As I stood there at the window, still seething about everything going on – and having nothing else to distract me from my thoughts – my ears perked up when I heard Elle's name being spoken behind me. I cocked my head to listen.
“I haven't seen her in a little while,” Sean said.
“Don't look at me,” Nolan replied. “I just assumed she was upstairs.”
Without a word, Chase bounded up the steps to the loft, and came back down a moment later, shaking his head.
“Not up there,” he reported.
“What are you guys talking about?” I finally asked.
Nolan looked over at me. “We can't find Elise,” he said.
“I don't remember the last time I saw her, actually,” Sean chimed in.
“Fuck,” I growled.
“I think she went out front a little while ago,” Chase said. “I guess I just assumed she came back in already.”
My mind immediately turned to that son of a bitch Brad. If she was missing, he had to have taken her. Elle wasn't stupid enough to wander out into a fucking blizzard and get lost. My mind flashed back to what I thought I'd seen in the storm outside, but I quickly pushed it away. It couldn't have been. Could it have?
“We need to go over to Brad's cabin,” I said.
“I agree,” Chase said. “If she's not here, she's probably over there.”
“And if she's over there, it's not going to be good.”
Without another word, the four of us stood up and started putting on our jackets. It wasn't a long trek, but it was going to be cold.
“Let's go,” Sean said.
Together, we trooped out into the snow, all of us checking around the front perimeter, just to be sure Elle wasn't standing out there in the freezing cold for some unknown reason. Not seeing her though, we all exchanged a look and headed off on foot for Brad's cabin.
We were halfway there when something caught my eye, or rather, when something didn't catch my eye.
“Guys,” I shouted.
I had to repeat myself, louder, to be heard over the gusting wind. They all turned back to me, and I pointed to the empty lot – to the spot where Brad's BMW should have been. It took them a moment to process what they were seeing, but when it sunk in for all of them, their eyes grew wide.
“Chase, Nolan,” I shouted. “You two go check out Brad's cabin, just to be safe. Sean and I will look over here.”
They nodded and set off, following my command. Sean and I turned and hustled over to the parking lot where Brad's car should have been. The fucking car was gone. I tried to slow my racing heart and mind and focus on the problem at hand.
I took a deep breath, grimacing as the sting of the frigid air hit my lungs. It was enough to freeze the breath right in your throat. Pushing my way past it, I focused on the task at hand. I searched the ground, fearing the worst, but was pleasantly surprised to see my thought pay off.
“There,” I said.
Sean looked down to where I was pointing. They were faint, the storm doing a good job of obliterating them, but there was still enough left to see. Tire tracks. The snow coming down was already filling them in, which told me they hadn't been gone for very long which was a good thing. Now, if only our luck would hold.
Chase and Nolan came running up, their cheeks flushed, their breath coming out in thick plumes of steam.
“They're not there,” Chase said. “Place is empty.”
“He took her,” I said, and pointed to the tire tracks.
Chase and Nolan both looked at them, their faces tightening with both fear and anger. We all looked at each other for several long moments, as if hoping somebody had the answer.
“We need to find her,” Sean finally said.
“If we don't get on it soon, we won't have tracks to follow,” Chase added.
“Then let's go,” Nolan said. “Now.”
We ran for the truck, and all hopped in. I just hoped it was going to start, given the fact that it was freezing cold outside. Nolan turned the key, and the engine roared to life, and we all let out a long breath of relief at the same time. We looked around at each other, a nervous chuckle rippling around the interior of the truck. Apparently, we were all on the same page.
Nolan pulled out, and even with chains, I felt the truck slipping and sliding on the hard-packed ice beneath the powder. Finally, the wheels caught, and we started to roll forward down the long driveway that would take us out to the highway.
“Tracks show up better here,” Nolan said.
The forest canopy overhead shielded the tracks a lot better than out there in that open and exposed parking lot. The tracks from Brad's car were easy to follow. I glanced through the windshield and saw the highway up ahead – with the tire tracks taking a left out of the long driveway.
“To the left,” I said.
“I see it,” Nolan replied, his tone a little curt.
We were all obviously all under a lot of stress in that moment. That creep had Elle, and for all we knew, he was planning on killing her and dumping the body somewhere. I was just hoping and praying we weren't too late, and he wouldn't have a chance to hurt her before we could get to her.
We'd promised to look after her, to protect her. We'd told Aaron and her parents that we'd never let anything bad happen to her. We'd told them we'd keep her safe. Yeah, we were fucking up on that promise, big time.
“What the hell is that?” Sean muttered from his spot in the passenger seat.
Chase and I, both sitting in the back, leaned forward and looked at the road ahead. About a mile or so in front of us, we saw what looked like a car on the side of the road – but something didn't look quite right about it.
“That car is in a ditch,” Nolan said. “On its roof.”
A chill colder than the Arctic-like wind outside swept through me. I said silent prayer to whoever might be listening that it wasn't what I thought it was. My concern though was that given the weather, the highway was virtually empty. There was nobody else out there.
Which meant, the car in the ditch was more than likely Brad's.
“Is it?” I asked, hoping against all hope that it wasn't.
Nobody said a word for a long moment, all of us seeming to be holding our breath. Nolan pulled to a stop beside the car in the ditch, which was indeed on its roof. The body of the car was battered, like it had rolled over several times before coming to rest on its top side.
We all climbed out of the truck silently, standing at the top of the embankment, looking down at Brad's BMW. It was totaled. The hazard lights flashed, and one of its headlights was on, the beam of light casting eerie shadows against the mounded snowbanks.
We all knew we needed to go down there. Elle could be trapped inside. She could be alive, for all we knew. Though, judging by the looks on all of our faces, none of us had very high hopes. The car was mangled, and I didn't see how anybody could have survived it.
I let out a long breath. “I'll go,” I said grimly. “I'll check it out.”
It told me pretty much all I needed to know about the level of hope in our group that nobody stopped me, and nobody came down to check with me.
11
Nolan
I watched Trevor pick his way down the embankment, being careful to avoid slipping and falling on his ass. I gazed over at the wrecked car and I felt my heart sink into my stomach. I wasn't a religious man, but I said a few words to whoever might be out there in the universe listening, pleading for Elise's life. Praying, in my own way, that she was not going to be in that car.
Trevor pushed his way through the snow, getting to the car after what felt like a thousand years. He bent down on the passenger side, ducking out of sight. A moment later, he stood back up, and waved to us. The gusting wind made it impossible for us to hear what he was shouting, but he was agitated, that much was clear.
“I'll go,” I said.
I made my way down the slope and over to Trevor as quickly but carefully as possible. The footing was treacherous, and t
he last thing I wanted was to slip and twist an ankle, or worse. With each step I took though, the knot in my stomach got tighter, and tighter. I didn't want to see. Didn't want to believe. I wanted Elise to be alive. I wanted her safe and sound, and back with us.
When I got around the car, Trevor was standing there, staring at the open door. I couldn't see into the car from my position, so I didn't know what he was seeing. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to cover the final distance until I was standing next to him.
When I saw that the car was empty, my heart swelled. She was alive. I had no idea how she could have walked away from a wreck that looked that bad, but she obviously had. Unfortunately, the empty car meant that Brad had too. It was that last thought that let loose that avalanche of grief and fear inside of me again.
“Where is she?” I asked.
Trevor shook his head. “I don't know, man.”
I waved to Chase and Sean to get their asses down there. It took a few minutes for them to find safe passage down, but then we were all standing there, staring at the empty vehicle, none of sure what to do next.
“We need to find her,” Chase said.
“How?” I asked. “They could be anywhere.”
Sean turned and was walking around, searching the ground around us. Tracks. Of course. Just like we'd used to follow the car, we could hopefully find footprints in the snow leading away from the scene of the accident. I didn't know if we'd find anything though, not with the wind from this storm whipping through and obliterating everything.
The others noticed what Sean was doing too, and we all spread out, searching for any sign of their passing. I was losing hope quickly though. The wind from the storm was blowing powder everywhere, high drifts were forming, and there wasn't much to see.
“Over here!”
The voice was faint thanks to the wind, but when I heard it, I spun on my heel and saw Chase standing at the edge of the forest, waving frantically to us. The three of us rushed over to where he was standing. Chase was excitedly pointing to the path that let into the trees.
There was a thick dusting of snow on the ground, but the trees around us were thick, as was the canopy overhead. Though the wind still blew through, it had a harder time wiping everything out, thanks to the foliage. On the ground in front of us were two sets of prints. I stared at them, feeling a bloom of hope burst inside of me, though I was careful to temper it.
“Is that blood?” Trevor asked.
We knelt down, and sure enough, bright crimson against the pristine white of the snow, were drops of blood. The sight of it sent a chill through me colder than the air that enveloped us. It wasn't a whole lot, thankfully, and we didn't know if the blood came from Elle or Brad, so I did my best to quash the fears that were rising up within me. I couldn't afford to lose my head right now.
“She's hurt,” Sean said.
“We don't know that,” I replied. “It could be his.”
“Frankly, I'm surprised there isn't more on the ground,” we all looked at Chase, and he shrugged. “That accident was pretty bad. That we're seeing drops instead of pools is a good thing, guys.”
As he spoke, I felt the knots in my shoulders loosen, but only slightly. He was right. The fact that there weren't pools of blood either in the car, or in the snow, was a good thing. It meant that she couldn't be that badly hurt. More than likely, if she was, it would be superficial. “Thank God for the safety designers at BMW,” Sean cracked.
We all nodded. I looked down the path further into the forest, curious where they could have gone.
“They'll need to go to ground somewhere,” I said. “They wouldn't have been able to stay out in this shit. Not without risking frostbite and exposure.”
“Agreed,” Sean said. “But where would they have gone to ground to, is the question.”
“Only one way to find out,” Trevor said.
“We can't afford to go busting in there half-cocked,” Sean warned.
“Dude, he kidnapped Elle,” Trevor said, his face flushed, but not from the cold. “If he hadn't wrecked his fucking car, he could be halfway to anywhere by now, and we'd never see her again.”
“I get that,” I said. “But, we need to keep our cool. We need to keep our heads. If we find where they're at, and go busting in with guns blazing, we could get Elle hurt. Do you really want that on your head, man?”
“I only wish we had guns,” Sean groused. “It'd be over in heartbeat.”
“C'mon now,” Chase said in his best drill sergeant voice. “We've got something better than guns – we've got training by the goddamn U.S. Army Rangers, which makes us the deadliest motherfuckers on this planet, with a gun or without.”
We all chuckled a bit, but I knew deep down, we all believed it. We were very well trained, and were deadly with a weapon, or without. My hope though, was that we wouldn't get to a point where we'd need a gun, or to employ our training at all. My hope was that we could track them down and get Elle back with us without a fight.
The logical part of my brain though, knowing what I knew of Brad, didn't think that was looking like a real strong possibility. The dude had kidnapped her, after all. That took a certain level of commitment to an idea. A level of commitment that told me we weren't getting her back without a fight, and I had to brace myself for it. I had to be ready to act on a moment's notice. I had to act like a Ranger.
It had been a while, but I needed to dust off my killer instinct and readiness to act without a moment's hesitation. If the moment came, I didn't want to spend it waffling, or looking for a reasonable solution. I didn't want to be the one to try to talk things out when Brad inevitably wasn't going to be reasonable, or willing to actually listen. As much as it galled me, since I was the one who always looked for a satisfactory, non-violent solution, I needed to stand ready to commit violence without thinking twice about it.
Elise's very life may have been dependent upon it.
“Okay, Rangers,” Chase called out, harkening back to our days together in the Army. “Let's hit it. Keep your eyes open. They could be anywhere. Look for caves, any sort of a structure – anything at all. And be ready for anything, and everything.”
“Oorah,” we all grunted the standard Army reply.
The four of us fanned out as we hit the forest. There was room for two to walk on the path, but I took the left flank, and Sean took the right. We walked through the woods, the snow crunching beneath our boots. My eyes were in constant motion as I scanned the inky black pockets of shadow, searching for any sign of movement or life.
It didn't stand to reason they'd be out there in the forest. If they stayed out there, they'd be dead. The freezing air would kill them sooner rather than later, which meant they'd need to have a fire. And given that I couldn't see a fire anywhere around us, I assumed they'd found a structure to shelter in somewhere.
Though I continued to search around us, I came around to thinking that we were going to find them in one of the cabins that dotted the landscape around here. I let my mind continue to work the problem over, trying to use logic to narrow down our search area. The problem we had was that we didn't know where they'd gone exactly. Nor did we have an idea where the path we were on led to.
For all we knew, this path was going to lead to an open field where the footprints we were following disappeared entirely, thanks to the storm that was raging.
I gave myself a swift mental kick. One thing at a time. That was all I should have been focused on – solving the problem right in front of us. At the moment, the problem in front of us, was keeping our eye on the trail of footprints we were following and see where they led. It was very clearly Brad and Elle's trail, so that was a start. Everything else, we'd have to figure out as we came to it.
“Anything?” Chase called to me.
I shook my head. “Nothing out here, man,” I called back. “I don't think we're going to find them out here. Brad's an idiot, but even he would know they need four walls and a roof on their shelter.”
“A
greed,” Trevor said.
“Wait,” I said and put my hand up. “Hold up.”
The others stopped and turned toward me. I raised my nose into the air and inhaled deeply. It was faint, and I wasn't sure it was actually there.
“What is it, man?” Chase asked.
I held my hand up to quiet him. I closed my eyes, and inhaled even deeper, taking in a long breath of air, despite the fact that the frigid temperatures made it feel like my lungs were burning. It really was faint, like the barest, most subtle hint of perfume on a woman as she passed you by. It was definitely there though. I opened my eyes and turned to the guys.
“Fire,” I said.
“Fire? What are you talking about?” Trevor asked. “There's no way anything is burning in this cold, wet shit.”
I shook my head. “No, like a fire in a fireplace,” I said. “Not a wildfire, idiot. There are houses – or at least, a house – around here. And I'd bet my ass that's where they're holed up.”
Chase and Sean both had their heads back, eyes closed, and were inhaling deeply. A moment later, Sean opened his eyes and shook his head.
“I don't smell anything,” he said.
“I do,” Chase said, opening his eyes. “Nolan's right. There's a cabin or a house somewhere nearby.”
“Then let's go,” Trevor said. “Daylight's burning.”
“Let's move out,” Chase ordered.
We took off again, and I tried to get a bead on where the smell of the fire was coming from. It was impossible because of the swirling wind, but it was definitely starting to grow stronger. I knew we were at least on the right track. I glanced over at the guys and saw, judging by the looks on their faces, that they knew we were too.
We pressed forward, energized by the idea that we were closing in, that we were on the verge of getting our girl back, hopefully safe and unharmed. Letting myself think any other way just wouldn’t do.
Brad had actually better pray there wasn't so much as a scratch on her. Because if so much as a hair on her head was out of place, he was going to pay the price.
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