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Curses ring out throughout the room.
“Are the others fake, too?” Devil asks.
Drae gets up and steps closer. “Show me,” he asks her and she nods.
“Dad, I need your laptop. Do you have a stylus?” she asks as she walks over to him. He gets up, hands her a stylus, and she sits in his seat.
The picture she pointed out enlarges on the screen and she starts drawing on it.
As she dissects the picture, I can practically feel Drae’s fury rising.
He points to the lower portion of the picture. “This is part of a chair from Jane’s parents’ basement. I don’t recognize the curtains, pillows, lamp, nothing else from the picture. I tried calling Jane’s parents and her cell, but no one picked up. Her parents live about four hours south of us, near the Illinois border.”
She goes to the next picture, studying it for a little bit before doing the same thing.
To every single picture.
When she’s done, she puts them all together on the screen like Smoke had at the beginning, so we can see them all at once.
Mae fidgets in her seat as we all look at the pictures, and I wish she were back in my arms.
Smoke pats her shoulder. “You did good, Baby Girl.”
“Maybe, but it leaves us with more questions than answers. It doesn’t show us where Jane and Lindsey are being held, my mom, or anyone else they could have taken.”
“That may be, but now we know that Drae has been being manipulated for the past two weeks.”
“Were there any hints in the text messages?” Levi asks.
Drae shakes his head. “No. And we’ve talked since she’s left too, but I didn’t notice that there was anything wrong. She sounded like her normal self. Though only once was Lindsey awake when I called. The other times, she was either napping or already down for the night. At least, that’s what Jane told me.”
“My money is on someone threatening her to not give anything away. Probably used Lindsey as leverage,” Phoenix growls.
“Okay. Judge, I want you in on this and I’ll need four other volunteers. You five will ride with Drae down to check out Jane’s parents’ place. We’re the closest ones to them, so I’m not calling in any other chapters on this one yet. Leave first thing in the morning and keep me posted. Now, let’s switch gears. Only Smoke, Timber, Mae, and I have seen what she was texted when Ghost was talking to Drae. It’s up to you, Mae, if you want everyone else to see the pictures and video.”
Mae visibly pales, and Smoke rests a hand on her shoulder as she takes a deep breath.
“You can show them. Someone might see something that could be a hint or something about where they are. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t look that long at the pictures the first time, so I could have missed something, too.”
“Come here, Sunshine,” I say and she gets up, walking around and sits back down on my lap. When I feel her body trembling slightly, I tighten my arms around her.
After a few clicks, six images appear on the screen. “There’s more and a video, but I thought I’d split them out, otherwise they’d be too tiny to notice anything,” Smoke says.
Levi, who is sitting next to me on my left, reaches out and takes Mae’s hand, squeezing it.
“The snake tattoo on the man’s wrist in the third picture is just like the one Michael has on his wrist. I mean, Bruce. It’s the same color, orientation, everything. And the left arm with the voodoo doll image is just like the one X has. Since they were in the other photos and the video, I’m assuming that it’s also them in these pictures. I bet that the heavy guy is Preston because of the scar on his stomach. During the summer he loved walking around without a shirt on, so I’ve unfortunately seen it a lot over the years,” Mae says as a shiver works through her.
“Here are the last five images,” Smoke says as he clicks to the next group.
Levi leans forward. “Is that... Yeah, that looks like a part of a little teddy bear in the bottom corner of the last picture.”
Drae curses as he runs his hands through his hair. “It’s Lindsey’s.” His voice is thick with anguish. Then again, I’d be feeling the same if someone had kidnapped Mae and our child.
Smoke looks over at Mae, regret in his eyes. “You don’t have to listen to the video again if you don’t want to, Baby Girl.”
Mae’s body tenses, but after a few moments, she shakes her head. “Play it.”
Smoke hits play, and even though I don’t want to watch it again, I do.
