Chapter 19
David had made a colossal mistake. Not giving Zoey the bracelet, he’d never feel bad about that.
But not asking Jennie’s permission or at least informing her right away, for that he’d forever kick himself.
Jennie had disappeared into the bedroom well over an hour ago.
Time to grovel and hope that one day she’d forgive him.
The prescription dose of ibuprofen had kicked in. He’d take the dull aches over the intense pain any day. He hobbled down the hall to the bedroom. “Jennie?”
When she didn’t answer he called out again. “Jennie, are you okay?” He rested his forehead on the door. “Look, I’m sorry. I should have told you. I know that. Please, let me in.”
A shiver wove up his spine. “Jennie?” He tested the knob. It turned. He pushed the door open and halted. “Brandon, get in here!” he called over his shoulder.
The room sat empty. The comforter on the bed was slightly rumpled and the lamp on the side table was on. But it was the open window that made his knees buckle.
“Whoa.” Brandon caught his elbow before he faceplanted. “What’s going—oh.” His partner guided him to a chair in the corner of the room.
He dropped onto the seat. “She’s gone.”
“Good news, it appears she left on her own and not by force.”
“But why?” David knew. He’d shattered her trust in him. He stood and strode to the window.
“I see that look. Get out of your head, man.” Brandon joined him.
He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have gotten personally involved. And we all know I mess things up when it comes to that.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the GPS for Zoey’s wristband.
“You have got to let go of the past. Yes, you were late meeting with Brenda, but you didn’t cause her death. You need to forgive yourself and allow yourself to move on.”
He scoffed, “I let Zoey get kidnapped, and Jennie slipped out the window because of what I did.”
“Zoey was not your fault. And Jennie is dealing with her own baggage. She’ll get over it.” Brandon slapped him on the back of the head in a classic Jethro Gibbs move.
David rubbed the spot Brandon smacked. “Ouch. Dude. Car accident. Remember? What was that for?”
“For you being an idiot and wallowing in self-pity. Get out of your head and focus so we can find your girls.”
“After the way I let her down? I doubt I’ll ever have a chance with Jennie.”
Brandon raised his hand and David ducked.
“All right, man. I get the picture. Now quit smacking me.”
“As if I hit you that hard.” Brandon rolled his eyes.
“David! Brandon!” Rick yelled from the other room.
They rushed to their teammate.
“What’s up?” Brandon asked.
“Mags sent the update on our suspects.”
David pulled out chairs and sat. “What’d she say?”
“She contacted people she trusted and got eyes on Kenny and Levi. Both are in Indiana, along with Kenny’s girlfriend.
Adam is unknown. However, she dug deeper into the background of all three.
Not a pretty picture, by the way. Mags didn’t try to get a warrant for his juvenile records.
She did some sleuthing on her own and talked to his father.
His mother passed away several years ago from cancer.
Adam was rescued from a horrible life and adopted at the age of six.
I won’t go into details, but needless to say, the things that happened during his formative years were awful.
His parents tried to undo all the evil he’d experienced.
For the most part they did. But his father said he was obsessive with things he perceived to be his.
If they took away something that he attached to, Adam would get violent, even as a child. ”
“Adam has her. Not Kenny.” David let the truth sink in. He spun to Brandon. “We have to get out there and find her now.”
The team left Randy to monitor the computers and hurried to the cars. Rick and Sandy went one direction while he and Brandon took off in another.
David scanned the sides of the roads for Jennie or Zoey while Brandon drove along the back roads and county highways.
Five miles, that’s all they needed to get a location on Zoey. As for Jennie…he prayed the two were together.
“Anything on that GPS tracker of yours? Which I might add was genius.” Brandon continued his visual search as he drove.
“No. Not yet.” David’s shoulders slumped. He glanced at his phone for the hundredth time. Or so it felt. Still no ping. “Where are you, Jennie?”
“We’ll find her.”
David couldn’t speak. He swallowed the lump in his throat. His phone beeped with an incoming text message.
Jennie: I’m sorry I disappeared. I couldn’t take the chance with Zoey’s life. I’m praying you find us in time.
“See if you can use her GPS to find where she is.” Brandon pulled off on the side of the road. “No sense driving aimlessly.”
“I’m on it.” David noticed her location share and accepted it. “It’s eight miles away.”
Brandon called Sandy and Rick, letting them know what they found out, then took off.
David’s cell phone rang. Startled, he scrambled to hold on to his phone. “It’s Jennie’s phone.” He pushed the accept button and put the call on speaker. “Hello? Jennie?”
“Help me, please.” Sobs filled the airway.
“Zoey?”
“It’s me. He’s gonna kill Momma if you don’t do something quick.”
“We’re almost there.” David glanced at Brandon.
His partner nodded. “Four minutes.”
He returned his attention to Zoey. “Honey, are you hurt?”
“I’m okay. He didn’t hit me, if that’s what you’re asking.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. Hitting wasn’t his only question, but it sounded like the man hadn’t laid a hand on her.
“He tied me up.”
Zoey’s soft voice brought him back to the problem at hand. “What was that?”
“He tied my wrists together behind a chair.”
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. Hang in there. Can you tell me where you are?”
“Not really. I found the car Momma drove and her cell phone was just where she told me it would be, but I had to walk a little bit to get enough service to call.”
“Wait. Your mom was there?”
“Uh huh. She saved me.”
“Stay where you are.”
“Okay.”
A few minutes later, he stepped from the vehicle before Brandon had put it in park.
“Zoey?” he whisper-yelled. “Zoey?”
“I’m right here.” Zoey sat under a bush, knees to her chest and tears streaming down her face.
David scooped her up and held her.
Her arms flung around his neck. Hiccupping sobs sounded in his ear.
“I’ve got you.”
She pulled in a deep breath and swiped at her eyes.
“Better?”
She nodded.
He sat her on the backseat of Brandon’s car. “Can you tell me what happened?”
Zoey filled him in on how Adam had kidnapped her and tied her to the chair. Then how he’d lured Jennie to them by promising to release Zoey.
“He hit Momma a bunch of times. But when he left the room, she untied me and told me to run.” Zoey’s eyes shift to the ground. She wouldn’t look at him.
“What is it sweetheart? What aren’t you telling me?”
Zoey’s bottom lip quivered. “She told me to run, but I couldn’t just leave her there. So I snuck to the window and peaked in. That’s when I saw him hurt Momma really bad. She wasn’t moving. I knew I had to run and get you.”
David felt the blood drain from his face. He couldn’t lose Jennie. And the thought of this man laying a finger on her again, sent anger raging through him.
“Can you tell us where the cabin is?”
Zoey shook her head.
He was so close and yet they had no idea where she was.
“But I can show you.”
“What?”
“I didn’t take the road, I went through the woods. I can show you.”
He hesitated. He didn’t want Zoey anywhere near Adam, but to find Jennie, he didn’t have a choice.
David nodded. “All right, you can take us, but once we get there you are going with Detective Pratt.”
Sandy Pratt stepped up and shook Zoey’s hand. “Hi, Zoey.”
Zoey accepted the gesture and shifted her gaze to David. “Okay.” She paused. “But you’ll help my momma, right?”
He knelt next to her. “You know I will.” He squeezed her hand. “Give me a second, then you can lead the way.”
He stood and walked a few feet away to join Brandon. “Everyone ready?”
“Yup.” He handed David a Kevlar vest, sporting the bright yellow word Police. “Rick is ready. He requested an ambulance on stand-by. They’ll stay a few miles down the road out of the way once they arrive.”
“Then let’s get moving.” David returned to the car. “You ready, Zoey?”
She slid from the seat. She entwined her fingers with his.
He looked down and the desperate look on her face shattered his heart. “Lead the way.”
Zoey plunged into the woods dragging David along with her.
His flashlight illuminated her path. The twigs and bushes crunched under his feet. The poor girl had not had an easy escape.
She stopped and put her finger to her lips. “Shh. See that dirt road?”
He nodded.
“Take that to the right and the cabin is at the end.”
He handed Zoey off to Sandy and nodded to his partner and Rick.
Zoey jerked the tail of his jacket. “Be careful. I don’t want to lose you too.”
A lead ball dropped in the pit of his stomach. He rested his hand on her shoulders. “Don’t give up hope.”
She swallowed. “Okay.”
But he could tell, Zoey had already figured her mother was dead. He just hoped the girl was wrong.
The three of them spread out and marched up to the house.
He peered into the window beside the front door.
Adam nudged Jennie with the toe of his boot. A knife blade glinted in the low light of the cabin. “Come on, woman. Get up.” His voice boomed from inside the house.
Jennie struggled to lift her head. Her face, red and swollen. Her eyes, only slits.
David’s breath caught. He froze in place. Jennie. Her name came out as a whisper.
Anger boiled. He wanted to rip the man limb to limb, but he knew he had to pull it together. Jennie’s life depended on him doing his job.
He exhaled and spoke into his mic. “Hostage situation. Everyone in position?”
Affirmatives rang in his ear. He peered into the window once again.
Adam jerked Jennie from the floor and held her around the neck. The blade of the knife rested against her throat.