“Maybe she stopped at Lyndsey’s,” his buddy said through the phone. “It’s on her way home.”
“True,” he replied, slowing down as he happened to be approaching Lyndsey and Gabe’s house. The invisible vise around Holden’s chest tightened. “We just passed it, and her car isn’t in their driveway.”
A sigh rustled through the phone. “Roger that. I’ll comb the street cameras. I…uh…still have access.”
Holden exhaled and nodded. “Thanks.”
He was just about to hang up when his headlights caught the sight of a car parked on the side of the dark road.
Emily’s car.
Holden’s entire body shot to alert, adrenaline and fear rushing equally fierce through his veins. He shook from the force.
“Shit…” He heard Sinjin mutter.
He would’ve too, if the ability to speak or breathe hadn’t disappeared under his wildly racing heart.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Carter asked and Sinjin filled him in as Holden slammed to a halt behind Emily’s car.
He shot out of the car and rushed to her door, images flashing through his head of finding her body, limp and bleeding. But the car was empty. Headlights were on. Keys were in the ignition, but Emily and her purse were missing.
What the hell?
Sinjin approached with a flashlight he’d no doubt procured from Holden’s glove compartment and together, they scouredthe area but found nothing. No skid marks. No footprints in the dirt on the sides of the road. No blood.
Thank God.
“I’ll call the sheriff,” Sinjin said, pulling his phone from his pocket. “You fill Carter in, he’s still waiting on your phone back in the car.”
Holden nodded and walked woodenly back to his car as if in a dream…no, a damn nightmare. After he snagged his phone from inside his car, he told Carter about Emily’s seemingly abandoned vehicle, then they checked the camera feeds, finding Emily’s driveway empty, and no sign of anyone inside the new building.
Now he wished to God he’d had cameras on theinsideof her house, too. The urge to rush to her place was so strong he shook. But the feed was clear, and it would be a waste of time. And time wasn’t their friend right now.
“I’ll check the traffic cams leading out of town, starting at about an hour before you said Emily left your house,” Carter told him. “Hang in there, we’ll find her.”
“Find Perez,” Holden uttered through clenched teeth. “I want to know where the bastard is right at this very fucking moment.”
“Roger that,” Carter said. “Mac, Dex, and Hunter are on their way in.”
“Mac?” He frowned. “Why? Tell him to go home.”
Carter snorted. “You tell him. I just put the alert out on our normal channel, and he insisted on coming in. And Hunter volunteered to take a trip to Houston andknockon the guy’s door, if needed.”
Christ.
Holden was so damn tempted to take his buddy up on that offer. But Hunter had a family now. A little boy who looked up to him. Depended on him.
“No,” he told Carter, leaning his back against his car as he spoke.
He appreciated Hunter’s offer but didn’t want the guy to use his “wet work” skills on American soil. Same with Sinjin. Both men had put that shit behind them, and he wasn’t about to ask them to slip back into the shadows.
“Maybe just send Dex to get eyes on him,” he said into the phone. “Although, going to Houston would be a waste of time since he’s obviously in Harland County.”
And he had Emily.
God…if that bastard son-of-a-bitch had laid a finger on her…
“Easy,” Sinjin said, appearing at his side. “Find your balance. You need a clear head.”
