Chace’s words came to me.
Baby, breathe.
My eyes shifted to the note I’d found when I’d stopped panicking, pulled it together, surveyed my close confines, found the flashlight and the tank. It was resting against the wood at my side.
You have four hours. So does he. The phone has minimal charge. No GPS. You’ll have enough time for one call. Use it if you need to say good-bye.
My eyes shifted to the phone they left with me.
Then they closed.
Ella Mae sang in my ear.
I kept my eyes closed.
I felt Chace’s arms around me, his body pressed to mine, our hips swaying.
We were getting married. We were going to build a family.
I held out for twenty-nine years. I held out for Chace. I held out for a hero.
He would find me.
Chace would find me.
* * * * *
Chace
“I don’t know shit,” Bonar spat, eyes to Chace even though Deck had his limp body held up by his neck.
Chace sucked in breath, looked to his watch and remembered the time the text came through because it was burned in his brain.
Faye had less than three hours.
His eyes moved to Deck. “She has less than three hours.”
Deck pulled back an arm and let fly. When he connected, the blood splattered against the wall behind them.
Chace’s phone rang. He pulled it out and took the call.
“What?” he clipped into it as Deck leaned into Bonar, jerking Bonar to him with his fingers wrapped around his throat and growled something low that Chace couldn’t hear.
“Brother, we’re pullin’ them in and they’re all lawyerin’ up,” Frank said in his ear.
Chace opened his mouth to speak but he heard in the background, “Charge them all with three counts of conspiracy to commit murder and book ‘em.”
Cap was there.
“We don’t have evidence to support that.” Chace heard Frank tell the Cap.
Then he heard Cap mutter from close, “We’ll worry about that later. Charge ‘em, book ‘em and give that to me.” Then Chace had Cap direct. “Son, whatever mess you’re out there makin’, have a mind to me bein’ able to clean it up.”
Disconnect.
If Faye wasn’t running out of air, he would have smiled.
Instead he tipped his eyes to Bonar who was bleeding profusely from his nose, several cuts in his lips and the entire left side of his face was swelling.
Deck was localizing the damage and it looked like it hurt like a bitch.
Bonar’s eyes shifted from Deck to Chace.
“I knew this was the man you were,” he whispered, getting it wrong.
This was exactly the kind of man he was, but a man like Bonar would never understand the reasons why.
“Where is she?” Chace whispered.
Bonar grinned.
Deck shook him and his head flew back and forth like a ragdoll.
When Deck stopped shaking him, Chace repeated, “Where is she?”
“Compartmentalization,” Bonar whispered through another grin.
Fuck, he didn’t know. He might give the order but he would have no idea how it was carried out or maybe even by whom.
Chace felt movement and looked behind him to see Bubba walking into Bonar’s bedroom.
He didn’t delay. “Talked to Krys. Don’t get this but I’ll say what I get fast. Whoever that guy is Faye knows on the computer sent a load of shit. They printed it all out and everyone’s been combin’ through every word and digit. Shambles and Sunny showed. Wendy. Twyla. More. Saw a number that this one,” Bubba jerked his head to Bonar, “called a lot. Traced it to some corporation in Denver. No name. But the dude on the computer has got skills. He locked on that number’s GPS.” Bubba lifted up his phone on which a text was displayed. “And right now, whoever he is, he’s local.”
Chace turned to Deck, jerked up his chin and then moved to the door.
“I’ll be pressing charges,” Bonar called after them and Chace stopped because he felt Deck stop.
“Motherfucker, bring it on. But know this, you call the cops, I’ll see to it that we’re cellmates even if I have to make shit up. You’ve looked into me. You know my skills. Only difference will be, I’ll make it so Chace and me’ll be out way before you,” Deck told him then he delayed no further and followed Chace as Chace left the room.
* * * * *
In his Yukon, Deck at his side, following Bubba who was exceeding the speed limit, fighting the excruciating pain in his chest, the sour in his gut, Deck’s phone rang.
“Yo.” Chace heard then, “Right,” then a beep and, “Phone the texts were sent from, a burner. No shot at GPS.”
Chace sucked in breath.
Then he drove.
Five minutes later, five minutes less of Faye’s air, his phone rang.
He pulled it out, hit go and put it into his ear.
“What?”
“Son, you’ve had them arrested.”
His father talking soft and quiet. Ma was asleep.
“Yeah? And?” Chace clipped.
“I can hardly talk to them while they’re incarcerated.”
“Maybe your lawyer can get word to their lawyers to be smart and start talkin’.”
“I’m afraid they won’t listen. What’s happened tonight, it’s been made clear I’m out of their loop.”
“What?” Chace asked.
“You’re off-limits. Valerie’s off-limits. And when I met Faye, I communicated to them that she was off-limits. I’m alarmed they’ve made this move. It isn’t like them and I knew nothing about it.”
“Well, you makin’ that clear hasn’t been all that helpful, Dad. My life got jacked. Mom doesn’t know it but she was threatened with learnin’ about your perversion. So the people whose asses you’ve been coverin’ haven’t been all that safe. Now, including Faye.”
“I had no idea they were planning to target Faye, Chace. I had no control over the other. Fuller did that to you two,” Trane reminded him.
“You let him,” Chace shot back. “Now, as this isn’t helpin’ things, unless you got somethin’ for me that will, we’re done.”
“You need to talk to Clinton,” he advised.
“Already done. Compartmentalization. You know how he plays it. You got another name for me?”
There was silence then, “I’m not this man, Chace,” he said quietly. “I’m not the man you think I am. The only reason I had that association with Clinton, not to mention the one I was forced to build with most of those men, is because that tape forced me into that association.”
“Bonar’s been on your team for a long fuckin’ time, Dad.”
“When this started happening and we became aware that the others were facing the same thing, we allied and Clinton’s job description was adjusted accordingly.”
“My woman, the woman whose finger I put a diamond on tonight, Dad, has less than three hours of air. You givin’ me this history is not helpin’ her one fuckin’ bit. Now do you have shit for me that might help me?”
“Will the police be at my door soon?” Trane asked back.
There it fucking was.
“Don’t know. Don’t give a fuck. But honestly surprised you aren’t already in custody.”
“Your mother –”
Covering his own fucking ass.
As always.
As fucking always.
Because of that, Chace lost it.
“My woman has less than three hours of air,” he thundered into the phone. “This is not about you, this is not about savin’ your ass and this is not about protecting Ma. This is about saving the goddamned life of the woman I fuckin’ love. So do not call me unless you got shit that will help Faye.”
“I’ll keep doing what I can,” Trane told him and Chace disconnected without another word.
“You cool?” Deck asked.
“No,” Chace bit out.
“Gotta find cool, brother. We’re runnin’ against a clock. You burn out, gotta be locked down, burns time. You gotta stay ice cold.”
“Your woman’s buried alive somewhere, probably fuckin’ terrified, you have no fuckin’ idea how to save her, you can show me how you remain ice cold,” Chace growled.
“You do it knowin’ this shit’ll get done. You do it knowin’ you got your boys at your back. You do it knowin’ they will not give up and you do it not givin’ up either.”
Chace sucked in breath through his nose but the burn it brought seared through every inch of him.
“She delivered me,” he whispered.
“I know that, Chace,” Deck whispered back.
“She’s better than a dream.”
“I know it, brother.”
“She’s gotta be terrified.”
“No she isn’t. She’s Faye and she’s waitin’ for you.”
That cut through because, his Faye and her backbone, that was undeniably true.
Chace sucked in another breath and his phone went again.
He engaged it and put it to his ear.
“Keaton.”
“Chace, Max,” Max replied. “Jeff just arrested George but I got to him first. He admitted he fiddled the figures on his taxes. Fuller found out because George’s accountant was on his payroll. Not enough to make him an ugly target, just enough for him to pay the toll and tow the line. Since Fuller fell, George hasn’t heard shit. He thought it all died and was shocked as shit when Nina got up in his face. This shit tonight has flipped him out. He has no idea what’s going on and he had no idea there were others until it was all over. He’s not in with this group, Chace. He was small time. Just a toy for Fuller.”
Dead end.
“Right,” he muttered.
“I’m on my way to Carnal. You got somethin’ you need me to do?”
“Go home to your family. You wake Nina, tell her tomorrow she may be gettin’ a call from me, this gets ugly.”
“I’m an extra pair of hands, Chace,” Max told him quietly and Chace pulled in another breath.
“Then call Wood or Tate. They may be workin’ something I don’t know about.”
“Right. Done,” he muttered then he said, “Keep it together. Shit happens but more often than not, it tends to have a happy ending.”
The damsel was in distress waiting for her happily ever after.
Fuck.
“Thanks, Max,” he muttered.
“Later.”
He heard the disconnect, pressed the button on his phone and drove.
* * * * *
Bubba rolled his truck off to the side but before he did that and Chace followed, Chace saw it.
Two cars in the ditch. By their positions, one had forced the other off the road.
He stopped, put his SUV in park and cut the ignition.
Deck was already out, Deke and Bubba out in front of him.
Chace jogged beyond Bubba’s truck, rounded it and came to a rocking halt as a figure formed from the shadows.
Samuel Sterling. Self-made, African American multi-millionaire. Friend of Ty. Good man.
But not a local unless Aspen was considered local.
Fucking hell.
“What the fuck?” he asked, Sterling stopped four feet away and put his hands up.
“Ty knew I was in the area. He received some information. He gave me a call.”
He wasn’t in the area. The minute Ty heard Faye was in danger, he decided all hands on deck, he’d made a call and Sterling moved out.
There were unmistakable noises in the distance and Chace looked beyond him into the dark, seeing nothing.
“It’s my understanding you’re an officer of the law,” Sterling noted and Chace’s eyes cut to him.
“You got someone out there?” he asked.
“I recommend you allow me and my colleague to handle this,” Sterling returned.
“You got someone out there?” Chace repeated.
“We acquire the information you need,” Sterling said low, “and I assure you, we will acquire the information you need, you find your woman, she’ll need you clean and free.”
Chace moved toward him, starting, “I will not stand here –”
Sterling put a hand in his chest. Chace stopped, dropped his eyes to the hand in his chest then sliced them to Sterling’s face.
“For your woman, you will,” he whispered.
Fuck.
Fuck.
He would. He’d already swung his and Deck’s ass out there tonight.
He had to let this be.
Fuck.
Sterling looked in his eyes. Then he dropped his hand, turned and disappeared into the darkness.
Deck, Bubba and Deke closed ranks.
The noises came from the distance.
Chace’s hands balled into fists.
Deck looked at his watch then shouted, “As of now you got one hour and fifty-three minutes and we’re forty-five outta Carnal! Get the lead out!”
He’d memorized the time of the text too.
Chace’s phone rang. He engaged it and put it to his ear.
“Keaton.”
“Chace, Wood.” He heard. “Dewey got some names. Coupla guys who do dirty work for members of this Elite. Ty and Twyla are with me, we’re on one. Gave the info of the other to Tate who’s connecting with Max and they’re on the other. Ty’s texting you names and specifics now. You on the lead Krys and the gang got?”
“Sterling is,” Chace said into the phone.
“Good. I’ll tell Ty that connection worked. We’ll keep in touch.”
Then he was gone.
“Brief,” Deck grunted when Chace beeped his phone.
Chace gave the short brief.
Then the men stood in the night and listened to the remote sounds.
Chace looked to his watch.
One hour forty-eight minutes.
“Fuck,” he whispered, every inch of his body buzzing, everything that was him urging him to sprint into the distance and take care of business and he was using everything he had to stand where he was.
“Keep it together, brother,” Deck whispered back.
“Fuck,” Chace repeated.
“Ice, Chace,” Deck muttered.
Chace’s phone rang and he took the call.
“Keaton.”
“Chace Keaton?” a woman asked in his ear and his body jolted at the unexpected and unknown voice.
“Yes.”
“Right, this is Ally Nightingale. You know me as Serenity.”
Instantly, Chace turned on his boot and started jogging to his truck.
“Chace, what the fuck?” Deck called.
“Talk,” Chace growled into the phone.
“She’s buried in your backyard.”
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.
His backyard. His fucking backyard.
The woman kept talking. “She’s beyond your fence. Mid-line, seventy-five yards out. The ground will be disturbed. I got the stuff they were looking for and I handed it over to their contact two minutes ago. They gave me the details. I’m an hour out. I hope you’re closer.”
Chace angled into his truck already aiming the keys to the ignition.
“I’m forty-five minutes out,” he told her deciding he was actually thirty.
“Righteous,” she whispered. “She’ll have an hour.”
Deck angled in beside him as Chace threw the SUV in reverse, his door still open, Bubba and Deke jumping into the truck in front of him.
“See you there,” she told him.
“See you there,” Chace replied then threw his phone on the console without disconnecting.
When he shifted to drive, the forward motion of the truck slammed his door. Once he’d executed the turn, his cell careening, Deck’s hand darting out to tag it, he put the pedal to the floor.
“She’s in my backyard,” he told Deck.
Deck’s phone started beeping. He was making the calls.
/> Chace drove.
* * * * *
Faye
I didn’t know how much time I had.
And I didn’t want to lose my shot.
I thought about Dad and Mom.
But when I turned on the phone, the display said low battery and my thumb automatically hit Chace’s numbers.
I put it to my ear and after one ring heard, “Keaton.”
God, I loved his voice.
I’d made the right choice. If I died here, the last thing I’d hear was his beautiful voice.
I took the tank from my face and whispered, “Hey honey,” then put it back.
“Jesus, fuck, Faye, baby,” he whispered back. “You okay?”
I took the tank away and told him, “The phone they left me to say good-bye only has a minute –”
“I know where you are, darlin’. I’m on my way. Everyone’s on their way. You got time. Be there soon.”
I took the tank away and told him, “The tank’s almost out.”
“What?”
“I’m in the red zone.”
“You got over an hour.”
“I’m in the red zone.”
“Faye, someone will be there soon.”
“Okay.”
“Soon.”
“I love you Chace.”
“Soon, Faye.”
“Okay, I love you.”
“I love you too, now someone will be there –”
The phone died.
I put the tank back and breathed.
I waited.
And I breathed.
I waited more as I breathed.
I did this until there was nothing left in the tank to breathe.
My mouth pulled in nothing.
My eyes fluttered closed.
Ella Mae sang in my ear.
* * * * *
“Just fucking dig!” I heard shouted in my dream.
My eyes fluttered, my mouth sucked in breath.
It got nothing.
Scraping.
Thumping.
My eyes closed.
Banging.
Loud, loud banging.
Wood splintering.
Air rushed in and, my body moving without me telling to do it, I shifted toward the weak breeze, sucking it in.
More banging, scraping, the sounds of something beating through wood, the piercing, scratching noise of someone tearing it away. I felt dirt shower on me, wood falling on me, air streaming in and I sucked at it, taking dirt in with it and choking.
Then I heard a loud thump and Chace’s, “Fuck me, Jesus, fuck, fuck me.”
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