Page 80 of Her Intense Protector

“I agree,” Ezio nodded. “Pray God, he has her stashed at one of these six locations. So, two each?”

They nodded.

Ezio’s phone rang. He saw it was Sy Morgan so he put it on speaker. “Yeah?” Ezio answered.

“Why’d you call?” Sy wanted to know.

Ezio looked at his teammates. They all shrugged; it was his decision how to play it. Ezio decided the last thing he wanted was cops horning in. “I wanted to know if you heard anything on the APB out on Samantha or something about that game-runner.”

“Nope, nothing so far.” Sy sounded sorry. “I promise, you’ll be the first person I call if I hear anything.”

“Thanks, man.”

Ezio hung up and again looked at Asher, Leo, and Kane. “Are we ready?”

“Yep,” Leo said. “We’ll find her.”

“Absolutely,” Asher bit out the word.

“You better believe it.” Kane looked pissed.

“Okay, Ash, let’s get a move-on.” Asher and Ezio did a fast run through the woods to their vehicles with the list of places they were going to check out.

* * *

It was now twenty-one hours since Samantha had disappeared. Ezio arrived at the first place, and once again was praying to God that this wasn’t the place that Samantha had ended up. The house looked like it had been built forty years ago but had had a hard life. He would bet anything there were squatters in there, and if it weren’t currently, it had been a heroin den in the past.

It was lined up amongst four more houses, all in as bad of shape, butted up against a wide area of concrete that looked to have once housed a factory, warehouse, or something as equally large. Ezio parked two blocks down the street from the five houses and wandered around the back. A large, emaciated dog was chained up behind one of the houses. He didn’t bark, he just lay there like he hadn’t been fed or watered for days.

The back door to the house he was interested in was open. Not a good sign. He took out his gun and silently inched his way in. Some sun filtered through the dirty windows, making it possible to see all the debris which included filthy mattresses, needles, and human waste all around the first floor.

He went through the living room, dining room, kitchen, and every other room on the first floor. Nothing. He crept up the stairs, staying close to the wall so hopefully, he wouldn’t hit a floorboard that would creak on the staircase. By the time he made it to the top floor, the stench was overwhelming; the unmistakable garbage-and-rotten-fish smell of death. All of the doors on this floor had been crashed in. When he got to the fourth door, he found bloodstains leading up to the doorway. Then he saw a shiny new padlock, like he’d seen near the other doors.

He listened intently but didn’t hear any sounds. He took a deep breath, then burst around the corner of the doorjamb with his gun ready to take a shot, but the room was empty. He went in and investigated. More blood on the floor around the door. Then he saw over the rose wallpaper a small bloody palmprint about the same time he saw a blue high heel.

His gut clenched. He hadn’t seen it before, but as he picked it up, it looked to be exactly Sam’s style and size. She had to have been here. He hovered his hand over the bloody palm print. It would exactly fit her hand.

He choked back a roar of rage. She was bleeding.

He had to keep it together and check the last room, the one with the closed door. Quietly, he stepped over the ruined door and went to the last room. This room had a padlock on it too. He didn’t know if it was to keep out the druggies, or to keep people inside. He kicked open the door.

He shut his eyes. Then opened them again.

“Leo,” he said into his mic so everybody could hear. “We have a dead body for your brother. It’s at location number three.”

“Did you find anything else?”

“Yeah, Sam’s been here. I found her shoe. I touched it, so I’m taking it with me.”

“Got it. I’ll call it into Martin after we’re done with this.”

Ezio took one last look at the emaciated corpse. It had to be at least a week old, so it couldn’t be Kevin. Was he the game-runner? Who the hell is Bertram Anders?

He went back to the other room and gently picked up Samantha’s shoe and took it back with him to his truck. He called the SPCA about the abused dog on his way to the next location. At least he could do One. Fucking. Good. Thing!

23

“If you don’t start walking faster, Harry, I’m just going to drag you. You got it?”