Page 94 of Known By You
We moved.
In minutes, we’d loaded up into a vehicle and were on the road. Sunrise was still a little more than two hours away, though we’d have the sky lightening up for us in an hour and a half.
“What did we miss?” Liz asked from the passenger seat. She’d brought a tablet with all the case files and information on it.
“I’m not sure we missed anything we could’ve caught. This is one problem of being law enforcement adjacent. We’re not officials so we can only do so much—legally, there’s even less we can do.”
The temptation to stop problems before they started was always there. Not necessarily take someone out entirely but maybe intimidate someone—scare ’em straight, so to speak. But the moral compass of the Saint leadership, and I dared say every one of the team, was unflagging.
“Was anyone watching the ex? If the LAPD haven’t found him yet, that seems like a pretty bad sign.” She swiped at the screen.
“Agreed. Seems like he’s here and he probably has Jack and Evie. There must be more than one person involved, though, because Jack isn’t dumb and he’s not a small man. He just spent time training with the SEALS and EMUprior to shooting a movie where he plays a Tier One guy, so he’s even got some decent self-defense skills.”
It didn’t make sense, honestly, and second only to having them safe was the need to understand what’d happened.
We drove in silence for a while, me doing my best not to let my mind stray from the road ahead and her reading through the information on the case. When the sat phone rang, she answered.
“We’re… ten minutes out from the edge of town,” I said, estimating being able to cut some minutes this time of night when we came out of the canyon.
She relayed the information and in the corner of my eye, she perked up, energy sliding through her in a jerky movement.
“We’re going. I’m ready to copy.” She then tapped out coordinates, repeated them, and we ended the call.
“There’s a signal coming from this location. It’s five minutes out of town.” She took the GPS and adjusted our destination. Seven minutes now.
Five.
Three.
We parked blocks away from a small house on the end of a street that abutted a national forest. My heart thundered in my chest, the adrenaline amping up, pouring into my bloodstream and readying my body. The years of training kicked in now, even when I only got to do this kind of mission every so often.
I took a breath and steadied my pulse, my heart rate, my breath, my mind.
“Ready?” she asked, appearing so damn calm I would’ve thought she was asking me to take a leisurely stroll.
So attractive.Completelynotthe time for the thought, but it settled into my silly little brain anyway.
“Go.”
I moved, she followed. Though she was immensely capable, I had more experience. If we’d brought personnel, we’d have a breaching group to do this job with a bit more heft, but that was the challenge of spreading out to follow a hunch. Fortunately, this one appeared to be right.
Every bit of me hoped it was. I wanted to open that front door and see Evie and Jack sitting uninjured on a couch and have all this mess be done with.
Light shone from a window at the back of the house and we moved, sliding along the west-facing side of the house toward it. I peeked in and didn’t see anyone, but the window was high and there very well could be someone right there. We crept closer, grateful this part of the yard wasn’t snow-covered or we’d be announcing our arrival by crunching along in the snow.
There was a storm door and a back door which was cracked slightly—an easy way in. But also, likely the way our bad guy got inside. Liz’s instincts were good—she grabbed the metal handle of the storm door, ready to swing it open. It looked rusted, and I didn’t have what I’d need to stop the squeaking, so we were about to announce our arrival. I held up a hand as we made eye contact, then dropped it. She yanked the door open and I slipped in as she did, kicking the main door and scoping for threats.
The only person in the room was Jack, who lay on the ground, bound and apparently unconscious. I swore under my breath but after checking his pulse and feeling it was strong, we kept moving to clear the house.
In minutes, we’d moved through the entire two-bedroom home and found no evidence of anyone else, let alone Evie.
Liz called in to Bruce and the command post while I cut through the duct tape at Jack’s hands, feet, and gently removed it from his lips. The movement roused him slightly and he blinked, instantly reaching for his shoulder. Might be dislocated based on the way he was moving.
“You’re alright, Jack. We’re still looking for Evie. Paramedics are on their way.”
His speech was slurred but he nodded, and after another minute, he could speak and passed some tests that told me he was groggy from being drugged, not recovering post-stroke. My pulse slowed as he told me who the president was, what month it was, and so on.
Tristan came on the line then. “We got a call from Sheriff Ryan a few minutes ago. He was in pursuit of someone speeding who ran a red light. They ended up abandoning the car and running into the woods. He stopped to check on Evie who’d been abandoned in the car, and she was in distress, so he stayed with her. We need you guys to get to him and offer support until medical can get there.”
