Chapter 27

27

Ethan

I t took us a while and a few favors pulled from former Army buddies, but we found Laurel Buchanan. She’s working at a pizza restaurant, bussing tables, and making considerably less money, but she looks at peace from where I’m sitting—which is the passenger seat of Colton’s truck.

“It’s her,” I confirm, taking another look at the photo we have of her.

Colton follows my gaze, using a pair of binoculars. “She’s a redhead now.”

“Spoke to one of her colleagues. She goes by a different name these days.”

“Which is?”

I didn’t get much out of the pizza cook when I interviewed him an hour ago, but what I did get does qualify as useful information. “Melissa,” I say. “Melissa Hancock.”

“That’s a little on the nose, isn’t it?”

“The audacity is something,” I grumble. “How do we do this?”

Colton thinks about it for a moment. “We can’t arrest her. We don’t have the authority. We can’t spook her either. But we do want to bring her in for Kavanaugh to put just enough pressure on her to get her to confess.”

“Look at her,” I tell my brother. “She switched up her whole life to keep distance between herself and Jake Miller and the Esparza cartel. The moment she realizes who we are, Laurel’s gonna run for the hills. We’ll lose her.”

“We can’t afford to lose her.”

“We need to entice her with something,” I say. “Otherwise, she won’t tell the truth.”

Colton nods slowly. We need a smart approach if we’re to convince her to testify under oath again.

Colton’s phone rings. He picks up while I keep an eye on Laurel.

“Hey, Darla, what’s up?”

I hear her frantic voice, but I can’t make out the words. At the same time, Laurel carries a large pizza over to a table, then refills their coffee mugs with a flat, lifeless smile plastered across her face.

“Whoa… Darla, deep breath. Where are you?” Colton asks.

He has my full attention.

“Stay there, we’re on our way. And call the sheriff,” Colton says, then hangs up and starts the engine. “We need to get back to Long Pine right now.”

“What about Laurel?”

“She’s not going anywhere. She doesn’t know we were here,” he replies, then gives me a look I haven’t seen in a very long time. He’s scared, the blue in his eyes darkening with concern. “Melissa’s been taken.”

I thought I could weather any storm, any blizzard. I could take on an entire cartel of bloodthirsty Colombians and a thousand Jake Millers. I fought insurgents and terrorists, craven lunatics and warmongers. I stared death in the eyes, more times than I could count, yet all I ever had to do was take a deep breath, count to ten, and then let the monster inside me take over.

This time, however, I’m lost.

As Colton races toward Long Pine, the town rising ahead with its gloomy greys and white roofs, I realize I wasn’t prepared for this, for the real possibility that we might lose Melissa. She’s gone, and we don’t know what happened. Colton doesn’t have much information either. Darla was too frantic over the phone.

“There they are,” Colton says, pulling up outside the Cavalier.

Sammy is present, talking to his niece Louisa, while Kavanaugh pulls Darla away from the crying girl. The sheriff’s car is parked right in front of the diner’s massive doors, red and blue lights flashing, while curious onlookers try to hang around to find out what’s going on. Kavanaugh waves them away.

“Move it along, folks, nothin’ to see here!” he barks.

“I’ll smash her face!” Darla snaps, and the sheriff has to literally position himself between her and Louisa, aided by an equally befuddled Sammy.

“Thank God you’re here,” Sammy says upon noticing us. “Get her under control,” he adds, pointing at Darla.

“She’s to blame!” our aunt shouts, red with fury.

Colton steps in and unceremoniously drags her farther away from Sammy and Louisa, while Kavanaugh sticks by our side.

“Okay, what the fuck is going on here?” my brother asks, giving both the sheriff and Darla equal shares of glaring attention. “Where’s Melissa?”

“Louisa said she wanted to talk,” Darla says with a trembling voice. “So, she takes me out of the pub and down the road. But it was all a ruse. She wanted me distracted so they could take Melissa.”

“I had nothing to do with it!” Louisa cries.

“I will smack the shit out of you!”

“Darla, focus!” I snap. “Talk to us, come on!”

Darla takes a deep breath, shaking like a leaf. “I brought Melissa into town. We stopped by the Cavalier to eat. We’re waiting for our order when Louisa comes over and says she wants to talk to me in private.”

“Okay, we’re with you so far,” Colton says. “Go on.”

“I go out, Louisa’s with me. She keeps inching away from the pub until we reach the Pink Flamingo coffee shop—”

“That’s almost a block from here,” Kavanaugh mutters.

“Aunt Darla, you said Melissa’s missing,” Colton cuts in.

“I turn around, and I see Melissa coming out of the restaurant.” She points at the diner. “She was looking for me. Next thing I know, I’m running toward her… and I see Jake Miller pop out of the service alley. He drags her in. I’m shouting, calling out his name and Melissa’s, but I was too late. By the time I got back here, he had her in his trunk and was swerving out onto the road.”

She breaks down crying, and Colton holds her close.

“Shit,” I mumble, understanding precisely what this means.

“I put out an APB on Miller’s car. I’ve got the deputies combing through and around town, looking for them,” Kavanaugh assures us. “But I don’t understand what Louisa’s role is in any of this.”

Darla curses under her breath. “She was in on it. I don’t know if Jake was going to go into the diner and get Melissa out, or if Melissa simply walked into the trap, but I wasn’t supposed to be there. Louisa said so. She kept shouting after me to let it go, to get out of his way.”

And then it hits me.

I open my phone and do a quick search on social media. It doesn’t take long to see it. The subtle relationship-hinting posts. The obscure selfies that show enough but not everything—just enough for me to recognize half of Jake Miller’s face as he smiles and holds Louisa close. I show Colton the feed.

“Keep Darla away,” he tells Kavanaugh.

The two of us switch focus and walk over to Sammy and Louisa. Sammy is understandably annoyed and confused. Louisa’s crocodile tears don’t impress me, though. I can tell from the way her gaze keeps darting around that she knows she’s about to be found out, whether she likes it or not.

“What the hell is going on here, fellas?” Sammy asks. “What’s gotten into Darla?”

“How long have you and Jake been hooking up?” Colton addresses Louisa directly.

“What… Who? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the girl replies, her eyes wide with faux innocence.

Colton shakes his head and shows her the social media feed. “This isn’t a joke, Louisa. A woman’s life is at stake.”

“Oh, you mean the skank you’ve been shacking up with,” she blurts.

Immediately, Sammy’s protective demeanor changes. “Excuse me, miss? What did you just say? Is it true? Is it? You and Jake Miller?”

“He’s a good man! it’s not his fault that bitch ruined him!” Louisa insists.

Colton can’t help but groan with frustration, running his fingers through his hair. “Oh, God, Sammy, you need to do something about this, ’cause I’m about to lose my damn mind.”

“So, it’s true, then,” Sammy says to Louisa, then grabs her by the arm. “Listen to me very carefully, little girl. That man has been feeding you lies, and you’re gonna tell us everything you know, every goddamn detail, or I swear I’m gonna let Kavanaugh arrest you!”

“Arrest me? For what?”

“Conspiracy to commit kidnapping for starters,” the sheriff replies, one ear on our conversation and one eye firmly on Darla. “Melissa Carson was taken against her will.”

“Yeah, because it’s the only way for Jake to clear his name!” Louisa insists.

“Melissa went to prison because of Jake’s lies,” I yell, then lower my voice as I continue. “He brought the Esparza cartel to our doorstep. We’re sleeping with one eye open and shotguns under our beds because of him. You’re gonna tell us precisely how you got involved with that fucker and everything else you know, or I swear I’m going to make your life miserable. Your uncle Sammy won’t be able to help you if I get my hands on you, you little brat.”

Whether it’s the tone of my voice or the glare in my eyes, but it works.

Quivering with fear, Louisa starts singing like a nightingale on a sweet summer night. She tells us all about how Jake first approached her, how he love-bombed her—though she calls it courting because she’s still too young and inexperienced to tell a lie from a truth as long as she gets a man’s attention. Kavanaugh then takes her in for questioning.

“I’m gonna take Darla back to the ranch,” Sammy says as we watch Louisa being ushered into the backseat of the sheriff’s car. “She gets a phone call, anyway. She can call her no-good parents to bail her out. I’m done here.”

“Sorry you got involved, Sammy,” Colton replies.

“That piece of shit Jake Miller really got around, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, and he got way too lucky, too,” Darla chimes in. “Melissa had no idea what was happening, the poor soul.”

“They’re a few hours ahead of us, but we can still catch up,” I tell Colton. “We do need to get Laurel over here, though. We can’t let her slip away.”

“We can’t go after her ourselves either. We need to find Melissa,” my brother says, and I completely agree. “I’ll reach out to our friends. One of them will come through. They just need to pick Laurel up and drop her off with Kavanaugh. We’ll explain everything once she’s secured. We can’t risk her disappearing like Bruce, not when we’re so fucking close.”

Sammy nods and offers to drive Darla back to the ranch. “The boys might need your truck to split up while they go out lookin’ for Melissa,” he says. “Colton’s got his ride, but Ethan—”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Darla concedes and gives me the keys. “You drive safe, boys. And don’t get into any more trouble.”

“Will do, Auntie,” I reply with a stern nod. “Thank you for trying to keep Melissa out of harm’s way.”

She tears up. “I did, I swear to God I did.”

“We’ll find her,” Colton says. “I’ll get Mitch down here as well.”

“There’s something you need to know, though,” Darla adds. “I wasn’t gonna tell you before she had a chance to sit you boys down.”

“Tell us what?” I ask.

The look on Darla’s face fills me with a new kind of dread as the words spill out of her mouth. “Melissa’s pregnant. That’s why we were in town earlier. She got sick, really sick. We did an ultrasound and everything.”

“Was she okay?” Colton gasps, his eyes wide with shock.

I can barely fucking breathe as reality sinks in.

“Yeah, for the most part. It’s mostly stress-related, and I can’t blame her. She’s scared, boys. Scared of prison, scared of the cartel, scared she won’t survive, or worse, that she’ll end up back in Ridgeboro and they’ll take her babies away,” Darla says, trying hard not to cry.

“Babies?” I mumble.

Her eyes widen, then she sighs. “She’s having twins.”

Colton and I exchange glances. We know what this means. Or what it most likely means. The twin gene runs strong down the Avery bloodline. That’s our seed growing in Melissa’s womb, and she was thrown into the trunk of Jake Miller’s car, taken away. Fucking hell, as if things weren’t complicated enough, I can’t even rejoice in the exhilaration of learning that we’re going to be fathers.

That we’re going to be a family.

We need to find her. We need to protect her.

Now, more than ever.