Chapter 33

33

Archer

D akota's house is empty. The lights are out, and the doors are locked. Her car's not in the driveway. It's late evening now, and it took a while for my brothers and I to pull ourselves together and formulate a feasible action plan. We each have tasks to perform and objectives to meet if we're to protect ourselves and our woman, not to mention our children.

Legally, we can twist the narrative back in our favor, but it doesn't guarantee any kind of protection from an unfavorable judge's decision. We could still lose custody of Trevor. Dakota definitely risks the same with Maisie. We can't let any of it happen, and the clock is ticking.

So, where the hell is she?

"She's not answering her phone, either," I mutter as I end yet another failed attempt to reach her. I keep getting voicemail. I try calling Chelsea instead. No answer.

My blood starts boiling.

Something doesn't feel right.

Today has already been so trying on every possible level. I'm not sure that I have the bandwidth left to keep my cool if I'm unable to reach Dakota and make sure she's okay. Most importantly, this whole wedding quest doesn't have to be over. We can arrange an even smaller ceremony and find another officiant for the wedding. We can still get a marriage license and make sure Dakota gets her inheritance.

My phone rings, but it's not her.

"Yeah, Reed, talk to me," I answer, slowly going back to my car.

"Callie checked out of her hotel room," he says. "I am guessing that she has already skipped town."

"She'll go back to Chappaqua. We can get her there. What about Keith?"

"Maddox is on it, but I haven't heard from him yet. Dakota?"

"Not home," I say, getting behind the wheel. "She's not answering her phone, either."

"Chelsea?"

"Also unreachable."

"What the fuck is going on?"

I think I have the answer to that as soon as I drive past Chelsea's house and notice it's also empty. No lights. No car in the driveway. I don't like where this is going. The uncertainty, the speed with which everything went tits up… we didn't see any of it coming.

As soon as we got home after the church debacle, my brothers and I turned the house upside down and found two hidden cameras. One in the living room bookcase, and one in the bedroom. I reached out to a friend in the police department, and they're investigating. We pointed them in Keith's direction; hopefully, they'll have a better shot at tracking the bastard down before he does any real harm.

I keep checking the social media feeds in the meantime. No activity there. Who knows where he's keeping the copies and besides, perhaps he was bluffing. One can hope. Either way, preventing the video from getting out could buy us some time until we do find him.

But what troubles me the most is Dakota's absence.

Every hour that goes by pulls me closer to an abyss I'm nowhere near ready to fall into. It can't be over between us. Not like this. Not when our bond was growing so strong, so intense, that I had a hard time breathing without her.

This can't be the end.