Chapter 40

Damien

I take a deep breath as Penny’s voicemail greets me for the third time. I’ve been trying to reach her since hanging up with Sneak twenty minutes ago, but she hasn’t responded. I end the call, silencing the cab of my truck, and study the house she’s supposed to be tutoring her student in.

If I had known Penny’s private tutoring lesson was going to take place in this neighborhood, I would have locked her away without a second thought. I should’ve known when she told me the address, but she was so excited about helping her student, I found myself caught up in her joy. I loved seeing her come to life like that.

I put my phone down, keeping it in my hand, but now I’m running through the reasons why she hasn’t replied to any of my texts or calls. This isn’t like her.

Sneak’s words and worry course through my body, feeding into the paranoia I’ve been fighting for months.

The house is dark, except for one light illuminating the what I assume is the front room. No one has come in or out. In fact, the entire neighborhood has been quiet. Not even a dog barked.

Her car is parked along the side of the road. Nothing seems to be amiss. But she hasn’t picked up her phone or answered any of the text messages I’ve sent her.

Maybe whoever Dahlia is, is keeping her from responding.

I don’t want to believe Sneak’s right, but the way things are looking, there doesn’t seem to be another option.

I get out of the truck and walk past her car and up the pathway to the dilapidated house. I knock, waiting for some sound. But there is none. I knock again, this time pressing my ear against the wood, and still hear nothing.

No TV. No music. No talking. No noise of any kind.

What the fuck is going on?

I knock again, this time much louder.

Still nothing.

My gut churns, and I look back at her car. Is it possible I have the wrong address?

I pull out my phone and open the tracking application I installed the day I gave her the cellphone. If I learned anything from Hudson and Kingston, it’s to be prepared for a situation like this. The application loads, and the pink dot on the map indicates that I am at the right location.

Where the fuck is she?

Done and finally out of patience, vowing to bend my woman over my knee tonight before loving her senseless, I try the door handle. It’s locked.

Instead of knocking, I walk over to the window with the light on and look inside. There is nothing to see, except for a single light sitting on a small table next to the window. Otherwise, there is nothing else in the room.

My phone begins to ring in my hand, and for a moment, I feel relief. It has to be Penny calling me back. I look down and see Sneak’s name flash across the small LCD screen.

Not Penny.

“Yo, Sneak, tell me you have some good news,” I answer and place it agiants my ear. I ignore the sick feeling churning away at my insides.

Please let this be a bad dream.

“Where’s Penny?” he asks, and the hair on the back of my neck stand stiff at the roots.

Her car isn’t in the driveway.

“She’s at the tutoring session. Why?”

“What’s the name of the student she’s meeting with tonight?”

“Dahlia Tomas, why?”

“Fuck,” he swears loudly into the phone. My stomach drops.

“Sneak, if you don’t tell me what the fuck is going on—”

“There is no Dahlia Tomas. She doesn’t exsist.”

“What are you saying?”

“You need to find Penny. Now,” he shouts, and I hear the desperation in his voice. He senses the same thing I do. Penny’s in danger. “Do you have an address?”

For a moment, the world goes black, and I feel the air in my lungs seize.

Penny.

All I can think about is the way she’s walked into my life and turned my world upside down.

Penny.

She’s stolen my heart, and I haven’t even told her so.

Penny.

“Damien!” Sneak shouts across the line, pulling me from the downward spiral my thoughts were headed.

“Yeah, I’m here. I’m standing outside the location she gave me,” I manage, trying to keep it together long enough to gather my wits and give him Dahlia’s address. “Her car is here, man, but no one is opening the door.”

“Stay put, man. Rafe and King are headed your way now.” He tries his best to keep me calm, and for a moment, it does. My brothers are coming.

“I’ve got to get inside.”

“Diz, man, don’t go in alone, they are—”

“Not close enough, man. If she’s in there, I need to get to her before—”

“Don’t think like that, man. Everything is going to be all right. You said her car is there?”

“Yes, but no one’s answering the door,” I repeat as I move across the lawn to another window, checking it as well. It’s empty, too. Knowing that my gut instinct from the start was correct, I move to the door, this time forcing the knob to turn and throwing my weight against it. It cracks and splinters under the pressure.

“What was that?” Sneak asks. Clearly, my forced entry was much louder than I wanted it to be.

“I’m in,” I tell him before ending the call and putting the phone in my back pocket. He’s right. I shouldn’t go in alone, especially unarmed, but there’s no turning back now.

I step inside the dark house, ears straining for any sign of life. But there is none. I hear a ping like an incoming text message sound off in the next room, and I’m in motion. Stepping into the room with the light, I spot Penny’s purse under the window I looked through.

The contents are spread across the floor. Her phone pings again. I want to go to it, but my feet are frozen as the truth bears down on me.

She isn’t here.

And this has become an official crime scene.

I don’t have to look through the house to know she isn’t here. And whoever is behind it, there won’t be any trace of them. Not that I need one. If my insticts are right, I already know who has her.

There’s one person to call who can waylay this gnawing feeling. One person who better have the answers I need, because if he doesn’t, there will be hell to pay.

I pull my phone from my pocket and place it to my ear, listening to it ring.

“McNamara,” he answers like he’s some important asshole.

“You fucking piece of shit,” I spit, feeling all sorts of things all at once. Most of it anger.

“Reynolds,” he clips, and I hear irritation in his voice. What he has to be irritated about, I couldn’t care less. “You aren’t supposed to contact me. I told you we’d relay any and all messages through your boss.”

“She’s gone.”

“Who?”

“My wife. Who do you think I’m talking about?”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Did she decide to go home after all?”

“No, you dumb son of a bitch. Someone took her.”

“Damien—”

“Something hasn’t sat right with me since that day. Something has been gnawing at my gut ever since,” I cut him off, not caring to hear any of the garbage he’s going to try and feed me. “Here’s your warning. Don’t fuck with me about this. I know someone isn’t accounted for, and I want to know who it is.”

“The investigation isn’t finished. I told you when we—”

“Keep yanking my chain, McNamara, and you won’t see it coming. Tell me who the fuck got out.”

He sighs heavily over the line. “Charles Pullman and Mirabelle Johnston.”

“Fuck,” I swear across the line, rage filling my body. I want to reach through the line and strangle McNamara for his stupidity. He should have told me this was the case from the beginning. “How long have you known?”

“About a week after the bust,” he admits, and I feel another surge of anger. “I couldn’t tell you without jeopardizing the case. We’ve had no new leads since that night either. We think they’ve gone to ground.”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“Damien—”

“Mirabelle has been posing as a student in Penny’s classes.”

“And you didn’t report this?”

“I never met the girl she was tutoring, and it never crossed my mind that she could be a threat to Penny. We were told the investigation was all but signed and sealed. Had someone told me that Charles and Mirabelle were not accounted for, I would have never left Alaska.”

“If you remember correctly, you weren’t supposed to leave until the damn investigation was signed and sealed. You’re the one who decided to change everything up. Starting with the girl—”

“And you know if I hadn’t gone back, she would be dead.”

“Had the explosion gone off any sooner, you’d both be dead.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I yell, my head pounding from the anger boiling in my veins. I feel like I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t get the answers I want.

“Damien, we’ll find her.”

“Like I’m going to trust anything you say to me, man. You knew from the start the proof I stumbled on proved there was more to Charles than we thought. The connections he had, man, we’ll never find him this time around. If he has Penny, there’s a big chance we’ll never see her again,” I finish, feeling no better than I did when I call McNamara.

The sound of Kingston’s truck skidding to a hault outside sobers me. There’s no point taking this out on the FBI. It’s no surprise they mucked this shit up. I’m just pissed the woman I love has fallen victim to their screw-up.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have come home when we did, but if you had done your job right, none of this would be happening right now,” I rein in my anger, preparing to see my brothers in arms and get the ball rolling. “My team has arrived. I think we have a better chance at finding her than you do.”

“Whatever you need, don’t hesitate to call me—”

“Ain’t gonna call you, McNamara, but I will call your supervisor. How do you think they’re gonna take the news one of the victims in the operation has once again fallen into the bad guy’s hands? Man, I’d resign if I were you.” I hang up, not giving him a second thought.

“Diz, man, you in there?”

The cavalry has arrived, and for the first time since walking into this hell hole, I take a deep breath.