Page 54 of Shared By Her Brother's Best Friends

“See? If they left of their own accord, she wouldn’t leave her phone behind, would she?” I say despairingly.

Jax seems a little less confident now but not wholly undeterred. “Perhaps she forgot it in the rush to leave.”

I don’t even bother to tell him how unlikely I think that is.

“Do you have the numbers for any of her kids?” he asks hopefully.

“She doesn’t let them have cell phones,” I respond shaking my head.

“Fuck,” he mutters, his eyes roaming around the room as he thinks. “Is there anything missing? Her purse and keys for example?”

“I… I don’t know…” I reply, feeling myself slipping over the edge as my mind keeps drifting to where my little boy might be and the monsters who have him.

“Where does she keep them?” Jax urges, trying to keep me focused.

“Umm… by the front door, there are hooks for her keys and she keeps her bag on the shelf next to it,” I reply vacantly, almost on autopilot.

Jax leaves the room and a moment later I hear him call out, “They’re not here.” I hear him walking back to me. “See, then maybe they did leave by themselves, Kane’s men are hardly going to take her keys and purse with them. Could CPS have called her in for any reason?”

“I don’t think so,” I reply dubiously. “I think they’d notify me if there was any change that warranted Jess having to rush to see them. Besides, I can’t risk calling and making them aware of the situation, even if we find Max, they’d never let me have him back if they knew the danger he’s in.”

“Fuck!” Jax hisses in frustration as he realizes I’m right.

“He’s really gone… I failed him. I’ll never see my little boy again…” I say helplessly as the thoughts dawn on me.

“Shh, don’t talk like that,” Jax soothes, “We’ll get him back. Mason and Ty have been searching for a while, maybe they found them,” he adds optimistically.

But as he says that, there’s the rumble of motorcycle engines approaching and our last shred of hope evaporates into thin air.

If the guys are returning that means they didn’t find Kane and his men.

We’ve failed.

Max is gone.

There’s an animalistic wailing sound, deep and guttural, and as three pairs of warm arms embrace me, I realize that the sound is coming from me.

Chapter 30

Mason

I’ve never felt more helpless than I do right now. Watching Emma completely crumble on the floor in Jessica’s empty house broke my heart. With few other options or leads, we decided to go to see Bess and seek her help. She’s home when we arrive, tinkering on a classic car this time.

“Hey Mace, what’s up?” she calls with an innocent smile as she puts down her tools and waves.

“Bess, we need your help,” I say urgently as I walk over to meet her.

“Of course,” she replies instinctively, her eyes then turning to the others. As she notices Jax carrying an unconscious Emma out of the car she gasps. “What happened? Is Emma okay?”

“She’ll be fine. She became hysterical and we had to give her a sleeping tablet,” I reply.

She took it without complaint, eager for the embrace of sleep to take her away from the nightmare we are currently living. Until we can find where Jessica went, there’s no need for her to suffer unnecessarily.

“Max is gone,” I add by way of explanation.

“Let’s go inside,” Bess replies, moving ahead of me to open the door for Jax to carry Emma inside. “Take her up to thespare room, she can sleep there,” she says. When Jax returns she turns to us all and says, “Tell me everything.”

We tell her as quickly as we can about the call with Jess and how by the time we arrived at the house, both the strange car and Jess and the kids were gone.

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