I screamed and ran.
I’d hoped I was overreacting. Maybe he was just here to talk. Maybe he wouldn’t come after me.
But he did. And he ran too.
My phone was sitting on the kitchen counter. If I could just get to it and call Jesse before he got a hold of me, I would stand a chance of getting out of this shit. He’d come. I knew he would. I just had to put up enough of a fight to delay Nick getting me out of the house.
His hand caught the back of my sweater, and he hauled me backward. I spun around in a sharp twist, breaking his grip, and scurried around the island in the kitchen. He got to my phone first, and in one fell swoop, he picked it up and threw it, where it blew to pieces against the living room wall.
“Nick,” I said, as calmly as I could manage. “Please don’t do this. You need help. Let me—”
And then he ran for me again, and I didn’t have time to scream.
23
Ethan
I felt like a teenage boy frantically cleaning his bedroom before his new girlfriend came over for the first time.
The apartment wasn’t messy, but it wasn’t ideal either, and I wanted Ashley to feel comfortable staying with us for a week or possibly longer. I’d vacuumed, which I knew would impress Jesse because I never picked up the dust sucker ever. I had also taken the time to scrub the kitchen, from the counters, to the sink, to the cabinets. The place was looking pretty good by the time I moved into the living room.
I vacuumed the sofas for good measure and Windexed the glass coffee table. I dusted the blinds, the television, and the stand it sat on. I cleaned the glass of the electric fireplace and turned it on for ambiance. Then I remembered it was summer, and Ashley would poke fun at me for trying too hard, so I turned it off.
I wished we had a candle to set on the coffee table to make it a bit more inviting and make it smell less like manly.
“What have you become?” I muttered to myself as I fluffed the sofa cushions.
When I was done, I stood back to admire the work I’d done. I was pretty impressed with myself. The whole place smelled like lemon cleaner.
Then I remembered the bathrooms.
I rushed to grab the bleach and magic erasers from under the kitchen sink, and I set to spraying a thick layer of foaming bubbles in the toilets, sinks, shower, and bathtub. I let it soak before scrubbing it all off. By the time I was done, the bathrooms had never looked so white, and my back had never been so sore.
And I was a Navy SEAL.
I wiped my brow afterward and nodded with satisfaction. Then I made my bed for the first time since living with Anne, who always forced all of us to keep a clean bedroom, and I went back to the kitchen to start cooking up some dinner for when Jesse came back with Ashley.
I wanted her to feel at home with us. She had enough on her plate already and being able to provide a safe place where she felt at ease was the least I could do.
I cared a lot for her. Probably more than I even realized.
I did one last walk through the condo to make sure everything was in order, and as I straightened things out one last time, I couldn’t help but feel pretty excited about Ashley staying with us. It would be nice to have her around like old times. But unlike old times, she wasn’t off limits. She’d made it pretty clear that she was open to being with all of us, and I only wanted her more, now that I’d been with her.
The sex had been unreal. There had been so much build up and anticipation that part of me doubted it could ever meet my expectations. But it had exceeded them immensely, and Ashley’s tight pussy, ass, and perky tits were all I could think about.
Besides her laugh. And her smile. And the way she looked at me after I cracked a lame joke.
I’d be offering up my bed to her again, and I wondered if she would take it, or if we would do what we did the night before. Would she share Jesse’s bed, too? Probably. It didn’t bother me. Just having her around would be a reward in and of itself.
I pulled out my phone and texted her, figuring she could do with some positive strokes after all the shit with Nick. “Hey, pretty girl. Been thinking about you. I’m excited to have you around. I even cleaned the place for you.” I put in a winking emoji and hit send.
Then I went about my business for the next ten minutes or so and went back to the phone to check her reply. She hadn’t answered me. It was unusual. Not that she was glued to her phone, but she usually responded to me pretty fast.
Unable to suppress the nervousness creeping across my chest, I picked up the phone and called her. It rang, and rang, and rang, and then went to her voicemail.
I clenched my teeth as the nervousness intensified. I called her again and then two more times. Each time, it went to voicemail. I didn’t like it. Not one bit.
There was a chance I was overreacting. A good chance, I tried to convince myself.
But there was also a chance that something was wrong, so I called Jesse. He answered straight away, and I could hear the sound of traffic around him. He must be on his way to Lulu’s. “What?” he asked.
“I called Ash, and she’s not answering.”
Jesse was quiet for a second. Then I heard a low growl come from his throat. “When did you call her?”
“Just now. Four times. Nothing. Does she know you’re on your way?”
“Yes.”
“Then she’d have her phone with her. How far from Lulu’s are you?”
“Five minutes.”
“Step on it. I’m on my way too. Call me when you get there.”
I heard Jesse lay on his horn and knew he’d be blowing through traffic like a madman now. “Call Dean,” he said.
“I will, and Jesse,” I said. “Be careful. If he’s there—”
“I will be. Just call Dean.”
He hung up on me.
I ran my hands through my hair and took three deep breaths before racing out the door. I took the stairs to the underground parking lot and jumped down the last four of every flight. My boots thudded on the pavement, and I was down in the underground in less than a minute. I ripped open the door and broke into a full sprint until I got to my car. A couple people unloading groceries and putting their babies in car seats looked over at me as I slammed the door and cranked the ignition.
The engine roared to life, and I reversed, tires squealing on the asphalt. The curious looks turned into irritated glares that I ignored as I waited impatiently as the gate opened. While it rolled up, I called Dean through the car.
He answered almost immediately. “Hey, Ethan. Now’s not a good time. Can I call you back in—”
“Ashley’s not answering her phone. Jesse is minutes from Lulu’s, and I’m heading there now. You may want to meet us there.”
A short pause, and then he said, “Who heard from her last?”
“Jesse. When he called to tell her he was picking her up. Which would have been, I don’t know, forty minutes ago? Give or take a few.”
“And you called her when?”
“Five minutes ago. Tops. Four times. It went straight to voicemail.”
“Maybe she’s just in the shower,” Dean said, but he sounded as unconvinced as I felt.
“Maybe. But like I said earlier, I had a bad feeling we were a step behind. If this piece of shit went back there and she was alone…” I trailed off, unwilling to give words to the rest of my thoughts.
As a guy who’d spent a fair amount of time in the shit as a SEAL, I knew that sometimes you had to brace yourself for the worst-case scenario. And I was good at it. I could compartmentalize like a champ and handle anything the job threw at me.
But this was different. This was Ashley. There was no compartmentalizing this, and for the first time in a decade, I felt real, genuine, paralyzing fear.
Dean’s silence on the other end of the phone was thick and heavy.
“Dean?”
“I’m still here.”
“What’s the plan?”
He hesitated but only for a second. “Get there a
s fast as you can. Jesse might need back up. I’m going to call Sanderson and see how much progress he’s made with tracking Nick. We have to hope that we’re just overreacting here, but—”
“But we probably aren’t,” I finished for him.
“No. We probably aren’t.”
I was hoping he’d tell me to calm down and keep my head. He was the brother who always kept me calm, collected, and moving between the lines. I just wished he would tell me it would be okay. Even if it wasn’t going to be.
Instead, he continued. “After I talk to Sanderson, I’m going to tip off the cops. I want to be the ones to get our hands on Nick first, but if he has her, the more people looking for her, the better. How close are you?”
“Not close enough.”
“Fuck.”
“Dean. This is bad. You know this guy better than the rest of us. Do you think he’ll hurt her? Or does he just want her to get back together with him? What the fuck are we walking into?”
“I don’t know, Ethan. But we have to handle this like we would any job, okay? It’s the only way to get through it. So keep your shit together and just get to Lulu’s. I’ll meet you there. Make sure Jesse knows not to lose his shit if she’s not—if she’s not—”
“If she’s not there. I will. We’ll wait for you.”
After I got off the phone with Dean, I worked through my thoughts, anger, and fear. I had no choice. I had to get a handle on myself if I wanted to be of any help to Ashley. And she was going to need my help. I could feel it in my bones.
Shit had gone sideways.
We never should have let her go back to Lulu’s alone in the first place. I should have picked her up from work and went with her to pack her bags. I should have watched over her to make sure that asshole didn’t try anything stupid.
I swallowed to force down the lump of anxiety in my throat. I had no clue what Nick was capable of or what his motives were. I prayed to a God I wasn’t sure I believed in that he didn’t hurt her. I couldn’t live with myself if he hurt her.
I knew my brothers would be in the same boat. There was nothing more precious to us than our Ashley.
And someone was jeopardizing her safety.
When we found him, there would be hell to pay.
24
Jesse
I nearly clipped the front end of a Corolla when I pulled in front of them and took a sharp turn. The driver, a middle-aged woman with sunglasses bigger than her face, laid on her horn and gave me the middle finger.
If it had been any other day, it would have pissed me off, but my mind was focused on one thing and one thing only: getting to Ashley.
I couldn’t explain it, but I already knew what I was going to find at Lulu’s house. Nothing. She’d be gone. I knew it as sure as I knew that I was driving thirty miles over the speed limit down Lulu’s street.
I pulled into the driveway. The first thing I noticed was that the front door was wide open. I swore loudly, slammed my hand into the steering wheel, and hopped out of the truck without bothering to turn it off or close the door. I climbed the front steps and stood on the threshold for an agonizing ten seconds. I strained my ears to listen for any sound inside. I was greeted with only silence.
“Ashley!” I yelled her name into the empty house as I stepped inside.
Her suitcase was laying on its side in the entranceway. I stepped over it and started taking in all of my surroundings. There was a hole in the wall from the door handle. Nick must have forced his way inside. I hoped Ashley hadn’t gotten hurt in the crosshairs.
I moved deeper into the house and kept my guard up. There was still a chance that I wasn’t alone.
There was broken glass in the hall from a vase that used to be on one of Lulu’s shelves. Some of the books had fallen too, and the pages were soaking up the water from the vase. I stepped around it, avoiding the shards so they didn’t crunch under my boots.
The kitchen was the worst sight. Everything was smashed. All of Lulu’s dishware, her decor—everything was ruined.
I went to the dining room where it looked like the biggest fight had happened. Ashley’s phone was laying in pieces on the floor by the wall. I crouched down and picked it up. The screen fell out of it, and I groaned then tossed it aside.
“Fuck,” I growled.
I stood and took in the rest of the sight. The living room was untouched. I could assume that Ashley had run back inside when Nick broke in the door. He had caught up to her by the time she reached the kitchen and then had probably chased her around until he got a hold of her in the dining room. I knew she would have put up the best fight she could, and I hoped he hadn’t hurt her.
Please, let him not have hurt her.
My phone rang, and I jumped. I pulled it out, already dreading telling Dean what I had found. His voice was angry as it filled the phone. “So? Is she there?”
Fuck. I didn’t want to say it. Didn’t want to give words to the truth that I’d missed her by what must have only been minutes. Fucking minutes.
“Jesse, is she fucking there?” Dean yelled.
“No. She’s gone.”
I could hear Dean step on the throttle. The roar of his engine filled the line, and I waited for him to say something. But he didn’t speak. He just stayed on the line, speeding toward Lulu’s.
So I went on. “The house is a mess. He forced his way in. Looks like Ash tried to get away from him but—” I swallowed.
“But?”
“He caught up to her in the kitchen. There was a struggle. By the looks of things, she got away from him the first time, and then he got his hands on her again in the dining room. Somehow, he would have gotten her out into his car.”
“Have you talked to the neighbors?”
“No. Not yet.”
“When Ethan gets there, go ask around. I’ll be there in fifteen. I’m waiting to hear back from Sanderson. Bastard isn’t answering his fucking phone. Perfect fucking timing.”
“Maybe he’s working on something.”
“I don’t give a damn. I’m paying him good money to sort this shit out, and we need him to have it done now. Ash needs us.”
“I know.” I heard Ethan come in through the front door. He swore under his breath, and his boots crunched on the glass as he came down the hall. “Dean, Ethan’s here. I’m going to go knock on doors and see if anyone has any information. Don’t kill yourself on the road getting here.”
Dean hung up without saying anything.
I stood leaning against the dining room table as Ethan came in. He stopped in the doorway to the kitchen and looked around. I didn’t look at him. I knew he’d be processing things just as I had. Slowly. Fearfully. With anger.
I pushed off the table. “I’m going to go talk to the neighbors.”
“Right,” Ethan said. His voice was clipped.
I patted his shoulder as I passed, and he stayed where he was, arms hanging slack by his sides as I stepped outside and started banging on doors.
Most people weren’t home. Those that were home answered with skepticism, wondering why a guy of my size was knocking on their door at dinner time.
One woman, a mother, opened the door only a crack. She had red hair and tired eyes, and she looked me nervously up and down.
“I’m sorry to bother you, miss.” I took a step back to show her I meant no intrusion. “But something happened down in the blue house at the end of the row. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes ago. Did you hear or see anything out of the ordinary?”
She opened the door farther, and I saw a little girl lingering behind her legs. I tried to smile but couldn’t. I looked back up at the mother as she poked her head out and looked down the lane. “Lulu’s house?”
“Yes. You know her?”
“I’ve met her, yes. Is she okay?”
“She’s at work. This involves the friend who was staying with her.”
“The pretty blonde girl?”
“Yes, did you see or hear anything?” I asked again. People
had a tendency to avoid answering questions when they had questions of their own, and mine were infinitely more important.
“I don’t think so. I mean—wait. I did hear someone scream. Well, I don’t think it was a scream. I thought it was playful. There are a lot of young people in this complex, and I figured it was just some young kids messing around.”
“This was recently?”
“Fifteen or twenty minutes, as you said.”
“Okay. You can’t think of anything else? Did you notice if there was a car in the driveway? Did you see a blonde man? Anything?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right.” I sighed. Then I turned and went down her stairs. I heard her close the door behind me.
I went to the other neighbors, but everyone had the same answers as the redhead. No one had heard or seen anything. We had nothing to go on unless Dean managed to get a hold of the private investigator. He was our last shot at tracking Ashley down.
I went back to Lulu’s. Dean’s car was parked behind Ethan’s in the driveway. I found them both in the living room. Dean was pacing the carpet, and Ethan was watching him walk back and forth, back and forth, while he sat perched on the arm of one of the sofas. He looked up when I walked in and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Any of them hear anything?” Ethan asked.
I shook my head. “No. Nothing useful, anyway. One neighbor heard a scream. But we can already assume she would have screamed.”
Ethan hung his head. “We shouldn’t have let her come back here. What the fuck were we thinking? Nick is—”
“Nick is going to regret this,” Dean said, still pacing. “And there’s no sense in second guessing how we played this. We still have a chance of catching up with them and making this right.”
Ethan didn’t look convinced. “I still feel like this is on us.”
“Of course it’s on us,” Dean snarled.
I looked back and forth between my brothers. One, the youngest, represented innocence and youth. The other was fierce loyalty and justice. Dean was the last man on the planet I would ever want to pick a fight with. I’d seen him in action enough times to know that he could kick my ass without even trying. Ethan knew that, too.
Her Independence Day Page 14