CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ZAC

I’m thrilled to be back in New Orleans. After helping the guys reload our gear from the plane to the vehicle, I phone Brook again. My calls are still going to voicemail. Huh. No matter. We’ll be together soon. I have some things to finish at the office, then I’ll be racing home. I plan on beating her there and having supper ready when she walks in. Then I plan on taking her to bed.

Now that we’re back at the office, we have to unload our gear. As we’re doing so, Caleb gets a call. I hear Natalie on the other end because she’s talking loudly. Brook’s name is mentioned and my heart sinks. I have a bad feeling.

Caleb half turns and lowers his voice.

Something’s up.

“What’s going on?”

Caleb steps away.

The hair on my neck stands on end. “What the fuck’s going on, Caleb?”

He doesn’t acknowledge me.

My jaw clenches and I move toward him, reaching for the back of his shirt. I don’t know what I’m thinking or what I’m going to do. I’m scared and it’s not a good feeling.

Jake slides in front of me to stop me from doing something I’ll regret. “Just take it easy, Zac.”

I breathe deeply.

Caleb hangs up and turns to me.

“What is it?”

“Emily got a call from the art gallery today. Brook didn’t show up for work.”

I stare off at nothing. I’m speechless.

“She and Natalie went over to your place to check on her,” he continues. “They found magazines and her purse next to her car. It looks like she’s been taken.”

I want to scream or strike out. How could this happen? I pull my phone from my pocket and go to my security app. I move to the outside feed, to the approximate time she left. And there she is. I’d seen pictures of her aunt and uncle and the lawyer, and there they are, stuffing her into their trunk. Mother fucker!

“You know ‘em?” Caleb is looking over my shoulder.

“It’s her aunt and uncle.” I tap the phone screen. “That’s their lawyer.”

Caleb says, “Brook told Natalie that she thought she was being followed.”

“Yeah, we had lunch the other day, and she swore she saw her aunt. I guess she did.”

“You know,” Caleb says. “It’s not all that easy to find someone in New Orleans if they haven’t been here that long. And Brook hasn’t been here very long.”

My mind races and I have a thought. “That fuckin’ Jenny.”

I dash for the vehicle and climb in. My friends are right behind me.

“Where’re we going?”

“To find Brook.”

* * *

I slam on the brakes in front of Jenny’s building.

“Let’s be smart about this,” Caleb says.

I put the car in park and bail out. Doors slam behind me.

“Hey! Wait up.”

It’s not long before I’m knocking on Jenny’s door.

She opens it. “Oh. It’s . . .”

I storm past her.

“Listen here,” she says.

“Where’s Brook?”

She rolls her eyes, which sets me off. I grab her and shake her like James Bond’s martini. “Where is she, Jenny?”

Her cheeks lose their color and her eyes squeeze shut.

“Jenny?”

She starts crying.

“Tell me, Jenny. Please.” I touch her shoulder to calm her.

She jerks away. “Don’t hurt me. I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

I look at Caleb.

“Do you know where Brook is?” I ask.

“No.”

“Do you know why her aunt would take her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Jenny.” I move suddenly and she flinches. “You’d better start telling the truth.”

“All right. Her aunt contacted me a while back and said she was worried about Brook. I knew that was bull. Then she asked if I would keep an eye on her. I told her no. She told me to think about it.”

I hate it when people hold things back. I take Jenny’s chin between my thumb and forefinger. “And?”

“And … and that night at the club when you two embarrassed me, I called her aunt and told her whatever she wanted, I would do.”

“Jenny.” I shake my head. “Calls or texts?”

“What?”

“Where’s your phone?”

She points at the coffee table. I go grab her phone and turn it on. It’s not password protected, but it has every app imaginable on it and I don’t have time to scroll through, so I hand it to her. “Show me your texts.”

“Oh.” She takes the phone and swipes left and right. “What do you want to see?”

“Any correspondence between you and Brook’s aunt.”

She taps something and hands me the phone.

I scroll and see everything I need.

“We’re done here,” I say. “Let’s go.”

I start for the door.

“Hey, my phone.”

I stop and stare.

She gulps and we leave.

On the way back to the office, I call Will and give him Aunt Karen’s and Jenny’s phone numbers so he can get the ball rolling. This was an all-hands-on-deck moment.

* * *

Will gets the security feed from where I live and goes back to where Brook gets thrown into the trunk. He follows the car from there through traffic cameras. He loses them thirty miles outside of the city.

He throws his hands up. “I’ve run out of cameras. They’ve disappeared.”

“And their phone?”

Will glances at one of his computers. “Still off.”

“Shit.” I move over behind him. “Where exactly did you lose them?”

“Right here.” He taps the screen.

I bend over to look closer. “Got it. I’m headed that way. Let me know if anything pops up.”

“I will.”

I get in my car and start the engine. Twenty minutes later, I’m at the point of last contact. I follow a hunch and get off on a side road and drive, turning here and there, waiting for a premonition. Or a miracle. Or for Will to call.

My phone rings and I answer it.

“We got ‘em,” Will says. “They turned on their phone.”

“Where do I go?”

He tells me.

I spin the car around and head the other way. I’m a little off course.

* * *

It’s a fairly secluded areawhere Brook is being held. She’s in a house on top of a hill with nothing around it. Better to approach at night.

I park a half mile down the road and walk, just wanting to get close enough to the house where I can scope things out without being seen. I catch Brook’s scent and I have to fight the urge to blindly rush forward. That’s not how we were trained.

I calm down and methodically continue the reconnaissance. I notice two cars, and one was used in Brook’s abduction.

That’s more confirmation.

I note two likely entry points besides windows. A front and back door. This shouldn’t be difficult, but you never know.

I ease back to my car and arrive as my friends show up.

“What do things look like?” Caleb asks me.

“She’s there,” I say. “And this is what I think we should do.”