“Ouch,” Mercy said as the deputy beside them flinched and looked away.
A woman appeared. Her T-shirt was torn, and red marks showed on her legs, but she stood tall, her gaze fastened on the man in pain.
Not Jayne.
The woman strode forward and shoved the man, pushing him to his knees. “Fucking asshole,” she shrieked at him. Six deputies immediately surrounded them.
Ava’s heart dropped, glad that it wasn’t Jayne who had been assaulted but also disappointed it wasn’t her. “That’s not her,” she whispered to Mercy.
Ava turned away, frustration burning in her veins. Now what?
Back to their original plan. Starting with showing Jayne’s photo at motels in the area.
How long will this take?
“I’m sorry, Ava,” said Mercy. “We’ll find her.” The two women walked to their vehicles. “Let’s get some food and regroup. There’s a good place east of town. We can map out our strategy there.”
Ava forced a smile. The letdown of the last minutes had obliterated any hunger. “You’re on.”
28
At the diner, Ava paid the check. She’d snatched it out from under Mercy’s hand as the server set it on the table.
“You’re right,” she said to Mercy. “I needed that.”
“Comfort food.”
The women had divided up a list of local hotels. They had flyers featuring Jayne’s pregnant image from one of the videos and the picture from her driver’s license—revoked driver’s license. Jayne had lost it years ago for drunk driving. The photo was older, but at least her hair was the right color. Ava had suggested a photo of herself, but Mercy said that the driver’s license photo would do. Ava didn’t have photos of Jayne on her phone.
When would I have taken a picture?
Her sister had been always in motion, moving from one town to the next, one boyfriend to the next. They didn’t have family get-togethers where everyone posed on the stairs. No birthday parties with goofy selfies and big smiles.
That had never been Ava’s life.
The two women were leaving the diner when Ava’s phone rang. She halted. “It’s Jayne.” Ava stared at the screen. The call was from Jayne’s phone. The one Ava had checked on her locator app multiple times since she first knew Jayne was missing. The app had never been able to locate her, and Ava’s calls went to voice mail.
Jayne had turned her phone back on.
“Jayne?” Ava answered, her heart in her throat. “Where are you?”
“Ava?” Jayne whispered. “I don’t know where I am.” Her voice quivered.
“Hang on a second.” Ava put the call on speaker and opened the locator app. She held her breath as it searched for Jayne.
It found her. Six miles away.
Ava showed the screen to Mercy, who nodded and gestured to her car. Both women broke into a run. “Are you okay?” Ava asked.
“I’m scared,” Jayne whispered. “He’s furious right now—but not with me this time.”
“Jayne, I’m coming to get you. I’m only a couple miles away. Are you in a house?” Ava slid into the passenger seat of Mercy’s SUV. Gravel scattered as Mercy flew out of the parking lot.
“Yes, it’s a house.”
Ava zoomed in on her screen. The satellite imagery showed only trees where Jayne was located. Shit. Is it wrong? She tapped her screen to give directions to Jayne’s location.
“Can you get outside?” Ava asked.
“No. One of my hands is tied to a post inside.”
Jesus.
“He’s yelling at another guy. I think he hit him.”
“If you can get out, is there another home you can run to?”
“No. There’s nothing else here but trees. It’s more like a cabin.”
That made sense, given the trees Ava had seen on the map. “Take the next right,” she told Mercy. “Jayne, who tied you up?”
“Cliff did.”
Cliff?
“Is Reuben Braswell there?”
“Who? Is that the other guy?”
Maybe.
It didn’t matter who she was with—he was a threat.
“Ava, if he learns I found my phone and—”
“I want you to hang up and call 911,” Ava ordered. “They’ll lock on to your location. Tell them everything—”
“No! No police!”
Mercy swore under her breath and used her console to dial 911.
“Jayne,” Ava said firmly, “you are with a dangerous man. We need the police.”
“He’ll kill me,” she whispered.
“Do it now. I’m hanging up, Jayne. I’ve got directions to your location, so I want you to dial 911 from your phone right now. We’re calling them too. I’ll make sure they send plenty of help so you’re safe.”
The call abruptly ended.
“Dammit!” Did he find her?
Ava clutched her phone in her hand, staring at the location showing Jayne’s icon, willing it not to disappear. If the icon vanished, it would mean someone had turned off her phone, and it probably wouldn’t have been Jayne.
Carefully setting her phone on the dashboard, Ava half listened to Mercy tell the 911 dispatcher that Jayne was being held by someone who was armed and very dangerous. She removed her Glock from her bag’s special pouch and slid an extra magazine in her pants pocket.
What are we walking into?
The dispatcher stated someone else was currently taking Jayne’s call and that they had her location.
Good.
“Jayne said he’s arguing with someone,” Ava told Mercy and the dispatcher. “Another man. I got the impression that no one else is there, but I can’t be positive.” She glanced at Mercy. “She said the man holding her is Cliff.”
“What? It’s not Reuben Braswell?”
“She didn’t recognize that name. He could be lying to her.”
“Shit.”
“Whoever it is has harmed her, and she’s terrified. Our plan is still the same.” She told Mercy to take another turn, and they headed up a steep hill. “I think we need to park down the road from her location and go in on foot.”
“We’ll wait for backup.”
“Yes, but I want to get within visual. I think we’ll have good cover with the trees.”
“Agreed.”
Ava studied the map and told Mercy to pull over. The road had turned to dirt after the first mile, but they were nearly upon Jayne’s icon. Mercy parked at the edge of the gravel road, and Jayne’s icon vanished. Ava gasped, her lungs suddenly tight.
“She’s gone!”
“What do you mean?” Mercy asked.
“Her phone turned off. I doubt she did it herself. Dammit!”
“We’re close, though, right?”
“I think it’s just up this road.” She hopped out of the SUV. “Do you have another vest?” She’d left the one she’d worn earlier in her vehicle.
Mercy blanched. “I don’t. Take mine.”
“No. You wear it. We don’t have time to argue about it.”
Mercy clearly wanted to argue but didn’t. She opened the back of her SUV and pulled on her vest. “Wear my jacket. At least it will tell our backup who you are.”