Chapter 25
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
ASPEN
“Step on up and try your hand at a water balloon toss,” I call out, smiling at the kids who perk up at the words water balloon.
I can see them tug their parents as they point toward us.
“All proceeds go to a local charity that helps the community,” I call out.
I can see when I entice them. One little boy and his parents walk over, his dad already pulling out his wallet.
“How much?”
I give him the price along with the rules. He gives the first water balloon to the boy, holding him up.
“Okay, buddy. Throw it over there.”
The boy follows his dad’s instructions and misses.
The father chuckles as I hand him the second one.
This time, he is a bit closer, but by luck. He isn’t trying to aim at all.
This goes on and on until the family has donated well over fifty dollars.
“You did really well,” I tell the little boy. “How about a prize?”
He nods, pointing at a tiger meant for our biggest winners. His father more than paid for it, though, so I pull it down.
“Tiger it is. You take good care of him.” He nods as his parents thank me before walking away.
“You’re good at this. Kids love you,” Asher says from his chair in the back of the booth.
He has mostly tried to stay out of my way while I handled everyone coming to the booth. Maggie is planning to come relieve me in a little bit so I can experience the carnival a bit more.
“Wasn’t Ashley going to come?” I ask Asher.
“She said she would try to stop by if she could. I tried calling her, but it went straight to voicemail. I’m sure she’s grading papers or something,” he tells me.
He’s probably right. When she needs to focus, she tends to put her phone on Do Not Disturb.
“Well, I hope we see her. I think she would like this,” I tell him.
“Oh, she would love it. When we were kids, we used to go to the local fair every year. She would ride every single ride in the place. I was always more interested in the food and carnival games like this,” he admits.
“I love that. I love hearing stories about your past,” I tell him.
“I wish you had some of your own.”
I laugh. “I might not have the warm and fuzzies, but Calloway did take me to a carnival once. He had to ride with me on the handlebars of his bike, and we snuck in the back, but it was fun. He would make deals with the guys at the rides to get me on for free. It was one of the best days of my childhood,” I tell him, remembering the day.
Calloway always tried to give me better than what I had. I never truly appreciated it until now.
“That’s awesome, baby. I’m glad you had him.”
Before we can keep talking, his phone rings. He answers it as I focus back on the crowd.
After a few minutes, Asher comes up behind me.
“There’s an issue with some unruly men a couple of booths down. I’m going to go help. Meek is watching the cameras, and I am within shouting distance,” he tells me.
While I am a little nervous, I know I will be okay.
“Go do what you need to do.”
I watch as he walks away before I focus back on the crowd before me.
I get another couple of participants before there is a slight lull. I frown when I look down and see Asher talking with one of the men that I assume was causing issues. He is taking so long. I wish they would go away so he could come back to me.
“Excuse me, miss?” a young voice says, drawing my attention back to the booth.
“Hey, there. Are you here by yourself?” I ask, looking around for his parents.
The boy can’t be more than six or seven.
“I can’t find them. Can you help me look for them?” he asks, sounding scared.
“Oh, honey. Come into the booth. Let’s see what we can do.”
He comes around the booth and stands next to me as I pull out the walkie-talkie I was given.
“Booth eighteen to base,” I call out.
Nothing but static comes back.
“Booth eighteen to base.”
Still nothing.
I growl, pulling out my phone. I try to dial Asher first. My phone looks like it is dialing before it says call failed. I frown. I try Calloway next.
The call still doesn’t go through.
I look to where Asher was. I don’t see him through the crowd.
“I want my mommy. Take me to my mommy,” the boy cries out.
I look down at him, hating how upset he is. I know I should wait here, but Meek is watching, right? Besides, if I find Asher, I will feel better.
“All right. Let’s go see what we can do,” I tell the kid as tears start to well in his eyes.
Grabbing his hand, I pull him toward where I saw Asher last. He will know what to do.
“What does your mommy look like?” I ask.
“She has brown hair, and she’s tall like you, but she isn’t as pretty as you.”
“Aww, don’t say that. I’m sure your mom is really pretty.”
“Oh, look. There she is.” He pulls on my hand, pulling me away from where Asher was the last time I saw him. I look back once more before I follow the kid.
He leads me up to a woman facing me as she talks with a security guard who is faced away from me.
“Oh, thank God. Thank you,” she tells me, reaching her hand out for the boy.
Then the security guard turns, and my blood runs cold.
“Here you go, ma’am.” He hands her an envelope of cash before he smiles at me.
“Aspen, lovely to see you again. Why don’t you come with me?”
I’m not in the present, though. No, I’m in the past.
I’m back in the hellhole knowing that I am well and truly fucked because the man in front of me isn’t a security guard.
No.
He’s the devil.
ASHER
Talking down a bunch of idiot men wasn’t on my bingo card today, but here I am telling a grown man that if a woman is willing to sleep with his best friend, then maybe she and the best friend need to be cut from his life.
He seems to think he still loves the girl, but I don’t know how he could love someone who showed him she was never who he thought she was.
He’s blaming his buddy, and his buddy is in the wrong, but from my point of view, she didn’t try to stop him.
She wanted his dick as much as he wanted her pussy.
To each their own, I guess.
After coddling the crying brute and finding him an escort out of the carnival, I make my way back to the booth. I hated not being able to keep a closer eye on it, but with the surge of people, it was hard to keep Aspen in my view.
I shoot a text to Panther letting him know what happened before I get to the booth. When I look up, I frown.
Aspen isn’t there.
I wonder if she went to the bathroom and look toward the closest porta-potties.
Looking down at my phone, I notice my text didn’t go through.
I try to call Aspen. The call fails. My stomach tightens.
Something isn’t right.
I run over to the porta-potties and start knocking. There are a few angry people, but no Aspen.
I take off at a run, looking left and right for her. I run into Caterpillar as I look.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Aspen is missing. Phones are down. Spread the word,” I yell at him before I keep up with my search.
I run into Ridge next. He is watching Rain as she gets on a ride.
“Aspen is missing. Spread the word. Phones are down.”
He curses, pulling out a second phone. He flips it open, and I realize it’s a satellite phone. He dials a number before handing it to me.
“What’s wrong?” Panther says.
“Aspen is missing,” I tell him.
He growls. “What do you mean she’s missing? Maggie went to help her at the booth thirty minutes ago.”
I frown. “Maggie hasn’t been there. I only left about fifteen minutes ago to help out with the unruly men causing an issue.”
“Asher, Maggie was with your sister. It’s why I let them go. They were together, and Meek was watching.”
“Fuck. Call Meek. I’m going searching.”
When I hang up, I look at Ridge.
“Keep it. He will need to contact you back. I want to help you, but…” He looks to Rain.
“Get her to safety,” I tell him as I take off.
A few minutes later, the phone rings. I answer it.
“Meek had eyes on them. They were on their way to the booth last he saw. A group of people got in the way, so he couldn’t see the booth to confirm they had made it there, but he saw them before you left. We had no idea they never made it.”
“I don’t like this,” I tell him.
“Me either. We know who it is. I’m headed to the entrance. They won’t still be here. We need to find where he is holding them,” he says.
“I’ll be there in a second.”
I run across the carnival grounds, dodging people without a care for how they feel about it. It takes me several minutes to get to the entrance, but when I do, I see everyone there except Caterpillar.
“Where’s Caterpillar?” I ask.
Panther frowns. “He wasn’t here.”
That’s when it clicks. He is helping Adlet. Fuck.
“He is here. I ran into him when I first started looking. I told him she was missing, and the phones were down,” I tell Panther.
“I saw him too,” Ridge says, coming up from behind with Rain. “He had been trailing Maggie and Ashley. I thought he was their guard.”
Rain frowns. “You’re going to find them, right?”
“Fuck yes,” I growl out. “What do we know?”
Talon comes up, pulling a kid with him, a worried mother standing behind him.
“Let him go,” she cries out.
“Shut up. You might be a woman, but fuck if I will let you get one of my family killed,” Talon growls.
She wisely shuts up. I know Talon wouldn’t hurt her, but he is angry right now.
Talon clears his throat. “So after Meek cleared the bug that was overriding the live view, he was able to go back and see this kid come up and convince your girl to leave. He leads her to an area the cameras didn’t cover because it was somewhere no one should have been.”
The younger-looking woman cries, “He threatened me, then shoved money at me. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to help him.”
“Where is she?” I step forward, glaring.
“He took her out the back and down the tracks in the woods,” she says.
“Ridge, you stay here with Rain and these two. Talon, strap up. We are going to get the girls. Eagle, I want you circling around and coming in the other side. Get Trout and Yak with you. Talon, Asher, and I will take the front. Try to stay out of sight. I don’t want him to know how many people we have there,” Panther orders.
Everyone is in motion in a second. I check my own gun, not giving a fuck that people are giving us weird looks. I don’t really care about anyone but Aspen in this moment.
“We will find her,” Panther promises me. “We will find all three of them, and we will kill him for what he has done.”
I suck in a breath. “I promised her he wouldn’t touch her again.”
He nods. “I understand. I did too. We failed, but we will stop him this time for good. She will understand.”
I take a deep breath. “Enough talking. I need to move.”
He nods.
“Okay, boys. Let’s go hunting.”