Recognition tightened his stomach muscles. He was transported back to the night this asshole grabbed Katherine at the hospital. To the night his world had changed forever. “Son of a bitch. That’s him.”
Owen turned on the siren and lights. “Call this into the station, Tommy. Dad, call your contact at Holms County Sheriff Department. The more backup we can have, the better.”
While they went about their assignments, Cody plugged the address into his phone and found a layout of the house. He studied the exits, the arrangement of the rooms. He memorized every inch by the time Owen cut the siren.
“We’re almost there,” Owen said. “No need to alert him to our presence. What’s the plan?”
Cody handed his phone to Mike. “Here’s the layout. Two exits. The front door feeds right into the living room. A side doorgoes into the attached garage. Kitchen and bathroom on the first floor. Three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.”
“Me and Cody will head to the front door, Owen and Tommy through the side,” Mike said. “We go in with weapons drawn. Owen and Tommy, clear the first floor while we head upstairs. We get my baby girl out of there, got it?”
Owen parked the car in the driveway and all four men hurried out.
Cody secured his gun and released the safety. He took the lead, running up the cracked sidewalk with Mike behind him, Tommy and Owen going to the garage.
He tried the handle, shocked when the front door swung open. He glanced over his shoulder at Mike. “Ready?”
“Hell yeah.”
Steadying his nerves, Cody stepped inside. Musty, stale air greeted him along with the hum of appliances. He noted the sound of Owen and Tommy entering the house as he pounded up the stairs—Mike right behind him.
Nothing but silence lingered in the hallway, but he couldn’t focus on the fear that brought along with it. He opened the first door and stepped into an empty room. Disappointment dipped his gut. He stepped back in the hall as Mike stepped out of another room.
“Nothing,” Mike said, frowning.
Cody went to the third door and pushed it open. The same sight greeted him. An empty room, the closet door pushed open.
He met Mike back in the hall. “Anything?”
Mike shook his head. “Doesn’t even look like anyone lives here.”
Cody rushed back downstairs only to find Owen and Tommy with matching pissed-off expressions.
“No sign of her,” Owen said. “Are you sure this is the right house?”
“It’s the address the sheriff gave me. She got it from his parole officer.” Mike braced his palms on either side of his head. “Where the hell are they?”
Cody struggled not to fall to pieces as time ticked by. The longer Katherine was missing, the more likely she was hurt or worse. But he couldn’t go there—couldn’t get caught in the quicksand of worst-case scenarios.
“I’ll call the parole officer.” Mike nabbed his phone from his pocket. “See if he has any other ideas where Keith could take Katherine. Family, friends, place of work. Anywhere.”
An idea took root in Cody’s gut. “What about the house where he was arrested?”
Narrowing his eyes, Tommy cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“Criminals return to the scene of the crime all the time. If Keith is determined to make Katherine pay for her part in his arrest, he could take her back to where it all began.”
“It’s better than anything else we have to go on,” Owen said. “The house shouldn’t be too far from here.”
“It’s not,” Mike said. “The address was in the police report the sheriff sent over.”
“Send it to me,” Owen said.
Not wanting to waste a second, Cody ran outside. He had one more shot at getting to Katherine. He just prayed he wasn’t wrong.
Katherine couldn’t stopand figure out why this man had brought her to some house she went to one time as a teenager. Hell, it didn’t really matter. All that mattered was getting as far away from him as possible.
Feet separated her from the front door. She grabbed the handle, and a gunshot blasted through the air, a bullet lodging in the splintered wood of the doorframe.
