Page 84 of Soaring Free
We’re hoping Savannah is still wearing her necklace and that it will eventually come back online, but so long as she’s with whoever has the signal jammer and it remains in place, the tracker in her necklace is a moot point. We have a dedicated laptop monitoring and recording the signal, or lack of signal,so if her tracker comes back online for any length of time, we will know it’s precise location.
But so far, the necklace remains offline, and we have no idea where Savannah is—or who took her.
“Soph, I didn’t even think about what happened with her car when you were here to sweep her house. I’m sorry, I thought I was giving you all the necessary information, the oversight is my bad. I’m really fucking sorry.”
“Listen, beating yourself up isn’t going to help me or your sister right now, alright? But between the malware on her home security system, and the malware used to knock out the security cameras at the local businesses, I might be able to find a breadcrumb to hunt down and unravel who the hell is behind this coding.” Sophia barely looks up from her computer as her hands continue flying across her keyboard, only pausing to take a drink from one of the three beverages she has sitting next to her on the counter. When she arrived at Ryan’s house, I’m not sure what I was expecting when Liam mentioned her hacking skillset, but the five-foot-three spitfire with dark brown hair piled up in a messy bun and vibrant turquoise eyes was not what I pictured.
“Whoever is involved with this has a very sophisticated code, and if I wasn’t so fucking pissed at them for messing with a woman, I could admire their skillset. But no, I need to identify them so I can destroy them.” Sophia may only be talking to herself, but she almost scares me a little, so I don’t question her. I’m just glad she’s on our team and helping us try to find my girl.
“Did Jack say if the girls are worried at all?” I ask Walker who just got off the phone with him.
“No, they’re keeping them as distracted as possible. But I don’t think we will be able to go much longer than dinner time without telling them something.” Walker sets his cell phone on the island. “Local law enforcement can’t do much until she’s been missing for twenty-four hours, so we will file the report if she’s still missing at 9 p.m., but hopefully that won’t be necessary.”
“I know you guys don’t know me, but I promise you, I am really fucking good at what I do, and if there is a breadcrumb to find,I will find it, and blow up their entire fucking world,” Sophia says to the room. It’s not that much comfort to me, Walker, and Savannah’s brothers that are here, but I appreciate her efforts. I step outside and get some fresh air. It’s midafternoon and Savannah has been wherever she is and whoever she is with for approximately seventeen hours. Is she hurt? Oh fuck, if someone is hurting her, I will kill them with my own hands. I try to sit down but my legs bounce too much, so I jump back up and keep pacing along Ryan’s deck.
A few minutes later—or who knows how long it actually was—Ryan comes out. “I just got off the phone with our Chief of Staff.” Ryan is the Chief Financial Officer at the hospital in Forrest Falls and has been keeping tabs on Shane’s condition. We discovered that for some reason, Shane had listed Ryan as an emergency contact at some point in a clinic, so when the hospital was unable to reach Savannah, they searched his medical records and Ryan’s name being listed allows us to have access to his medical information. “Shane is conscious but still requiring the ventilation assistance. They’re going to try and wean him off of that in the next hour or two, depending on how he handles it. The doctor said that Shane waking up on his own is a good sign that he is responding to the treatment, and likely the activated charcoal to counterbalance the tetrahydrozoline poisoning.” Ryan runs a hand down his face. “What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know, man. But I know the timing of his poisoning and Savannah’s disappearance is not coincidental,” I tell him as we both stare out to the open fields behind his house. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“Me either. We are going to find her and get her back, man. We have to.” Ryan may be trying to convince both of us right now, but I’m not giving up hope.
Liam sticks his head out the back door and yells for us to come inside. The door barely slams behind us before Sophia starts rattling off information. “I found my fucking crumb and I’m going to get this asshole. I have a theory that this feels like a hacker I’ve run into before, and if it is, he can’t outrun me.”
“What does that mean?” I ask the bouncing ball of energy as her fingers fly across her keyboard.
“It means that if I can identify the hacker, I’ll hack the asshole myself and find out his level of involvement and if necessary, who he’s working with. Someone start a clock. I bet I have him crying and squealing like a pig within forty-five minutes.” She looks up and pierces us with a glare. “Seriously, start a fucking clock.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I open the stopwatch on my phone, not that I care how long it takes as long as it’s as fast as possible and helps us get my girl back.
We’re coming, Kitten. Hang on, and if necessary, use those damn claws.
Chapter fifty-four
I thought asking to take a shower would give me a moment of reprieve from Kyle’s suffocating stare and presence, but I was sorely mistaken. He insisted on starting the shower for me and getting the towel and toiletries out. Instead of being grateful he has everything I would need, I’m overwhelmed with a massive ick at how accurate his preparations for me to be here have been, down to the leave-in conditioner and my preferred brand of cotton rounds to remove my eye makeup.
“I should have offered you a shower earlier, I’m sorry. I’m just so excited to finally have you here after all this time,” Kyle goes on as he flitters around the bathroom getting things ready for my shower. I make a noncommittal noise in agreement as I watch him move around.
“Alright, is there anything else you need, Angel?”
“Actually, I seem to be missing the ring I wear every day. Do you know where it is? It’s very important to me.”
Kyle slams a cupboard door shut as he snarls, “You were so quick to replace Shane’s ring with another man’s. The only ring that should be on that finger is from me.”
It dawns on me that he thinks the sapphire ring I’ve been wearing on my left hand since June is a gift from Theo. “That ring is important to me because it was a gift from my mother, Kyle. I replaced my wedding ring with it the morning I hired a divorce attorney.”If he did something to that ring, I will … well, my options are quite limited right now, but I would be furious.
“I didn’t realize that. I simply took it off and set it on the table before we left your place.” You know, I love a good fairytaleretelling, but he seems to forget he is the villain in this story. We didn’t leave my place—he drugged and kidnapped me. He walks closer to where I’m leaning against the vanity. Please don’t touch me right now. Please don’t touch me. My eyes shut as he reaches out and gingerly touches the bruises that are now on both of my arms from his actions earlier. “I’m sorry you made me do this earlier. I’ll try to be better for you, Savannah. I know we will have to both work on rebuilding our trust, but I believe that our love is enough to overcome any obstacle that tries to stand in our way.” He leans down and kisses the bruises that he put on my arms. Kyle then runs his nose from my shoulder to the base of my neck, and my entire body tenses as he then licks the side of my neck.
The fear that rises within me as his tongue slithers across my skin threatens to overcome my ability to hold it together. As my eyes sting with tears, I refuse to let him see me cry. I take a deep breath before opening my eyes. “Would it be okay if I had a little privacy to shower, Kyle?”
“We don’t need privacy from each other. There isn’t anything I haven’t seen, although, I’m very much looking forward to being able to see and touch your exquisite body in person. I’ve been waiting to love you properly for so long.”
“I won’t be long, I promise.” I try to school my expression to look as sincere and innocent as possible. I need a moment to myself, and he hasn’t let me out of his sight other than to use the bathroom a few times all day.
“You know, you’re probably right, Angel. It’s better for you to rinse off anyone else’s touch before I claim you fully. Of course you’re right; you’re so smart.” He leans down and kisses my nose. “I’ll be on our bed waiting for you, but if you need anything, just call out, okay?” I nod and try to manage a smile, but it feels more like a grimace. Kyle doesn’t notice my hesitation and finally leaves the bathroom so I can exhale for the first time in hours. I already know from earlier there aren’t any weapons in here, and of course the one thing I wish he had left me that would match my toiletries at home is a razor, but if he has them for me, they aren’t in the bathroom.
After I forced myself to eat the yogurt and granola bowl that he made for me earlier, he insisted we sit in the den together and watch my favorite television shows, which ironically is about a family of police officers. My ick factor is maxed out between the utensils that match the ones at my house, the DVR that is filled with my favorite shows, to little comments he has made today that have me seriously concerned for my safety if I don’t play along with this little game of his.
I also learned that Kyle has been watching and studying me for years. He told me that when Liam updated my security system last year when everything was happening with Vivian, it prevented Kyle from accessing my security feeds for four days—which was the longest he went without having eyes on me in over three years.
