Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
COOPER
Spending the day holed-up in the safe house Ezra had Jose arrange for us, monitoring the socials to see if Silas decides to hold an impromptu conference to let the public know they have found the guilty parties in connection to the murders, isn’t how I imagined today going.
Thankfully, it all seems quiet. I don’t know whether that should soothe me though.
It feels like lowering our guards is a mistake.
Detective Silas Turner obviously has an edge we are just not seeing.
That feeling that we’re playing go fish while he’s mastering a game of chess is apt right about now.
Checking in with Ebony via the cameras, we decide not to tell her what has happened.
She’d only worry. Buried to the hilt inside Ebony while she cried out our names was the plan rolling around in my head when we’d fallen asleep holding her last night—that plan would have been preferred.
When night descends, we head out, walking through town to Ebony’s apartment while Jose sorts out a new ride.
We don’t know what information the police have managed to gather from my laptop, but I’m pretty positive that the small-town hick hackers Silas has on his payroll have nothing on the web of firewalls Ezra has put in place.
But unprepared psychos quickly find themselves caught psychos if not prepared for every eventuality, so right now, we’re being cautious psychos.
Caleb and I have discussed inviting Ebony back to the farm where we currently have construction going on when her summer break begins.
We’ve bankrolled through a dummy company Ezra set up, and in a couple of weeks, it will be ready.
I didn’t tell Caleb about the art studio I have planned for Ebs that overlooks the lake, smiling to myself as I imagine the surprise on her face when I reveal it to her.
“You’re quiet,” Caleb states, a question lingering in there somewhere.
“Do you think she’ll want to come back with us?” I ask, and he stops walking, turning to face me.
“I don’t plan on giving her a choice. We’ve kidnapped her before.
I think she might like the idea of a little trip down memory lane.
” His green eyes darken, and I shove him in the shoulder playfully as we continue across campus.
Dark jeans, white shirts, our hats tipped down enough to disguise our faces, we look like every other townie strolling around out here, our signature red bandanas tied around our wrists should the need to secure a certain someone to a bed frame arise.
We slip into Ebony’s apartment building, very aware that our photos could have been shown around campus already.
Caleb pulls up the surveillance app, flicking between each feed. “We need to adjust the camera in the living room, I think it’s been knocked loose.” He turns the screen to face me, and all I see is that smiley rom-com photo of Megan and Mateo on the beach on its side filling the screen.
“Maybe she’s onto us?” I tease, swiping across to the view of her empty bathroom.
“Nah, under all that bristling and yelling, I think our Dove quite liked the fact we were watching her,” Caleb says, pride licking at the edges of his forming smile as he closes the app and pockets his phone.
“She’s perfect for us. Isn’t she?” I don’t wait for his answer because I already know it’s true.
We opt for the stairs rather than the elevator and step out onto her floor. My heart constricts in my chest, the spotlights flickering on and off above us. Something doesn’t feel right as we cautiously approach her door, finding it ajar.
We go down hard as we cross the threshold into the dimly lit apartment.
“Fuck!” Caleb roars, earning a thump on the wall from the neighbours next door.
“Inside voices, Cal. We’re trying to stay under the radar, remember?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, brother. You see we’re on the floor, right? What the fuck is this?”
I slip and slide my way over to the wall and fumble around for the light switch.
Flicking it on, all the air is sucked from my lungs.
Blood coats our clothes and the floor, a thick crimson mass shocking against the white tile.
Caleb gets to his feet and pulls out his phone, closing the front door with his shoulder.
“Don’t touch anything,” he orders. I use the edge of my shirt not soaked in blood, of which there’s very fucking little, to wipe down the light switch, but it feels redundant right now.
We look like we’ve had tummy time in an abattoir, and it’s less conspicuous than we were hoping for.
I go over to the shelves and right the camera, seeing that it has been pulled from the plant pot where I had it hidden.
“Ezra, I need you to go back through the footage in Ebony’s apartment; it seems I can’t access anything but the live feed.”
“What the fuck happened to you two?” Ezra’s voice booms through the speaker, his concern means he’s tapped into the app;
“We don’t know what’s going on; can you check the fucking footage?” Caleb growls as he heads off at a run down the hallway to check the girls’ rooms while I go in search of the kitchen to see if there is any sign of Ebony’s bag.
He comes back in, running his hand through his hair.
“Nothing. The beds are stripped, but nothing else seems out of place.”
Apart from the camera and the frame on the shelf, some groceries strewn across the side, and the pints of blood covering the floor, everything else seems to be exactly where it was this morning when we left. What remains of a long stem glass crunches under Caleb’s foot.
The video call connects, and Ezra’s face fills the screen as he hands his daughter to Cara and gets to work on his computer.
“I can see Ebony arrive home, then Megan a while later, and then you guys. The only other people getting off on that floor are students, and they appear to head straight to their own apartments.”
“Well, whoever the fuck it was didn’t chuck them out of the third-floor window,” Caleb snaps as he paces the rug, leaving his bloody footprints behind. At this point, we’re going to have to burn everything we’re wearing.
“Think outside the box. Would Ebony ever leave of her own free will?” Cara asks, leaning forward towards the mic to keep her voice low as she rocks the baby.
“No; never. She’d fight to the death.” I wince at my statement, knowing it’s true, glancing down at the spilt blood that looks far too much for the donor to still be walking around.
“Not the time for worry, sweet cheeks,” Cara chuckles, pulling me out of my panic spiral as Ezra grunts at her.
“Calm down, my beast.” She kisses the corner of his mouth affectionately and runs her palm soothingly over their daughter’s back as she wriggles in her sleep.
“All I’m saying is if she didn’t go willingly, he would have had to knock her out.
I never went to university, but if it is anything like Doc’s home for the girls, there was always someone around.
How did he get her out of there unseen?”
Caleb and I let the thought ruminate and seem to come to the same conclusion instantly.
“She never left,” we say in unison.
“If you were here, I would kiss you, Cara.”
Ezra growls as his darkened gaze finds mine through the screen—scowling in warning in that caveman way that won his wife’s heart in the first place.
I laugh because he’s not here to inflict bodily harm, and Cara chuckles along with me—running her fingers through his hair and tucking what has fallen loose behind his ear.
Possessively obsessed still, I see.
“I’ve just done a diagnostic rundown of all the outputs at that location, dismissing your cameras and the girls’ phones, there was something else—you weren’t the only ones watching them. There is still a live feed coming from inside the property.”
“Get into it, and let us know what you find. Scrub everything once you’re done and you’ve sent us a copy,” Caleb orders sternly as he searches high and low for a hidden camera.
“It’s strange though. The IP address linked, it hasn’t moved; whoever was watching them was in the building at the time.
Boys, you might want to get out of there.
Police located in the reception area. They move pretty fast for pudgy fuckers; I’d say you’ve got ten minutes before they’ve searched the first two floors.
I’ve got the transcript of the emergency call, and they didn’t state a room number, so they are coming in blind. ”
Ever the voice of reverse karmic retribution, Cara adds, “Looks like the universe is on your side today, boys.” I don’t know what it is about the women in our life, but they sure seem fine with the messier sides of our relationships.
“If I find anything, I’ll send it over.” With that, Ezra cuts off the call, and that metallic tang of blood hangs heavy in the silence growing between us.
“We need to wait out the police and search the building.”
“And how, oh wise one, do you suggest we do that looking like extras in a slasher flick? People will have questions if we head out there like this,” I respond, tugging at the material that is now sticky against my chest.