Chapter 16
Timber watched the little hourglass on the computer screen spin, then he stared at the phone on the desk, then back to the hourglass. The day had been weird, and slow, somehow. Even the computers were taking forever. This program was usually instant.
Movement on the security views caught Timber’s eye—Jaggar jogging down the hallway heading toward the bunker. Jaggar was big with close-cropped, dark hair, and a line down the center of his face, referencing the half-catamount, half-wolf beast inside him. He looked worried.
Jaggar came in the door, heading straight for Canyon’s desk.
“Jag, what’s up?”
“Timber, you gotta help me. Mac says if I don’t find Dahlia Woodridge in the next hour, she fucking dies. She’s a One True Mate. I don’t need that on my conscience.”
Timber shook his head. “We better work together because he told me the same thing.”
Jaggar nodded, relief stamped in his expression. He pulled a folded stack of printed papers out of his back pocket. “This is what I’ve found.”
While Timber was looking through the data, Jaggar said, “I’ve got more. I’ll be right back.” He ran out the door.
Timber fed a couple pieces of Jaggar’s information into Predator. Predator responded with an investigative summary, making it clear they were at a dead end. They hadn’t found her current physical address. They had leads, but some of them could take days to follow.
Timber, tried to think what Canyon would do.
Something illegal, probably. What could he do that was illegal and would find Dahlia Woodridge?
He snapped his fingers and told Predator to hack into the system of a credit card company they’d found in her virtual mailbox.
He scanned the charges until he found one he could work with, from Serenity Small Appliance Repair, then typed in a command to Predator.
‘Access Serenity Small Appliance Repair systems and see what their business was with Dahlia Woodridge.’
Predator gave him an hourglass for so long, Timber pounded on Canyon’s keyboard.
“Come on!”
The result popped on the screen like he’d summoned it. A repair person had picked up, repaired, and returned a vacuum cleaner to 4123 Ashland Court, which was close-by, and in fact, Timber knew of an ice cream shop on the street.
‘Access the security system of Ziggy’s Ice Cream.’
He confirmed the camera could see the house, then typed, ‘Watch these videos, stop when there’s movement at house number 4123.’
The video played at super fast speed and then froze at a frame with a woman on the front porch. Timber checked the email picture.
“Match!” he shouted.
He ran for his phone, then thought better of it, returning to Canyon’s chair, and sending an email to Jaggar, Mac, Wade, Trevor—everyone, then he pushed Canyon’s chair under the desk and hurried back to his own desk, grabbing up his phone to text Mac, but before he could, Jaggar ran past the bunker, down the hallway, headed for the steps that lead to duty room at full speed.
“Canyon found her!” Jaggar yelled as he passed.
Timber ran to the door and shouted, “Tell Mac!” at Jaggar’s back.
Timber checked on his brother in the alcove. Canyon was still alive, still sleeping. Timber knelt and shook him by the shoulder. “Little bro, when are you gonna come back to us? Shit is going down.”
Canyon only snored. Timber stood and left the bunker, his throat tight. For the first time ever, he locked the door when he left, then hurried down the hallway to the tunnels, to the duty room. When he got there, the room was empty, with the phone on one desk ringing on and on.
Timber let it ring and went to the door that led outside, following the scent of the others into the dark of the night.