to it, but all that’s above it is dirt and dead grass.
“Should we be quiet? What if there’s a bunch of guys with guns in there?” Belle whispers.
“Then I take them out,” Martha says, cocking her shotgun and making me jump.
“I’ll knock.” I run down the stairs before anyone has the time to protest and rap my knuckles against the cold metal.
“Get back up here,” Harrison growls, pulling me by the back of my jacket and up the stairs.
He holds his gun out in front of him with his other hand, eyes trained on the door.
We wait. And wait. Then I try to knock again, but Harrison won’t let go of my jacket.
I consider slipping out of it, but it’s freezing.
So I opt to do what anyone else would do in my situation.
I scream their names.