Chapter 38
Adam
We’d swept the place, pulled all security footage, and it was him. The creep had broken into Jo’s apartment and entered the store through the old attic entrance. He must’ve found old building plans in order to even know it was there, which meant we might be able to find out who this guy was if he’d left any traces at City Hall when requesting the plans.
The store’s back entrance was always locked, so we hadn’t stationed security there, and he’d taken her out that way—since we’d never known he was inside the store, we hadn’t been worried about him exiting that way. Cookie had been on duty in front, but he’d never been so far as the floor of the bookstore, so Cook had had no chance at seeing him.
At some point in the future, we’d use this as a training model—as a reminder that people will go to any length to get what they want. We’d always considered those kinds of factors on active duty and we had to do better now. That this had happened with Jo made fire burn through me.
Jess hadn’t seen any sign of struggle, and since she’d reasonably thought maybe Jo had come to see her plus she hadn’t been briefed on the danger surrounding Jo at the time, she hadn’t second-guessed that Cookie hadn’t seen Jo exit.
We were working with the local police on getting a way to track his plates through town and see if we could tell which direction he’d gone.
“I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this.” Jess was muttering the words under her breath as she frantically clicked through images on her computer while the rest of us—literally every other person on staff at Saint who’d been available—worked the problem.
Bruce was on the phone with Chief Whitacker while Wilder was sending out an alert to local businesses. Cookie, Kenny, and Tristan were combing the streets of downtown looking for hints, though we’d hit a dead end outside the bookstore.
Darcy was at the store and I’d just left there. I’d be back there as soon as I could… as soon as I had a lead.
“Chief’s sending footage in just a few. Heads up,” Bruce said.
“On it,” Beast said, head buried in his computer. He was one of the best with tech, and we needed him to work his magic.
For once, Jess didn’t gripe. She continued searching online for hints about this guy. We had an irrelevant license plate from his last foray into town, but I wondered… would he have a different car?
“Search every silver Honda Civic in town. Let’s see who’s registered here and cross them with our guy.” The plate would be different since we knew he’d had a false one, but what if he was still using the same car?
Jess’s typing escalated, her fingers practically smashing the keys as she searched. My heart pounded as I saw the links come in for the roadway footage.
“Same car,” Beast confirmed, and Jess said less than a minute later, “Pulling the list of registrations now. I’ll cull it.”
We went on like that with quick verbal updates as we worked the problem. Thankfully, red light camera video from just north of town showed the car we believed to be his turning into a local neighborhood rather than taking the canyon road out.
“Can he really be this close?” My heart sprinted and I grabbed my keys.
“Hold it. We need a plan. Beast, give me the layout of the most likely destinations in that neighborhood. Pop, find out who we’ve got living in that neighborhood and if any of them happen to be a single white guy in his thirties. Wilder, call your mom. That’s not too far from her place—does she know anyone who lives there? Any local gossip we can use?” Bruce directed and gave him a nod of appreciation.
Taking point on this wasn’t an option for me. Ever since Jess’s visit, I’d been in a low-level panic. She’d said Jo was gone, and my only thought had been that I’d failed her. I’d failed her. I hadn’t kept her safe.
Quickly replacing that self-pity was the determination to find her, to get this guy as cleanly as possible so he could be arrested and put away for a nice long time so Jo didn’t ever have to worry about this again.
“Doc, let’s get you kitted up, and then I want you to go update Darcy. I know he’s out of his mind. We’ll come get you on the way.”
Good. I would do whatever needed to be done to get Jo to safety. And then, if I had the chance, I’d make sure she knew how amazing and loved she was. All those petty hesitations and fears about not being capable evaporated in the face of this nightmare.
I’d let my early failures and the statements from a wounded woman dictate the way I’d thought about relationships for far too long. Yes, I’d played my part, but as E and Jo and Bruce had begged me to see, that didn’t mean I couldn’t change.
The truth of who I was—Doc to my fellow soldiers and friends, Adam to my family and Jo… that man was caring. Innately. And though I might not’ve had that nailed down at twenty or twenty-five, I’d learned how to care about people since then. I’d learned just how much being able to take care of others mattered to me—in my work, yes, but in my day-to-day, too. It was how I loved. It was as natural as breathing.
I’d been doing it with my chosen family in the military, I’d done it with E, and I’d been doing it with Jo practically since we’d met and certainly since I’d discovered her secret.
As a man, I’d learned to commit to people. I hadn’t demonstrated that romantically, but I’d learned it in other places. And then Jo… Jo came along and taught me so much. She reminded me how much I had to give—endless wells that somewhere along the way, I’d lost sight of. I’d missed how the devotion and love I had for my friends and family were signals of the growth and maturity in me—were proof that I wasn’t the same man I’d been all those years ago when I’d failed my ex and myself.
That marriage hadn’t ended out of nowhere. We’d ended because Marlee and I had both made choices. And this meant that going forward, there were more choices to make. Time, experience, maturity… these things could inform my future—they could mean different choices.
I wouldn’t take away from what I’d felt for Marlee. I’d been infatuated, yes, but I had loved her in the way I’d known how. The way a boy could love someone he wanted to keep but wasn’t sure how to cherish. What I felt for Jo was so much larger, with roots running deep underground and branches arching into the sky. I could hardly contain the feeling now that I saw it for what it was.
Jo had held up a mirror and demanded I look and see—not just that I could have a future with her, but that I didn’t need to bury myself in the sins of my past. She made the difference here—she’d urged me and taught me to hope, and now I couldn’t imagine doing anything else but running toward her and grabbing on with everything in me, breathless and wild and full of determination to see what we could be.
The door to our command center room burst open, and a woman with dark hair and dark eyes searched the room until she set them on me. “Adam Carter?”
“Yes.”
Her nostrils flared and she ground her teeth as though making an effort to calm herself. “Where. Is. My. Sister?”
I rushed to her. “Elizabeth?”
She gave me a dead-eyed glare that likely terrified an average man. Lucky for me, I wasn’t average, and I was in love with her sister, who I was bound and damn determined to recover as soon as possible, so I had no time for cowering.
“We’ve got her location narrowed to a small neighborhood north of town. We’re working on the house exactly, but we’re moving soon.”
She took my measure, then her gaze sifted around the room, all kinds of thoughts racing past, but not one of them on display on her severe face. Then she held out her hand.
“Elizabeth Malcom. I’ll need a weapon.”
And that was how I met my girlfriend’s sister.
After Eddie James vouched for Elizabeth Malcom with stars in her eyes—apparently Elizabeth was a very big deal in the Kappa Sector where Eddie had worked until the last year or so—we’d quickly vetted her and read her on to the situation.
She ended up riding shotgun in my vehicle as we rolled up to the street we’d identified as the location, and soon enough, Elizabeth Malcom, Jo’s mysterious and intimidating sister, rolled out of the vehicle with me and followed Bruce’s direction as we closed in on the house where her sister’s stalker held her hostage.