HARLEY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I am losing my fucking mind.
It’s pitch black outside and sitting in this house, even though it’s not silent, has me absolutely losing my mind. The silence would drive me more insane, if i’m being honest.
Asher tried to get Atlas to go home, but she’s on a cross of a warpath and a mental breakdown. I’m not too far from her. We’ve looked at all of the usual places Dean has been spotted. He’s nowhere.
“Atlas, please, you can’t go out in the middle of the night.” Asher follows behind Atlas, who is headed for the door, keys in hand.
I walk into the living room from the kitchen. “Atlas, you won’t be able to find her tonight.”
She looks me in the eye with a challenge. “Watch me.” Atlas absolutely gets her fire from her mama and her sister. Damn.
“Chase and the boys are trying to ping her last location before her phone turned off. Once they do that, we can start there.” I try to reassure her.
I’m trying to reassure myself too, because I want to be out looking for her too.
“You can't function properly when you’re tired, and when we get her location, we’re going to need everyone on their A game.
” I see defeat cross her face, and though I’m pleased she’s not leaving, my heart breaks for her.
I love Ember to death. I’d burn the world to keep her safe, but Ember and Atlas’s bond is a force. I walk towards her, pulling her into a hug. “We’re going to bring her home, and we’re going to make him fucking pay for the pain and worry.”
Asher sits on the couch with an “oomph.” Atlas follows suit, curling into him. They put Aria down earlier after she had dinner and a bath. We’re all mentally and physically wiped. I feel like an absolute load of shit. I’m just sitting here, and goddess only knows what Dean is doing with her.
“I’m going to head over to my place and see if Chase has found anything yet,” I tell them. “Please lock the doors. If anything happens to you guys while you’re here, Ember will fucking lose it.”
“Please let us know if there is anything new, Harley.” Her eyes shine with the tears that are slowly sliding down her face. “I need my big sister.”
“I’ll bring her home, Atlas. I promise you that,” I tell her before walking out the door and listening for the deadbolt.
The weak side of me is scared I won’t bring her home alive.
None of us are ready or willing to have that conversation.
Hopping into my car, I turn on the engine, and my phone connects to my car.
Right then, Chase’s name pops up on the screen. “Hello?” I answer.
“Hey man, we just got the last ping before her phone went off,” he tells me quickly.
“Where is it?” I ask, my stomach whirling with a mix of emotions.
“It’s last ping was near this tiny lake about forty-five minutes from here,” he says.
Before he can say anything else, a location pops into my texts, and I plug it into my GPS.
I reverse out of the driveway faster than anything I've ever done before. I reach over to my glove compartment and pop it open, grabbing my Glock. “We’re loading up now, and we’ll be right behind you. ”
I don’t argue, because as much as I know I'm going to want to end Dean’s life, once my eyes set on my girl, everything else will take a backseat. I need her to be okay.
I pull up Chase and the boy’s location to see how far behind me they are, and it’s only a couple miles. We’ll get there at the same time. Chase said it was a tiny body of water, surrounded by trees, and he could see what appeared to be a few random buildings nearby.
We make the drive in twenty-seven minutes.
I would have broken far more laws than just speeding if it meant getting to Ember.
I see the entrance to the zone, and turn my lights and engine off.
It’s pitch black out, with only the high moon giving us any sight of the area.
Chase follows suit, and they file out of the car, careful to close the doors with a push instead of a slam.
“From what I can see, there’s the body of water, and there are four buildings around it.” He has a printed map and shines his flashlight onto it. There is one big building, a smaller one, and a tiny one. On the other side of the body of water, there’s just the one smaller house.
“I think we should split up and check both of them,” I tell him. I look up to see he’s already looking at me.
“I know you want to get to her as soon as you can, but we know he’s unhinged as fuck, dude.” He reaches his hand over to squeeze my shoulder. “If we find him, the more manpower, the better.”
“When,” I say, almost annoyed. I have my doubts, but I haven’t given up yet. “When we find him.” He gives me a hard, almost sympathetic smile.
“Alright, let’s start at the single building, then we can file over to the area where the other three are sitting,” Andrews says quietly.
I fill my pocket with my extra magazines.
I watch as the guys get theirs locked and loaded.
We’re ready, and before anything else is said, we stealthy let the moon guide us to the building.
We get close to the house, and through the darkness, we can see there isn’t any movement inside.
Truly, though, that doesn’t mean anything in this case.
Dean could have tied her up, drugged her, and left.
Chase and I get on either side of the small window, both making eye contact before I peek into the window.
It’s a small cabin-type building. The darkness is taking over, and it’s hard to make out shapes, but I’m confident Ember isn’t here.
Andrews and Gray creep over towards the other side, and we can see their shadows on the other end of the house.
It must be a tiny, open-concept cabin. “We need to check inside, just in case,” I whisper to Chase.
Chase gives me a single nod, and we crouch and move to the door.
Andrews and Gray file to the back door. Other than the windows, these two doors are the only way in or out.
I reach over and grab the handle, slowly and silently twisting the knob.
It’s locked. “Shit,” I let out, just as I see Andrews enter through the back.
We watch his shadow move through the tiny cabin.
He exits, and he and Gray come around front. “Nothing in there. No disturbances. Doesn’t look like anyone’s been in there for awhile,” he confirms.
“Alright, that means he’s in one of the others.
They look pretty close together, so we’re going to have to be careful,” Chase says, showing us the map again.
“These two are closer than the biggest of the three, so I vote we start at the biggest one and work our way over to the others.” I nod my head as the guys do the same.
We’ve worked together on plenty of missions, so we’re in tune with our movements.
Our awareness of each other’s movements gets us further every time.
We work our way over, creeping to the largest house.
It’s got a 90’s craftsmanship look to it, and we repeat the system we had before, checking into windows before entering.
This house was definitely visited more recently than the other, but it’s not openly screaming that anyone is there.
The furniture is covered with white sheets.
I can make out a bedroom that we’re looking into, bed empty, and a plaid blanket covers the entire mattress.
We circle the house and enter through the back door.
When we get inside, we keep low just in case we missed something.
Once we get to the living room, and have been through the entire house, we huddle in there together.
We silently disperse in twos, looking for any obvious signs of someone being there at any point.
Just as I get to the entrance of another room, I hear, “Aye, Black, is this our dude?” My skin heats and I quietly make my way over to Gray.
He points at a picture frame on the wall, and holy fuck, it is.
He’s definitely young in the photo, maybe ten years old?
We are definitely close, but not close enough, because there is no trace of Ember or even Dean outside of the family photos that line the walls.
“Let’s check the other houses. This can’t be a coincidence,” I tell them, and they agree.
We stealthily exit the house the way we entered and make our way to the smaller house nearby.
It reminds me of a helper’s quarters or something.
It’s a small single-wide manufactured home, and beside it sits a tiny tin shed.
My stomach is in absolute knots, and my mouth is watering with the need to throw up, but I can feel in my gut that we’re close to Ember.
Along the back of the house, there are three windows.
As slowly and quietly as possible, I raise up to look through the first and am met with darkness.
Likely a curtain or something over the window, blocking the view.
We head to the second window, and I’m looking into the dining room.
There is a table, where two open laptops sit, and beside it a chair is tipped over, another pushed back.
My stomach drops. I can't see the screen of either laptop, but I can tell by the reflection on the glass of water that it’s some kind of monitoring system.
I slowly grab Chase’s arm and tap him, trying to silently let him know I've got something.
We switch positions, and he surveys the scene as best he can from out here.
Andrews and Gray crouch low to the ground and meet us at our level. Before anyone can get a word out, I hear the floor creek inside with the sound of footsteps. Gray stands with deliberate slowness before he looks in through the window.
He watches for a few seconds, and we hear a toilet flush. Thankfully, these older manufactured homes have paper-thin walls, so we know exactly where they’re walking. Gray drops back down. “It’s Dean,” he says as he makes strong eye contact with me.
He’s here. Ember has to be here.