Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
Elias reached his truck. He nearly tore the door off its hinges, jumped in, shoved the key in the ignition, and flew down the tree-lined road.
“Fuck-fuck-fuck. Please, Wren. Please let this be a stupid misunderstanding. Please call me and say your stupid controller isn’t working and did the drone land all right? Please, Wren, be there. Be okay.”
Up ahead, he saw her car and Chase’s parked along the road to his left, directly across from the house. He pulled off to the side of the road while still out of view of the house and killed the engine. He checked his phone. No call, no text.
There’s a good explanation.
He checked the timestamp. Five minutes since he’d tried to call her.
You’re going to embarrass her in front of Chase.
He put his phone on silent.
Look at my overprotective fiancé, she’ll say .
Elias grabbed his gun and its shoulder holster from under the seat.
“She’ll just have to deal with having an overprotective fiancé.”
Elias put the shoulder holster on. He grabbed his flannel shirt off the seat beside him and put it on over his tee, concealing the gun. He slipped quietly out of the truck and dashed into the trees to the right. Under forest cover, he quickly and silently approached the house until it came into view. He stopped just inside the trees lining the manicured yard, about thirty feet from the end of the driveway. No movement, no voices, no obvious sign of a break-in. No drone case in the front yard, though she’d told him she usually flew them from the back.
Keeping just inside the protection of the trees, Elias ran around the near side of the house to the back yard where Wren would normally be?—
Will be. She will be there. She is there .
—and stopped. A lush lawn stretched green and empty to the edges of the forest surrounding the house.
No Wren.
No Chase.
Seven minutes since he’d called.
The drone case lay at the edge of the lawn beside the round red launch pad, opposite Elias’ position. He spotted something small resting on the grass about two feet away from the case.
The drone controller with Wren’s phone still attached.
Fuck .
Nine minutes.
Who has her?
The possibilities flashed lightning-fast through his mind.
Weisser?
No. He was under house arrest with an ankle bracelet, so he wasn’t going anywhere without the police tracing his ass and catching him real quick.
He could have hired someone .
No. How would he even know who Wren was? He only knew Brooke Greene, who worked for Barbie Gillis, had black hair, dark brown eyes, and stood three inches taller than his chestnut-haired, hazel-eyed Wren.
Senator Robbins?
No. This wasn’t even a slap on the wrist, though he was losing plenty of money. And again, he didn’t know Wren, had never even met her as Brooke.
Someone from the lenders?
No. They knew even less about Wren’s involvement than Weisser.
She had no other enemies.
Could it be…
Chase?
Did he secretly want her? Was he obsessed enough to kidnap her before she could marry another man?
Elias checked his texts and watched three dots bounce. A new group text from Ben appeared.
At your truck. SITREP.
Elias responded:
Backyard. Scrubs gone. Check roads.
He watched the three dots.
T-Wolf and Bear checking roads.
A moment later, Elias watched Bear’s truck drive past the house.
Hold position. Coming in behind you.
It killed him to wait even a moment but Ben was right—he’d be stupid to go in alone, crossing the lawn, fully exposed. He wouldn’t be a damn bit of good to Wren with a bullet in his head.
Elias tried to calculate how much time could have passed since Wren disappeared. She was in a hurry to return to the party, so she wouldn’t dally, didn’t even program in a new emergency flight path.
Thank God, or I’d still be at the party shooting the shit with Waylon while my woman ?—
Stop that thought right there .
He estimated that it took her fifteen minutes to arrive at the house, say hi to Chase, and set up the drone. Its fly time was thirty minutes max before the battery died and it dropped out of the sky like a brick. The drone had started its emergency flight path when it still had enough juice to get to its pre-set landing at Gina and Lach’s place. Considering its speed, the drone had been aloft for twenty to twenty-five minutes total. Kevin spotted the drone?—
He checked the time.
Ten minutes ago.
If someone grabbed her right after she launched the drone, she’d been gone roughly twenty-five minutes. If the drone was coming back in from its flight and running on fumes when she was taken, then that happened ten to twelve minutes ago.
She could be twenty-five minutes away by car. Or, she could be only ten minutes away. Roads were few and traffic non-existent up here in the sticks. God-willing, Bear or Gabe would find and follow any car they found on the road, and she’d be in it.
Elias had been within sight of the road the entire time Wren was gone. He didn’t recall seeing a strange car pass Gina and Lach’s place.
They could have driven the other direction, in which case he wished Bear godspeed. T-Wolf would have gone the opposite direction to search.
He typed quickly:
T-wolf they didn’t go your direction. Circle back. Bear look out.
The other possibilities? Wren was still in the house.
Contained. Good .
Or anywhere in the woods.
Not good .
Ben, Waylon, and Shane appeared like shadows at his side. A fourth, shorter shape accompanied them. A Malinois, one of Watchdog’s retired military working dogs no doubt.
Twelve minutes since the phone call.
Ben used hand signals. House first . He pointed to himself, then Elias, then the back door. Shane signaled the dog to heel as he and Waylon followed the tree line toward the front of the house.
Weapons drawn, Ben and Elias started across the open space between the trees and the back patio, crouching as they moved. They were exposed, but at least they were in the shadow of the house.
So help me, if Chase has her inside, if he’s hurting her ?—
The back door opened. Ben and Elias froze.
Chase stepped out and walked to the edge of the patio. Looking to the left toward the drone case, he stopped.
“Wren?” He lifted his hand to shade his eyes from the late-afternoon sun stretching across the lawn. “Where’d you go? I’m done inside,” he called. “Did she go to her car?” he added as he scanned the yard. “Wren?”
Ben and Elias shared a look. By now, Shane and the dog would be at the front door, waiting for the message from Ben to breach the house. They holstered their guns and stood up straight. Ben took out his phone and texted Shane. They approached Chase.
When he looked in their direction and saw them he startled, then relaxed as he recognized Elias. Chase frowned.
“Whoa, not cool. You guys can’t be here on the property like this. Wait, is Wren with you?”
“No,” Elias said. “When did you last see her?”
“Why? What’s going on?” His eyes darted from Elias to Ben. “Who are you?”
“Just answer the question.”
“I don’t know, maybe half an hour ago?”
“Half a fucking hour she’s been gone maybe. And we’re fucking around here.” Elias could barely keep his anger in check, dealing with this fool.
“Elias, calm.” Elias’ shoulder nearly disappeared underneath Ben’s huge hand.
“What’s wrong? Is she all right? Guys, I’m sorry, I was inside for?—”
Chase jumped when Waylon, Shane, and the Malinois stepped outside from the back door.
“Clear,” Shane told Ben. “She’s not in there. No one is.” He looked at the dog. “Willow, alert.”
“What are you doing?” Chase shouted “You can’t just walk through someone’s house like that. I’m responsible?—”
“Wren’s drone followed an emergency flight path to Gina and Lach’s,” Ben told him. “We came to investigate and she’s gone.”
“And we’re wasting time .” Elias reset his mental timer to Chase’s last confirmed sighting. “You last saw her half an hour ago and she disappeared sometime after that, and we’re surrounded by forest.”
“Shit,” Chase said. “What can I do to help?”
“Did you hear or see an unfamiliar car drive by or stop in the past half hour?” Ben asked.
Chase shook his head and spoke quickly. “No. I was in the garage with the door down but I still would have heard. The owners are in Virginia and they texted asking me to change the battery on the garage door sensor because it wasn’t responding. I told Wren to come in when she was done with the drone shoot. Took me forever to find the extra batteries, then I was in the garage fixing the damn sensor. I didn’t hear any cars go by while I was in the house or the garage.”
“You positive?” Elias asked.
Chase looked at Elias. “Yeah, there’s no traffic up here so I would have noticed.”
Elias exchanged looks with Ben and Shane. “The forest.”
“Is there a security system with cameras facing the back yard?” Ben asked Chase.
“Yeah, but that camera needs batteries, too.”
Fuck .
There weren’t any other houses close enough to capture anything on camera, either.
Except …
“Cover me.” Elias didn’t wait. He bolted across the lawn to the controller. He did a quick scan of the ground surrounding it. No trampled grass indicating a struggle, only two oblong-shaped spots next to the case and launch pad where the short, springy grass was still bent.
The size of Wren’s feet. That’s where she stood while she worked the drone. It looks like she was standing there a while .
Elias updated the timer in his head. Judging by the impressions in the grass, Wren wasn’t taken near the beginning of the drone flight but toward the end. Maybe as little as fifteen minutes ago.
Nothing else caught his eye. No torn-up spots indicating a fight. No other impressions.
No lines from dragging her body .
Stop. You don’t know what happened .
He picked up the controller and looked around. If anyone had a gun, he was fully exposed.
He turned to see his brothers with their weapons drawn, covering him. Ben looked particularly furious.
At me . He’d understand if he had a woman . The uncharitable thought rose unwelcome in his mind.
“Get back here before you get your ass shot,” Ben shouted.
Yeah, by friendly fire .
Elias ran back to his brothers and one horrified-looking Realtor.
“What the fuck, Lion? You’re not gonna be any good to Wren with a damn bullet in your head.”
“Sixteen minutes she’s been gone. Maybe a little more. She’s near, but she’s in the woods. Might as well be a needle in a haystack.” He glanced at the dog. “She a tracker?”
“Damn straight, Willow’s the best. Give her the controller to get Wren’s scent.”
“Hang on.” Elias tapped the screen on Wren’s phone. “We can give Willow—and us—a starting point if I can open her phone.” He was shit out of luck if it was bio-locked and needed her fingerprint.
It was only password-protected.
Thank God . Wren had a chance if he could guess the numerical password.
“We don’t have a camera on the house, but we might have something else,” Elias told them.
“With any luck, the drone filmed the kidnapping.”
Ben nodded, then turned to Chase.
“If your help’s at an end, you might want to head on home right about now. Maybe even drop this listing.”
Chase turned white as a sheet. He looked at Elias and his brothers. Their weapons. The determined looks on their faces.
“I never saw a thing.” He turned to go into the house then stopped.
“She’s a good person and that’s rare anymore. When you find her, tell her I still have work for her.”
He left without looking back or saying another word.