Chapter 17 #2
Pipe remained quiet, and when Cora looked up at him, she saw he was checking out the room, his gaze running over everything. The chairs, the projector, the signed movie posters on the walls.
“What are you looking for?” she whispered.
“I don’t know. I’m just looking,” he replied.
Cora nodded. She felt out of her league. All she’d wanted was to make sure her friend was all right, and instead, she’d found herself in a situation where she had no idea what to do. She was very thankful that both Owl and Pipe were with her. She was safe with them, she had no doubt about that.
She tried to think positively. Soon, she’d get to talk to Lara, and hopefully leave with her.
At this point, she didn’t care what Lara said.
If she told her that she was fine and wanted to stay.
After everything the guys had said, and after what Tex had found out about her so-called boyfriend, there was no way she was leaving her friend here.
Even if Lara got mad at her and ended their friendship, it would be worth it to know she was safe.
Cora frowned at the thought of not having Lara in her life, but she’d rather have her best friend alive and hating her, than stuck in a bad situation.
“I hate waiting,” she admitted softly.
“You and me both, sister,” Owl said with a nod.
Pipe crossed the room and pulled her into his side.
Cora gladly leaned against him, doing what she could to soak up his confidence and warmth.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong, but she had no idea why or what to do about it.
All she could do was wait for Creepy Guy, or maybe even Ridge, to come back with Lara in tow.
Once she saw her friend, they’d figure out what to do next.
Stone sat impatiently in the car. The others hadn’t been gone all that long, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that they’d walked into a shit show. He’d sometimes gotten these feelings when he was on a mission, and when he did, every single time, the shit had hit the fan.
He stared at the brick wall about thirty feet from where he was parked. The Jeep was at the corner of the estate’s property line. Out of sight of the front door, but close enough that if needed, he could get to his friends to evacuate them.
Looking down at his watch, Stone swore as he realized only two minutes had passed since he’d last checked the time.
He hated not knowing what was happening.
But the fact that the three hadn’t immediately returned had to mean they’d had some success.
Hopefully they were inside, meeting with Lara and finding out what the hell was going on.
The sudden vibration of his phone in his hand startled Stone so badly, he jerked. Laughing at himself, and shaking his head, he looked down at the screen.
A text had arrived—and Stone frowned as he read the preview.
Unknown: You need to back off.
He quickly unlocked the phone and clicked on the text to read the entire thing.
Unknown: You need to back off. Michaels is not the threat.
It’s Carter Grant. The bodyguard. That’s not his real name.
He’s got several aliases, Alex Hansen, Daniel West, Connor Smith, among others.
He’s wanted by the FBI for over a hundred counts of sexual assault, rape, and murder.
He gets off on drugging women and holding them hostage while he does unspeakable things.
To date he’s been connected to thirty-five deaths.
He’s a serial killer, and if Lara Osler was in that house, it’s likely she’s no longer alive.
If Cora goes in there, I have no doubt she’ll be his next victim.
I’ve called the police and the FBI but there’s an active shooter situation at a school on the other side of town.
Literally everyone is tied up with that.
They’ve called in agents from the Sedona office to check out the situation. But you need to back off. Abort!
Stone’s heart rate shot up to levels he hadn’t experienced since he’d gone down in the chopper on his last mission. His fingers raced over the screen as he texted the person back.
Stone: Who are you? How do you know this? We got intel from Tex and he’s the best of the best. He didn’t tell us any of this.
Three dots immediately blinked on the screen, letting Stone know whoever had sent the text was typing a reply. He didn’t have to wait long for it to come through.
Unknown: Who I am doesn’t matter. And how did I know where Jasna was? How did I know to track Reese’s tile? I hacked into Tex’s computer and dug deeper than he ever could on the names of Ridge’s employees. Get the hell out of there!
Holy shit. The mysterious person who’d already helped them—twice—was back. And if their intel was right, his friends were in extreme danger.
Stone believed the unknown person. Tex hadn’t been able to track who he was, and he was a computer genius. But now…
It seemed obvious to Stone that it had to be someone connected to The Refuge.
There were a lot of people who’d known about Jasna’s disappearance—but that wasn’t the case with Reese.
There were supposedly no witnesses when she was taken from that parking lot in Los Alamos.
And the fact that this person now knew where Cora was—and what they were doing—pointed at someone who had to know they were headed to Arizona in the first place.
And very few people had that information.
But at this point, with this new intel? It didn’t matter who the unknown person was. All that mattered was getting his friends out of that house in one piece.
He immediately clicked on Pipe’s name and sent him a text.
Stone: Get out. Now.
He sent the same message to Owl, just to be on the safe side.
To his horror, he didn’t get the little check mark next to the messages saying they were delivered. He immediately clicked on Pipe’s name again, but this time to call him.
It went straight to voicemail.
Stone swore viciously and clicked on Owl’s name…with the same result. Out of desperation, he tried Cora. Again, no luck.
The situation felt worse and worse with each minute that passed.
He desperately wished that the other guys were there.
Brick, Tonka, Spike, and Tiny were better at this kind of thing.
He was a helicopter pilot. Yeah, a hell of a good one, but he didn’t have the time in the field that his friends had.
He’d been sufficiently trained in every type of combat situation, but the vast majority of his time had been spent in the air, not with boots on the ground.
He had no doubt his friends would have probably formed three different plans by now and be halfway to executing them.
He frantically tried to think about what he should do next. Call the cops? Go up to the door and get his friends? Sneak up to the house and look through windows to see what intel he could gather?
All he knew was that if he didn’t do something, he might never see Pipe and Owl again. Both of them—as well as Cora and Lara—could end up dead.
He hadn’t lived through a helicopter crash and two weeks of torture to lose Owl now. They’d vowed to stay together through thick and thin, and no way was he gonna sit back and let anything happen to his best friend…or anyone else.
He had to come up with a plan. Pronto.