Chapter 28
Ash
My first instinct is to divert our course and follow Barrett’s plane, but it’s in the air less than fifteen minutes before it lands again on a disused road.
There are no security cameras in the vicinity that Mace can hack, and even though we’re still in the air, it’s going to take us forty minutes to catch up.
They’ll be long gone by the time we land, and we won’t have any vehicles on the ground to meet us.
I don’t want to say it’s a lost cause. I just don’t.
Jake had breached the gates without any resistance. The Land Rover that had been left near the guardhouse was simply a decoy while Barrett’s men retreated on foot. Reports soon come in that the entire estate is deserted, as I feared it would be.
I try Belle’s phone in vain. If I could just talk to her once more, I’d tell her that I’m not giving up.
I don’t know what the hell Barrett thinks he’s going to achieve in all of this, but he’s a dead man walking.
He’s going to have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his miserable and exceedingly short life.
As we prepare to land at the same spot where Belle and Piper were stolen away, I do the one thing I didn’t want to do. I dial Barrett’s number. I’m not expecting him to pick up. The fact that I’m reaching out in desperation should be enough to feed his ego, but my run of bad luck continues.
“Enjoying your flight?” Barrett asks.
I look to Mace, who’s attempting to track the call. He draws a circle with his finger, encouraging me to open up a conversation that will keep Barrett on the line long enough.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you,” I growl. “And I’m going to make it a slow and painful death.”
There’s the clink of ice against glass, and the low hum of a jet engine.
He’s in the air again. “I’d be very careful about making threats, if I were you,” Barrett croons.
“I’m the one holding all the cards. If you want to see your daughter again…
” He chuckles. “Oh, that’s right, you never have seen her. ”
“I’ll start by pulling out your teeth, one by one,” I say, focusing on the death I’m conjuring for him. “Then maybe your fingernails, although I’m tempted to make it simple and just cut off your fingers and toes with a wire cutter. That way I can feed them into your toothless mouth.”
“I hate to interrupt this lovely fantasy of yours, but you’re not going to touch me, Ash. Nor will your brothers.”
“You have a company to run, Barrett. You can’t hide forever.”
He slurps his drink. “I don’t intend to hide,” he says. “And if anything should happen to me, by anyone’s hands, the same fate will be dished out to someone else, someone with child-size fingers and toes. The way I see it, you’re going to be duty bound to protect me.”
“I presume you’re counting on Oleg Kalinsky to carry out your final wishes. In which case you’ve picked the wrong man,” I tell him. “He doesn’t have a reputation for loyalty.”
“I’m hurt that you have such a poor opinion of me, Ash,” a Russian voice cuts in. Oleg. “But I hope it will come as some comfort to know that I’m getting on very well with your daughter. We’re having quite the bonding session.”
Veins throb at my temples and my corded arms pull the seams of my shirt. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy torturing you for weeks.”
I take a gulp of air to say more, but a child’s cry hits my eardrums and sends me into freefall.
“Hear that? My sweet baby must need me,” Oleg says, laughing as the line goes dead.
The skin on my face burns with a fury that eclipses the last time I felt this powerless. Before I can unleash it, Hunter and Reid jump up from their seats and grab my arms, pinning me down.
“Remember you’re on a plane, Ash,” Hunter hisses as I fight their restraint. “They’re goading you so you’ll do something stupid.”
“And we’re no use to Belle and Piper if we have to crash-land,” adds Reid.
With a surge of adrenaline, I hurl both my brothers off me. They land back against their seats. “I’m not a fucking moron! I know what they’re doing, and I know how to fucking control my fucking temper!”
Hunter and Reid don’t answer. They can’t because I’m standing over them, their throats gripped tightly in my hands. And I’m squeezing hard.
I loosen my grip immediately, and as I recoil, Hunter grabs my hand in an iron fist. “We’re getting our girls back.”
A new sensation overwhelms me. Love so immense I want to cry.
Hunter called Belle and Piper, our girls.
It’s how I think of them, and it’s how my brothers refer to their other halves too.
We’re all part of the same family. Griffins, by name or by default.
I put my hand over his, and Reid’s hand follows.
“We won’t rest until they’re home with us,” Reid says.
Mace’s hand appears next, and for once I don’t tell him to fuck off.
We don’t have a plan of action when we land, and there’s no urgency to set off again until we know in which direction to head.
Mace wasn’t able to trace the call, and in truth, the results would have been of limited use anyway, given that Barrett was still en route to a destination as yet unknown.
They’d been heading east after taking off from Poulton Springs, but that could be a false trail.
Mace opts to stay on the plane, and as we disembark, he’s on the phone to Strider, talking through possible strategies. The pair are cut from the same cloth, and will be able to work twice as fast to find the clues we need to get us back on track.
I’m securing my bullet-proof vest and straightening my shoulder holster as I step onto the asphalt. The mansion’s been declared clear, but we can’t assume there aren’t any traps or snipers left behind to pick us off.
As I get my bearings, a blacked-out SUV speeds towards the landing strip to meet us.
One of our guys jumps out of the driver’s side.
Leon is a long-standing member of our team and chief medic.
He gives us a wave as he circles the car to help Jake out.
I can hear our head of security berating poor Leon for acting like a fucking nursemaid from here.
Hunter, Reid and I walk over to meet them. Jake’s face is ashen, but whether it’s from pain, loss of blood or guilt, I can’t tell. Probably a mixture of all three.
“That’s some fashion statement,” Hunter tells him as he gives Jake the once over.
One of the legs of his pants is missing, and a bloodied bandage is wrapped around his otherwise bare thigh.
“Fucking bastard cut it off before I knew what he was doing,” Jake grumbles, giving Leon a steely glare. “He would have cut my leg off too given half the chance.”
“Given the chance, I would have sewn your ugly mouth shut,” Leon mutters, but he’s already backing away.
“Jake,” I say before he decides to hobble after Leon. “What did you find at the house?”
“Nothing we can salvage. They blew up a ground floor room on the west side.”
“It’ll be Barrett’s office,” says Reid, who’s the only one to have visited the mansion.
“Any sign of a struggle?” asks Hunter because he knows I can’t bring myself to ask.
Jake chews his lip. “Minimal,” he says to me.
“There’s a smashed up phone in the foyer, which we can assume is Belle’s, but other than that…
” He hangs his head. Not a good sign. “No doors appear to have been broken down, but there were some signs that Belle had resisted. Disturbed bed linen with splatters of blood. And on a nearby wall too.”
I suck in a breath, and turn away. I don’t like the image my mind attempts to create. It’s not going to help me think straight over the next crucial hours, or god forbid, days.
“A small amount of blood, Ash,” Jake clarifies, but my attention is suddenly drawn to Leon.
He’s crouched down, and presses a finger to the asphalt. There’s a dark stain on his finger as he lifts it up for inspection.
Leon looks up as I approach. “Blood,” he says, but I can already see what it is. My throat closes up because this isn’t a small splatter on the ground. It’s a dark, ominous pool.
I turn in a circle as I scan the landing strip for more clues.
There are smaller drips of blood, and what might be bloodied footprints.
Smaller than a man’s, but not a child’s.
No, not Piper’s because she’s on the plane with Barrett.
He and Oleg were at pains to talk about my daughter, but they never mentioned…
I jump when my phone starts to ring. For reasons I care not to acknowledge, I know it’s not going to be Belle. My hands are slick as I check my cell and see Mace’s name.
“Give me some good news,” I plead when I answer. “Have you found something?”
“Turn to your right, Ash,” he says, his voice tense. “By the tree line.”
There’s pressure at the back of my nose, and there’s only so long I can hold back the tears. He’s directing me to where the bloody trail leads. He’s found a body.
“I can’t…” I choke out.
“It’s OK,” Mace says gently. “Trust me.”
The muscles in my neck scream an objection, but I force myself to look. The air leaves my lungs in an anguished sob, and then I’m running. I’m running as fast as my legs will carry me, and then some.
Standing between two trees, bloodied and bruised, is one of my girls. Alive.
“Belle!” I cry out in a hoarse whisper.
She doesn’t react. She’s just stares at me, or through me. If this is some cruel figment of my imagination, if Belle’s ghost dares disappear into the ether the moment I reach her, I’m never going to recover.
My chest heaves as I come to a stumbling stop right in front of her. Her injuries are even worse up close, and as much as I want to pull her into my arms, I don’t.
She’s in shock, her gaze unfocused as I rest my hands gently on her shoulders – shoulders that are pulled too far behind her to be natural.
Fury sends my heart rate soaring, and I’m sucking in enough air to make me dizzy as I take a look around her back and see the zip ties.
I grab my knife and will my hands to stop shaking as I cut her restraints without damaging her skin more than it already is.
Belle’s arms drop to her sides. She doesn’t move. She doesn’t say anything as I take her bruised face ever so gently in my hands. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”
One of Belle’s eyes has a cut above it, and is almost swollen shut.
“I can’t find her,” she rasps, tears rolling down her face and turning pink with blood.
“I told her to run, Ash… It’s the last thing I remember…
But I’ve been shouting for her… I can’t…
” Her body wracks with sobs. “I can’t find her. ”
Fuck. I know I’m only replacing one form of torture with another, but I have to tell her.
“Listen to me, Belle. It’s going to be OK. She’s still with Barrett,” I say as gently as I can. “But we’re going to get her back.”
Belle’s legs go from under her, and I sweep her into my arms.