Page 129 of All the Missing Pieces

“I missed it. Should’ve seen…”

“But you’re seeing now,” Ryan reminded me. “So let’s go get your girl.”

We were out of the car in a flash, Ryan whispering orders into her radio as officers fanned out.

“I’ve got blood,” an officer with only a few months on the job said as he and Marshall approached the RV.

Marshall slipped inside, Sanchez on his heels. Seconds later we heard aclearover the radio.

“Blood trail, broken vegetation,” another deputy called from the tree line.

All I could hear was the wordbloodover and over. It haunted me with each pound of my heart until finally my body went numb altogether.

I fell in line behind a handful of officers, Ryan leading the charge through the woods. She had search and rescue training that I knew helped her to see the lay of the land now. Broken branches and trampled underbrush that I prayed would lead us to Ridley. A Ridley who was safe and unharmed.

A shot shattered the silence, and the numbness disappeared in a split second, replaced by a terror I’d never known. Different than when I’d realized Emerson was missing. This terror was deeper, more vicious, because I knew the monster who’d taken Ridley. And that monster had a gun.

Every single officer broke into a run. Ryan’s voice crackled across the radio, shouting orders. But all I could think about was Ridley.

Ryan hit the clearing before the bluff, gun raised. “Shawn Sullivan, this is the Mason County Sheriff’s Department. Lower your weapon.”

A laugh split the air, a sickening cackle that only spurred my muscles on until I broke through the trees. I saw it then.

The image my nightmares were made of.

Shawn had Ridley by the hair on the edge of the bluff, a gun pressed to the underside of her chin. This spot was one favored by especially adventurous tourists. Occasionally rock climbers rappelled down the cliff’s edge, but that was with ropes and spotters.

The drop was over one hundred and fifty feet into the lake below—you hit that water wrong, and you’d be dead before you realized how cold it was.

Shawn jerked Ridley’s head back in a vicious snap, and she cried out in pain. That’s when I saw the blood. It had seeped through her tank top and shorts, and trailed down her leg.

He’d hurt her. Cut her.

“Lower your weapon, Shawn. And we can all walk away.”

He laughed again, that same sick twistedness to his tone. “Sophie Ryan. Second-in-command. I wonder if you’ll get to take the sheriff’s job when they realize how badly he bungled this.”

My fingers itched to pull my weapon, to be the one to end this bastard, but I couldn’t. I had to trust that my people had every available shot. I had to believe in everything I’d bled into them.

Ridley’s gaze connected with mine as tears welled in her eyes. “Love you, Law Man.”

Shawn gripped her hair harder, shaking Ridley like a rag doll. “You don’t get to love him, you whore. You don’t deserve any of this. My plan was perfect until you. You’re going to pay for this.”

“Shawn,” Ryan warned, raising her weapon higher.

Ridley’s eyes didn’t move from mine. “Beyond the shallows, remember?”

Everything slowed. Heartbeats thundered in my ears as my mind connected the dots a split second before Ridley acted. Anowas on my lips, but it was too late.

She reared her head back and slammed her forehead into Shawn’s already bloodied nose. He howled in pain, his hold on her loosening for the barest second. It was only a moment, but Ridley didn’t waste it. She shoved back, away from Shawn—and over the bluff.

Bullets pierced the air, but I was already running. Because she believed I’d be there to catch her when she fell.

So there was only one thing to do.

Jump.

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