Page 57 of Decker

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Lopez,I swear if you don’t find her in the next thirty seconds, I’m going to lose my shit.” Decker was pacing the tech room at Eidolon, each step filled with utter dread. He couldn’t lose Savannah; he’d never recover.

Waggs laid a hand on his arm “Calm down. Let Lopez do his thing.”

Decker shrugged it off as he turned on his friend. “Calm down? Are you fucking kidding me? If this was Willow, would you be calm?”

Waggs jaw clenched, and he raised one eyebrow clearly unimpressed. “This was Willow if you remember, and a good friend of mine told me the same thing. Losing your mind won’t help us or her.”

Decker felt his anger toward his friend dissipate. “I’m sorry, I just… I can’t lose her.”

“I know and we’ll find her. Savannah is smart. She’ll do what she needs to do until we can get to her.”

“Got her!” Lopez shouted and Decker rushed to look over, Lopez’s shoulder. He saw an image of Savannah saying goodbye to Addie around an hour earlier and then she went out of shot. Lopez picked her up on a different camera. A heavily pregnant woman came into view and his gut felt like it was filled with lead. Darla Jenkins approached Savannah and they seemed to have a conversation before Savannah went off with her.

“Do we have audio?” His frustration had him pacing again, his usual cool demeanour shot.

Lopez pointed at the second screen. “No, but I have her near the loading zone.”

Decker watched as Savannah moved to the trunk of the car and Darla moved up behind her and Savannah seemed to collapse as Darla pushed her into the trunk and closed the lid.

“She drugged her after getting her to the car.” His hands were in his hair now as he paced.

Jack strode in with Aubrey close behind him. “That’s not all. Darla Jenkins isn’t pregnant. She was but she lost the baby three weeks before Andy Farr was murdered. We pulled her medical notes, and it states she had a second-trimester miscarriage.”

“Jesus, and she’s still pretending she’s pregnant?” Gunner, who’d been quiet until then, stated. “She must be in a bad way mentally.”

“Yeah, so we need to move.” Jack glanced at him and then Lopez. “Is the tracker on Darla’s car still in place from when she was in protective custody?”

Lopez’s fingers flew over the keyboard and in seconds the red blip flashed, giving them a location.

Decker leaned in close. “They’re at Whitney-On-Wye.”

Gunner leaned in behind him. “I know that spot. Kanan and I went kayaking there.”

“Let’s hustle,” Jack called and the team of five men and one woman—him, Jack, Waggs, Gunner, Blake, and Aubrey—were out the door.

The twenty-minute drive was the longest of his life and he prayed like he hadn’t since his son died that they’d be in time, that this time would be different. He tried to calm his mind and breathe. Savannah didn’t need him losing his legendary calm now when she needed it most. She needed him to step up for her and that was exactly what he would do, there would be time to emotionally fail after she was safe.

Blake pulled in a hundred feet from the VW Golf that belonged to Darla and the team jumped out. They had no clue what they were walking into and on the ride over had loaded up with weapons and tactical clothing. Aubrey had also requested an ambulance but asked that they come in quiet so as not to spook Darla.

On silent feet, they ran toward the sounds of voices and the sounds of a scuffle. They all stilled as the air was filled with the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. His belly bottomed out and he was running with no thought for his own safety, he just needed to get to her.

He rounded the bend where a cobble stone beach led to the river and stopped dead. Savannah was standing over Darla, a gun in her hand, her body swaying slightly as she leaned back and grabbed for a small rowboat behind her to support her.

“Savannah!” He was running, his eyes moving over every inch of her body checking for injury.

“Mark?” Her voice was scratchy and weak as he got to her, his hands running over her to determine if the blood covering her abdomen was hers.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. I…” Savannah stopped and looked down at Darla as Waggs and the team worked on the fallen woman. Savannah pulled from his hold and straightened as if pulling herself together she fell to her knees and began shouting instructions at the others, completely taking over the care of the woman who’d meant to harm her.

He watched in awe as she gave instructions to the paramedics and helped them stabilise Darla for transport to the hospital.

He wasn’t feeling so forgiving and would happily have left her to die. He knew that wasn’t really true, but it was how he felt as he watched the woman he loved work to save someone who’d done nothing but hateful things to her.

“We need to get her into theatre now.”