“I’m going to head over to my place and see if Chase has found anything yet,” I tell them. “Please lock the doors. If anything happens to you guys while you’re here, Ember will fucking lose it.”
“Please let us know if there is anything new, Harley.” Her eyes shine with the tears that are slowly sliding down her face. “I need my big sister.”
“I’ll bring her home, Atlas. I promise you that,” I tell her before walking out the door and listening for the deadbolt. The weak side of me is scared I won’t bring her homealive. None of us are ready or willing to have that conversation. Hopping into my car, I turn on the engine, and my phone connects to my car. Right then, Chase’s name pops up on the screen. “Hello?” I answer.
“Hey man, we just got the last ping before her phone went off,” he tells me quickly.
“Where is it?” I ask, my stomach whirling with a mix of emotions.
“It’s last ping was near this tiny lake about forty-five minutes from here,” he says. Before he can say anything else, a location pops intomy texts, and I plug it into my GPS. I reverse out of the driveway faster than anything I've ever done before. I reach over to my glove compartment and pop it open, grabbing my Glock. “We’re loading up now, and we’ll be right behind you.”
I don’t argue, because as much as I know I'm going to want to end Dean’s life, once my eyes set on my girl, everything else will take a backseat. I need her to be okay.
I pull up Chase and the boy’s location to see how far behind me they are, and it’s only a couple miles. We’ll get there at the same time. Chase said it was a tiny body of water, surrounded by trees, and he could see what appeared to be a few random buildings nearby.
We make the drive in twenty-seven minutes. I would have broken far more laws than just speeding if it meant getting to Ember. I see the entrance to the zone, and turn my lights and engine off. It’s pitch black out, with only the high moon giving us any sight of the area. Chase follows suit, and they file out of the car, careful to close the doors with a push instead of a slam.
“From what I can see, there’s the body of water, and there are four buildings around it.” He has a printed map and shines his flashlight onto it. There is one big building, a smaller one, and a tiny one. On the other side of the body of water, there’s just the one smaller house.
“I think we should split up and check both of them,” I tell him. I look up to see he’s already looking at me.
“I know you want to get to her as soon as you can, but we know he’s unhinged as fuck, dude.” He reaches his hand over to squeeze my shoulder. “If we find him, the more manpower, the better.”
“When,” I say, almost annoyed. I have my doubts, but I haven’t given up yet. “Whenwe find him.” He gives me a hard, almost sympathetic smile.
“Alright, let’s start at the single building, then we can file over to the area where the other three are sitting,” Andrews says quietly.
I fill my pocket with my extra magazines. I watch as the guys get theirs locked and loaded. We’re ready, and before anything else is said, we stealthy let the moon guide us to the building. We get close to the house, and through the darkness, we can see there isn’t any movement inside. Truly, though, that doesn’t mean anything in this case. Dean could have tied her up, drugged her, and left. Chase and I get on either side of the small window, both making eye contact before I peek into the window. It’s a small cabin-type building. The darkness is taking over, and it’s hard to make out shapes, but I’m confident Ember isn’t here.
Andrews and Gray creep over towards the other side, and we can see their shadows on the other end of the house. It must be a tiny, open-concept cabin. “We need to check inside, just in case,” I whisper to Chase. Chase gives me a single nod, and we crouch and move to the door. Andrews and Gray file to the back door. Other than the windows, these two doors are the only way in or out. I reach over and grab the handle, slowly and silently twisting the knob. It’s locked. “Shit,” I let out, just as I see Andrews enter through the back. We watch his shadow move through the tiny cabin.
He exits, and he and Gray come around front. “Nothing in there. No disturbances. Doesn’t look like anyone’s been in there for awhile,” he confirms.
“Alright, that means he’s in one of the others. They look pretty close together, so we’re going to have to be careful,” Chase says, showing us the map again. “These two are closer than the biggest of the three, so I vote we start at the biggest one and work our way over to the others.” I nod my head as the guys do the same. We’ve worked together on plenty of missions, so we’re in tune with our movements.Our awareness of each other’s movements gets us further every time. We work our way over, creeping to the largest house.
It’s got a 90’s craftsmanship look to it, and we repeat the system we had before, checking into windows before entering. This house was definitely visited more recently than the other, but it’s not openly screaming that anyone is there. The furniture is covered with white sheets. I can make out a bedroom that we’re looking into, bed empty, and a plaid blanket covers the entire mattress. We circle the house and enter through the back door. When we get inside, we keep low just in case we missed something. Once we get to the living room, and have been through the entire house, we huddle in there together. We silently disperse in twos, looking for any obvious signs of someone being there at any point.
Just as I get to the entrance of another room, I hear, “Aye, Black, is this our dude?” My skin heats and I quietly make my way over to Gray. He points at a picture frame on the wall, andholy fuck, it is. He’s definitely young in the photo, maybe ten years old? We are definitely close, but not close enough, because there is no trace of Ember or even Dean outside of the family photos that line the walls.
“Let’s check the other houses. This can’t be a coincidence,” I tell them, and they agree. We stealthily exit the house the way we entered and make our way to the smaller house nearby. It reminds me of a helper’s quarters or something. It’s a small single-wide manufactured home, and beside it sits a tiny tin shed.
My stomach is in absolute knots, and my mouth is watering with the need to throw up, but I can feel in my gut that we’re close to Ember. Along the back of the house, there are three windows. As slowly and quietly as possible, I raise up to look through the first and am met with darkness. Likely a curtain or something over the window, blocking the view. We head to the second window, and I’m lookinginto the dining room. There is a table, where two open laptops sit, and beside it a chair is tipped over, another pushed back. My stomach drops. I can't see the screen of either laptop, but I can tell by the reflection on the glass of water that it’s some kind of monitoring system. I slowly grab Chase’s arm and tap him, trying to silently let him know I've got something. We switch positions, and he surveys the scene as best he can from out here.
Andrews and Gray crouch low to the ground and meet us at our level. Before anyone can get a word out, I hear the floor creek inside with the sound of footsteps. Gray stands with deliberate slowness before he looks in through the window.
He watches for a few seconds, and we hear a toilet flush. Thankfully, these older manufactured homes have paper-thin walls, so we know exactly where they’re walking. Gray drops back down. “It’s Dean,” he says as he makes strong eye contact with me.
He’s here. Ember has to be here.
“There is a bedroom on that end, we might be able to gain access there and swarm in, S.W.A.T. style,” Andrews softly notes. We file over to the bedroom window, and Gray, probably the lightest-handed out of all of us, begins sliding the window over. It opens with ease, until about halfway. There is a small wooden dowel preventing it from opening any further. Gray reaches in as far as he can, but he’s much shorter than the rest of us, so he can’t reach. Chase steps forward, and tries reaching in. “I need a boost,” he says as quietly as possible. Andrews gets on the ground on all fours, and Chase steps between his shoulders, careful not to hurt him. The height difference allows Chase to grab hold of the dowel and pull it out of the window. Carefully opening the window all the way, Chase uses all of his upper body strength to jump up into the windowsill. He maneuvers his body around so he's sitting in the window, before he twists andbrings his left leg up and in, allowing the rest of his body to easily slide into the room. He disappears from our sight temporarily, likely making sure we have the all clear before we all follow. He appears back in the window thirty seconds later, and bends out, waiting to help the next guy in.
Once we’ve all made it inside, we stand in the room, completely still. This manufactured home has a ton of soft spots in the floor that could easily give us away. My girl is too close to be caught by as stupid a mistake as a floor creaking. We line the perimeter of the room, side by side, and work our way out of the room.
We make our way towards the open area of the living room. We just have to make it past that without being seen, and we’ll be able to duck into the back room safely. We get all the way into the kitchen and begin down the hallway when the door opens and surprises all of us. Within seconds, Dean rounds the corner, eyes wide with realization. Immediately, he’s backing up, but before he can get far I've fired a shot into his shoulder. He doesn’t stop, slamming the door shut, and I hear scraping against the floor.
We move in front of the door. “Your fucked up games are over, Dean,” I yell, pure anger pulsing through me.
“Get the fuck back!” he yells through the door. “I’ll fucking kill her. I swear to god.”
