“Is there audio?” Maddox asks.
“I’m sorry, sir, but no. Not here.”
We continue watching as Cara moves around the guy. Another guy appears in frontof her, stopping her from moving anyfurther. When the next figure steps out, I feelice in my veins and fire in my belly.Insidious wrath like I’ve never felt before settles over me.
I watch, with absolute helplessness,as Cara protects my baby like she’s her own. She sure as hell is moreLyra’s motherthan the woman in front of her.My fists clench as I watch the man wrap his arms around her in a way that normally paralyzes her.She’s not paralyzed this time. This time she fights. She kicks and struggles against the hand over her face trying to get to my little girl.She fights until she goes limp in the man’s hold.The three of them maneuver around a corner through a hidden gate.
My heart feels like it has stopped beating. My knees are weak from watching my girls.Cara’s body limp in the man’s arms, and Lyra reaching for her, her facedistorted from sobs. My worldmay as well have stopped spinning.
“Where did they just go through?” Dane asks.
“It’s a private exit. Only accessible by employees and security.”
“Rewind it,” Maddox orders him. “Right before they take off with them. I want to see it again.” They do as hesays and then slows the footage down when he tells them to.
“Stop!Right there.” He points.
My teeth grit. I don’t know the man in the picture, but I commit his face to memory.I catch Maddox’s attention from the corner of my eye. His lips are pressed into a thin line. His jaw clenches as he gives me a barely perceptible nod.
“Thanks, René,” Maddox tells him.
“Anything else you need from me, Mr. Masters, you let me know.”
Maddox nods as we leave.
“How did that help us find my sister?” Dane demands as we slide back into the car.
“It helped us to know what happened,” Angel offers.
“Yeah, we saw that Jake’s psychotic ex just kidnapped my sister,” he blasts.“How did you ever end up with her?”
I don’t answer. I sit there trying to figure out what Peyton was doing with the same man that hurt Cara. It can’t beamere coincidence.Peyton may or may not know about Cara and me, but there’s no way she knew about Cara’s past.
Dane continues to rant the entire way to the hotel, but I don’t hear anything he says.My mind is moving a million miles a minute. I have no idea what the connectionis. I don’t know where they would’ve takenthem.I feel like I’m drowning.
“Dane, so help me, God, if you don’t shut the fuck up, I will lay your ass out,” Maddox yells as we walk into his and Ryder’s room.
I look up to see Maddox is more than a little pissed.I’m pissed. Dane’s pissed. We are all pissed. But Dane’s reaction to lifeisn’t cool, calm, and collected. He’s always a second away from snapping.
Maddox doesn’t lose his temper often, but when he does, the result is seldom pretty.
I watch as he walks to the counter of the room’s kitchen. His supply sits outin the wide open. He doesn’t even bother to hide it anymore.
He does a line then another, causing Dane to explode some more.“My sister is missing, and you’re getting high.”His rant continues. He’s losing it. Every second Cara is missing, he loses it a little bit more.
Me? I’ve already lost it.The second Peyton had Lyra and Cara went limp, I was done.
My rage is more focused. I’m not ranting and yelling because it won’t get us any closer to finding them. Right now, I don’t know that anything will get us closer to finding them. But it doesn’t stopthe images of what I’m going to do to the bastard when I find him.
Images of peeling off skin flash before my eyes, of carving and slicing each inch of his body. For every hair out of place on my girls will be anotherbody part removed until he’s in pieces.A darkness that’s always been there just below the surfacewill soon be seen by this man. I may not have the resources to find him, but I know Maddox does.
I don’t give a damn how high he is. As long as he can help me get my girls, he can do all the blow he wants.
“I am so sick of watching you put that poison in your body,” Dane yells.
“Then don’t fucking watch,” Maddox counters.
Ryder and Angel stand off to the side, not sure whether they should get involved or not. Liamis trying to calm them both down, but he’s getting nowhere.
