Page 44 of SEAL Ever After

The police were currently running background checks on the hairdresser and Juan, but given that he was using an alias and they didn’t have another name to go off of yet, they had zero leads.

Damn it all to hell.

He paused for a beat, his gaze sweeping the room.

Christopher and Lexi each sat at a laptop, culling through surveillance footage surrounding the hotel. The police had their investigators reviewing it as well, but Ryan wanted as many eyes on the footage as possible to see if they could get a license plate, a picture of other people that were involved, anything. Lexi had even hacked into some nearby security systems to obtain additional footage more quickly. There was no need to wait for the police to legally obtain it when time was of the essence.

Matthew and Evan were reading through the latest SITREPs from Mexico on the off-chance any information on the men who’d escaped or their sex-trafficking ring was mentioned.

Jacob and Noah were researching the background of the hairdresser and everyone else associated with the salon. Although Ryan was certain that Juan had ties to the criminals down in Mexico, everyone at the salon seemed to be clean. And until they had an actual name to go off of, it was impossible to search Juan’s background and contacts.

Several other men were gathered around, having conversations in hushed tones as Ryan paced the room.

Brent was down at the hotel with one of the detectives, trying to catch any witnesses who might’ve seen something yesterday. Ryker was down on the boardwalk with Mason, helping to hand out missing person flyers.

Missing person flyers. For the woman who should’ve been his wife.

He groaned in frustration, feeling like none of this was moving fast enough. He wanted to rush down to Mexico himself, but what the hell could he do?

They didn’t know who Juan’s contacts were. They didn’t know where he’d taken Sarah. And the men who’d bribed their way out of jail a month ago had been lying low ever since.

The door to the bullpen burst open, and Ryan met Hunter’s gaze as he walked in.

“I just spoke with Patrick,” Hunter said hurriedly. “He brought Sarah’s and his parents back to the house. They’ll be there waiting with Rebecca and the kids so Patrick can come into base and assist in the search.”

Ryan nodded, his mind whirling.

Hell.

He’d barely spoken to his own family or Sarah’s since she’d disappeared. But every moment, every damn second counted. If he didn’t do everything in his power to find her as quickly as possible, he’d go crazy. And it might be too late.

“Did the police have any new updates on the investigation into Juan?” Ryan asked.

“They’re running all the prints found in the hotel room—unfortunately, ours were there, too, which slowed things down.”

“Damn it. We should’ve been more careful.”

“We didn’t know what we were dealing with,” Hunter said in a low voice. “Let’s not forget that at first we were worried she’d simply gotten sick or something. And Bree and Morgan had stayed in the room with her the night before.”

Ryan nodded. “It’s possible Juan was never in the hotel room though. Are they running prints from the hairdresser’s room? We need a real name to track this asshole down.”

“They are. I just spoke with Brent, and the police are swarming the area interviewing witnesses, too. If she’s nearby, we’ll find her.”

Ryan clenched his jaw. “That’s the damn problem—she’s probably long gone. You know as well as I do that she could be anywhere now. They didn’t kidnap her to keep her locked in a hotel room in Virginia Beach.”

His phone buzzed with an incoming call, and he answered immediately. “Captain Mitchell.”

“This is Detective Bryant down at the precinct. I wanted to let you know that we’ve located the missing hairdresser.”

Ryan’s heart nearly stopped. “Is she alive?”

All eyes swerved to him. “They found the hairstylist, not Sarah,” he said grimly.

The others returned to their work, and Ryan clenched his fist as he listened to the detective. “The woman is alive,” he confirmed. “She was found bound and gagged in the next hotel room. She’s being taken to the local hospital and will give a statement to the police after she’s treated.”

Ryan muttered a curse and pounded his fist on the table. “She was right next door?”

“Next to the room she’d booked for herself. There’s more. We found Miss Foster’s belongings in the room, too—her wedding dress and some other articles of clothing.”

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