His balance was currently missing. All that was left was her car.
Holden shoved his free hand through his hair and squeezed the back of his neck before he released the breath in a long exhale. “Roger that.”
“Ditto, kiddo,” Carter echoed through the phone, and if Holden hadn’t been so out of his mind with worry, he probably would’ve laughed.
Flashing lights from an approaching vehicle shone in the distance. Holden was grateful the guy hadn’t hit the siren. The brilliant colors were enough to alert the perp if he was close by.
“Gabe is almost here. We’ll meet you at headquarters after we give him a SITREP,” Holden stated before he hung up and pocketed his phone.
The sheriff pulled up and got out. “What’s the situation?”
It took less than ten minutes to brief Gabe on the events and timetable of Emily’s departure from his place to when he’d discovered her abandoned car less than ten minutes later.
“You need to get an APB out on Perez,” Holden said, barely hanging onto his control.
Gabe looked at him and shook his head. “It’s not Perez.”
“What?” He blinked. “How do you know that?”
Sinjin stepped closer. “Where is he?”
“Currently in lock-up.” Gabe scratched his temple. “Seems he has been since the day after he was down here threatening Emily.”
Holden’s pulse faltered. Shit. “Then who’s been harassing Emily? Her car didn’t spray paint itself.”
It wasn’t Emily’s ex. He knew this because Gabe had done a search on the guy and found outMr. Controlfreakhad moved to Memphis with his new squeeze over six months ago.
“Don’t know.” Gabe shook his head. “But wewillfind out. In the meantime, go home. Maybe she’ll reach out to you there.”
“Hell, no.” He shook his head. “I’m going to her place. I’ll wait there for her.”
“Negative,” Gabe said. “My deputies and I are about to head there now. I need you to stay out of the way and let me do my job. You know I’ve got your back and Emily’s. I’ll alert you the instant I find anything out. You’ve got my word.”
The only reason Holden got in his car with Sinjin and rode back to ESI was because Gabe’s word was better than a promise, and the guy had always had Holden’s back. Plus, he knew how important Emily was to Lyndsey. And how important Lyndsey was to Gabe.
A half hour later, Holden was chomping at the bit, busying himself in the locker room at ESI, gearing up with Sinjin, Hunter, Mac, and Dex. All of them were equally quiet, equally focused as they waited for Carter to track down the name of a location to infiltrate so he could rescue Emily. And he would. Holden didn’t care what he had to do, he’d do it.
He was grateful to have his buddies by his side, but he was the only one operating with everything to lose. If he hadn’t losther already. Emily had been so angry and hurt when she’d left his place.
Of all the damn nights to forget to silence his phone.
“Hey, guys, come take a look at this.” Carter appeared in the doorway and motioned for them to follow him out. “Gabe and his deputies just left like two minutes ago. And now we just lost the feed to five of the seven outdoor cameras.”
What?
“Yeah, check it out.” Carter motioned toward the wall of monitors in his computer den. “Hey…look, we have movement. Someone just pulled up in Emily’s driveway and whoever it was must’ve used her phone to disable the system but obviously isn’t aware of our extra surveillance. Good thing we put them in there.”
“Who is it?” Mac asked, leaning closer to the monitor that showed the view of the driveway. “Anyone recognize the car?”
“Carter, can you get a shot of the license and run the plate?” Holden asked, hoping for quick results, because he wanted to leave and get to Emily now, but knew it was foolish to run into a dangerous situation without all the facts.
A lone figure in a gray hoodie exited the car, then opened the back door and struggled with…Emily’s body.
Holden’s heart felt as if someone had just ripped it from his chest. His blood ran cold. Frozen on the spot, and didn’t thaw out, even when he watched through the available feeds as she was dropped inside one of the dog kennels, seemingly asleep.
God, he hoped she was sedated and not…
“Don’t.” Sinjin shook his head, and Holden wondered briefly how the hell the guy always knew how he was feeling. “She’s good. She’s going to be fine. We’re going to go get her.”
