21. Jaxson
CHAPTER 21
Jaxson
“ I don’t see anything,” Elijah says as he guides his drone over the top of the barn. We’re all dressed in full tactical gear, ready for a fight should one come our way. And after the stunt this guy pulled on the beach, I’d say we’re up for one. The barn is still standing, but there are holes along the sides, though we’re not close enough to see into the structure.
“Want me to get closer?” he asks Lance.
“Go ahead. We need to know what we’re walking into.” He glances over at me. “Any word from Sheriff Vick?”
I check my phone, not at all surprised when I don’t see a text from him. Getting a warrant for something like this is not going to be easy. Asking to access private property with nothing but a hunch? That certainly wouldn’t fly in LA, and I’m willing to bet it’s the same here. “No. But I’m not waiting for a warrant. I say we go in. ”
The wind whips at us, and the sound of waves crashing into the shore is a backdrop to the pounding of my pulse. Adrenaline courses through my veins as I try to remain focused on what’s coming next.
My phone buzzes, so I pull it back out of my pocket and read the text.
Margot: Be careful. We still need to get our timing down.
I know her text is meant to ease my nerves, to bring me back to reality, and it does that. But it also brings the image of her standing on the beach as the breeze toys with her hair, face tilted up toward mine, front and center.
The intensity in her gaze as she stared up at me.
Me: I hear practice makes perfect.
Before I can get too distracted, I shove the phone back into my pocket.
“You in position?” Lance asks Silas through our shared comm units.
“I am. And I don’t see any movement either,” he replies, his voice coming through clear in my ear.
Normally, it’s me who would be at a distance with a rifle, watching over my team on the ground. It’s what I did in the Marines. What I’m best at. But given how personal this is, I need to be on the ground. Right there in the middle of whatever goes down.
So Silas is watching over us from a vantage point that will hopefully grant him a clear shot should anything go down. We could be walking right into a trap. Or we could find nothing .
“Good. Everyone else agree with going in prior to a warrant?” Lance asks.
“There are benefits to not being a cop, boss man,” Michael says as he withdraws his firearm. “I say we go in.”
“I got something,” Elijah says.
My stomach lurches, and we shift our attention to the monitor in his hands.
“What is that?” Michael asks.
The light catches a glint of metal hanging on an old nail on the side of the barn. Elijah moves the drone in close enough that we can see it’s a necklace. Cherry blossom. “That’s Lanetti’s.” I withdraw my weapon. “She was wearing it outside the diner right before she first got taken. She’s in there.” Hope floods my system, mixing with the adrenaline and a heavy dose of fear.
What if we’re too late?
Images of Lanetti’s body, swollen from the water, assault my mind, and I have to actively force them out in order to refocus.
We’re not too late.
We will find her.
God, please let us find her in time.
“I texted the sheriff, let him know we have a sign that she’s in there and we’re going in.” Lance levels his gaze on me. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
He holds his weapon at the ready. “Then let’s go get her. ”
My heart hammers as we make our way down the embankment, with Lance leading us, me right behind him. I don’t have to look back to know that Elijah is behind me and Michael’s following him.
We move like a single unit, nearly silent—our years of training working like muscle memory. The wall of the barn is hard beneath my back, despite the aged wood. I follow Lance’s lead, taking slow, careful steps forward.
We reach the rusted nail where the psycho hung Lanetti’s necklace. I eye it furiously as we pass.
If anything happened to her?—
Lance moves quickly to the other side of the door, then nods to me. I come around and slam my boot into the front, weapon raised as we rush inside. It doesn’t take but a few seconds to realize that it’s empty. Decades of the tide have brought in sand from the shoreline, and as I walk, what’s left of the floorboards creak beneath my boots.
“Where is she?” I demand, turning to Lance. “Her necklace was right outside. I saw it. I know it’s hers.” I’m spiraling, as I spin in a circle. I was so sure. I felt it. She has to be—something scrapes, and we all whirl to face the far corner.
It’s empty, but the scraping sound fills our ears again.
As carefully as I would be if I were defusing a bomb, I inch forward, keeping my firearm raised. Lance, Michael, and Elijah all flank me, and when we reach the corner, I peer down into a small crack in the floorboards.
And meet a pair of terrified eyes.
“Got her!” I yell, then quickly holster my weapon and drop to my knees. Gripping the floorboard in my gloved hands, I yank the board free and toss it to the side. Lanetti’s eyes are wide and afraid, tears streaking down her cheeks.
There’s duct tape over her mouth and the water from the rising tide has nearly filled the worn space beneath the barn.
Another half hour and she would have drowned.
“I got you,” I say as I reach in, and with Lance’s help, we pull her up to the surface.
Her body trembles as I hold on to her, trying to bring her some semblance of comfort.
“I’ll make the call,” Michael offers, smiling warmly at her as he moves out of the barn.
“Hey, Lanetti, I’m going to remove the duct tape, okay?”
She nods at Lance, and he reaches up and tears the tape from her face. “I was so scared. I thought I was going to die!” She leans into me again, burying her face in my chest.
“You’re okay now. We found you,” I tell her. Her hair is soaked at the ends. All of her clothing from the waist down is drenched from the cold seawater. Carefully, I undo the wire wrapped around her wrists, and she hisses when it bites into her skin. “Sorry,” I mutter.
“It’s okay. You’re here. You found me.” She throws her now free arms around me and begins to sob, her shoulders shaking. “He was going to kill me. I know he was. Thank you. Thank you for finding me.”
It’s near midnight before I’m walking up the steps to the Anderson’s home. I’d texted Margot to let her know I was on my way, so instead of knocking on the door and risking waking her entire family, I remain just off the porch, waiting for her to step outside.
Exhaustion plagues me, seeping into my bones and dragging my mood down.
Yes, Lanetti is safe.
Guarded.
But we still haven’t caught the man responsible, and I’m starting to wonder if we will. Once again, Lanetti has no idea who had her. She’d been drugged and woke up beneath the barn this time, and he’d grabbed her while she’d been walking to the diner, in a spot where there are no security cameras.
This guy is a ghost.
The front door opens, and Margot slips out into the dim porch light. Just seeing her eases some of the weight I’m carrying. Truthfully, I hadn’t realized how much I’d come to rely on seeing her every day until I wasn’t.
Her hair is up in a messy bun, and black-rimmed glasses sit on her face. She’s wearing an oversized cream sweatshirt and black shorts. She steals my breath.
“Hey,” she greets in a loud whisper as she takes a seat on the middle step, then sets the Bible she’s carrying in her lap .
“Hey.” I take a seat beside her. “Doing some light reading?”
She laughs softly. “I’m struggling a bit these days, so I’m trying to remind myself that even when things get hard, we still need to give it to Him.”
“I get that feeling.”
“What’s going on? How’s Lanetti?”
“She’s good. In good spirits. No major injuries, but they wanted to keep her overnight for observation. We’re installing a security system at her house in the morning, and per her mother’s request, I’ll be shadowing her whenever she leaves.”
“Bodyguard time,” she replies with a smile.
“Apparently.”
“You don’t seem too happy.”
“I feel like I’m missing something.” I look at her and smile, a bit embarrassed. “You know, I used to be good at my job.”
“You are great at your job,” she replies. “Sometimes mysteries just take time to solve.”
“Time we don’t have.”
“We have Lanetti back.”
“But how long until he takes her again? Or goes after someone else?” I keep my gaze trained in the distance.
“I don’t know,” she says softly. “But I do know that worrying won’t add even a single moment to your life.”
“Luke 12:25. Nice.” I bump her gently with my shoulder, and she beams at me .
“It’s the one I’ve been repeating to myself as I try and figure out just what I’m going to do now that my home and business are in shambles.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“We’ll?” she asks, arching a brow.
Heat creeps up my neck. “You know. I’m here for you. Whatever you need.”
“You’ve already loaned me money you shouldn’t have,” she replies with a sigh. “You’ve done enough.”
“No. When it comes to you, I worry I’ll always come up short.”
“Why would you say such a thing?”
Since I feel like I’ve already put it all out there anyway, and given the seemingly near-death experience we both had on the beach, I figure I can’t really mess things up any more than they already are. So I turn to face her. “You deserve so much better than me. It’s important to me that you know that.” I run a hand over the back of my neck. “Because even though I recognize it, I’m desperate for a shot at whatever this is.” I gesture between us, knowing the words I’m speaking are not nearly as eloquent as I’d originally planned.
Candlelight. Fresh flowers. A nice restaurant. That’s where I should be sharing my growing feelings.
Not her parents’ front porch.
But Margot reaches forward and runs her hand over the scruff of my short beard. “We can agree to disagree on your thoughts about what I do and don’t deserve because you’re the only one I want, Jaxson. I’ve just been waiting for us to fix our timing.”
Relief floods my chest, and I feel like I can breathe again.
“I think I can make up for bad timing.” Slipping a hand around the back of her neck, I pull her forward, press my lips to hers, and everything changes.