Page 63 of Shared By Her Brother's Best Friends

“Arguing amongst ourselves isn’t going to find her any quicker,” I reason. “Jax, how long has she been gone?”

“An hour or so, depending on if she left at the same time she texted or not.”

“Alright. Hopefully, Bess will be able to provide us with some insight when she comes back. In the meantime, Jax you figure out the furthest points she could have gone in any direction in an hour. Mason, you call around any hospitals in the area and see if there’s been any accidents in the past couple of hours,” I instruct. “I’m going to go to speak with the reception here, see if they know of any accidents or can track down the car.”

They both nod and we all get to work.

The person at the front desk of the station is sympathetic and helpful as I explain the situation to her. She agrees to check if any accidents or anything else have been reported in the past couple of hours. A short while later, she confirms that nothing has been reported. I’m not sure if the news should make me feel happy or more anxious. At least Emma isn’t lying broken in a hospital bed or on the side of the road, but we’re no closer to finding her.

Despite turning on the charm, the woman politely but firmly tells me that she cannot search CCTV cameras for Emma’s license plate without a warrant and probable cause. Since Emma messaged to say where she was going and that she was fine, there’s little else they can do for now without more evidence.

Feeling dejected, I return to the waiting room, hoping that the others have had more luck than me.

One look at their expressions tells me that we’re shit out of luck.

“I take it you didn’t find anything either?” I ask.

“Well, the good news is, she’s not in a hospital and I take it from your question that there haven’t been any major incidents reported to the police. But the bad news is we have no idea where she is and without knowing which way she went, it’s going to be damn hard to find her,” Mason states.

“So what do we do? I can’t sit around waiting for news,” Jaxon says in a strangled voice.

“We could just drive in a different direction each and try to find her?” Mason suggests half-heartedly, knowing that would be futile.

“I say we wait to hear from Bess, she might have found something out. If not, perhaps she can pull some strings to try to locate the car,” I suggest.

With few other options, the others agree.

Just when I think I can’t handle waiting any longer, Bess finally returns.

“Well?” Mason asks eagerly as we all jump up from our seats. “Did he confess?”

“He’s adamant he didn’t take Max—”

“Fuck!” Jax curses, punching the wall in frustration.

“Where is he? If he won’t admit to it, I’ll get the fucker to confess myself,” Mason threatens.

I try to remain calm, one of us needs to try to remain clearheaded, but I wouldn’t mind lashing out either.

Bess shoots Mason a warning look telling him to control his temper, “Would you calm down for a second and let me finish?” she says exasperatedly. “Kane says he didn’t take Max. However, he admitted to sending his men to watch Max and Emma occasionally, including the time that they were nearly run off the road by an SUV.”

This surprises me. Why would he admit to anything at all if he says he didn’t take Max?

When Bess continues to explain, answering my unanswered question, we’re left completely dumbfounded.

My brain takes a moment to process the news, it was so unexpected.

None of us could have predicted what Kane said.

Chapter 35

Emma

Having driven like a maniac to get there, I arrived at the location fifteen minutes early. It was a large park surrounded by quaint little shops, the kind of place where families go to stroll around and spend a lazy Sunday together. It feels cruel that the kidnappers should choose such a place. I alternated between sitting on a bench and pacing, biting my nails while looking at every person I saw with suspicious eyes, wondering if they were the monster holding my baby hostage.

Only minutes before the arranged meeting time, my phone buzzed making me jump out of my skin. I contemplated ignoring it, assuming it would be one of the guys, but some sort of intuition made me check.

Good. You came alone. You have 30 mins. The same rules apply. Come alone. If you tell anyone or bring anyone, you’ll never see him again.

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