Chapter Fifteen – Monica

They arrived back at the house, both changed, both ready to complete the mission that had been thrust upon them.

“Hey there, Jack. How are you?” Monica held out her arms as he came running toward her and gathered him up. “Are you okay?”

“I miss my mommy and daddy.” He laid his head on her shoulder and took a big trembling sigh.

“We were saying goodbye,” Fiona said as she joined them on the porch. “Harlan Jr. gave me a cuddle and a kiss.”

“And you wanted a kiss and cuddle off your mommy?” Monica asked.

“I do. I want to see her again. I want her to read me a bedtime story. She does all the voices and everything.” Jack’s lip trembled, but he didn’t cry. It broke Monica’s heart that he would hold in his emotions. “It’s okay to cry.”

“My dad said that I’m getting too old to cry.” Jack sighed again, his breath shuddering in his body.

“No one is too old to cry,” Wyatt told him, rubbing his back. “I still cry.”

“And I’ve seen your daddy cry,” Monica confided in Jack. “He cried on the day you were born because he loved you so much.”

“He did?” Jack asked eagerly.

“He did. Which is why I know he’ll be doing everything he can to get you and your mommy back. And we’re going to give him all the help we can.” Monica let Jack slither down to the floor, his small feet making a dull thud on the porch.

“Tomorrow. Tomorrow this will all be over,” Wyatt told him. Monica closed her eyes, not wanting to agree with Wyatt because it would get Jack’s hopes up. True, tomorrow it would all be over, but possibly not in a good way. So many things could go wrong. Which was why they had to do whatever it took to ensure it all went right.

“We need to go into town now. We have to go and speak to Liam. Will you be okay here?” Monica didn’t want Jack with them. Not because she didn’t want to spend time with him or because she thought it was no place for a child. But because the CCTV surveillance cameras might show them images they didn’t want to see. They knew Yolanda had been kidnapped, but since Trent hadn’t been allowed to speak to her, they had no way of knowing if she were still alive and unharmed.

“Yes, Harlan’s going to take us for a walk in the woods.” Jack backed up and turned to go back into the house. “I can wait one more day.”

Fiona raised her eyebrows. “I hope for his sake this is over tomorrow.”

“It will be one way or another,” Wyatt replied firmly.

“Let’s hope it’s the right way,” Fiona said curtly. “If not, I might have to do what I have not done for a few decades.”

“Which is?” Wyatt asked as Fiona stepped off the porch and walked toward her car.

“Rip a few heads off.” Her eyes glowed as she spoke, and smoke came out of her ears. “I will not tolerate this kind of thing. Not here.”

“I would not like to get on the wrong side of Fiona,” Monica told Wyatt quietly as the dragon shifter got into her car and drove away.

“Me neither.” He put his arm around her shoulders and guided her into the house. “Let’s get what we need and go. We’re short on time. But I’m glad we went into the mountains, it’s cleared my head.”

They gathered the things they needed, including Yolanda’s phone, and said goodbye to Jack. “Keep us informed,” Harlan told them as they left the house. “We’ll be ready if you need us.”

“Thanks, Harlan. We’ll call as soon as we have an update.” Monica hugged him quickly and then headed to her car, time was of the essence now. Liam should be on duty at the Bear Creek sheriff’s station and they could finally start to piece the puzzle together.

“We’ll figure it out,” Wyatt told her as she drove toward Bear Creek.

“I hope so. For Jack’s sake.” She pushed away the thought that insisted on bugging her ever since their conversation with Jack. “What happens if it’s not okay?” The words popped out of her mouth before she had a chance to stop them.

“Then we pick up the pieces together,” Wyatt said quietly. “I can’t promise to make it right, but I can promise to be there every step of the way with you.”

“We’re stronger together,” Monica murmured.

“We are.” They sat quietly as they reached Bear Creek and Wyatt gave her directions to the sheriff’s station. “There’s Liam’s truck. Let’s go see what he’s found out.”

“Are we supposed to take donuts?” Monica asked. “What? We’re both Army, I figured since we’re asking the police for help, we should bribe them with their usual diet of donuts.”

“I think we’re okay, they will help us without the bribes.” He got out of the car, chuckling. At least she had made him laugh and lightened the mood. Although neither of them would forget how serious this was.

“Here they are.” Liam looked up as they entered the sheriff’s office. Seated at a computer, he had a sheaf of handwritten notes beside him. “I have news.”

“What?” Monica asked, hurrying over to him. “You’ve been here a while.”

“I have. I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I wanted to get a good start on this for you. For Jack.” He leaned back in his chair. “Having a child of your own makes you see things more clearly. I couldn’t get out of my head how I would feel if this were me.”

“Neither of us has kids,” Monica told him. “But I can understand it must be easier to relate.”

“So, here’s what I have.” He tapped on the keyboard and brought up some grainy images of a boat. “I tracked it all the way back to here.” He jabbed a finger at a name on the map.

“Wadepark?” Wyatt leaned in and looked closely at the screen. “You mean they followed the river all the way?”

“Yes. Makes sense. The boat had been moored on the river for some time. Then two days before Yolanda was kidnapped, they took it down to Reaminster.”

“They? Do you have a sighting of them?” Monica asked, a sense of excitement coursing through her. The same excitement, coupled with nervous energy, that she always got before going out into enemy territory.

“Yes. And no.” Liam tapped the keyboard again and took them back to the scene of the boat going under a bridge. “Unfortunately there are gaps in the images between the cameras. I don’t have an image of them leaving the boat.” He tapped the keyboard once more and then looked up at them with a well-deserved self-satisfied grin on his face. “But this is them on their return journey. Or so I hope. I mean it could be a random bunch of shifters, but they do go all the way back to Wadepark.”

Wyatt snapped back as if someone had hit him. “What’s wrong?” Monica asked, concerned.

“Can you zoom in?” Wyatt asked sharply.

“Sure.” Liam used his mouse to scroll in. “Although we do lose picture quality.”

“Him.” Wyatt pointed at the screen, his face pale. “I know him.”

“Who is it?” Monica asked, knowing she was not going to like the answer. Was he a terrorist, an enemy from Wyatt’s past?

“It’s Jonas.

The breath left her lungs and she swung her head back to stare at the image on the screen. “Are you certain?”

“Yes. Absolutely. When you’ve been around someone long enough, you would know them anywhere, in the way he walks, the movement of his head. The color of his fur.”

She stared at the screen. “The coyote?”

“A coyote.” Wyatt walked away from the desk, his face thoughtful. “He never died.”

“You are absolutely sure?” Liam asked, flicking through more images of the group, which included a wolf and what looked like a couple of hyenas.

“I am.” Wyatt nodded. “I need a moment.”

He left the sheriff’s office and went outside. Monica gave him a few minutes to compose himself. While she waited, she asked Liam, “Do you have any images of when Yolanda was taken?”

“I am waiting for clearance from the local police to access them. That’s why I figured I’d look these up first. There’s more.” He clicked his mouse and the images of the shifter group were replaced by the outside of the old Army training barracks. “This is from the day she disappeared.”

Monica watched as a van drove up to the gates, which opened, letting them inside, before closing shut. “She was in that van.”

“If I had to guess. Once we get the go-ahead, we can be sure.” Liam swung his chair around and faced her. “We need a plan.”

She nodded. “I know. We have to act quickly.” She sighed, casting a look toward the doorway where she could see Wyatt leaning against the wall. “Who else knows about this?”

“No one, only us. But we are going to need help. If they truly are going to do a trade, they’ll be leaving Wadepark tonight, ready for a rendezvous in the morning. And if they are not...”

“We have to get there before they hurt Yolanda.” She folded her arms across her breasts and considered their options. “Do we leave Trent to his own devices or send backup to him?” Then they had to consider whether they stormed the barracks or risked leaving their ambush until the kidnappers left and were more exposed, but they had no idea if they were going to leave with Yolanda or not.

“We need to talk to Trent and find out where he is supposed to meet them. It could be back here at Wadepark, in which case it doesn’t look good for any of them. Killing them and dumping their bodies would be the easiest way to cover their tracks. Or it could be along the river anywhere.” Liam pulled up a map of the area.

“If they were going to kill them both, my guess would be out in the middle of the countryside where no one would see them.” She pointed to the screen. “This section here goes through open farmland.”

“I don’t know. It’s a long way to take an escaped prisoner. As soon as Trent makes his move, the whole area will be on lockdown.” Liam shook his head thoughtfully. “We’re missing something.”

“Keep working on it, I’ll be back once I’ve spoken to Wyatt.” She got up and paused to say, “Thank you, Liam.”

“Just doing my job. We might not all work the same job, but we all have the same goal, to keep people safe.” He picked up the phone as it began to ring. “And Trent is one of our own.”

“He is.” But so was Jonas. At least technically. He’d been to war, fought for his country. So why the hell did he fake his own death and make everyone around him feel as if they were to blame? Right now, she wanted to rip his head off his shoulders. Not because of the kidnapping, but because of what he’d done to Wyatt. Her Wyatt, the man who had blamed himself for so long.