Chapter Twenty-Nine
Aaron
Something isn’t right. It was a feeling more than a thought. A deep, gnawing feeling in my gut.
“Mr. Townsend, as we–” The man in my office stopped short when I stood from the conference table. I could feel eyes on me, wondering what was happening.
“Get out,” I stated flatly, without preamble.
“Mr. Townsend, we’re here to discus–”
“Get. Out.” I looked to my younger brother. “Joshua.”
He didn’t ask questions. Didn’t give me a confused look. Rising, he said, “Gentlemen, my brother is extremely busy. How about we reconvene in about thirty minutes?”
I didn’t stick around to hear what they had to say. I moved to my desk, and just as I was about to take out my cell to call my wife, my office phone rang.
“What?” I barked into the phone, knowing it was Mark on the other end.
“Mrs. Connors, the principal from Excelor Academy is on the line.”
“Put her through,” I insisted. A heartbeat later there was a beep. “Are the children all right?” I asked without greeting her first. My heart rate quickened.
“Mr. Townsend, the children are fine. They’re here in my office.”
My eyes shot to the clock that hung directly across from me, on my wall. It was close to one thirty. Patience was over thirty minutes late picking the children up. My mind went into overdrive. She was never late for the children. She knew their schedule better than she knew her own. She’d only be late for one reason.
“Do not let them out of your sight. Do not turn my children over to anyone. I will be there in ten minutes.” I hung up the phone and looked to Joshua.
“I’m calling Brutus,” he began, his hands already dialing. Brutus was the head of security for Townsend Industries and the family.
I pulled out my cell, hoping I’d see a missed call from Patience. She said she would be calling me. When I didn’t see anything I pressed the button to call her phone directly. It went straight to voicemail. Next, I called Daniel. His phone rang and rang.
I was outside of my office door on my way to the elevators before even realizing it. Joshua was on my heels.
“Give me the phone,” I ordered as soon as I recognized he was speaking with Brutus. We stepped on the elevator as Joshua placed the phone in my hand. “My wife is missing. My children were left at school. I’m on my way to pick them up now. We need an entire family lockdown!” I barked into the phone. I hung up the phone after telling Brutus we were to meet at my house in thirty minutes, once I picked up the children.
“We’ll find her,” Joshua stated, his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.
I remained silent because for the first time since I was a young child, fear gripped my entire body. My vocal chords were wrapped in it, and I couldn’t talk due to the anxiety coursing through my veins.
I got to the car, and told my driver to floor it all the way to Excelor Academy. I dared him to even think about stopping for a red light. We made it across town in under ten minutes. I charged through the doors of the exclusive, private school, ready to tear apart anyone that stood between me and my children. I burst through the main office door.
“Daddy!”
“Daddy!”
Kennedy and Kyle ran to me screaming.
“Where’s Mommy?” Kennedy’s innocent sepia eyes looked up at me, demanding.
My heart squeezed because for the first time I didn’t have an answer. I’d called over and over again on my way to the school, still only receiving her voicemail. Brutus was already on the task of pinging her cell’s location.
“Mommy’s scared,” Kyle said in a low voice.
I dropped down in front of him, taking him by the shoulders. “Do you know what happened to your mommy? Where she is?” I tried to keep the fear out of my voice. My heart plummeted when Kyle shook his head.
“I just know she’s scared,” he whispered.
I heard a sniffle and looked to Kennedy, whose eyes were watery.
“We’re going to find her.” I stood and carried both my children, Joshua walking alongside us as we followed my security to our awaiting vehicle.
****
“This son of a bitch is going to wish he never fucked with us,” Carter growled, coming up beside me. Carter, myself, Joshua, my father, and three men from our security, including Brutus, were all in my office. My mother, Michelle, and all the children were upstairs on the main floor. Tyler was across the country preparing for an away game. The security he was traveling with had been notified of the situation and he was soon to board a private flight back home.
Meeting Carter’s eyes, I nodded, agreeing with his previous statement. I squeezed my hands in fists, that helpless feeling overcoming me. By the time we’d arrived home, Brutus had traced Patience’s cell phone to the library where she worked. He and his security staff had went to the library, finding an unconscious Daniel in the front seat of his vehicle and Patience’s phone laying near the library’s back entrance. It’d been smashed, as if someone had stepped on it. There was a camera in the library’s back hallway but Brutus’ firm had to work to hack in to the library’s mainframe to get the video. Even that would save time over getting a police warrant, however.
“What the fuck do we know so far?” I demanded, going to Brutus.
Everyone circled my desk. Thankfully, none of my family had even tried to utter the words calm down to me. In my state, I’m not sure exactly how I would’ve reacted but it wouldn’t have been too friendly, I know that for sure.
“Daniel’s at the hospital. Still hasn’t woken up, but the blood sample we took from him shows he was injected with some type of anesthesia.”
I shook my head. “I don’t give a fuck about Daniel. Where the hell is my wife?” I demanded, pounding my desk, staring at Brutus.
He didn’t flinch. “We’re close to getting the footage from the library’s camera. Moira’s already told you Patience was there because she called her in. You believe she wasn’t involved in this?” His green eyes narrowed on me.
I’d had Moira brought to the house upon learning that Patience was last seen at the library. When Brutus spoke with her at the library, she’d said she called Patience in to help with a party because they were short staffed. I demanded he bring her to me, so I could look her in the eye to gauge whether she was telling the truth.
She was.
The background check I’d run on her and all the library staff months ago had come back clean. But the concern and the fear in her eyes told me if she had known something she would’ve spilled it. She’d said Patience had prepared to leave the library around twelve-thirty to make it to the children’s school and pick them up on time. Which was why she wasn’t concerned when she hadn’t seen Patience at the end of the party.
I ran a hand through my hair. “She’s telling the truth,” I answered Brutus. “She was attacked.” I stood up, staring Brutus in the eye. I felt the eyes of my brothers and my father land on me. I’d already informed Brutus of what happened to Patience while she was pregnant, back in Oakland. “I want the full police report. Any and all information.” I knew that was somehow connected to her disappearance. I could feel it.
“What do you mean she was attacked?” My father approached my desk, his brown eyes hard.
I glanced around at Carter and Joshua, both of whom had a cold look in their eyes.
“A few months after she moved to Oakland…she was eight months pregnant.”
“Fuck!”
“Shit!”
Joshua and Carter cursed in unison. The hard edge in my father’s eyes increased as I recounted the story that she’d told me. I’d had our security increased and been trying for weeks to get the police records on the attack.
“Police say a guy named Ramirez was the culprit. He was arrested for a number of other break-ins and rapes in the city at the time,” Brutus informed us.
“It wasn’t him.” I shook my head.
“How do you know?’ Carter stepped up, asking.
“Patience…” I paused, blowing out a breath, my heart squeezing in my chest as the vision of the terror in her eyes as she recounted the night of the attack, to me. “She tried to convince herself the police were right, but it rang hollow when she said it out loud. The fear in her eyes–” I had to stop talking again when a wave of anger rolled through my body, nearly choking me. “She didn’t believe it was Ramirez. We need those damn records now!”
“Office is sending them over. Just got word,” Brutus answered swiftly. Within a second his phone was buzzing, informing him that the records had been sent to his email.
I brought his email up on the flatscreen that hung across from my desk on the wall. The first document in the file showed an image of Rafael Ramirez. He was thirty-two years old, making him around twenty-six at the time of the attack. I shook my head. I knew it wasn’t him. Something in me was telling me this wasn’t the guy.
“He was never charged with the attack on Patience. Police say it’s because there wasn’t enough evidence in her case. She never got a look at the guy, there were no fingerprints, and the only DNA found at the scene was hers.”
My hands fisted at my sides as Brutus continued. DNA. Her blood at the scene. That’s what the police found.
“But he also had an alibi for that night. He claimed he was at a bar with friends the night of the attack. Two friends corroborated his story, along with the bartender. Police said because the bartender was also his cousin he’d lie for Ramirez.”
“It wasn’t him,” I stated firmly. We didn’t need to be looking at this piece of shit anymore. “Get him off my screen,” I demanded. “What else was at the scene?”
Brutus clicked on the other files he was sent until images of the crime scene appeared. A hush filled the room as we stared at the crumpled blankets and sheets on a queen-sized bed. Air flew from my lungs when I recognized the same floral sheets I’d spent many a night with Patience in, in her bedroom in her Williamsport apartment. The sheets were also stained with blood. There were also drops of blood evident on the hardwood floor. It was obvious there’d been a fight in that room. Patience had fought not only for her life, but for those of our unborn children.
“Take that down!” I heard Carter bark to Brutus before moving to stand in front of me, blocking my line of sight.
My eyes moved to meet his, then my father’s who stood to his left, and finally landing on Joshua’s darkened gaze, to Carter’s right. “I’m. Going. To. Fucking. Kill. Him,” I seethed through gritted teeth.
Carter nodded. “I know. We’ll be there to help. But we need to get her back first.”
“She’s a fighter,” Josh said. He nodded to the now blank screen that’d previously held those images that had me seeing red. “She fought to stay alive. She’ll do the same this time around. She knows you’ll find her,” he reassured.
His words didn’t soften anything inside of me. I knew my wife was a fighter. She had to be to fall for me. But she shouldn’t have to fight. It was my job to keep her safe, and I’d failed. Again.
That harsh reality settled a coldness over me that I’d only felt one other time, and that was upon hearing about the first attack after her nightmare.
“I failed her. Twice.” The admission nearly killed me.
“Son, no–”
I shook my head, cutting my father’s words off.
“Listen, son, you couldn’t have known. This isn’t–”
“Tell me you’d be saying the same thing if this were Mother,” I charged, for the first time raising my voice to my father.
The words caught on his lips. He clamped his mouth shut, nodding. His jaw ticked for a moment before he moved closer, cupping the side of my face. “You’re absolutely right. I’d kill the son of a bitch who’d even think to put his hands on your mother. I expect no less from any of my sons when it comes to protecting their families. But self-pity isn’t going to work in your favor right now. Now is the time to concentrate on finding your wife and bringing her back home to her family.” He released me, stepping back.
We stared at one another for a few more moments. He was right. I’d have plenty of time later to lick my own wounds. My wife needed me.
“We’ve got video!” Brutus shouted.
All four of us turned to Brutus, who was already hitting his laptop to bring up what I realized was the video from the library’s back entrance. We assumed that’s where she’d been taken from since it’s where her phone was found.
The video was a little blurry but I knew my wife as soon as she entered into the camera’s line of sight. Her back was to the camera as she moved down the hall, entering the bathroom. My fists tightened and my breath stalled as a dark figure moved down the hall, slowly. The person wore dark clothing and a ski mask over their head, but by the build and size I could tell it was a male. He was approximately six-foot and lanky. A trickle of familiarity ran down my spine, but even running through my mind’s rolodex of possible suspects I couldn’t place him.
The room went silent as we all watched the video footage. My jaw tightened and my heartbeat went erratic when I saw the door open. Her head was turned in the direction of the back entrance. She couldn’t see the man to her left, just a few inches from her. By the time she turned her head it was too late. He covered her nose and mouth with his hand. It looked like he held something in it. Patience struggled, flailing her arms, striking him in the ribs, disorienting him enough that she broke free. The tiny hope I had upon seeing her break free was quickly stamped out when I watched him grab her by the shoulder, spin her around, and land a punch to her face that rendered her unconscious. She fell into his arms, and the perp stooped low, hoisting her body over his shoulder and carrying her out.
“Argh!” I yelled, flipping the coffee table that sat in the middle of my office. Glass cracked and flew everywhere.
“Bro! You’ve got to calm down!” Carter shouted, grabbing my arm.
“Fuck you!” I yelled back. “Don’t fucking touch me!” I seethed, pulling out of his hold. I growled and grunted as I hoisted a chair in the air, tossing it at the screen. I barely heard the loud crashing of the huge flatscreen as it fell from the wall. My own rage clogged my ears. I couldn’t see anything in front of me. That image of my wife being assaulted replayed over and over again in my head. The feeling of seeing the fear in her eyes when she first told me of the attack didn’t even compare to this. Then, it was bad enough that it was a memory. Now, I watched it play out right before my eyes. I couldn’t stand still.
“Aaron!” I hear my father shout after me as I stormed out of the office. I had no idea where I was going but I needed some space. My legs carried me up the stairs to the main floor. Down the hall, I heard the children talking with my mother and Michelle. I moved in the opposite direction, going up the stairs to the second floor. I made my way into the bedroom and I was immediately hit by the half-unkempt bed. My side was made, just as I’d left it this morning. Patience’ side was unmade, as what happened most mornings. I moved closer, letting my hand touch the silk negligee she’d worn the night before. I lifted it to my nose. It still held her scent. My heart lurched and I tossed the negligee back onto the bed, disgusted with myself. My wife needed me and I couldn’t let go of my anger long enough to see anything clearly. I knew whoever had taken her had crossed our paths sometime before. My brain was too fuzzy with rage to figure out how or when.
I moved into the bathroom, thinking a splash of cold water on my face would clear my head. I stopped short when I saw two sticks sitting on the countertop. My knees weakened when I noticed two lines on one stick and a positive sign on the other. A sound I’d never heard before ripped from my lips and I bent over at the waist, holding onto the edge of the sink to keep myself from falling. I looked at the pregnancy tests again to make sure I was not seeing things.
After staring at the tests for some time, I did my best to normalize my breathing, standing upright. I backed out of the bathroom, turning from the entrance, and stopped when I noticed Joshua standing at the bedroom door.
“I came to check on you. Brutus says they may have a lead.”
My mouth remained clamped shut but my eyebrow rose, silently telling Josh to continue.
“When he pushed the back door of the library open, we were able to see he already had a car parked next to the exit. Looks like a dark-colored sedan of some sort. There’s no camera back there, but his people are working on enhancing the footage to get the make and model of the car and possibly the license plate. We might be able to get a partial.”
My jaw tightened as I nodded. “The fuck kind of place doesn’t have cameras outside their building?” I growled.
“It’s a small library. Not the main branch. There’ve been budget cuts in the city…” Josh’s voice trailed off when I glared at him. He knew as well as I did, I didn’t want to hear that bullshit. “What’s that?” He gestured toward my hand.
My grip tightened on the pregnancy tests that I still held.
“She’s pregnant,” I stated in a low voice.
Joshua’s eyes widened as I held out the tests to him. He moved closer, eyes taking in the tests. That glare in his green-golden eyes returned tenfold. He clasped my shoulder. “We’ll get her back. Or die trying,” he affirmed.
I swallowed and nodded.
“We need to go back downstairs.”
“In a minute,” I told Joshua.
He gave me a look, but then spun on his heels and left for the stairway.
Turning from the bedroom door, I moved to the glass doors leading to the bedroom’s balcony. I stepped out into the cold air. It was early winter but the weather was in the low thirties. My fingers curled around the frigid metal railings as I gazed up at the darkening sky. It was close to five and the street lights were already coming on. I lamented that Patience and I hadn’t spent nearly enough time out on this balcony. She loved all types of weather. Closing my eyes, I inhaled, letting the cold air burn my lungs on the way down.
“Emma,” I said out loud, “I need you. I need your help.” I sighed, doing the thing I’d vowed I’d never do but feeling like I had no other alternative.
“I’m here.”
My eyes opened and I turned to see her, long, brown hair still falling around the shoulders of her long, white nightgown. She floated closer.
“What do you need, Aaron?” She knew but she needed me to say it.
“Help me find my wife. Please,” I begged.
She nodded. “To find your wife we need to broaden your perspective.”
I frowned, lowering my brows. Emma didn’t say anything further. She moved closer, pressing her hand to my forehead. Again, everything went black.