Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Aswirling mess of anger, fear, frustration, and panic twisted inside Lovell like a mini-tornado as he navigated to the address Philly had texted him.
Gone. Daphne was fucking gone.
And the storm was sitting full on top of Mystery Lake, obliterating any evidence, making it next to impossible to track her.
His windshield wipers adjusted their speed as a gust of wind kicked up even more snow onto his car than what was falling.
Turning the corner, he spotted her rental.
Not hard with five of his brothers’ cars and trucks parked out front, along with two HICC SUVs and two police vehicles.
The sight of so many people coming together for Daphne should ease some of his panic, but it only pissed him off more.
This shouldn’t have happened. None of them should be here.
Daphne should be tucked up in bed at Callie and Philly’s. Maybe with a hot toddy.
He pulled in behind North’s truck and jumped out of his car, not bothering to don his jacket or hat as he headed for the house. Snow caught on his lashes, and the bitter wind slapped his bare skin, but he ignored it all and marched to the front door.
Not bothering to knock, he threw it open and strode in, swinging it shut behind him. His entrance startled the four cops—including Ryan Warwick, the chief of police—and all five dropped their hands to their weapons.
“Lovell,” Ryan said, relaxing his stance. His officers followed suit.
“Ryan,” he said. “What do we have?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Callie sitting on the couch, Philly beside her. Tear tracks lined her face, but he couldn’t look at her right now. Daphne had gone missing on her watch.
Ryan glanced at Mantis, who nodded for him to follow. The urge to shout at people to stop loitering around the house and get out looking for her threatened to detonate inside him. He managed to swallow it down, barely, and trail Mantis into what appeared to have been Daphne’s room.
“She was taken at approximately five by Weeks and Beeker. We believe they stole a truck and snowmobile, parked it at the state park five miles south of here, then rode over through the woods. They stopped about two hundred yards out and snowshoed the rest of the way in. Presumably, not to be noticed.”
“It’s six thirty. Philly put the call out twenty minutes ago. What took so long?”
Mantis rolled his lips. “Callie didn’t notice until she woke up.”
“Woke up?” Rage, hot and red, roiled through him.
“She’s not been feeling well, and Daphne told her to lie down while she packed. Callie expected Daphne to wake her up when she was ready to leave. When she woke up on her own over an hour later, Daphne was gone.”
Nothing was going to happen to Daphne, he’d make damn sure of that. But if it did, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to look at his sister-in-law the same.
“What do we know? Can we track her? Does she have her phone?” he demanded.
Mantis shook his head. “There was a half-washed pot in the sink, and there are footprints on the back porch. The best we can guess is that Daphne saw them coming through the kitchen window and, wanting to protect Callie, stepped outside. For whatever reason, she didn’t put her phone in her pocket.
Instead, she turned on the recording app and recorded their entire conversation.
Callie found the device on the windowsill outside when she started looking for her sister. ”
“She didn’t take it?” he asked.
“No,” Ryan replied. “When we find her, we’ll ask, but we think she assumed they’d toss it so we couldn’t track her.”
“And if she couldn’t have it with her, then she’d leave it, and the evidence, for us to find,” he said. Ryan and Mantis nodded. “I want to hear it.”
Mantis eyed him, then held out a phone. “Leo unlocked it permanently. You don’t need a passcode.”
“He’s working on this now?” Lovell had seen him talking with Tucker and Teague in the living room.
Mantis nodded. “And Ava’s working from home. Her family didn’t want her out driving in this tonight.” Mantis hesitated. “It’s not easy to listen to. Daphne holds her own, but at the end, we’re pretty sure they tased her.”
He forced his grip on the phone to ease. He didn’t need to break it. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“We’ll be in the living room. Daphne managed to drag a few clues from them before they took her. Leo’s and Ryan’s teams are tracking them down,” Mantis said before leaving, closing the door behind him.
He stared at the phone, then took a seat on the corner of the bed. Pulling up the recording app, he pressed Play. Ten minutes later, he emerged from the room, handing the phone back to Ryan on his way to Leo.
“The park has CCTV. What are you finding?” he said.
“It’s only at the entrance, but we did get video of a blue truck towing a snowmobile entering at ten minutes after four this afternoon. Ryan and his team ran the plates.”
“Let me guess, stolen?”
“The owners are part-timers,” Ryan said, joining them. “It’s parked in their garage, and they weren’t even aware it was missing.”
“What time did it leave the park?” Lovell asked.
“It didn’t,” Leo replied. “At about five fifteen, a Volvo station wagon was caught leaving.”
“It’s registered to Hannah and Jack Watson of Joshua Tree,” Ryan said. “They are wildlife photographers and actually registered with the department two days ago.”
“Registered?” he asked.
“Not required by law, but they are camping in the park for a week to take a series of winter photos and said they like to make sure law enforcement knows where they are in case of an emergency,” Ryan answered.
“Weeks and Beeker drove in with a stolen truck and snowmobile and left with another stolen car?” he asked.
Leo nodded. “We caught a glimpse of Weeks in the passenger seat when they exited the park. No sign of Daphne, but if she was incapacitated, they likely had her bundled into the cargo area.”
“What now?” he asked, itching to be out doing something.
“Now, I’m tracking CCTV around town to see if we can find the direction they headed. We don’t think they’ll travel far because, well…”
“They’re using her for bait, and they still have to kill me.”
Ryan and Leo nodded.
“What about the gun? The Alien? It’s rare.”
Leo nodded. “Ava’s tracking that lead down.”
Lovell turned his gaze toward the picture window that looked out onto the porch.
Less than two hours ago, Daphne stood on that wooden decking and did everything she could to protect her sister.
He admired her for that, respected it. And it made him furious.
Glancing over his shoulder, he stared at Callie.
As if sensing his regard, she lifted her eyes.
His stomach pitched when she rose and started toward him, Philly at her side.
He wasn’t ready to talk with her, but there was nowhere for him to go.
Not unless he wanted to bolt out the back door—tempting, but he wasn’t that much of a dick.
“I’m sorry,” Callie said.
What was he supposed to say? “It’s okay”? Because it wasn’t. “We’ll find her”? True, but inadequate. “It’s not your fault”? He wasn’t prepared to exonerate her. Not yet.
He nodded.
“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have gone to lie down. She insisted, but I should have ignored her,” Callie continued.
“I can’t do this right now, Callie,” he bit out.
She blinked, then did something he never thought he’d see.
She shrank in on herself. Her shoulders curled, her gaze dropped to the floor, and she all but slumped into Philly when he put his arm around her.
Pulling his wife into his embrace, Philly glared at him.
Lovell met his gaze with a steely one of his own.
Maybe it wasn’t fair to blame Callie, but right now, he did.
“Send me the details of the Volvo,” he said to Leo, drawing both Leo’s and Ryan’s attention.
“I can do that,” Leo said at the same time Ryan asked, “Why?”
“I’m going to look for her,” he responded.
He couldn’t sit around and wait for intel to trickle in.
Besides, if they stuck to the plan Daphne had teased out, Weeks and Beeker planned to contact him, using her as leverage.
They wouldn’t dare drop a message off at the club, and they had to know he’d moved out of his apartment, leaving his phone as the most likely channel.
Which meant he could be anywhere so long as he had cell service.
“In this?” Mantis said, gesturing outside as he joined them. The halo of light from the house illuminated the blustery, snowy night. Visibility was less than twenty feet, but leaving was more about getting out than truly believing he’d find her while driving around.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, tugging on the hat he’d tucked into his back pocket earlier.
“I’m going with you,” Callie said.
“No!” he and Philly replied in unison.
“She’s my sister,” she snapped, the Callie they all knew reemerging from her shock.
“And I’m the reason she’s in this mess to begin with,” he countered. He might be pissed at her, and he definitely didn’t want to ride around in an enclosed space with her, but he couldn’t let her take all the blame.
“I need to do something,” she insisted.
“So do I, but I need to do it alone,” he replied.
“You need to do it without me, you mean,” Callie said.
He wouldn’t lie to her. “Yes.”
Callie winced, and Philly stepped between them.
Lovell met his brother’s gaze. “I understand how she feels, but it’s not my job to make her feel better.”
“You don’t have to make her feel worse,” Philly replied.
He took a breath, then dug out his gloves. “Don’t push me on this, Philly. Just let me go. Whatever she needs to do to feel useful, you two figure that out.”
Mantis came to his side, catching Philly’s attention. “Let him go,” he said.
Philly held Mantis’s eyes for a long, tense beat, then, with an angry glare, he stepped back.
Without wasting more time, he pulled on his gloves. “I’ll keep in touch,” he said, heading toward the door. A swirl of white wrapped around him as he stepped out. He couldn’t see for shit, but that wouldn’t stop him. He’d gotten Daphne into this mess, and he’d sure as hell get her out.