Chapter 17 #2
“No one jump to any conclusions,” Casper ordered.
But it was too late. Chaos’s mind had already gone to the worst-case scenario.
Nolan Colins.
He wasn’t sure what Jen going missing had to do with that psychopath, but he had no doubt, with the way his sixth sense was screaming, that something was terribly wrong.
“Let me call Colonel Burgess, tell him that we need to head out,” Casper said. “No one’s going off half-cocked on this one. We’re a team, and we’ll do what we do best. But first we need more intel. We can’t all go running around without some sort of plan.”
“I need to go home and check on Kara,” Chaos said.
“Right. Edge, you go with Chaos. Report back to me as soon as you can. The rest of us will stay here for now. If there’s the slightest chance the choppers can be used in a search, this is where we need to be. Not running around Norfolk. Understand?”
Everyone agreed, while Chaos and Edge headed for the door to the conference room.
“I’m driving,” Edge said as they entered the parking lot.
Chaos didn’t argue with his friend. It wouldn’t be safe for him to get behind the wheel of a vehicle right now. Not with the nightmare scenarios going through his head. Of course, Edge was just as hyped up and worried right about now.
He knew Edge was kicking himself for not asking Jen out. Yes, his ex was a bitch of the highest order, but sacrificing his happiness because of her was playing right into her plan to make his life miserable.
Chaos didn’t offer any platitudes as they drove toward his house. He didn’t tell Edge that he was sure Jen was fine, that there was some logical explanation for Fred running off on his own. Because if his copilot had tried to tell him that everything was okay, Chaos probably would’ve slugged him.
Everything was not okay. How not okay it was, though, remained to be seen.
It took way too long to get to his house and when they pulled into the driveway, Chaos didn’t see anything that looked out of place.
Keeping his gaze glued to the ground as he walked to the front door, he was relieved not to see anything that looked like blood or blood spatter.
It was a morbid thing to do, but if someone had taken Kara by force, surely there would be some sign.
He tried the doorknob, and relief hit him hard when he found it locked. Using his key, he let himself in and went to the security panel. The alarm was on, which was another good sign.
“Kara?” he called out.
The silence that greeted him was ominous.
He knew instinctively she wasn’t there, but he didn’t say anything when Edge headed for the bedrooms to clear the house.
Chaos stood near the kitchen and looked around. Everything seemed normal. The place wasn’t in disarray, hadn’t been ransacked. There was a plate in the sink, and he could see by the peanut-butter-covered knife next to it that Kara had eaten her usual PB and banana tortilla.
Spotting her laptop on the table, he walked over to it and sat in the chair. He opened the computer and entered Kara’s password—she’d shared it one day, saying she had nothing to hide.
The Word document that was open when he powered up the laptop made him proud as hell. “The End.” She’d obviously finished her latest manuscript before she’d left the house.
Taking a deep breath, he shut the laptop as Edge appeared from the bedroom.
He shook his head, and the bad feeling within Chaos increased.
Where was she? Where could she have gone?
“Kara doesn’t have a car,” he said out loud. “Someone had to pick her up. But why?”
“Jen?” Edge asked.
“Maybe. We need to look at this logically. Kara’s phone isn’t here. Nor are the shoes she usually wears when she goes outside. She keeps them by the door. So she definitely left, and on her own because the alarm was set.”
“Unless someone forced her to turn it on before they left,” Edge said.
Chaos usually liked talking shit out like this.
Enjoyed coming up with as many alternatives as possible, but usually he and his teammates did it when talking about things that could go wrong on missions.
They liked to cover all their bases before they ever left the ground.
It made it easier to make decisions on the fly and deal with shit if and when it did happen.
But this was different. This was the woman he loved. And she was missing.
He pulled out his phone and tried calling her again. Once more, all he heard in his ear was ringing before the voicemail kicked in.
“Jen’s missing. Fred showed up with his leash on at the apartment, covered in burrs.
Kara’s also missing. What if Fred got lost, and Jen called Kara asking for help looking for him?
She came to pick her up, and in the meantime, Fred made his way back home.
We both know how good his nose is, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that he’d be able to navigate miles and miles to get to the place he’s most comfortable. ”
Edge’s scenario had merit. But if Jen had picked up Kara, why wasn’t Kara answering her phone? “Do you think they’re out of service area?” Chaos asked.
Edge pulled out his own cell. He pushed a button and both men waited with bated breath. Once again, it just rang and rang.
“Fuck. Jen’s not answering either. If they didn’t have cell service, would the phone ring or go directly to voicemail?”
“Directly to voicemail,” Chaos said grimly.
“Maybe they left their phones in the car when they got out to search for Fred?”
Chaos understood what Edge was doing. Putting scenarios out there that didn’t make a lot of sense, but would mean the women were safe. “Not likely,” he said.
Chaos and Edge stood next to the table, staring at each other for a long moment.
“What does your gut say?” Edge finally asked.
“Nothing good.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.”
Chaos was at a loss as to what to do now. He understood exactly what his teammates had felt when their women had been missing or hurt. The helpless feeling wasn’t—
“Wait!” he suddenly cried. “My cameras! Jesus, I can’t believe I forgot about them. Give me a second. Let me log in and see if Jen was here.” He hurried to get his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the app.
It didn’t take long for him to see Jen arrive and then he watched Kara head out the front door and get into Jen’s car.
“All right, that solves that. They’re together.”
“But where are they now?” Edge asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, let’s get back to base,” Edge said. “We need to report back to Casper and see what we can do. The cops aren’t going to take a missing person’s report since it hasn’t been that long.”
He wasn’t wrong. It would be up to them and their connections to find the women.
And time was ticking. Chaos could feel in his gut that somehow, this had everything to do with her psycho ex.
If he didn’t find Kara soon, he’d never get to talk to her again.
Never see her smile. Never hear her say that she loved him.
All of which was unacceptable. He hadn’t found the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, only to lose her now. He knew the chances of finding her alive were slim, but his teammates had beaten the odds, so he wanted to believe he and Kara could too.
“Hang on, sweetheart,” he murmured, as Edge headed outside to his truck. He reset the alarm, looking around the house once more before shutting the door and locking it behind him.
Kara was out there, in danger, and waiting for him to be her hero. To find her. She was strong, she’d lived through hell before, she’d do it again…if only to give him time to do what he needed to do.
Namely, track her down and get rid of Nolan Colins once and for all, so they could live happily ever after.