by Vivian Wood
32
“Rose?” Colt called as he knocked on the locked door of the vet clinic for the second time. It was midday, and Colt had stopped by to see if Rose wanted to grab some lunch.
She had left early this morning before he woke up, texting him that she had needed to take care of some last minute things before the clinic opened on Monday. As for himself, he had spent the greater part of the morning doing some menial work in the barn and looping images of last night’s sex over and over in his head. When he’d checked his phone sometime later and saw that it was noontime, he figured he wouldn’t come off as being too needy if he paid her a visit.
Colt felt his eyebrows come together in a frown when Rose still didn’t answer the door. Should I have called first? He tried to peek through the windows, but he couldn’t see anything because it was too dark. Colt glanced back to the little gravel drive of the clinic where Rose’s car was parked, confused as to why all the lights would be off if Rose was inside.
Not to mention, the door being locked.
“Rose!” Colt called again, louder this time. His fists beat on the door. “Rose, are you in there?”
Still no answer.
Colt turned from the door, fishing into the pocket of his jeans for his cellphone and trying not to irrationally panic. However, just as he was about to call her, an incoming call from Rose lit up his phone screen.
See, Colt? Overreaction much? A sigh of relief eased through his lips as he answered the call. “Hey, Rose? Where are you? I’m at the clinic and your car’s here, but the door’s locked. I just came by to see if you maybe wanted to get something to eat?”
Silence on the other side of the line.
And then… “I’m afraid Rose is going to have to take a raincheck.”
Colt immediately bristled at the condescending male voice that had answered. “Who the fuck is this? Where’s Rose?”
A dark laugh. “Aw, Colt Roman, you don’t remember me? I’m hurt.”
Listening to the sound of the voice again, something clicked into place for Colt.
“Where the fuck is Rose? What did you do to her, you fucking bastard?”
Another laugh, and Colt felt his teeth creak he was clenching them together so hard. “I see you’ve recovered your memory now. That’s good,” Jared Chalke said smoothly over the line.
“Shut the fuck up and tell me where Rose is!” Colt yelled into the phone. He’d be surprised if he wasn’t shouting loud enough to be heard clear across town, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was that Rose was safe.
“That’s not very nice. After all, you were the one who stole from me first.” A hint of anger had seeped into Jared’s voice.
Colt froze, his blood running cold as he thought about the extortion evidence that he and Walker had stolen from Chalke’s house. His grip tightened on the phone. “What do you want?”
The line went dead.
“Fuck!” he screamed. He was just about to chuck his phone at the ground in a fit of rage when it vibrated in his hand. He went to answer it, thinking it was Jared calling back, but it wasn’t.
It was a video.
Colt quickly opened it, becoming increasingly more horrified by the second.
Rose’s tear-streaked face was the main focus of the video, her right cheek already sporting the beginning signs of a bruise. Colt’s blood boiled. Jared had already hurt her. He had hurt her and Colt hadn’t been there to protect her.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
Colt’s heart clenched as he made out the barrel of a handgun pressed against her head, the metal indenting the beautiful, tan skin there. She gazed into the camera intently, making Colt feel like she could see him as she spoke.
“Colt, they want back the camera and photos you stole. They also want you to wire two million dollars to this account.” Rose held up a piece of paper that had a string of numbers written on it, lowering it before continuing on with her script. “They say you have four hours to meet their demands or--” Rose let out a shaky breath “--or you’ll never see me again.”
Colt closed his eyes, his chest tightening as her words made his heart crack in half. No. He couldn’t lose her like this. He’d only just found her, and now she was being taken away from him.
“... leave the camera and pictures in locker A-thirteen at the bus station. And, Colt--”
Colt’s eyes snapped back open at the sound of his name in her voice.
Her eyes seemed to widen fractionally. They darted over to look at whoever had the gun pressed to her head and then back again, so quickly he almost missed it. “--Don’t notify the police; they’ll know if you do.”
With that, the picture cut to black.
“Sawyer!” Colt yelled, his fist pounding on his brother’s front door.
He was definitely causing a scene, having yelled his frustrations out in front of the vet clinic as he’d tried to call Rose’s number again, only to have it go straight to voicemail. He had then sprinted as fast as his one-and-a-half legs could take him up the street to his brother’s house, where he was now on the verge of breaking down Sawyer's front door.
A few curious neighbors had already come out on to their front porches to investigate the ruckus, and Colt had to remind himself belatedly to keep himself under control. He didn’t need someone calling the cops on him.
“Come on, Sawyer. Fuck it,” Colt growled, giving up on knocking as he went straight for the door handle. Before he could do anything though, the door swung open to reveal Walker standing there.
Walker gave Colt a reproving look. “Christ, Colt. What the hell, man? Have you been drinking?”
Colt shouldered past his brother and into the house without explanation. “Walker, good; you’re already here.” He walked straight to the kitchen, looking around. “Where’s Sawyer?”
“Sawyer’s right here,” came Sawyer’s voice as he appeared from down the hall. He stopped short when he saw the crazed look on his brother’s face. “What’s wrong, Colt?”
“I think our dear brother was just about to explain himself,” Walker said as he joined them in the kitchen.
They both looked at Colt expectantly.
His hands tightly gripped the countertop of the kitchen island, his knuckles turning white. “He took Rose,” he said, choking a bit on his words, as if saying them out loud made them more true.
His brothers traded a look.
“What?” Walker asked, squinting at him.
“He took Rose,” he repeated, louder this time.
“Who did?”
“Jared Fucking Chalke,” he spit the name at them like an angry cat.
“How do you know?” Sawyer asked, taking a step toward him from across the room.
In response, Colt tossed his phone onto the counter and it slid in their direction. Sawyer and Walker approached from the other side of the island, Sawyer reaching out to pick up the phone.
“He sent me a video,” Colt explained, bowing his head as his brothers unlocked his phone to watch it. He visibly flinched each time he heard Rose say his name with such fear in her voice.
“If Jared Chalke thinks he can get away with something like this, then his mind has fucking cracked,” Walker said as the video ended, looking up at Colt.
“I don’t give a shit about his sanity. He has Rose! What the fuck are we going to do?” Colt shouted, taking a step around the island to get in his brother’s face.
“Easy, Colt,” Sawyer said calmly, stepping in between his two brothers. “Fighting with us isn’t going to help Rose.”
“You take it easy,” Colt yelled, picking up his phone and sticking it in Sawyer’s face. “What would you do if this were Remy?”
Sawyer’s eyebrows raised at that. He exchanged another look with Walker.
“We’ll get her back, Colt,” Sawyer said softly after a long moment had passed.
“But how?” Colt turned away from them to pace, his hands gripping the sides of his head in frustration as he tried to think.
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“I can talk to the lawyer, have him move some money around real quick so we can pay the ransom.”
Colt shook his head, still thinking. “What guarantee do I have that I’ll get Rose back if he gets the money? Chalke’s a conniving bastard; he won’t play fair like that.”
Walker tapped his chin as he thought. “I can call an old friend of mine from the service. He owes me a couple of favors. We can have him track the GPS on Rose’s phone--”
Colt had already thought of that. “No, that will take too long. We only have a little over three hours until the deadline.”
They were all quiet for a moment.
“I know they told you not to call the police,” Sawyer said cautiously, as if worried his words would upset Colt further. “But maybe we should--”
Colt stopped pacing to whirl on to his brother. “No, we can’t call the police. They wouldn’t help us anyway, even if we did. Chalke has serious connections. He has the sheriff in his fucking pocket…” Colt trailed off, the words stoking something in his memory.
You can’t retaliate; he has the sheriff on his side. Those had been Rose’s words the night she had told him about Jared Chalke raping her.
Colt looked down at the phone he still held in his hand, realization dawning over him.
“That’s it!” he crowed excitedly, pulling the ransom video back up on his phone.
“What is?” Walker asked as he and Sawyer came up behind Colt to watch the video over his shoulder.
“The sheriff,” Colt proclaimed, holding his phone up higher so that they all could see. “Watch this part right here at the end when she says my name again.” Colt pointed at Rose’s face; more specifically, her eyes. Just like he remembered, her eyes flicked over to the side when she mentions the warning about calling the police.
“What am I supposed to be seeing?” Walker said, confused.
Colt bit back his frustration. “She’s looking into the camera the entire time,” he explained as he rewound the last couple seconds of footage. “Until she tells me not to call the police--here,” he said, pausing the video just as Rose was looking off to the side. “She’s trying to tell me the sheriff is there. That’s why she said my name the way she did; she wanted me to pay attention to that part.”
“Damn,” Walker said, taking a step back.
Sawyer’s brows furrowed in thought. “Okay. So we know she’s with the sheriff, but how do we find him?”
Colt was already a step ahead of him. He quickly looked up and dialed a number on his phone. “Easy,” he said to his brother, putting the phone to his ear. “We call the sheriff’s office.”
“Catahoula Creek Sheriff’s Office,” answered a female voice after several rings.
“Hi, I’m trying to get in touch with Sheriff Thorn. Is he in?” Colt asked, affecting the voice of a much calmer person than what he was feeling right now.
“No, I’m afraid not,” the woman replied, bored. “Can I take a message for you?”
“Uh, no,” Colt said, backpedaling the conversation quickly. “Do you know when he’ll be back?”
The woman sighed, obviously losing her patience with the conversation. “He had to go take care of a personal matter in Sarepta today. He should be back in the office tomorrow, if you want to try calling again then?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said distractedly. “Thanks for the help.” Colt hung up the phone, turning back to face his brothers.
“Well?” asked Walker, his eyebrows raised in anticipation for the news.
“He’s supposedly in Sarepta,” Colt said, pocketing his phone.
Sawyer frowned. “Sarepta’s not as small as it used to be, you know. How are we supposed to search the entire town in less than three hours?” Sawyer said, pointing out Colt’s own thoughts on the matter.
They were all silent for a moment. Colt was finding it harder and harder to think as the clock ticked down on their window to save Rose.
Suddenly, Walker snapped his fingers together. “What if we don’t have to search the whole town?”
Colt’s head jerked up, piercing Walker with a look. “What do you mean?”
“Well, think about it,” Walker said. “You saw those documents on Chalke’s table just the same as I did.”
“And?”
“And,” Walker explained. “If you owned a bunch of prefab houses and needed to hide someone, wouldn’t you use one of your vacant properties, at least in the short term? I mean, assuming that Chalke was smart enough not to take her to his own house.”
Colt thought about it. “Okay, yeah. But how do we figure out which one they’re holding Rose inside?”
Walker opened his mouth to reply, but Sawyer beat him to it. “Easy. All we have to do is just drive around until we find the sheriff’s car. That’ll tell us where she is, if he’s with her like you say.”
Colt listened, nodding to himself. “All right,” he said, heading for the door.
He didn’t make it very far.
“Hold it,” Sawyer said, grabbing Colt’s arm as Walker moved to place himself between Colt and the door. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Colt shook him off, throwing him an incredulous glare. “I’m going after Rose.”
“Not without us you’re not,” Sawyer said while Walker nodded his agreement.
Colt looked hard at his eldest brother. “I can understand Walker coming, but Sawyer…” Colt shook his head. “Sawyer, you have a family. Think of Remy--”
“I am thinking of Remy,” Sawyer interjected angrily, cutting Colt short. “If some psycho did this to her, or Shiloh, do you think you would just stand back and do nothing while I went after them alone?”
Colt held his brother’s eyes for a long moment, before sighing and shaking his head. “But Remy--”
“Is safe,” Sawyer said, finishing his sentence for him. “She and Shiloh are over at Shelby’s house for the day.” The sincerity in his voice touched Colt deeply. “I’m with you brother, no matter what you face.”
“As am I,” Walker added, stepping forward and placing a hand on Colt’s shoulder.
Colt swallowed thickly, overcome with gratitude as he looked between his two brothers. He nodded slowly. “All right.”
“All right,” Sawyer repeated, and then smiled wickedly. “Now let’s go show this asshole that nobody fucks with us and our own.”
25.6
33
The drive to Sarepta took so long, Colt thought he might go out of his mind with worry about Rose.
Who was he kidding? He had already gone insane within the first few minutes of the car ride, unable to keep his thoughts from Rose and imagining what Jared Chalke was doing to her. Every second Rose wasn’t back safe in his arms, was another second that she spent with Chalke.
The thought was enough to make Colt sick to his stomach.
“Turn here,” Walker instructed Sawyer--who was driving Walker’s Escalade--from the backseat.
Colt pulled himself back to the here and now as Sawyer turned on to a new street, his eyes scoping out the lots of the recently constructed houses as they passed. The farther they drove without seeing any signs of the sheriff or Chalke, the more tightly wound Colt became. Everything was riding on this one wild hope that they could find Rose before it was too late.
Colt desperately prayed that he hadn’t been wrong about everything.
They were almost to the end of the street, when Sawyer pointed off to the right. “There.”
Colt followed the line of his finger. Sure enough, there was the sheriff’s cruiser, sitting outside a seemingly unassuming house at the end of the block. And there, parked beside it, was a souped-up red truck that belonged to none other than Jared Chalke.
Sawyer pulled over to the curb a little ways up the street, throwing the Escalade in to park before switching off the ignition. He looked at each of his brothers in turn, his eyes as solemn as Colt had ever seen them.
“When we go in there, stick to formation. Colt, you’ll take point.
Walker and I will flank you. We’ll keep the objective simple: sweep the house, find Rose, eliminate any threats that get in your way. We’re all coming out of this together, got it?”
Colt and Walker both nodded in unison.
“All right, let’s go.”
As one, they threw open their doors and got out of the car.
Seeing as how it was only three in the afternoon, Colt was hyperaware of all the activity going on at neighboring homes. He didn’t want to frighten any unsuspecting civilians by flashing the revolver around that he’d picked up from Sawyer’s in-home arsenal before leaving the house. He kept his weapon drawn, but low and to his side as he headed toward the house, using various parked cars as cover along the way. Sawyer and Walker were tight on his tail.
As Colt approached the front of the house, he scanned the front yard, finding it weirdly unguarded. He hunkered down on the far side of Chalke’s truck, turning to face his brothers as they crouched on either side of him. He effortlessly fell into the practice of hand signing to them as he had when he was a SEAL, indicating that he wanted them both to storm the front of the house while he slipped in through the back. Sawyer shook his head, signing back that they should all three enter through the back of the house together because it was safer. Colt wanted to roll his eyes, but he relented to his brother’s caution.
He did, however, pull out his pocket knife and slash the back tires of Jared’s truck. He punctured the sheriff’s tires too, for good measure. When he returned from his task of vandalism, his brothers leveled him with heavy looks.
“Just in case,” he whispered, by way of explanation, slipping the knife back into his pocket. He wasn’t willing to risk the possibility of Chalke or the sheriff making a quick getaway if he got tied up inside, especially if they still had Rose in tow.
Sawyer did roll his eyes, but nodded anyway, making Colt smile, despite himself.
Walker tilted his head toward the house again, silently communicating that they should go.
Colt couldn’t agree more. Nobody wanted to get Rose out of that house more than he did. He threw up another hand sign, move out.