Chapter 65

Ryan

My excitement was palpable, and I had been waiting all day to have dinner with Sara. When I pulled up to her house, the van was there, but I was surprised to see that her car was gone. She barely ever drove the thing. I got out of the car and looked up at the house, noticing the lights were on inside. It was strange to me, especially since she was supposed to be there to cook dinner. I headed to the back door, figuring I would take a look around before going inside, just in case the knot in the pit of my stomach was there for a reason. The yard looked perfectly trimmed as always, and I smiled at the laundry line she had hanging out back to dry her sheets. She had a dryer, but she was old-fashioned like that. I walked up to the back door and jiggled the handle, but it wasn’t locked. I pulled my face up to the glass and looked around the kitchen, but it didn’t look like she had been in there. I was about to turn and walk back to the front when I caught sight of just the corner of a grocery bag in the hallway in front of the front door. I couldn’t see because of the angle, but there was definitely something wet on there as well.

Immediately, my heart dropped into my stomach, and I yanked on the door again. When it wouldn’t budge, I took off back around the house and tried the front door, which I hadn’t even noticed was sitting slightly open. I pushed the door open and pulled out my phone, yelling Sara’s name. Carefully and slowly, I walked into the house, looking down at the floor. There was a bag of groceries lying on the ground, the contents spilled everywhere. I leaned down and dipped my finger in the red liquid on the ground and smelled it. It was wine, and inside the bag, there was a broken bottle lying on top. My heart started pounding a million miles a second, and I stood straight up, yelling out for Sara.

I ran down the hall, checking the living room and the kitchen, but there was no sign of her. I bolted back to the front of the house and took the staircase two steps at a time to the top. I was breathing heavily, still screaming out her name. She wasn’t in any of the rooms either. I shook my head and walked back downstairs, completely perplexed at what could have happened. Right inside the doorway, there was a large boot print that was obviously not hers, but that was the only evidence there was. I walked back out into the yard as sirens screeched down the street, cops pulling up outside. The men got out of their car with their guns pointed in my direction. I dropped my phone and put my hands in the air.

“Get down,” they screamed.

Before I knew it, cops were descending from everywhere, screaming for me to put my hands on my head and lie down in the yard. I had never seen anything like it, not even in New York. I had been on the streets long enough as a kid, though, that I knew to do exactly what they were saying, especially with so many trigger-happy small-town cops. I slowly dropped to my knees and lay down face-first in the yard, pulling my hands up and locking my fingers behind my head. They patted me down and prodded me with their nightsticks, checking to make sure I didn’t have any weapons on me. I kept my mouth shut at first, letting them do their jobs. They knew Sara and I were together, but I had no idea what prompted them to come here.

The captain came over and nodded to the others. They lifted me up off the ground and took my handcuffs off. I pulled my hands around and rubbed my wrists.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I was supposed to meet the homeowner,” I said.

“Sara,” he said.

“Yes, Sara,” I replied. “We were supposed to have dinner, and I just got here, and she isn’t home. There are a bunch of groceries scattered over the floor, a broken bottle of red wine, and the door was cracked open. Why are you here?”

“We got a report of a kidnapping,” the captain said.

My heart dropped into my chest and my stomach churned. A kidnapping? Who in the hell kidnapped Sara? She had just gotten over everything had been going on with Janson. She didn’t have any other enemies in this town and definitely not someone who would abduct her from her home. Unless, not that I even wanted to think about it, one of Janson’s cronies was set out to do something to her for landing him in jail. It was farfetched, though. Most everyone felt freed by not having him around anymore. Just then, my phone rang, and I leaned down and picked it up from the ground. The captain nodded and walked toward the house.

“Alison,” I said, picking up the phone. “Have you heard from Sara?”

“Yes,” she said. “That’s why I called the police.”

“You called the police?” I was confused.

“I got a text from Sara it said, ‘help Janson kidnap Route 2.’ But when I tried to text her back, it wouldn’t go through,” she said frantically. “I thought Janson was in jail. How could he get to her like that?”

“He must have gotten out,” I said. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How did this happen?”

“I don’t know, but we have to find her,” she said, her voice cracking. “He has abused her for years, and I don’t know what he’ll do now.”

“I know,” I said. “Look, I’m going to make a couple of calls. I’ll call you back, and if you hear anything else from her, call me immediately.”

“Okay,” she said.

I hung up with Alison and called the attorney general immediately. I told the secretary it was life or death, and from the tone of my voice, I assumed she believed me. She put me right through to the AG.

“Ryan, what’s going on?” he said.

“Janson has escaped,” I said. “He kidnapped my girlfriend, Sara. I need a statewide search immediately.”

“Dammit,” he said. “I’ll get things going as soon as I can, but this takes some time.”

“Hurry,” I said, hanging up the phone.

The AG wasn’t going to be able to move fast enough. By the time they got to her, Sara might be hurt or worse. I flipped through my phone and called the owner of the private security firm I’d used in New York City, asking for a referral for Oregon.

“Oregon,” he said. “I don’t know. Um, hold on, let me look through my contacts.”

I sat there for several minutes, tapping my foot and looking around at the cops milling around the yard looking for clues. At this rate, we’d find Sara in ten years. This was sensitive, and I knew Janson wasn’t going to go lightly on her.

“I’m going to connect you to my contact in Oregon,” he said. “They’ll be able to mobilize manpower for the search. They don’t have a huge unit, so you’ll have to head it up.”

“Fine,” I said.

“Hold on. I’ll put you through,” he said.

“Diamond Security,” the voice answered.

I went through the whole spiel with them letting them know what happened. The guy was on point, saying it would cost quite a bit. I told them I didn’t care about the money, and that was when he realized I was the guy bringing jobs and solar energy to Oregon. He agreed to send out his task force but told me that I would need to coordinate the team.

“That’s fine,” I said. “I have people here who know the area.”

“When do you need them?”

“Now, yesterday, as soon as possible,” I said. “I need them to meet me at the address in Bonanza in the next hour, or you and the rest of this damn state can kiss my money goodbye.”

I hung up the phone and growled, walking back and forth, pushing the hair out of my eyes. Sara was the most important person in the world to me, and there was no way I could let something like this happen to her. She was so innocent and sweet, and Janson had no mercy when he dealt with her. If I lost her, I didn’t know what I would do. I tried to focus on a strategy, but I could barely think straight. When the team arrived, it was only four guys, but luckily for me, they were all ex-special operations and were pretty seasoned when it came to these kinds of things. They were fully packing and dressed all in black. They were going to be my best hope of finding Sara, especially since the police department there in Bonanza wasn’t really trained to handle this kind of crisis.

“We have tactical gear in the van,” the head guy, Jeremy, said. “We can comb the area where her text said she was taken, and I’m sure we’ll be able to pick up a trail. From the background of the perp, it doesn’t seem he is too versed in being covert.”

“Not at all,” I said, looking up as Alison’s truck pulled to the curb.

“I brought some help,” she said, climbing out and looking back at several of the men from town. “They know the area, the layout, and are familiar with Janson and how he thinks.”

“Perfect,” Jeremy said. “Come with me.”

We walked around to the back of the van, and Jeremy pulled open the doors. We hopped inside and looked down at a black table bolted to the floor. It reminded me of the van I had gotten Sara, and my heart skipped a beat. Jeremy pulled out a map of Route 2, and the guys started making some guesses of where Janson might be headed. There was an old quarry and at the end, was the old lumber company that had been shut down for a couple of years. It didn’t feel right to me, though. It just didn’t seem like Janson’s MO. He wasn’t that planned.

I turned the map toward me and looked at the other roads running through the area. I pushed my finger down to an intersection where Route 2 met Route 20. It ran perpendicular in an East-West direction. It didn’t look like there was much in that area, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have somewhere out there to take her. What if she hadn’t finished her text? What if we spent all our time chasing down an empty trail? We didn’t have that kind of time to fail.

“Look at this,” I said, showing the guys. “There’s another route on here, Route 20. What if she didn’t get to finish the text? What if she meant Route 20? What’s out there?”

“Nothing really,” one of the townspeople said. “I think there are one or two hunting cabins out there, but it’s just a through road, takes you out to the water. It’s old and country.”

“I think it’s worth a look,” I said. “We should have another party take that side.”

“We don’t have enough men for that,” Jeremy said. “We need to devote what we have to Route 2.”

“Fine,” I said. “You guys take Route 2, and I’ll head out to 20 and check it out.”

“Sounds good,” he said.

“I want you to call me every fifteen minutes with updates,” I said.

Jeremy nodded his head and closed the map. I jumped out of the back and into my truck, turning on my GPS and heading out to Route 20. I had to find her before it was too late.